Group & Last Name Index to Full History:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Composers are listed chronologically. Tracks are listed alphabetically.
Not on this page? See history tree below.
Featured on this page in order of the composer's birth date.
| 1841 | Antonin Dvorák |
| 1842 | Jules Massenet |
| 1843 | Edvard Grieg |
| 1844 | Charles-Marie Widor Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov |
| 1845 | Gabriel Fauré |
| 1848 | Henri Duparc Hubert Parry |
| 1850 | Tomás Bretón |
| 1851 | Ruperto Chapí Vincent d'Indy |
| 1852 | Charles Stanford Francisco Tárrega |
| 1853 | André Messager |
| 1854 | John Philip Sousa |
| 1855 | Anatoly Lyadov |
| 1856 | Giuseppe Martucci Sergei Taneyev |
| 1857 | Edward Elgar |
| 1858 | Giacomo Puccini |
| 1860 | Hugo Wolf Isaac Albéniz Gustav Mahler Ignacy Paderewski |
| 1862 | Marco Enrico Bossi Claude Debussy |
| 1864 | Richard Strauss |
| 1865 | Alexander Glazunov Carl Nielsen Jean Sibelius |
| 1866 | Ferruccio Busoni |
| 1867 | Charles Koechlin |
| 1869 | Hans Pfitzner |
| 1872 | Alexander Scriabin |
| 1873 | Sergei Rachmaninoff |
| 1874 | Reinhold Glière Gustav Holst |
| 1875 | Maurice Ravel |
| 1879 | Jean Cras |
|
This page indexes the Romantic period of classical music. The classical
pages are structured differently from the other YouTube histories. Due that
specific dates are largely impossible with early classical music we keep the
convention of indexing works on those pages by alphabetical order only. That
is, they are not in chronological order. Dates are noted by appendage and
refer the year of publication if not composition. Brackets (: [Part 1]) indicate sections made by YouTube channels. If the
composer you're seeking isn't on this page
he may be in Earky Romantic
or
Early Modern.
Piano works by several composers of the Romantic period may be found under
Arthur
Rubinstein in
Early Modern
Late Romantic composers on this page referred to as Impressionist in some
capacity, including those who intended no such relevance, are
Claude Debussy
Charles Koechlin,
Alexander Scriabin
Maurice Ravel. Those transitional
composers could as easily be listed as early
Modern.
As the history of classical music is largely European until its later
arrival to the United States in the 19th century, helpful in the use of this
account may be
chronological maps of Europe and its monarchs mentioned throughout
[1,
2,
3,
4]. The
earliest major European temporal power to which this history refers
throughout is the Roman Catholic Church and the
Papal States. Much of the
history of Europe is likewise that of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) from the 9th
to the 19th centuries [1,
2,
3;
HMEA].
France
was a major player alongside the
Church in medieval music prior to the Renaissance and
became the major European check to the HRE. Venice didn't acquire a lot of territory
but became a major cultural center during the Renaissance alike
Italy
of which it became a part in 1866. Other
European nations important to these accounts include in alphabetical order
Austria,
England [GB UK: 1,
2],
Germany,
Poland [1,
2],
Prussia [1,
2],
Russia and
Spain. Also
much affecting European music was northern Europe or, Scandinavia
[1,
2,
3],
particularly as an adversarial check to Russia.
Quick dates for monarchs and popes:
1,
2,
3,
4.
See also America [1,
2].
Where World War I (7/28/1914-11/11/1918) is cited see: text: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
video: 1,
2,
3.
Where World War II (9/1/1939-9/2/1945) is cited see: text: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
video: 1,
2.
As for music, one among numerous good locations to source audio is Idagio.
US Opera begins its timeline of opera in the United States
during this chapter's period in 1845.
|
 Antonin Dvorak Source: Le Coin du Musiciien |
Bohemian (Czech, basically) composers began
making a notable appearance in European music in the latter 17th century of
the Baroque. The last major Bohemian composer this history has seen is
Smetana,
a generation earlier than
Antonin Dvorák.
Born on 8 Sep 1841 in Nelahozeves, near Prague, in present-day Czech Republic,
Dvorak never met Jarmel Burghauser who catalogued his works by "B" number in
his 'Thematicky Katalog' of 1960 (2nd edition 1996). Dvorak had a father who combined keeping an inn with butchering and playing
the zither (a string instrument). He learned early to play the violin, his
first surviving composition thought to be his 'Forget-Me-Not Polka' in C in
1854 at age thirteen, that commencing the B directory as B 1 but not
assigned an Op number [*;
audio]. He was soon being instructed in piano, organ, theory and singing as
well, progressing through a number of teachers until graduating from
Prague's Organ School in 1859. Dvorak had played professionally, as an
extra, in an orchestra while attending school. But it was by becoming a
member of the orchestra of Karel Komzák I in 1858, which played restaurants,
balls and the Provisional Theatre, that enabled him to transition from
student to professional without a gap. It was a typical situation for a
young inexperienced musician, not earning a lot and sharing an apartment
with five other people. He began composing in earnest in the sixties,
notably pieces for strings and symphonies. His Opus 1 is assigned to 'String
Quintet No.1' in A minor B 7 composed in 1861 but not performed until 1921
long after his death
[1,
2;
audio: 1,
2].
His Op 2 was 'String Quartet No.1' in A major B 8 composed in 1862
[1,
2,
3].
That isn't known to have been performed until he revised it in 1887 for its
premiere in 6 January 1888. Of Dvorak's nine symphonies, his 'Symphony No.1' ('The Bells of Zlonice' or
'Zlonické zvony') in C minor B 9 composed in early 1865 wasn't performed
until posthumously in 1936 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio: Czech Philharmonic,
London SO,
Prague Radio SO].
His 'Symphony No.2' in B flat major B 12 Op 4 of 1865 didn't see a
performance until he revised it in '87 for the conducting of the National
Theatre Orchestra in Prague on 11 March of '88 by Adolf Cech
[1,
2,
3;
audio by the Czech Philharmonic]. Dvorak composed his first opera,
'Alfred', in 1870. Referencing 9th century Anglo-Saxon King Alfred the Great, that didn't see a performance until 1905 after Dvorak's death
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio of Act I]. By 1871 he was able to
vacate his spot in his orchestra at the Provisional Theatre and concentrate
on composing. But in 1873 he married. For sake of steady income, albeit
little, he took a position as organist at St. Adalbert's in Prague (Dvorak
was Roman Catholic). It was 1874 upon the premiere of Dvorak's third and
fourth symphonies with which he won his first state scholarship that he was
able to leave his position as an organist. It was
Johannes Brahms who served as a juror of the Austrian State Prize
whom Dvorak had impressed. 'Symphony No.3' in E flat major B 34 Op 10 was composed
between April and July of '73 toward its premiere conducted by
Bedrich Smetana
in Prague on 29 March 1874 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio by the Czech Philharmonic].
'Symphony No.4' in D minor B 41 Op 13 premiered on 25 May of 1874 conducted
by Smetana
[1,
2,
3;
audio by the Czech Philharmonic].
Dvorak's 'Symphony No.5' in F major B 54 Op 76 was written in June and July
of '75, not performed until 25 March of '79
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio
by the Czech Philharmonic]. Dvorak composed his 'Stabat Mater' B 71 Op 58 in
'76 and '77 toward performance on 23 December 1880 in Prague
[1,
2,
3;
audio: 1,
2]. Having transitioned from local fame in Prague to even greater in Vienna,
both major hubs of classical music, it was time to perform 'Stabat Mater' at
Royal Albert Hall (above right) in London in 1883. Royal
Albert Hall [1,
2,
3,
4] had only recently
been opened to the public by Queen Victoria in March 1871. It was gas lit until
electricity was installed in 1897. Dvorak had been preceded to America by
Strauss II
(1872),
Anton Rubinstein
(1872-73), Leopold Godowsky (1884)
Fritz Kreisler ()
Ferruccio Busoni
(1891),
Paderewski
(1891) and
Tchaikovsky
(1891). Upon arriving to the States he filled the position of director for
the National Conservatory of Music in NYC from 1892 to '95. He was paid
$15,000 per annum. If money bought about twenty
times more in Dvorak's time than now that comes to a salary of about $300,000 per year
today. It was getting figured by the turn of the century that howsoever
barbaric America might be in comparison to Paris or even distant Saint
Petersburg, by then becoming a bright spot
on the cultural map, it was yet a source of unusually large financial
gain. Americans came a little rough but they lived in a country which prosperity was by
then giving Great Britain its notice. Dvorak wrote what some consider
his crowning achievement, his 'Symphony No.9' ('From the New World') in E
minor B 178 Op 95, for the New York Philharmonic in 1893. That premiered at
Carnegie on 16 Dec of '93 w Anton Seidl conducting four movements after each
of which Dvorak was called to bow to
applause [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio: Münchner Philharmoniker,
Royal Philharmonic]. His ninth and last
visit to London occurred in 1896.
Brahms
was yet promoting Dvorak from
Vienna, even proofreading his acores, until his death in 1897. Dvorak gave
his own last concert in April 1900 before becoming Director of the Prague
Conservatory in 1901. He was struck with flu in April 1904 and died the next
month on 1 May, cause unknown. A lot of Dvorak's oeuvre, such as his dances, is
notable for its draw upon Czech, Polish and Slav folk traditions. He composed largely symphonies,
concerti, chamber, operas, choral music and songs.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Chronologies: 1,
2.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological: 1,
2;
B & Opus cross references: English,
French,
Spanish;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4;
extensive: Czech;
English: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
German: 1,
2.
Sheet music: choral;
instrumental.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
cylinder.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Portrayals or usage in modern media: 1,
2.
Iconography: 1,
2,
3.
Museums: 1,
2.
Further reading: Dvorak and America: 1,
2,
3;
antonin-dvorak;
'Complete Works for Solo Piano' (text); symphonies; relationship w
Tchaikovsky.
Bibliography.
Other profiles: Czech: 1,
2;
English: didactic;
encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2,
3,
4;
German;
Russian: 1,
2;
Spanish.
See also: Antonín Dvorák Music Festival Príbram: 1,
2.
B numbers below are per Jarmel Burghauser, 1960/96. Antonin Dvorák 1894-95 B 191 Op 104 Gdansk Feliks Nowowiejski Music School Conductor: Sylwia Anna Janiak Cello: Jan Lewandowski & Maciej Kułakowski 1890 B 165 Op 89 13 movements in 2 sections Slovak Philharmonic Choir Blanka Juhaňáková Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc Jaromír Krygel Op 72 B 145 No 2 Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Op 72 B 145 No 4 Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Op 58 B 71 10 sections Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France Jakub Hruša 'American String Quartet' 1893 B 179 Op 96 Cleveland Quartet 1889 B 163 Op 88 4 movements Wiener Philarmoniker Conducting: Herbert von Karajan Symphony 9 (From the New World) 1893 B 178 Op 95 4 movementsCzech Philharmonic Orchestra Conducting: Václav Neumann |
 Royal Albert Hall 1871 Source: Wikipedia |
|
Born on 12 May 1842 in what is now Saint-Étienne,
France,
Jules Massenet
had an ironmonger for a father. While attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he won
admittance to the Paris Conservatoire in 1853 as well. He was an excellent
pianist but didn't care for organ. Massenet's first published composition
was a work for piano in 16 sections after an opera by
Meyerbeer,
'Le pardon de Ploërmel', in 1861 [*;
audio]. In 1863 he won the Conservatoire's Prix
the Rome, a scholarship to study in Italy for three years. Returning to
Paris in 1866, he earned his living as a teacher while while publishing
compositions. Having worked on a couple earlier operas, Massenet's first to
premiere was his one-act 'La grand'tante' ('The Great-Aunt') at the Opera Comique on 7
April 1867 [1,
2;
excerpt of live performance].
During the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71, he served in the
National Guard [1,
2,
3].
Like Gabriel Fauré,
he was forced to flee Paris during the subsequent Commune of March to May of '71. Having worked on a couple
more operas since 'Grand-Aunt' and returning to Paris, his second to be performed was 'Don César de Bazan' premiering at the Opera Comique
in Paris on 30 November 1872. That boat sank but his revised
version that appeared in Geneva on 1 Jan 1888 fared better
[1,
2,
3;
excerpt
version 1872(?); excerpt of live performance
version unidentified]. Come Lecant de Lisle's 'Les Érinnyes' styled as a
Greek tragedie at the Théâtre de l'Odéon on 8 Jan of 1873
[1,
2]. Included in
the popular 'Les Érinnye' is the piece written for voice, violoncello or violin titled 'Elegie' [*;
suspected audios: 1,
2].
That was borrowed from 'Dix Pièces de Genre' Op 10 No.5 for piano published
in 1867 that is 'Elégie Jouée par les Erynnyes' [1,
2;
audio].
Massenet's oratorio, 'Marie-Magdeleine', saw performance at the Théâtre de l'Odéon
in Paris on 11 April 1873 [1,
2,
3;
audio].
Massenet premiered four operas from '74 to '84 before arriving to his hugely
popular 'Manon' w libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, that
premiering at the Opéra-Comique on 19 January 1884
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
live performance;
score;
CD;
DVD].
Another of Massanet's greater operas was his 'Werther' premiering at the
Hofoper in Vienna on 16 February 1892
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio
by the Paris National Opera C & O w Elie Cohen conducting;
score].
Massenet wrote his single piano concerto in 1902 in dedication to composer and
pianist, Louis Diémer, who performed it at its premiere at the Paris
Conservatoire on 1 Feb 1903 [1,
2;
audio by the Westphalian S & O w Marylene Dosse
at piano]. Massenet put down 'Chérubin' at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 14
February 1905 with w libretto by Francis de Croisset and Henri Cain
[1,
2,
3;
audio: 1,
2]. That
was w Scottish soprano, Mary Garden
[1,
2] in the lead role, she
six days shy of her 31st birthday at the premiere. Garden was the star of the Opera Comique
whose fame would lead into the latter half of the 20th century, she not to
die until 1967. Other works by Massanet that she performed (he not present)
both in Europe and the United States were 'Thais', 'Sapho', 'Le Jongleur de
Notre Dame' and 'Cléopâtre'. Massenet premiered another of his better
operas, 'Don Quichotte', at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 19 Feb 1910
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio;
libretto;
score].
The last opera he was to premiere in his lifetime was 'Roma' at the Opéra de
Monte-Carlo on 19 February 1912 w libretto by Henri Cain
[1,
2,
3;
audio]. He died
seven months later on 13 August 1912 of abdominal cancer. His memoir, 'Mes
Souvenirs', was published in France in 1912
[1,
2,
3,
4
(alt)], later translated
into
English
(alt).
Among those of Massenet's 34 operas that
saw performance three were posthumously:
'Panurge' in 1913,
'Cléopâtre' in
1914 and
'Amadis' in 1922. Massenet
also composed four ballets in addition to incidental music, orchestral suites and a large number
of melodies for instrument or song. As a prolific composer, when possible
Massenet had held to a general routine of writing from 4 AM to noon, also
earning a large portion of his income by teaching.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological:
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
operas: 1,
2,
3.
Manuscripts.
Editions: English: 1,
2,
3;
French: 1,
2;
German: 1,
2.
Sheet music: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
cylinder.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography: 1,
2.
Further reading: Mary Garden and;
operas and;
Tchaikovsky and;
as a teacher.
Other profiles: English: 1 (BBC
audio),
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
French;
German: 1,
2;
Russian: 1,
2,
3;
Spanish.
Jules Massenet 1905 Comic opera 3 acts Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico Emmanuel Villaume 1885 Grand opera 4 acts Opera Orchestra of New York Conductor: Eve Queler 1912 Lyric opera 4 acts Orchestra of the Mediterraneo Unito Miquel Ortega Cléopâtre: Montserrat Caballé 1910 Opera 5 acts Performance unknown Piano Concerto in E flat major 1902 Movement 1: Andante moderatoOrchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo Sylvain Cambreling Piano: Aldo Ciccolini Piano Concerto in E flat major 1902 Movement 2: LargoWestphalian Symphony Orchestra Siegfried Landau Piano: Marylène Dosse Piano Concerto in E flat major 1902 Movement 3: Allegro 'Airs Slovaques'Westphalian Symphony Orchestra Siegfried Landau Piano: Marylène Dosse |
 Jules Massenet Source: Opera Arts |
|
 Edvard Grieg Source: Wikipedia |
Born on 15 June of 1843 in Bergen, Norway,
Edvard Hagerup Grieg
began piano at age six. He was sent at age fifteen to study at the Liepzig
Conservatory. His Opus 1 is assigned to 'Four Piano Pieces' written between
1861 and 1863 [*;
audio]. Before finishing his studies in 1862 he gave his first concert
the year before in Karlshamn, Sweden. In 1863 he went to Copenhagen to work
for three years. It was 1866-67 when Grieg composed Book I Op 12 of 'Lyric
Pieces' [1,
2; audio], Nine more would follow to Book X Op 71 in 1901. He married his Unitarian wife, Nina [1,
2],
in 1867 they making their home in Christiana (Oslo).
Grieg wrote his famous
'Piano Concerto' in A minor Op 16 in 1868 toward performing on 3 April 1869
and publishing in 1872
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio: 1,
2].
He found a champion in Franz Liszt
in Rome in 1870. Liszt
was the go-to guy to advance one's musical career, he of assistance in one
manner or another to not a few composers on this page.
Grieg premiered his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play, 'Peer Gynt',
in Christiana on 24 February 1876 [1,
2,
3,
4;
live performance].
He later created a couple of suites from out of 'Peer Gynt', the first being
'Peer Gynt Suite No.1' Op 46 composed in 1874-75 toward publishing in
Leipzig in 1888 [1,
2;
audio]. Grieg became
director of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 1880 for a couple of years.
'Piano Concerto' in B minor EG 120 was begun in 1882-83 but left largely
undone [*].
Grieg wrote 'Peer Gynt Piano Suite No.2' Op 55 in '91 toward publishing in
'92 [*;
audio;
score].
In 1894 he accepted an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, another
to follow from Oxford in 1906. Grieg isn't the first classical composer of note to document his
music on flat disc. That was female composer and pianist, Cecil Chaminade,
in London in 1901. He is, however, the first composer in
these histories to have recorded on flat disc, that on 2 May
of 1903 in Paris for the Gramophone & Typewriter Co
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
Camille Saint-Saëns would record for the
same company in 1904. Among titles that Grieg documented in May 1903 were
'Humoresque' Op 6 No.2 [from 'Four Humoresques': *;
score], 'Bridal Procession' Op 19 No.2
[from 'Scenes of Country Life': 1,
2;
audio],
'To Spring' Op 43 No.6
['Au
Printemps'
from 'Lyric Pieces': 1,
2] and
'Wedding Day at Troldhaugen' Op 65 No.6
['Bryllupsdag' (1,
2)
from 'Lyric Pieces': *;
score].
Grieg is also the first composer in these histories to have produced piano rolls for player
pianos, thought to have slightly preceded
Carl Reinecke
who also made piano rolls in 1904. Grieg punched 'Butterfly' Op 43 No.1 for
Aeolian on an unidentified date that year [1,
2,
3]. 'Butterfly' is also known as 'Papillon',
'Schmetterling' or 'Sommerfugl' per 'Lyric Pieces' Op 43 No.1 [1,
2].
Grieg made another piano roll of 'Butterfly' in April of 1906 [audio].
Compare Grieg's 'Butterfly' on disc in 1903 to his piano roll of 1906 at
WQXR.
Other of Grieg's piano rolls of 1906 were 'Berceuse'
Op 38 No.1
from 'Lyric Pieces' [*;
score] and 'Erotikon'
Op 43 No.5
from 'Lyric Pieces' [1,
2].
Grieg's last Opus is assigned to '4 Psalms' Op 74
for baritone and choir composed in 1906,
published 1907
[1,
2;
audio: No.1,
No.2,
No.3,
No.4;
scores].
Grieg's final words were reportedly "Well, if it must be so" upon his death on 4
September 1907. About 35,000 attended his funeral. Like his wife, Grieg was
a Unitarian. References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alpha;
chrono;
by genre: 1,
2,
3;
by Opus.
Editions: 1,
2.
Collections: Bergen Public Library Norway.
Sheet music: English:
Russian: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
early disc & roll;
'Peer Gant Suites' 1 & 2.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
piano rolls: by Clarence Adler;
for Ampico;
for Hupfeld;
select: 'Grieg: Complete Solo Piano Music' w piano by Eva Knardahl
*;
'Grieg | Evju' w piano by Carl Peterson
*;
'Grieg: Piano Music Vol. 1' w piano by Einar Steen-Nøkleberg
*,
review;
'Lyric Pieces' w piano by Stephen Hough
*;
'Welte-mignon Piano Rolls Vol 2' (early classical piano rolls):
1,
2.
Documentaries: 'What Price Immortality?' directed by Thomas Olofsson (1999).
Further reading by source:
Book of Days Tales;
CLASSIC fM;
Reidar Storaas.
Further reading by topic: correspondence w Tchaikovsky;
piano rolls: 1,
2.
Other profiles: English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5 (museum Norway);
newspaper;
French: 1,
2;
Italian: 1,
2,
3;
Luxembourgish;
Norwegian;
Russian: 1,
2,
3;
Slovenian;
Spanish.
See also the Edward Grieg Society Moscow.
EG numbers below were assigned to works by Grieg which had no opus (WoO) by Dan Fog and
the Edvard Grieg Committee, last edition 1995. Edvard Grieg Op 24 Piano: Gregory Martin 1884 Op 40 5 movements Berliner Philharmoniker Herbert von Karajan Incidental music Suite 1: 1888 Op 46 Suite 2: 1891 Op 55 Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE Guillermo Garcia Calvo 1868 Op 16 London Symphony Orchestra/André Previn Piano: Arthur Rubinstein Op 27 Copenhagen String Quartet 1897 Op 64 Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Neeme Järvi 1864 EG 119 Malmö Symphony Orchestra Bjarte Engeset |
|
Charles-Marie Widor Photo: Paul Berger Bibliothèque nationale de France Source: Wikipedia |
Born on 21 Feb 1844 in Lyon, France, organist
Charles-Marie Widor
was the son of an organ builder who was a friend of with whom Widor's career
is intertwined, organ builder, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll
[1,
2,
3].
Widor would compose a lot of music especially for the
Cavaillé-Coll organ,
also premiering their installment at locations such as Notre-Dame de Paris,
Saint-Germain-des-Près, Saint-Ouen de Rouen and the Trocadéro. Just what
sort of organ we're talking about is such that, though Widor's "symphonies"
were written for one organ alone, they were called such due to the wide
orchestral range along with other features that helped the Cavaillé-Coll
organ to approximate symphonic effects. Cavaillé-Coll planted organs all
over Europe:
Mainz-Bretzenheim;
Manchester;
Paris:
St. Sulpice;
Tarn; various
1,
2.
It was Cavaillé-Coll who got young Widor sent
to Brussels in 1863 to study organ under Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens and
composition beneath the director of the Brussels Conservatoire, François-Joseph Fétis. Widor's Opus 1 is assigned to a work for piano titled 'Variations de concert sur un thème
original' published circa 1867 [*]. By 1868 he was ready to become assistant to
Camille Saint-Saëns
at the Catholic Eglise de la Madeleine in Paris in 1868. In 1870 he became
organist at the Catholic Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, where he remained
until 1933. It was 1870 that he wrote 'Sérénade' in C major Op. 10 for
piano, flute, violin, cello and harmonium
[*;
audio;
score]. Widor published 'Organ Symphony No.1' in C minor Op 13 No.1 in 1872
[*;
audio;
score].
'Organ Symphony No.5' in F minor Op 42 No.1, the most famous of his organ
symphonies, premiered at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris on 19 Oct 1879
[1,
2;
audio:
Toccata: 1,
2;
score: Adagio].
The first edition of his text, 'Vieilles chansons pour les petits enfants'
arrived in 1883 [1,
2,
3]. Widor published 'Quatre Pièces en Trio' [*;
score] circa 1889, the fourth movement of which is the Serenade
[audio:
early Edison cylinder Amberol 1052 by
the Tollefsen Trio 1912;
early flat disc Pathé 5123 by the Marx Trio
date unidentified]. In 1890 he succeeded
César Franck
as an organ, and later composition, teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. His
Preface appeared in André Pirro's 'Johann Sebastian Bach' of 1895 [edition
1902]. Into
the 20th century Widor composed and published 'Organ Symphony No.10 ('Romane')
in D major Op 73 in 1900 [1,
2;
audio: Finale]. In
1904 Widor published 'Technique de l'orchestre moderne'
[1,
2,
3,
4]. It was 1920 when King Alfonso XIII officially founded Casa de
Velázquez in Madrid, a school to which formation Widor was key
[1,
2].
Widor had
waited until he was 76 years old to get married on 26 April 1920 at Charchigné to
36 year-old Mathilde de Montesquiou-Fézensac of one of Europe's wealthier
families. Widor was a founder of the
American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in 1921, there director until 1934
[1,
2]. He
published his text, 'Initiation Musicale', in 1923.
Franklin Roosevelt had been elected to his second term as President of the
United States when Widor died at his home in Paris on 12 March 1937, three
months before Picasso's 'Guernica' painted in June. As a performer Widor's venues extended
widely beyond only those for the Cavaillé-Coll organ, he having traveled
internationally including Russia (where is built another Cavaillé-Coll organ
in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory). Widor had composed for chamber, chorus, stage and orchestra along with songs
and a considerable number of pieces for solo organ and solo piano.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions: alphabetical:
1,
2;
alpha & Opus cross reference;
by genre: Dutch;
English: 1,
2,
3;
French;
German: 1,
2;
Portuguese;
Spanish.
.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
German: 1,
2.
Sheet music: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
organ symphonies.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography.
Further reading: organ symphonies:
John R. Near;
Georg Predota.
Other profiles: Dutch;
English: BBC audio w Donald Macleod;
SFCV;
French;
German: 1,
2;
Italian;
Russian: 1,
2.
Charles-Marie Widor 1872 Revised 1901 1918 Op 13 7 movements Organ: Wayne Marshall 1879 Revised 1901 1918 Op 42:1 5 movements Organ: Massimo Gabba 1885 Op 42:2 6 movements Organ: Ben van Oosten 1895 Op 70 4 movements Organ: Ben van Oosten Organ: Daniel Chorzempa 1876 Op 39 3 movements Utrecht Symphony Orchestra/Jean Fournet Piano: Ronald Brautigam 1887 For flute and piano Op 34 4 sections Flute: Leonard Garrison Piano: Rajung Yang |
|
|
Born on 8 March 1844 in Tikhvin (120 miles east of St.
Petersburg),
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
(Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков)
was of noble lineage w a father who had been vice-governor of Novgorod, then
civil governor of Volyn [1,
2]. His
older brother, Warrior Andreyevich, would become a rear admiral in the
Russian navy. Nikolai began piano at age six and composing at age ten,
but had little interest
in music until meeting teacher, Feodor Kanille, in 1859. Kanille in turn
introduced Korsakov to
Mily Balakirev
in 1861.
Balakirev
taught Korsakov some fundamentals, but "teach yourself" was the primary
lesson Balakirev gave to all his students. He would later get the same
advice, in so many words, from
Tchaikovsky. Upon graduating from the School
for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Saint Petersburg in 1862,
Risky-Korsakov took to the sea as a midshipman the next year. He did some
composing at sea, but notions of becoming a musician began to fade before
returning to St. Petersburg in 1865. Had he not met
Balakirev
before his tour at sea he might never have composed a thing else. Now seeing
him again,
Balakirev
encouraged him to finish the symphony that he had begun at sea in 1861. That
resulted in first public performance, directed by
Balakirev
at his Free School, of his first Opus, 'Symphony 1 in E flat minor', in
December of '65. His much later 1884 version was in E minor
[1,
2,
3,
audio]. As Rimsky-Korsakov
continued w assistance from
Balakirev
he became the youngest
member of The Five, a group led by
Balakirev
which interest was to fashion a Russian identity in music apart from the
prestige of what was taught in conservatories in western Europe. Other
members of The Five
were Alexander Borodin,
César Cui and
Modest Mussorgsky.
Nikolai's 'Sadko' ('Садко') Op 5 was a symphonic poem (tone poem, musical
picture, tableau musical) conducted by
Balakirev
at a concert of
Anton Rubinstein's
Russian Musical Society (RMS) in 1867 [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio w score].
In 1871 Rimsky-Korsakov began teaching composition and orchestration at the
Saint Petersburg Conservatory, the latter founded in 1862 by
Rubinstein. He also
married in July of '71, one Nadezhda Purgold. 'The Maid of
Pskov' ('Pskovityanka' or 'Псковитя́нка') w libretto by himself held premiere on 13 Jan 1873
at Maryinsky Theatre [1,
2] in St. Petersburg
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio].
Nikolai left 'Principles of Orchestration' ('Основы оркестровки') unfinished
in 1873, getting published posthumously 40 years later in 1913
[1,
2,
3,
4]. In the meantime Nikolai was yet active in the military and
required to wear a uniform until resigning his commission in 1873, assuming
a civil status as Russia's first naval band inspector. He became Russia's
last naval band inspector in 1884 when that office was closed. In 1874
Nikolai began working with
Balakirev
at the Saint Petersburg Court Chapel, teaching there as well until 1894.
This put him into something of a situation, teaching at
Rubinstein
academic Saint Petersburg Conservatory while at once aligned with
Balakirev's
more progressive Five. In that atmosphere he gradually
became more conservative, forming a close friendship with
Tchaikovsky
who could sympathize. Nikolai's second opera premiered at the Mariinsky on
21 Jan 1880, 'May Night' ('Майская ночь') with libretto again by himself
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio].
in 1886 Nikolai published 'Practical Manual of Harmony' ('Практический
учебник гармонии') [*;
contents in English;
full text in Russian].
He had spent 1879-84 engaged w 'Sinfonietta on Russian Themes' ('Симфониетта
на русские темы'), but didn't
publish it until 1887 [1,
2;
audio;
score].
His third opera, 'The Snow Maiden' {'Snegúrochka' or 'Снегурочка'),
premiered at the Maryinsky on 29 January 1882 w libretto by himself after
the 1873 eponymous play by Alexander Ostrovsky
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio;
folktale;
libretto].
Rimsky-Korsakov composed his most famous work in 1888 for publishing in '89,
'Scheherezade' ('Шехеразада') Op 35, a symphonic suite referring to the
character by the same name in the Arabic collection of tales 'One Thousand
and One Nights' [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio: 1,
2].
'Russian Easter Festival Overture' also called 'Bright Holiday' ('Светлый
праздник') saw performance in December 1888, publishing in '90
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio w score; score:
English;
Russian].
In 1895 Nikolai derived and published 'Suite: The Snow Maiden' from his
earlier opera (above) [*;
audio: 1,
2, w
score].
Nikolai's opera, 'Sadko' ('Садко'), borrowed from his earlier symphonic poem
of the same title (above). It premiered at the Solodovnikov Theatre in
Moscow on 7 Jan of 1898 w libretto by himself and Vladimir Belsky
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
live performance].
His opera w another libretto by himself, 'The Tsar's Bride' ('Царская
невеста'), arrived to the Moscow Partnership of Private Russian Opera on 22
Oct 1899 [1,
2,
3,
4,
audio: *;
Overture w score;
score].
As the calendar turned into the 20th century Nikolai premiered the opera,
'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' ('Сказка о царе Салтане'), at the Solodovnikov Theatre on 3 November 1900 w
libretto by Belsky [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio;
folktale].
In Act III of 'Tsar Saltan' is one of Rimsky-Korsakov's more famous pieces,
'The Flight of the Bumblebee' [1,
2,
3;
audio w score;
score: 1,
2].
IMSLP has him publishing 'Suite: A Tale of Tsar Saltan' Op 57 in 1901
[*,
audio w score;
score].
Rimsky-Korsakov wrote one of his lesser
known works, 'A Page from
Homer' ('Из Гомера') for voice and orchestra, in 1901 toward performance in
St. Petersburg on 28 Nov 1903 [*;
audio w score by the USSR State S & O w Evgeny Svetlanov;
score: 1,
2]. During the 1905
Russian Revolution [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9]
Rimsky-Korsakov aligned himself with demonstrating students at the Saint
Petersburg Conservatory who wished a constitutional monarchy, and was
dismissed, which led to a police ban on his works, which wrought more
protesting, which saw him reinstated the next December before resigning the
next year. Rimsky-Korsakov premiered his next to last opera at the Maryinsky
Theatre on 20 Feb 1907 w libretto by Vladimir Belsky, 'The Legend of the
Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya' ('Сказание о невидимом
граде Китеже и деве Февронии') [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
live performance].
Belsky wrote the libretto for Nikolai's last opera, 'The Golden Cockerel'
('Золотой петушок') composed in 1907, though Nikolai died before it's
premiere on 7 Oct 1909 [1,
2,
3,
4;
live performance: 1,
2,
libretto].
An earlier compilation of four parts by
Alexander Glazunov and
Maximilian Steinberg called 'Suite: The Golden Cockerel' or 'Four Musical Pictures from 'The Golden
Cockerel'' had been published in 1908 [*;
audio w score].
IMSLP has Rimsky-Korsakov's last assigned Opus going to 'Neapolitan Song' Op
63 which AllMusic has composed in 1907 [audio: 1,
2;
live performances: 1,
2].
Nikolai had been suffering with angina for perhaps the last twenty
years, which finally killed him on 21 June 1908. His memoir, 'Chronicle of
My Musical Life' ('Летопись моей музыкальной жизни'), was edited by his
wife, Nadezhda, and published in 1909
[1,
2]. Rimsky-Korsakov had written
largely orchestral works and operas, as well as choral works, songs, chamber
works and pieces for piano.
References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Chronology.
Compositions: alphabetical: 1,
2,;
by genre: 1,
2,
3;
German;
Russian: 1,
2;
Spanish;
by Opus;
operas: *;
Russian:
1,
2.
Editions: English: 1,
2,
3;
French;
Russian: '45 Russian Folk Songs' ('45 русских народных песен') (1882).
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Recordings of: discos 1,
2,
3,
4;
operas;
Russian;
select: 'Rimsky-Korsakov' *,
review;
'Symphony No.3 | Sinfonietta on Russian Themes' by the St. Petersburg State S & O w Andre Anichanov
*,
review.
Usage in modern media.
Documentaries: 'Rimsky-Korsakov' (1953).
Iconography.
Museum. Further reading
by source: O.B. Stepanov.
Further reading by topic: musical lineage *;
psychiatric pathography *;
Tchaikovsky and: 1,
2.
Bibliography (Russian).
Other profiles: English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
Norwegian;
Russian: archival (Russian State Library);
encyclopedic;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
Spanish.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1865–66 Op 2 Piano: Richard Boldrey Soprano: Sadie Frazier 1906–07 Opera 3 acts All-Union RT Choir and Orchestra Choirmaster: K. Ptitsa Conductors: A. Kovaliov & E. Akulov 1888 Op 35 Orchestral suite of 4 New York Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1887 Op 34 5 movements Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Symphony 1 in E minor: Movement 1 1884 Version 2 of Op 1 in E♭ minor (1861-65)Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra Boris Khaikin Symphony 1 in E minor: Movement 2 1884 Version 2 of Op 1 in E♭ minor (1861-65)Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra Boris Khaikin Symphony 1 in E minor: Movement 3 1884 Version 2 of Op 1 in E♭ minor (1861-65)Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra Boris Khaikin Symphony 1 in E minor: Movement 4 1884 Version 2 of Op 1 in E♭ minor (1861-65)Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra Boris Khaikin 4 versions 1868-1903 Op 9 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Lucasz Borowicz Version 1: 1866–73 Version 2: 1886 Op 32 St. Peterburg State Symphony Orchestra André Anichanov |
 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Source: Bach Cantatas |
|
 First Cigarette Brand 1892 Source: Jim's Burnt Offerings |
Born in Pamiers in southern France in 1845,
Gabriel Fauré would
xxxx write melodies
that were the French response to the German lied. Faure had a school master for a father who took him to Paris to study at the
School of Classical and Religious Music (École Niedermeyer) upon receiving a
scholarship at age nine. He there distinguished himself at organ, harmony,
piano and composition until graduating at age twenty. The next year he
assumed a position as organist at the Church of Saint-Sauveur in Rennes,
Brittany, during which period he composed his Opus 1, 'Two Songs': 'Le papillon et la fleur' and 'Mai' from texts by Victor Hugo, the former first
performed on 13 August of 1868
[IMSLP;
audio: 1
w score,
2
3
4;
score].
Faure was resigned from that job in 1870 upon showing up one Sunday
to perform at Mass in evening clothes after having attended an overnight
ball. His like of cigarettes was another mismatch.
Georges Bizet
and Rimsky-Korsakov
were other composers who took up the stick about the time that cigarettes
began to replace snuff. Tangentially, the first commercial cigarette
operation in the United States was started in 1865, hand rolled in North Carolina. Cigarette
manufacture became mechanized in 1881 upon the founding of the American
Tobacco Company, releasing the world's first cigarette brand, 'Duke of
Durham', packaged with baseball cards. Not long after leaving Saint-Sauveur
in Rennes his career was
further interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
These histories have seen not a few composers associated with the military
such as Faure's contemporary,
Massenet, and warriors going back to
Guillaume IX born in 1071 and
Frederick II born
in 1712. Faure himself saw too much action upon volunteering in 1870 that
made a no-nonsense soldier of him and couldn't but have had an enormous
effect on him. Upon Prussia's victory and the subsequent
Commune, Faure fled to
Switzerland where he taught at the École Niedermeyer, which school had also
relocated from Paris. Able to return to Paris the next year, he became
choirmaster at the Église Saint-Sulpice. In 1874 he began working under
Saint-Saëns
at the Église de la Madeleine, eventually to take his place as organist.
Faure's 'Sonata No.1' in A major Op 13 saw performance on 27 January 1877
[1,
2,
3;
audio: 1 w score,
2,
3,
4,
5]. Faure had first met
Saint-Saëns as a teenager at
the École Niedermeyer where
Saint-Saëns had taught. Now,
having worked together,
Saint-Saëns took Faure to
Paris to meet
Franz Liszt. In I878 he and André Messager,
who had been his first student in Switzerland, went on a tour of
Wagner operas in
Germany. Though not alike as composers, Faure was a Wagner
fan. In 1883 he married, but the eighties were a stretch
for Faure. Though working at the Madelaine, he earned no royalties, selling
songs for about 60 francs a piece ($12, worth about $240 today). Matters improved upon
a trip to Venice in 1890, then an appointment at the Paris Conservatoire as
an inspector of provincial conservatoires, then as professor of composition
in 1896. His students at the Madeleine had been amateurs, but now Faure was
teaching serious musicians such as
Maurice Ravel. Faure
premiered his incidental
music to Maeterlinck's 'Pelléas and Mélisande' at the Prince of Wales
Theatre in London on 21 June 1898
[1,
2,
3;
audio: 1 w score,
2,
3].
His
lyric tragedy, 'Prométhée', premiered at the Arènes de Béziers on 27 August 1900
w libretto by the symbolist poets Jean Lorrain and André-Ferdinand Hérold
[1,
2;
audio].
From 1903 to 1921 Faure wrote criticism
for the newspaper, 'Le Figaro',
the first national daily newspaper in France founded in 1826
[archives since 1854;
presently]. Faure performed the first of his cycle of ten songs,
'La chanson d'Ève' Op 95, on 18 March of 1898 at Bechstein Hall (Wigmore
Hall) in London. Begun in June of 1896 w 'Crépuscule', the remainder were
written toward publishing in January of 1910
[1,
2,
3;
audio: Elly Ameling;
'Crépuscule' by Sarah Connolly]. In 1905 he succeeded
Théodore Dubois as
director of the Paris Conservatoire, the same year he may have made his first piano rolls
for Aeolian Metrostyle
[Nectoux].
Nectoux estimates those to be 'Barcarolle No.3' in G flat Op 42 (65841), 'Pavane'
in F sharp minor Op 50 (65303) and possibly 'Valse-Caprice' Op 62 No.4
(66531). No audio of those rolls is found but Faure had published
'Barcarolle No.3' back in 1885 [*;
audio: 1,
2].
He had premiered the
orchestral version of 'Pavane'
[1,
2] on 25 Nov 1888, three
days before the
choral version.
'Valse-Caprice No.4' in A flat Op 62 had been published in 1894
[*;
audio: 1,
2]. Faure was elected to the Institut
de France in 1909. He produced at least five piano rolls for Welte-mignon in
1912-13 [1,
2].
One of those was No.3 in E flat major from '3 Nocturnes' Op 33
[1,
2;
audio: Jean-Philippe Collard;
Faure
piano roll].
Another was his second piano roll version of 'Pavane' on Welte 2772 [audio:
1,
2].
Faure's sole
opera, 'Pénélope', premiered at the Salle Garnier in Monte Carlo on 4 March 1913 w libretto by René Fauchois
[1,
2,
3,
4;
live performance w musical direction by Patrick Davin]. He lived in France throughout World War I
(7/28/1914-11/11/1918)
with considerably less trouble than the action he'd seen during
the Franco-Prussian War four to five decades earlier. Retiring from the
Conservatoire in 1920, Faure completed his final composition, 'String Quartet
in E minor' Op 121, in Sep 1924. Dying less than two months later of
pneumonia on 4 November of '24 in Paris, his only string quartet was
performed and published posthumously in 1925
[1,
2,
3;
audio: Amati Quartet;
Castalian Quartet;
Quatuor Ebène;
various]. Though
Faure had played organ continually during his career he composed nothing for
that instrument, preferring piano.
References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Chronology.
Synopses: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological (French);
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
French;
by Opus: 1,
2,
3;
for piano.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9;
cylinder;
MIDI files.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Usage in modern media.
Further reading: Charles Osbourne on Faure's songs.
Biblio: 'Gabriel Faure: The Songs and Their Poets' by Graham Johnson (Ashgate Publishing 2009)
*;
'Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life' by Jean-Michel Nectoux (Cambridge U Press 2004)
*;
'Gabriel Faure: A Research and Information Guide' Edward Phillips (Taylor & Francis 2011)
*;
'Metric dissonance and hypermeter in the chamber music of Gabriel Fauré' by Richard Vonfoerster
*.
Other profiles: English:
archival;
encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3;
didactic;
musical: 1 (BBC audio w Donald Macleod),
2,
3,
4,
5;
variety;
Estonian;
French;
German;
Norwegian;
Russian.
Gabriel Fauré 3 Songs 1902 Op 85 Baritone: Sanford Sylvan Piano: David Breitman 1891 Op 58 Mezzosoprano: Joyce DiDonato Piano: Julius Drake 1883-1921 Piano: Evelyne Crochet 1877 1887–93 Op 48 George Enescu Philharmonic C & O Conducting: Valentin Doni 1875-1922 Op 33 & Op 4-13 Piano: Evelyne Crochet 1907–13 Lyric opera 3 acts Opéra National du Rhin Pénélope: Anna Caterina Antonacci 1924 Op 121 Last composition Amati Quartet |
 Gabriel Faure 1907 Source: Wikipedia |
 Henri Duparc Source: Britannica |
Born on 21 Jan 1848 in Paris, among
Henri Duparc's
first works were 'Six rêveries pour Piano' in 1863-65, printed but not
published. As a severe judge
of his own works, Duparc would destroy most of what he wrote, leaving behind fewer than forty
compostions.
He was a law student when he received instruction in piano and
composition from César Franck. His first surviving song collection, 'Cinq Melodies', was composed in 1868, published
circa 1869, the year a trip to Munich made a Wagner fan of him, though the
two aren't alike. 'Cinq Melodies' included 'Chanson Triste' in E flat major as No.4
[1,
2;
audio:
Jessye Norman w score;
Deborah Selig;
score;
text].
In 1871 Duparc assisted in the founding of the Société Nationale de Musique [RND
*]
in Paris w Romain
Bussine and Camille Saint-Saëns.
Duparc composed his symphonic poem, 'Lenore', in 1873 toward publishing in
'74, that set to the ballad by Gottfried August Bürger [1,
2,
3;
audio w score of the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Michel Plasson: 1,
2]. In 1874 Duparc premiered his orchestral 'Poeme Nocturne' at the RND on 11
April, then later destroyed two of its three movements, leaving only its
first, 'Aux Etoiles'. He later revised 'Aux Etoiles' for piano 4 hands in
1910, and for both orchestra and organ in 1911. Duparc wrote 'Phidylé' in A
flat major in 1882 [1,
2;
live performance by
Sylvia McNair (soprano) & Roger Vignoles (piano);
score;
text: 1,
2].
Duparc later revised 'Phidylé' for orchestra in 1891-92. Excepting seven later orchestral
revisions of his melodies, Duparc abruptly quit composing altogether in
1885, perhaps for
psychological reasons combined w neurasthenia. He hung out with his family and painted until
eventually becoming blind toward the end of his life. Transcribing organ
works by
J.S. Bach
in 1903 and
César Franck
in 1908 probably didn't help. Per above, revisions of 'Aux Etoiles' appeared
in 1910 and '11. Hear what is thought the 1911
orchestral revision
w score.
Hear also piano reductions
believed to belong to Duparc's orchestral version performed by
Chris Breemer and
Phillip Sear.
In 1912 Duparc published 'Souvenirs de la Société Nationale' in the Dec
1912 issue of 'Revue de la Société Internationale de Musique'
[*].
In Dec of '22 he published 'César Franck pendant le Siège de Paris' ('César
Franck During the Siege of Paris') in the 'Revue Musicale'. Duparc spent
most of the latter years of his life in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, before
dying in Mont-de-Marsan, France, on 12 Feb 1933.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical.
chronological: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
Polish,
Russian,
Spanish;
by genre.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
songs of Duparc by various at GilPiotr.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
select: 'The Songs of Henri Duparc' by Sarah Walker (mezzo-soprano), Sir Thomas Allen (baritone) & Roger Vignoles (piano)
*.
Further reading: Thomas MacGreevy on the songs of Duparc.
Biblio: 'The Songs of Henri Duparc' by Sydney Northcote (Read Books 2011).
Other profiles: English;
French: 1,
2;
Italian;
Japanese;
Spanish: 1,
2.
Henri Duparc 1868 Song E flat major Librettist: Henri Cazalis as Jean Lahor Piano: Enrique Ricci Soprano: Régine Crespin 1874 Revised 1884? Melody Librettist: Henri Cazalis as Jean Lahor Piano: Enrique Ricci Soprano: Régine Crespin 1870 Melody C minor Librettist: Charles Baudelaire Piano: Paula Bär-Giese Soprano: Paula Bär-Giese 1871 Melody C minor Librettist: François Coppée Baritone: Bruno Laplante Piano: Marc Durand 1884 Melody E flat major Librettist: Charles Baudelaire Baritone: Gérard Souzay Piano: Jacqueline Bonneau 1882 Melody A flat major Librettist: Leconte de Lisle Baritone: Njabulo Madlala Piano: William Vann 1869? Melody D minor Librettist: Sully Prudhomme Baritone: Bruno Laplante Piano: Marc Durand |
|
| Born on
27 February
1848 in Bournemouth, England,
Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
was the gentleman indeed, his father an artist and art collector, having
inherited no small wealth originating in his family with the East India
Company prior to the 19th century. The obscure Parry played and studied organ in church
capacities as a youth. Beginning in 1856 he attended preparatory schools in
Malvern and Twyford until enrolling in Eton Collage in 1861. 'A Little Piano
Piece' is thought to have emerged in 1862 along with a set of variations
[Cooper].
He composed the anthem, 'In My Distress', in 1863. Works thought written in
1864 include 'Grand Fugue with Three Subjects' in G and the anthem, 'Blessed is He',
the latter published in 1865 as well as 'Prevent Us, O Lord' [audio by
Hamoritai; score].
Upon earning a bachelor degree in music at Eton in 1867, Parry left for Exeter
College in Oxford to study, not music, but law and history. Parry published
the song, 'The River of Life', in 1870 either before or while working as an underwriter for Lloyd's
of London from 1870 to 1877. (Other) works composed during that period
include several songs, a few pieces for pianoforte, the lost overture titled
'Vivian' and choral works including an oratorio. Parry wasn't able to arrive
to success in insurance because he spent his time studying music and
composing to escape it. He had also begun writing articles in 1875 for
George Grove's 'Dictionary of Music and Musicians', that first published in
1878 [1,
2,
3,
4]. Works for chamber and
orchestra began to appear in 1878, but Parry wasn't to become a
rock star of classical composing. Albeit strong w choral works, he owned
lesser interest in orchestration. His only opera, 'Guinevere', circa 1885-86,
was rejected by the Carl Rosa opera company
[*].
He published 'The Art of Music' in 1893 [retitled 'The Evolution of the Art
of Music' in 1897: 1,
2]. Parry assumed a professorship at Oxford
University in 1900 from which he resigned
in 1908 for medical causes. His place in the annals of classical music
is singularly preserved by his hymn, 'Jerusalem', composed during World War I
and first performed in London on 28 March 1916
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
text].
Also of note are his 'Songs of Farewell' written 1916–1918
[1,
2;
audio by Tenebrae w sores & text;
scores;
text: 1,
2].
Parry died in West Sussex on 7 Oct
1918, falling to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. In addition to several books,
he left
behind largely conservative church and choral music, also writing a good
list of chamber pieces, songs, pieces for keyboard and orchestral works such
as incidental music. References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
anthems;
by genre: 1,
2,
3;
hymns;
sacred;
secular.
Publications.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Usage in modern media.
Collections: Eton: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Further reading:
'British Organ Music of the Twentieth Century: Hubert Parry' by Peter Hardwick (Scarecrow Press 2003).
Biblio: 'Parry Before Jerusalem' by Bernard Benoliel (Routledge 2019).
Other profiles: English: 1 (exhibition),
2,
3,
4,
5
(alt);
Russian.
Sir Hubert Parry Published 1913 For organ Organ: Roger Sayer Published 1916 Choral song Lyrics: William Blake Faye Sampson 1878–82 4 movements The London Philharmonic/Matthias Bambert 'The English' 1887–89 4 movements The London Philharmonic/Matthias Bambert 1912 4 movements: Stress - Love - Play - Now The London Philharmonic/Matthias Bambert |
 Sir Hubert Parry Source: Daily Mail |
|
| Born in
Salamanca on 29 Dec 1850,
Tomás Bretón
is now an obscure composer whose
most immediate contemporaries were Manuel Fernández Caballero,
Ruperto Chapí and Gerónimo
Giménez.
Breton
was schooled in music as a child and worked w small orchestras before
heading to Madrid at age sixteen to study under
Emilio Arrieta. He played in
small outfits there as well while gaining exposure to zarzuela theatre. Zarzuelas
[1,
2] are a form of drama peculiar to
Spain, generally ascribed to Juan Hidalgo de Polanco
[*] as of 1658 upon his
composition, 'El Laurel de Apolo'
[*].
Breton's first zarzuela is ascribed to 'Tic-Tac' of 1873. 'Guzmán el Bueno'
was his initial opera, premiering at the Teatro Apolo on 25 Nov 1876 w libretto by
Antonio Arnao [*;
audio of Prelude].
Breton began conducting in 1878. A grant from the Academy of Fine
Arts of San Fernando brought Breton to study in Rome, Milan, Vienna and
Paris from 1881 to 1884. Also composing for chamber, his 'Piano Trio' in E
Major was composed in '87 toward publishing in London '91
[*;
audio: 1,
2,
3,
4].
His most famous zarzuela is his 28th per the list at IMSLP, and features the
Spanish folk dance known as the seguidilla: 'La Verbena de la Paloma',
premiering in Madrid on 17 Feb 1894 w a prose libretto by Ricardo de la Vega
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio;
score].
Of Breton's ten operas listed at IMSLP, his most highly regarded is his
fourth, 'La Dolores', premiering at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid on
16 March 1895 w libretto by himself drawn from the 1892 eponymous drama by
Josep Feliu i Codina [1,
2,
3,
4;
libretto: 1,
2,
3,
4]. 'La Dolores' also includes
a few jotas,
notably 'Si vas a Calatayud' from the last scene of Act I, more simply
referred to as 'Le Gran' [live performance].
'La Dolores' also includes an instrumental jota believed recorded by the
Trio Instrumental Arriaga in 1905 on cylinder per Edison Gold Moulded 18769
[audio].
Breton was appointed Director of the Madrid Conservatory of Music in 1901, a
position he would hold off and on until 1921. In 1914 he completed his fantasía musical, 'La Guitarra del Amor', and the opera w libretto by
Jacinto Soriano, 'Las Cortes de Amor' ('El Trovador Lisardo') ['The Courts
of Love' ('The Troubadour Lisardo'): score].
Also in 1914 Breton premiered his opera, thought his last, w libretto by Tomás Luceño, 'Don Gil
de las Calzas Verdes', at the Teatro Tívoli de Barcelona on 31 of July after
three weeks of rehearsals beginning on the 9th
[1,
2]. IMSLP lists Breton's last zarzuela as 'Fraile Fingido'
('Fake Friar') in 1919 [score
(alt)].
Breton was resigned from his post at the Madrid Conservatory in 1921, to
receive a small government pension of 3000 pesetas a year
[*; around $20 w
purchasing power at present of about $250]. He died on 2 December 1923 in Madrid, having written largely operas,
zarzuelas, chamber and orchestral works.
References: 1,
2.
Chronology.
Compositions:
alphabetical;
by genre: English: 1,
2;
Spanish: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2;
Spanish.
Sheet music.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
select: 'La Dolores' on CD;
'La Verbena de la Paloma' on DVD.
Usage in modern media.
Further reading: 'Musical Expression and Spanish Nationalism in Selected Works of Tomás Bretón' by
Brent M. Darnold.
Other profiles: Catalan;
Dutch;
French;
German;
Portuguese;
Spanish: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5. Tomás Bretón 1882 premiere 1890 Oratorio Coral de Bilbao Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid/Andrés Zarzo 1887 Symphonic serenade Orquesta Ciudad de Granada/Juan de Udaeta 1878 4 movements OS de Castilla y León/José Luis Temes 1883 4 movements OS de Castilla y León/Max Bragado Darman 1905 4 movements OS de Castilla y León/José Luis Temes premiere 1894 Zarzuela Orquesta y coros Montilla/EM Marco 1909 Community Orchestra of Madrid Luis Miguel Ramos Violin: Agustin Léon Ara |
 Tomas Breton Source: Biografia y Vidas |
|
 Ruperto Chapi Source: Arte Historia |
Born in
Villena on 27 March 1851,
Ruperto Chapí
began playing piccolo and composing at age nine. Like his most significant Spanish contemporary,
Tomás Bretón,
Chapi had composed largely operas, zarzuelas [1,
2] and orchestral works including symphonies. He wrote his first zarzuela, 'La estrella del bosque', at age fifteen, the same year he began
conducting in Alicante. He began studies the next year at the Madrid Conservatory.
He won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire in 1872. Chapi's initial
opera, 'Las Naves de Cortés' ('The Ships of Cortez'), premiered at the
Teatro Real in Madrid on 19 April 1874 [1
(alt);
libretto: 1
(alt);
score
to Prelude]. His long-lost second opera, 'La Muerte de Garcilaso', wasn't
commercially performed but won him a scholarship from the Royal Spanish
Academy of Fine Arts [1,
2,
3
(alt);
live performances: 1, 2,
3].
Upon returning to Madrid to commence a highly successful professional career Chapi premiered his fourth opera, 'Roger de Flor', on 23 Jan
1878 at the Teatro Real in Madrid, that composed while in
Rome w
libretto by Mariano Capdepón Maseres [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio of Prelude; 1,
2;
libretto: 1,
2].
Followed by orchestral works including an oratorio, Chapi premiered his
fifth opera, 'La Serenata' w libretto by José Estremera, on 5 Nov 1881 at
the Teatro Apolo in Madrid [1,
2].
The failure of that turned him away from opera, not to approach that form
again for
another score of years ('Circe' 1902). In the meantime he produced numerous
zarzuelas such as 'El rey que rabió' ('The King Who Raged') at the Teatro de
la Zarzuela in Madrid on 20 April 1891 w libretto by Miguel Ramos Carrión
and Vital Aza [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio of Nocturne from Act II:
1,
2]. Chapi conducted 'Las Bravías' at the Teatro Apolo on
12 December 1896 w libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw and José López Silva
borrowed from Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' (1591-94)
[1,
2;
audio to Introducción].
Seven zarzuelas later 'La Revoltosa' arrived to the Apolo on 25 November
1897 w libretto again by Shaw and Silva
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio to Prelude: 1,
2,
3]. That was the subject of a silent
film called 'The Troublemaker' directed by Florián Rey in 1924 [*].
It had been 21 years since Chapi premiered his last opera in 1881 ('La
Serenata' above) when his next, 'Circe', arrived to Madrid w libretto by Carrión
(above) on 7 May of 1902
[*;
libretto: 1,
2,
3].
Among the eight zarzuelas given a date of 1902 at French Wikipedia, 'El
Puñao de Rosas' ('A Bunch of Roses') premiered at the Teatro Apolo w
libretto by Carlos Arniches on 30 Oct 1902
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio:
1,
2,
3].
Though the greater portion of Chapi's music was for theatre, he composed
instrumentals as well, such as 'String Quartet No.1' in G in 1903
[*;
audio: 1,
2
(alt),
3,
4,
5].
He followed that the next year with his four-movement 'String Quartet No.2'
in F [*;
audio:
1,
2,
3;
Movement I;
Movement II].
Chapi premiered his last opera, 'Margarita la Tornera', at the Teatro Real
on 24 February 1909, that with another libretto by Shaw, now based on a poem
by
José Zorrilla [*;
live performance].
Chapi died in Madrid the next month
on 25 March 1909. References:
1,
2,
3.
Compositions: alphabetical;
chronological: in French;
in Spanish: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2;
German.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4;
cylinder.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
select: 'Complete String Quartets' by the Brodsky Quartet.
'Margarita la Tornera' w Elisabete Matos as Margarita; 'String Quartets 1 & 2' by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano:
1,
2,
3,
4.
Usage in modern media.
Other profiles: Catalan;
English: 1,
2,
3;
French;
German;
Russian;
Spanish: 1,
2,
3,
4. Ruperto Chapí 1869 Scherzo Orquesta Sinfonica de RTVE Adrian Leaper 1876 Symphonic poem OS de Radio Televisión Española Adrian Leaper Preduleo to 'El tambor de granaderos' 1894 Zarzuela Miguel Roa 1879 Zarzuela Teatro Calderon Madrid Conductor: Jose Irastorza 1873 1879 From 'Fantasía Morisca' Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid José Ramón Encinar 1879 4 movements Orquestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu Guerassim Voronkov |
|
|
Born on 27 March 1851 (same day as
Chapí) in Paris to Catholic and royalist
aristocrats,
Vincent d'Indy
began piano as a child, then studied harmony at age 14 under composer,
Albert Lavignac [famous for his 8 hands 'Galop-marche':
1,
2].
Among his greater influences would be
Richard Wagner.
D'Indy's Opus 1 is assigned to '3 Romances sans Paroles' of 1869 rendered in some
sources as 'Piano Sonata' in C minor [1,
2].
At age 19 he enlisted in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War of
1870-71 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
He then studied under
César Franck at the Paris
Conservatoire. His overture, 'Les Piccolomini' premiered in Pasdeloup on 25
Jan
1874, which he would later employ in 'Wallenstein' (below). Chapi also
married one of his cousins, Isabelle de Pampelonne, about that time. He was
yet a young man about age 25 when he composed 'Andante pour Piano et Violon'
in 1876 [*;
audio].
He wrote 'Poème des Montagnes' Op 15 for piano in 1881 toward publishing
in 1885 [1,
2,
3;
audio]. In 1884 he
founded the Schola Cantorum de Paris with composers, Charles Bordes and
Alexandre Guilmant,
as an alternative to the Paris Conservatoire. It was on 28 Jan of 1886 that
his choral work, 'Le Chant de la cloche' ('Song of the Bell') Op 18, was first performed in Paris,
having been completed in '83
[*; score:
1,
2,
3].
Composed in 1885, d'Indy published 'Cantate Domino' (Psalm 97) Op 22 the
next year [*;
audio 1,
2 w score;
score: 1,
2,
3].
It was 26 Feb 1888 when d'Indy premiered his orchestral trilogie titled
'Wallenstein' from the 1799 eponymous trilogie by Friedrich Schiller
[1,
2;
audio;
score].
He published two 'Tableaux de Voyage' in 1889: Op 33 w a set of thirteen
pieces [1,
2;
audio of 'Reve' No.13] and Op 36 w a set of six
[1,
2;
audio w score].
D'Indy's motet, 'Deus Israel' Op 41, was written in 1896
[*;
scores: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
Come 'Lied Maritime' ('Maritime Song') in G major in 1896 w libretto by
himself [*;
audio w text;
live performance by Francesca Scaini & Mattia Ometto;
score: 1,
2,
3;
text].
Among d'Indy's several operas, 'Fervaal' w libretto by himself premiered in
Brussels at the Théâtre de la Monnaie on 12 March 1897
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
audio of Prologue w score;
live performance entire].
Come his 'Piano Sonata' in E Op 63 in 1907 toward publishing in 1908
[*;
audio:
Diane Andersen
(piano);
Jean-Pierre Armengaud
(piano)]. D'Indy published his prose volume, 'Beethoven: A Critical
Biography', in 1913 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
Like others, D'Indy wasn't a fan of early acoustic recording for reason of
poor fidelity. He did, however, visit the Hayes studio in Middlesex on 7
April of 1923 to record portions of 'Tableaux de Voyage' Op 33 on 78rpm flat disc
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio: 1,
2,
3,
4].
See Symposium 1012 originally issued as French HMV W 506. Fidelity was better with piano rolls of which D'Indy made
a few for Ampico (American Piano Company) on unidentified dates, those including
Domenico Scarlatti's 'Burlesca' in G minor on Ampico 6049 H
[1,
2,
3].
D'Indy's last Opus is assigned to a set of four choral works called 'La
Vengeance du Mari' Op 105, one of several works for voice composed in 1931 before his
death in Paris on 2 Dec 1931. References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3;
chronological;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4;
by Opus: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7.
Editions & scores: 1,
2,
3;
French;
German.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3;
select: 'Sonata in E major Op. 63' w piano by
Diane Andersen.
Bibliography:
'French Opera at the Fin De Siècle: Vincent d'Indy and Moral Order' by
Steven Huebner (Oxford U Press 2006).
Other profiles: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
German: 1,
2.
Vincent d'Indy 1896 Op 42 Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra Poème des rivages 1919-21 Op 77 Suite 4 movements[Part I] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] String Quartet 3 in D flat major 1928-29 Op 96 4 movementsNew Budapest String Quartet 1902-03 Op 57 4 movements Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse Conductor: Michel Plasson 1870–72 Op 70 4 movements Iceland Symphony Orchestra/Rumon Gamba Symphony on a French Mountain Air 1886 Op 25 3 movementsIceland Symphony Orchestra/Rumon Gamba |
 Vincent d'Indy Source: Quarterly Review |
|
 Sir Charles Stanford Source: Hyperion Records |
Born on 30 Sep 1852 in Dublin,
Sir Charles Villiers
Stanford
is the first Irish composer to see these histories and is squarely
representative of the Victorian Era
in the United Kingdom. Stanford, whom's father was a
prominent lawyer, was composing by age eight, a march in D flat
appearing in Sep 1860, performed at the Royal Theatre in Dublin three years later,
eventually published in an 1898 issue of 'Musical Times' [Dibble]. Entering
into the Royal Academy of Music at age ten, he later attended a couple of
colleges while continuing to compose before entering Cambridge in 1870.
Becoming a member of the Cambridge University Musical Society
(CUMS) that
year, he was instrumental to gaining the admittance of women by creating a
vocal guild in 1872 that included females, putting the CUMS choir, without them, to
task. Finally recognizing that not a few compositions did indeed call for
women in a chorus, those in Stanford's Amateur Vocal Guild were admitted to
the CUMS as associates and the two choirs were combined. Stanford's Opus 1
is assigned to '8 Songs from The Spanish Gypsy' likely composed from 1872 to
'75, published in portions beginning in '73, first performed in '77
[audio;
text].
Stanford's 'Symphony No.1' in B flat major is a WoO (Without Opus) composed in 1876 toward
its first performance on 8 March 1879 at the Crystal Palace
[*;
audio: 1,
2].
It was neither performed again nor published in his lifetime. Stanford's Op 10 was his Anglican 'Service' for Morning
[starting w 'Te Deum': 1,
2],
Communion and Evening first performed in 1879
[1,
2;
audio;
score].
His 'The Veiled Prophet' is an opera WoO first performed auf Deutsch
at the Hoftheatre in Hanover, Germany, on 6 Feb 1881 w libretto by William
Barclay Squire based on Thomas Moore's 'Lalla Rookh' of 1817
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio].
Its single performance in the UK was given in Italian at the Royal Opera
House in London in 1893.
Stanford's 'Symphony No.2' ('Elegiac') in D minor is another WoO that saw
performance in 1882 but wasn't published until 1921
[audio: 1,
2]. Stanford became a
founding professor at the Royal College of Music
(RCM)
in 1883. From 1885 to 1902 he conducted the Bach Choir in London
[UK: 1,
2,
3;
see also US].
'Symphony No.3' ('The Irish') in F minor Op 28 saw conducting by Hans
Richter at St. James Hall in London on 27 June 1887
[1,
2;
audio w
score].
He began teaching at Cambridge later that year, succeeding George Alexander
Macfarren upon the latter's death in October. Ten years later he composed
another setting for 'Te Deum', that in B flat major Op 66 toward publishing
the next year in '98 by Boosey in London and Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig
[*;
score w
audio].
Stanford's seventh opera, 'Much Ado About
Nothing' Op 76a, saw conducting by Luigi Mancinelli at the Royal Opera House
on 30 May 1901 [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio]. That was w libretto by Julian Sturgis after Shakespeare's
eponymous play of 1600. Stanford's Easter anthem, 'Ye Choirs of New
Jerusalem' Op 123 is thought written in 1910-11 [audio: 1,
2,
3,
4;
score w
audio].
Upon World War I Stanford moved from London to Windsor
to evade aerial bombing. His final opera, 'The Travelling Companion'
Op 146, was published in London by Stainer & Bell in 1919 six years
before its first performance, posthumous, at the David Lewis Theatre in
Liverpool on 30 April 1925 [1,
2,
3;
audio:
1,
2]. Henry Newbolt wrote the libretto for that
from the eponymous fairy tale of 1835 by Hans Christian Andersen. The
composition of Stanford's 'Mass via Vitrix' in F minor Op 173 is dated 14
December 1919 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio: 1,
2].
Around 1921 Stanford began giving public lectures, one in January of 1921
titled 'On Some Recent Tendencies in Composition' in which his conservatism
is apparent in his treatment of younger composers [*]. That was published as
Chapter 7 of his 1922 'Interludes'. Stanford gave his last public performance on 5 March of 1921, conducting his cantata, 'At the Abbey Gate' in C major Op 177
[*;
score: 1,
2,
3;
audio].
'At the Abbey Gate' had been composed the year before w a libretto by
Charles John Darling. According to the author(s) at Wikipedia Stanford's final composition
was, 'Irish Rhapsody 6' Op 191 for violin dated 17 Sep 1922
[*;
audio w violin by Lydia Mordkovitch].
His last Opus, however, is assigned to '3 Idylls' for organ Op 194 of
unidentified date [audio]. Stanford's health had begun
to decline about
the time he'd turned seventy. He died of stroke in London on 29 March 1924, having
composed some 200 works. Excluding all works prior to 1875 from his
catalogue, Stanford had written seven symphonies, nine operas, eleven
concertos, 28 chamber works, 40 choral works and a few Masses in addition to incidental
music, pieces for piano and organ as well as songs.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical;
choral works;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
на русском;
by Opus.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
Swedish.
Sheet music.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
cylinder.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
by Opus;
select: 'The Complete Organ Works - 4' w Daniel Cook on the organ of Westminster Abbey
*;
'Stanford: Sonatas for Organ' w Joseph Payne
*;
review;
'The Travelling Companion' *.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography.
Further reading: couples of;
operas of;
solo piano of;
symphonies of: national identity and;
Victorian Era and;
Tchaikovsky and.
Biblio: 'Charles Villiers Stanford: Man and Musician' by Jeremy Dibble (Oxford U Press 2002)
*, review by Robert Anderson ('The Musical Times' 2003);
'Charles Villiers Stanford: Some Aspects of His Work and Influence' by Thomas Dunhill ('Proceedings of the Musical Association' 1926-27)
*;
'Stanford and the Gods of Modern Music' by Kevin O'Connell ('The Musical Times' 1890)
*;
'Charles Villiers Stanford' by Paul Rodmell (Routledge 2017)
*.
Other profiles: English;
German;
Italian.
See also the Stanford Society.
Sir Charles Stanford 1902 Op 80 Bournemouth Symphony orchestra Conductor: David Lloyd-Jones Clarinet: Robert Plane 1913 Op 137 Ulster Orchestra/Vernon Handley Cello: Raphael Wallfisch 1886 Trinity College Choir Cambridge Richard Marlow Op 164 Magnificat Choir of Winchester Cathedral Op 164 Magnificat Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Choir 1906 Op 96 5 movements Stabat Mater London Philharmonic Chorus BBC Philharmonic Soprano: Ingrid Attrot 1876 4 movements Ulster Orchestra/Vernon Handley 1888? premiere 1889 Berlin Op 31 Ulster Orchestra/Vernon Handley 1894 Op 56 Ulster Orchestra/Vernon Handley 1911 Op 124 4 movements Ulster Orchestra/Vernon Handley |
|
| Born in
Villarreal in the province of Castellón on 21 Nov 1852,
Francisco de Asís
Tárrega y Eixea
had a
flamenco guitarist for a father when not working
as a watchman. He began to study both guitar and piano for a brief time in
Barcelona in 1862. He enrolled into the Madrid Royal Conservatory in 1874
due to the patronage of one Antonio Canesa. He there studied composition
beneath Emilio Arrieta. By
the latter seventies his was giving guitar concerts and teaching. He played
houses in Lyon, Paris and London in 1881 before settling in Madrid. He
possibly conceived one his more favored pieces, 'Lagrima' ('Teardrop') in E
major, as early as 1881 while in London
[1,
2,
3;
audio: 1,
2,
3,
4 w tablature]. It isn't known, however, just when it
was written, Wikipedia lending a span of sometime between 1889 and 1909. As with other of Tarrega's preludes
for guitar, the Prelude number for 'Lagrima' differs depending on
the catalogue being cited. The most commonly used of several are the
Gangi-Carfagna of 1971 which lists 'Lagrima' as Prelude 36, and the Chiesa
of 1984 which lists it as Prelude 5. Prelude numbers w Tarrega can be
disorienting, as other catalogues w differing numbers are not uncommonly
used. Tarrega moved to
Barcelona in 1885 where he would reside the remainder of his life, soon
finding another patron, one Conxa
Martinez, who lent him one of her homes in which to live with his family. 'Recuerdos
de la Alhambra' was composed on a trip to Granada in 1896
[1,
2;
audio: guitar by
Radmila Besic,
David Russell
Ana Vidovic,
John Williams,
various]. Tarrega visited Algiers in 1900, Italy in 1903.
In the meantime, one of his mazurkas, 'Adelita', is thought to have
been published in 1902 by Antich y Tena
[1,
2,
3;
audio: 1,
2,
3,
4 w tab;
tablature: 1,
2;
score].
Tarrega's last composition was
'Oremus' w a date of 2 December 1909. 'Oremus' (Latin for "Let us pray") is
so often performed with 'Endecha' (Spanish for "dirge" or 'lament", and
which date of composition is unidentified) that IMSLP lists them both
together as 'Endecha y Oremus'. They are also listed together as 'Dos
Preludios' per a posthumous Madrid copyright of 4 Nov 1929
[LOC]. Like other of Tarrega's preludes, the
Prelude numbers for 'Endecha' and 'Oremus' differ dependent on one of
several catalogues. In Gangi-Carfagna 'Endecha' in D minor is Prelude No.37
and 'Oremus' in D minor is Prelude No.38. In Chiesa 'Endecha' is Prelude
No.11 and 'Oremus' is Prelude No.10. An array of other numbers are not
uncommonly used. Be as may, 'Oremus' is actually
Tarrega's transcription of
Robert Schumann's
'Phantasietanz' Op 124 No.5 of 1854
[audio: 'Endecha';
'Oremus': 1,
2;
'Endecha y Oremus': 1,
2;
scores: 'Endecha',
'Oremus'].
Tarrega died on December 15, 1909, a couple weeks after transposing 'Oremus'. He had
written a
minimum of 78 pieces, likely considerably more, and fairly set the
foundation for which Spain has come to be so well-known, classical guitar. Tarrega played the
Torres guitar [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9] made by Antonio Torres Jurado
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5],
one of which is valued at $157,000 by Christie's.
References: 1,
2.
Chronology.
Compositions: 1,
2,
3;
alphabetical;
Preludes.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2,
3.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
Preludes.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
select: 'Tárrega: Integral de Guitarra' w guitar by David Russell.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography: 1,
2 (Vita-Real).
Further reading: Preludes;
transcriptions of Chopin.
Other profiles: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
Esperanto;
French;
German: 1,
2;
Italian;
Russian;
Spanish: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Francisco Tárrega Guitar: David Russell Guitar: Marcin Dylla Guitar: Lilit Mardiyan Guitar: Phil McKelliget 1: Dança Mora 2: Capricho Árabe 3: Valsa Guitar: Ana Vidovic 1896 Guitar: Ana Vidovic Variations on 'El Carnaval de Venecia' by Paganini Guitar: Emmanuel Rossfelder |
 Francisco Tarrega Source: 21st Century Guitar |
|
 Covent Garden Theatre Circa 1897 |
Born on 30 December 1853 in Montluçon, France,
André Charles Prosper
Messager
was the son of a tax collector and playing piano by age seven in preparation
for a highly successful career of composing largely operas, operettas and
ballets. He was sent
to board at a Marist school until the financial ruin of a bank crash made
that no longer feasible. Fortunately, Messager won a scholarship to the
École de Musique in Paris, run by composer, Louis Niedermeyer. During the
Paris Commune of 1871 Niedermeyer moved his school to Switzerland. Messager
followed, there to meet
Gabriel Fauré.
his next teacher. He became choirmaster at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in
1874. In 1875 he composed a symphony that won a gold medal from the Société
des Compositeurs in 1876. Messager composed his first work for stage in 1876, 'Les Païens'
('The Pagans'), an operetta w libretto by Henri Meilhac now lost. He won
another gold medal in 1877 from l'Académie de Saint-Quentin for his cantata
for three voices, 'Don Juan et Haydée', after George Byron's poem of 1819,
'Don Juan' [1,
2,
3]. In 1878 he and
Fauré
went on a tour of
Wagner operas in Germany, also
working together. Messager was also appointed conductor at the Folies Bergère
in 1878. He worked at another
theatre and a couple more churches until 1884. In the meantime he
experienced the strong
success of 'François les bas-bleus' at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques on
8 November 1883 [1,
2,
3;
audio].
'François les bas-bleus' had actually been begun by Fermin
Bernicat who died on 5 March of '83, Messager to complete the work w
libretto by Ernest Dubreuil, Eugène Humbert and Paul Burani. From that point onward Messager pumped out one popular
theatrical after the next, his works to eventually be produced in both
Great Britain and the United States. His ballet, 'Les deux pigeons', saw
performance at the Paris Opéra on 18 October 1886 w libretto by Louis Mérante and Henri de Régnier
based on the 17th century fable by Jean de La Fontaine
[1,
2,
3;
audio of suites: 1,
2,
3]. His opera comique, 'La
Basoche', went down at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 5 May 1890 w libretto
by Albert Carré [1,
2;
audio;
score].
Though an artifact now, that was sufficiently popular at the time to see
continual performance into the 20th century. In 1898 Messager became musical director for
the Opéra-Comique in Paris. His operetta, 'Veronique', premiered at the Bouffes Parisiens
on 10 December 1898 w text by Albert Vanloo and Georges Duval
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio Act I;
score]. That was
popular enough to see 175 performances. Also writing works for other than
stage, Messager published 'Solo de concours' for clarinet and piano in 1899
[*;
audio: 1,
2,
3 w score;
live performances: 1,
2;
score].
'Les p'tites Michu' ('The Little Michus') premiered at Daly's Theatre in
London on 29 April 1905, yet another strong success w libretto by Duval and
Vanloo (above) that enjoyed 401 performances
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio;
live performance;
MIDI files;
score]. From 1901 to 1907 Messanet was a director with
the Grand Opera Syndicate in London, whereof he would conduct a number of
concerts at Covent Garden (now the Royal Opera House) for several years. in
1902 Messager conducted the Opéra-Comique premiere of
Claude Debussy's opera, 'Pelléas et
Mélisande'. He conducted his own opera, 'Fortunio', at the Salle Favart in
Paris on 5 June 1907 w libretto by Gaston Arman de Caillavet and Robert de
Flers [1,
2,
3;
live performance Act IV of
five;
score].
'Fortunio' would see seventy performances in Paris in the next fifty
years. The
next year he traded the Opéra-Comique for conducting for the Société des
Concerts du Conservatoire. He took the Conservatoire orchestra to Argentina
in 1916, Switzerland the next year, and above 50 cities in the United States and Canada in
1918-19. While in New York he conducted a number of flat disc recordings for
Columbia, his first on 17 Oct 1918 consisting of
Georges Bizet's 'Arlesienne' and
his own 'Marche Bohemienne' [*].
Like other composers in France during World War I, Messager had been
pressured to boycott German music by a league led by
Camille Saint-Saëns. But Messager, with a history of
conducting music by
Richard Wagner, believed that
music oughtn't be contained within national boundaries, a position that lead to his resignation from the Conservatoire
in April 1919 due in part to poor morale among members of the orchestra who
weren't of the same sentiment while touring America. Messager's resignation
arrived the same month as his premiere of 'Monsieur Beaucaire' at the Prince
of Wales Theatre in Birmingham, England, on 7 April 1919 w libretto by
Adrian Ross [1,
2;
live performance;
score]. Act I opens with Messager's popular 'Red Rose' sung by
Beaucaire [audio:
cylinder;
score].
Upon resigning from the Conservatoire Messager conducted at the Opéra-Comique for a season, including
another performance of
Wagner's 'Tristan und
Isolde'. Come 'L'amour Masqué' at the Théâtre Édouard VII in Paris on 15
February 1923 w libretto by actor,
Sacha Guitry
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio;
score].
Guitry and Messager also worked together on the 1826 comedy, 'Deburau'. In 1928
Messager sued the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation founded
1922) for airing his works without consent. He lost, due he had assigned his
British performing rights to theatre manager, George Edwardes, who had
granted BBC permission. Messager died the next year on 24 Feb 1829, leaving his
operetta, 'Sacha', unfinished. The major portion was completed by Marc
Berthomieu w a libretto by Maurice Donnay, André Rivoire and Léon Guillot de
Saix toward its posthumous performance at the Théâtre Garnier in Monte Carlo
on 23 December 1933 [*]. Though Messager
composed several instrumental works his oeuvre, when not conducting, was
nigh exclusively theatrical, completing above forty works for stage.
References: 1,
2.
Compositions: 1,
2,
3;
alpha;
chrono;
by genre 1,
2;
stage works: 1,
2,
3.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3;
cylinder.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
select: 'Fortunio' by l'Opéra de Lyon w Sir John Eliot Gardiner
*;
'Les P’tites Michu' by the Chœur d’Angers Nantes Opera and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire w Pierre Dumoussaud
*.
Performances of on Broadway.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography.
Further reading: 'André Messager: mon maître, mon ami' by Henry Février (1946)
*;
'André Messager: Theatre Musician' by Michel Augé-Laribé (1951)
*;
'Bulletin de la Société d’émulation du Bourbonnais' (1954-'55-'56)
*;
'Musica' No.72 Sep (1908)
*.
Other profiles: English;
Deutsch: 1,
2;
French: 1,
2,
3;
Russian: 1,
2.
André Messager 1923 Opera Opéra National de Bordeaux Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine Geoffrey Styles 1923 Opera Opéra National de Bordeaux Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine Geoffrey Styles 1923 Opera Opéra National de Bordeaux Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine Geoffrey Styles 1888 Opera 3 acts Choeurs de la RTF/Orchestre Radio Lyrique Direction: Louis Beydts Isoline: Janine Micheau 1876 Orchestre Symphonique Du Mans Jose-Andre Gendille |
 Andre Messager Source: Britannica |
|
Had Billboard been charting popular music around the
cusp of the 20th century
John Philip Sousa
could easily have found himself on the Hot 100 with a few Top Tens. That's
because patriotic sentiment was among the aspects of the romantic period
which the military band addressed. "What a parade!" around year 1900
was like "Don't bogart that joint, my friend, pass it over to me" at a
concert in 1968 (Fraternity of Man). Romantic, huh? Born on 6 Nov
1854 in Washington D.C., Sousa is the first American composer to enter this history of classical music. A composer of largely military marches,
he was raised a Freemason,
began study of various instruments at age six, and would later be partially
responsible for the development of a bass tuba for marching as an
improvement on the helicon called the sousaphone. When the March King was thirteen his
intention to join a circus band got redirected by his father, a trombonist
in the U.S. Marines, who enlisted him into the same as an apprentice
instead. That would have been 1867, four years after his first composition, a piece for violin titled 'An Album Leaf' in 1863,
now lost. Sousa
remained in the Marines until 1875, during which time his more mature
compositions began to appear. The first to see publishing was his waltz, 'Moonlight
on the Potomac', in 1872 [score]. Being
twenty upon discharge from the Marines, Sousa toured as a violinist,
eventually coming to conduct the Sullivan & Gilbert musical, 'H.M.S.
Pinafore' on Broadway from 10 March to 24 May at the Broadway Theatre
[*]
which would become Daly's in 1879 until its razing in 1920. Sousa reenlisted in the Marines
in 1880 to lead the U.S. Marine Band also called The President's Own [1,
2]. During that time he composed 'Semper
Fidelis' ('Always Faithful'), march of the U.S. Marine Corps, in 1888
[1,
2;
audio: 1,
2,
3;
live performance by the U.S. Marine
President's Own]. 'Semper Fidelis' had been a request by President Chester
Arthur for a work to represent the Presidency. Another of Sousa's famous marches
was 'The Washington Post' composed for 'The Washington Post' [est. 1877:
1,
2] to occasion the
newspaper's Amateur Authors Association awards at the grounds of the
Smithsonian Institute [est. 1846: 1,
2] on 15 June of 1889
[1,
2;
audio:
1,
2,
3;
live performance by the U.S. Marine President's Own:
*
(alt);
on organ by Andrew Unsworth;
score].
Banjoist,
Vess Ossman's, first
cylinder recording of 1893 was a cover of Sousa's 'The Washington Post'. A couple other of Sousa's famous marches were also composed in 1889 w dates
unidentified. One was
'El Picador' [1,
2;
audio: 1,
2 w score;
score],
another 'The Thunderer' [1,
2;
audio: 1,
2,
3;
score]. Discharged
from the Marines again in 1892,
Sousa then assembled his own band with which he would come to tour the
United States and Europe. Sometime in 1893 he wrote 'Beau Ideal March'
[*;
audio: 1,
2;
score]
and his suite for wind instruments of ten
and a half minutes w four movements, 'The Last Days of Pompeii'
[*;
audio;
score].
His famous 'The Liberty Bell' was also written in 1893, that having been
performed by the U.S. Marine Band at five of the last seven Presidential
inaugurations from Clinton in 1993 to Trump in 2017
[1,
2;
live performance by the U.S. Marine President's Own].
It was also 1893 when James Walsh Pepper [1,
2] built the first sousaphone
[1,
2,
3;
4] in
collaboration w Sousa, among the essential aspects of its design being that
it blast notes overhead to hover over the rest of the passing band. Compare
to the helicon and
tuba.
Tinfoil finds Sousa's U.S. Marine Band recording the Mexican dance, 'La
Media Noche', on cylinder for Columbia as early as 1891. Though Sousa
directed that band, he didn't participate in its recordings. Sousa premiered his operetta, 'El
Capitan', at the Tremont Theatre in Boston on 13 April 1896. He borrowed
from that for his 'El Capitan March' in B major of 1896
[*;
audio: 1,
2].
Another of Sousa's compositions for which he is best-known is the military march, 'Stars and Stripes Forever'
first performed at Willow Grove Park near Philadelphia on 14 May 1897
[1,
2,
3,
4;
text
in English,
en francais,
на русском;
audio;
live performance
by the U.S. Marine President's Own]. 'Stars and Stripes' was written on
Christmas Day of 1896 on a cruise liner as Sousa was returning to the States
from a European vacation. It was legislated by Congress as the official
National March in 1987 [as compared to 'The Star-Spangled Banner' by Smith
and Key which
became the official National Anthem in 1931 *].
DAHR
has 'The Thunderer March' going down by the Souza Band on Berliner matrix 30
on 10 August 1897. Come 'El Picador' on Berliner matrix 8012 on 22 April
1899. It is unlikely, however, that Sousa contributed to those. Henry
Higgins did the conducting for Souza Band recordings until Arthur Pryor took
over in 1899. Though Sousa did conduct some recordings they were rare. ('Semper Fidelis' by the U.S. Marine Band saw recording
that year on 11 October
1899 per Berliner 0581 [audio]).
Sousa also dipped into film, first appearing in that medium in a documentary
short of 1900 [IMDb].
Sousa wrote his essay,
'The Menace of Mechanical Music' in 1906
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
entire text].
Sousa's major pastime when not producing music was trapshooting. Having
pursued the sport seriously since 1906, he became president of the American
Amateur Trapshooting Association [1,
2] in 1916, the National Association of
Shotgun Owners in 1917 [1,
2,
3].
Sousa easily kept his band in business until 1931, not however,
without another tour in the military, joining the Navy Reserve in 1917 to
lead a Navy band at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois until the end
of World War I in '18. His memoir, 'Marching Along', was published in Boston
in 1928 by Hale, Cushman & Flint w editing by Paul E. Bierley. Sousa died of heart failure on 5 March 1932 in Reading,
Pennsylvania [obit], 'Stars and Stripes Forever' the last march he conducted at
above 15,600 concerts given during the forty-year existence of his band.
He'd composed 137 marches, 15 operettas, 5 overtures, 11 suites, 28
fantasies, and 24 dances in addition to above 300 symphonic arrangements. References: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Chronologies: 1,
2.
Compositions: alphabetical:
1,
2,
3;
chronological;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5 w MIDI files;
stage works: 1,
2.
Authorship: poetry: 'The Feast of the Monkeys'
*;
prose: 'The Conspirators' *;
'The Experiences of a Band Master'
*;
'The Fifth String' *.
Editions & scores:
English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
German.
Collections: Center for American Music
*;
Library of Congress *;
Virginia Root at the University of Illinois
*.
Sheet music: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
marches;
cylinder:
'Stars & Stripes':
Columbia 15107 (c 1897);
Columbia 532 (c 1897: 1,
2,
3;
Edison Amberol 4M-285 (1909): 1,
2.
Discos: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
German: 1,
2.
Select recordings: 'The Complete Marches' by the Marine Band'
*.
Iconography.
Further reading by source:
'The Sousa March: A Personal View' by Frederick Fennell;
'John Philip Sousa and the Culture of Reassurance' by Neil Harris:
1,
2;
''Stars & Stripes Forever'' by
Jack Kopstein;
'Washinton Post' (1889);
'... Class-Cultural Mediation' by
Steven Wilcer.
Further reading by topic: early recordings:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
home of;
the Souza Band:
flautists.
See also the John Philip Sousa Foundation:
1,
2.
Bibliography:
'John Philip Sousa: American Phenomenon' by Paul Bierley (Alfred Music 1973, Revised 2001)
*;
'Making the March King' by Patrick Warfield (U of Illinois Press 2013)
*;
'Six Marches' ed. by Patrick Warfield (A-R Editions 2010)
*.
Other profiles: English:
William Cutter (1924);
encyclopedic: 1,
2;
history: 1,
2;
libraries: 1,
2;
universities: Lipscomb;
websites of various kind: 1,
2,
3;
Russian Wikipedia.
John Philip Sousa El Capitan 1895 Operetta Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Grand Valley State University Conducting: Barry Martin 1896 March Great American Main Street Band 1893 March President's Own U.S. Marine Band 1886 Waltz President's Own U.S. Marine Band 1888 March President's Own U.S. Marine Band 1896 March President's Own U.S. Marine Band 1886 Overture U.S.A.F. Heritage of America Band 1889 March President's Own U.S. Marine Band 1889 March President's Own U.S. Marine Band 1912 Dance hilarious U.S. Marine Band
|
 John Philip Sousa Source: Britannica |
|
 Anatoly Lyadov Source: Alchetron |
Born on 12
May
1855 in Saint Petersburg,
Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov's
mother was a pianist, his father the conductor of the Imperial Opera
Company. He entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory
[1,
2] in 1870, initially to
study piano and violin, later counterpoint and fugue. Lyadov's Opus 1 is
assigned '4 Songs' as of 1873/74. Though said to be an indolent student, he
played piano like a master and graduated in 1878 to there become a teacher, about
the time he came to the
attention of
Alexander Borodin
and his group of independent composers known as
The Five.
Lyadov contributed several pieces to the first edition of
Borodin's
project, 'Paraphrases', published in 1879, among the more notable being '24 Variations
et Finale' ('24 Вариации и Финал') in C major to which
César
Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov
also contributed. Those were variations on
Borodin's 'Cutlet
Polka' [1,
2,
3,
4,
5] which was itself a variation of Arthur de Lulli's
(Euphemia Allen)
famous exercise for children, her 'Chop Waltz' (usually called 'Chopsticks'
though having nothing to do w Eastern Asian eating utensils - Allen wrote
the 'Chop Waltz' at age sixteen, and though she died a music publisher in
1948 she is known for nothing else).
Mussorgsky had also contributed a piece, rejected for straying too far off topic, which he
didn't revise as he thought the project wanted substance. Nor did
Balakirev,
leader of the Five, take the project seriously.
Franz Liszt,
however, a strong supporter of Russian composition up against
German dominance, thought the project more ingenious than ingenuous and
contributed 'Prelude' in B flat major to the second edition of 'Paraphrases'
in 1880 [Polonaise].
As a second generation member of the
Five, in 1884 Lyadov began to
serve on the musical committee of publisher, Mitrofan Belyayev [1,
2],
as an integral contributor to the Belyayev circle [1,
2,
3].
It was 1884 when Belyayev established a publishing house in Leipzig, also
instituting the Glinka Prize [1,
2,
3] w Lyadov
[see also Glinka].
Lyadov had also married in 1884, thereat acquiring a country estate at Polynovka,
now in north-eastern Belarus near its border w Russia, where he resided the
rest of his life. Belyayev had been teaching at the St. Petersburg
Conservatory for seven or eight years when he began his own publishing
enterprise in Leipzig in 1885
[Wikipedia], more to publish the
work of other composers than his own, such as
Borodin,
Glazunov and
Rimsky-Korsakov alike Belyayev. Though Lyadov composed
'Polonaise'
('Польский') in C major Op 49 in 1889 it didn't see publishing until 1900 in Leipzig
[audio: City of Birmingham S O w Neeme Järvi;
USSR State S O w Yevgeny Svetlanov;
score: 1,
2].
Lyadov is best known for his tone poems
based in Russian folklore, 'Baba Yaga' ('Польский') Op 56 appearing in 1904
toward publishing in Leipzig in 1905
[audio: 1,
2 w score;
live performance by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia w Dima Slobodeniouk].
Come 'The Enchanted Lake' ('заколдованное озеро') in D flat major Op 62 in 1909 [1,
2,
3;
audio: 1,
2 w score;
live performance by the Warsaw Philharmonic w Pawel Kapula].
'Kikimora'
('Кикимора') in E minor Op 63 also appeared in 1909 toward publishing in 1910
[1,
2,
3;
audio w score;
live performance by the St Petersburg P O w Yuri Temirkanov].
Lydov's 'Nénie' also called 'Mournful Song' ('Skorbnaya Pesn')
('Скорбная песнь') Op 67 premiered on 13 March of 1910 in St.
Petersburg w Nikolay Tcherepnin conducting [*;
audio: w score;
by the Slovak P O w Stephan Gunzenhause].
Though that was Lyadov's last assigned Opus he wrote later works left WoO (Without Opus) including the latest documented at
IMSLP thought
published in 1914, '12 Canons on a Cantus Firmus'
audio: Nos.1-3,
Nos.4-6;
live performance by Erakko Ippolitov;
score: 1,
2,
3].
A composer of miniatures, having never produced a large-scale composition,
Lyadov died on 28 August 1914 exactly one month after the beginning of World
War I on 28 July. References: Wikipedia;
Xiaoyu Zhang.
Compositions:
Deutsch;
English by Opus;
by title;
Japanese by Opus;
Russian by genre,
by Opus w scores.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3;
Deutsch.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3,
theological works (Russian).
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
Russian;
select: 'Complete Works for Piano' w Olga Solovieva;
'Orchestral Works' by the Slovak P O w Stephen Gunzenhauser,
review.
Further reading: correspondence from
Tchaikovsky
whom Lyadov met in November 1887.
Bibliography (Russian): 'Book about Lyadova' ('Книга о Лядовой')
by Olga Afanasevna Korsakevich (compiled memoirs conceived 1917, pub
2017).
Other profiles: English;
French;
German;
Japanese;
Russian: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
Spanish. Anatoly Lyadov 1900-05 Op 57 1: Prelude in D-flat major 2: Waltz in E major 3: Mazurka in F minor Piano: Chris Breemer 1909-10 Op 64 Piano: Victor Paukstelis 1906 Op 58 For orchestra Philadelphia SO Leopold Stokowski Recorded in 1934 1898 Op 44 Piano: Tatiana Nikolaeva 1876 Op 2 14 pieces for piano Piano: Jean-Pierre Salmona 1909 Op 62 For orchestra Boston University SO Konstantin Dobroykov 1909 Op 63 For orchestra St. Petersburg PO Yuri Temirkanov 1899 'In Memory of Pushkin' Op 49 City of Birmingham SO Neeme Järvi |
|
 Giuseppe Martucci Source: Into Classics |
Born on 6
Jan
1856 in Campua, Italy,
Giuseppe Martucci
was a highly gifted but now minor musician unique in that he is one of the few Italian composers
of note to not have produced any stage works, concentrating on chamber,
orchestral, vocal and, especially, piano works. He
learned music from his father who was himself a trumpeter. Martucci was playing piano in
public at age eight and entered the Naples Conservatory at age eleven. His
Opus 1 is assigned to 'Fantasia on Verdi's 'La Forza del Destino'' in B flat
minor first performed on 29 Oct 1871. His
career as a solon pianist began in 1875 on tour of Germany, France and England.
Come his 'Piano Concerto No. 1' Op 40 in 1878
[audio w score].
He began his teaching career in 1880 at the Naples Conservatory, his conducting
debut occurring the next year.
In 1886 he published 'Piano Concerto No. 2' in B flat minor Op 66
[*;
audio w score;
score].
He began composing 'Symphonie No.1' in D minor Op 75 in 1788 toward its
first performance on 28 November 1895 [1,
2;
audio by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma w Franceso La Vecchia;
score].
Lending apt example of Martucci's works for keyboard is '2 Piano Pieces' Op
77 in 1896 consisting of a Capriccio and Toccata
[*;
audio by Francesco Caramiello]. Martucci's 'Symphonie No.2' in F major Op 81 premiered on 11 December 1904
in Milan [*;
audio by the American Symphony Orchestra w Leon Botstein].
IMSLP lists Martucci's last Opus as '3 Songs' Op 84 per 1906
[audio].
He died in Naples on 1 June 1909.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical;
by genre: English: 1,
2;
French;
Italian;
Spanish;
by Opus.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
select: 'La Canzone dei Ricordi' by Carol Madalin (mezzo-soprano) & the English Chamber Orchestra w Alfredo Bonavera
*;
'Music for Piano' by Giorgio Cozzolino (1984)
*;
'Piano Concerto No. 1' by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma (OSR) w Francesco La Vecchia & Gesualdo Coggi (piano)
*;
'Piano Concerto No. 2' by the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie w Stefan Malzew & Pietro Massa (piano)
*;
'Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2' by the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra w Kees Bakels:
1,
2,
3;
'Symphony No.1' by the OSR w Franceso La Vecchia
*;
'Symphony No.2' by the OSR w Franceso La Vecchia
*;
'Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2' by the OSR w Franceso La Vecchia
*,
review.
Bibliography (Italian): 'sinfonista europeo' by Aldo Ferraris.
Other profiles: English: 1,
2;
French;
Italian: 1,
2,
3;
Treccani: 1,
2;
Spanish.
See also: the Giuseppe Martucci Music Conference Salerno;
the Conservatorio Di Musica Giuseppe Martucci Salerno. Giuseppe Martucci 1896 Op 77 Capriccio - Toccata Piano: Francesco Caramiello 1880 Op 51 Piano: Antonio Pompa-Baldi 1878 Op 40 Concertante 3 movements Philharmonia Orchestra Francesco D'Avalos Piano: Francesco Caramiello Piano Concerto 2 in B flat minor 1885 Op 66 Concertante3 movements Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier Conductor: Massimo de Bernart Piano: Jeffrey Swann 1888-95 Op 75 Philharmonic Orchestra Francesco D'Avalos 1899-1904 Op 81 Philharmonic Orchestra Francesco D'Avalos Tema con variazioni in E- flat 1882 Revised 1900 1905 Op 58Piano: Franco Trabucco |
|
|
Born on 25 Nov 1856 in Vladimir, pianist,
Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev
would be called Russia's greatest master in counterpoint by one of his teachers,
Tchaikovsky, and the pinnacle of music in Moscow by one of his students,
Rachmaninoff. He wrote
largely orchestral and chamber works as well as string quartets, and is highly
regarded for his cantatas and symphonies.
Alike Tchaikovsky,
Taneyev was more conservative than his contemporaries of a generation
earlier, the academies-free Mighty Handful of Mily Balakirev.
Beyond his music, leading a dull life without overmuch adventure is the only
thing research finds Tanyanev accused of, never getting into trouble, never
causing any trouble and too focused on his work to notice the opposite sex,
that is, less than descriptive of Romantic. Taneyev
began to learn piano at age five before moving to Moscow with his family in
1865. Born into Russian nobility, though he never married he retained the assistance of his childhood nanny, one Pelageya
Vasilyevna Chizhova, throughout his life until her death in 1910
[*].
In 1866 Taneyev entered the Moscow Conservatory where he excelled. He there
studied composition under
Tchaikovsky
who would become the major musical figure in his life, and piano beneath
Nikolai
Rubinstein before graduating in 1875, also giving his first professional
performance that year in Moscow, a concerto by
Brahms. The next year he made
such big impression in a performance of
Tchaikovsky's 'Concerto No.1' in B flat minor Op 23
that the latter initially considered dedicating the work to Taneyev. Taneyev began touring Russia and Europe before succeeding
Tchaikovsky
as professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory
[1,
2,
3] in 1878. Tanayev's
Opus 1 was assigned to the cantata, 'John Damascene' ('Иоанн
Дамаскин') premiering on 11 March 1874 [*;
audio
by the USSR Radio Chorus & Large S O w Nikolai Golovanov (1947)]. He served as
Director of the Moscow Conservatory from 1885 to 1889, though continued teaching until 1905.
Taneyev had begun composing his only opera, 'Oresteia' ('Орестея') Op 6, in 1887
toward its first official performance at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg on
29 October 1895 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio by the Tchaikovsky S O w Vladimir Fedoseyev]. That was a trilogy of eight tableau w libretto by
Aleksei Alekseevich Wenkstern borrowed from the fifth century B.C. 'The
Oresteia' by Aeschylus of Greece. He had spent the summer of '85 at the
residence of author,
Leo Tolstoy, as he did the summer of 1886, he apparently oblivious to what
Tolstoy, however, was aware, that being his wife's attraction to Tanayev
although nothing came of it [*].
Tanayev had composed his 'Symphony, No.1 in E minor at seventeen to eighteen
years of age [audio: 1,
2]. He denied that an Opus number for its immaturity, and
rejected his second and third symphonies the same. Only 'Symphony No. 4' in
C minor Op 12 received a work number, that premiering in St. Petersburg on 2
April 1898 w
Alexander Glazunov
conducting [1,
2;
audio: Novosibirsk P O w Arnold Katz,
Russian State S O w Valeri Polyansky,
Tchaikovsky S O w Gennady Rozhdestvensky].
Taneyev borrowed from his opera, 'Oresteia' (above), toward his
'Oresteia Overture' Op 6 of 1889 [audio: Helsinki Philarmonic w Vladimir Ashkenazy; Orquesta Sinfónica Académica de Novosibirsk w Thomas Sanderling]. The
Russian Revolution of 1905-07 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7] brought Taneyev's
resignation from the Moscow Conservatory in 1905 to resume his career as a
performer. It was during that desperate period over the land that Taneyev
began writing his 'Piano Trio' in D major Op 22 toward publishing in Moscow
by Pyotr Jurgenson in 1808 [*;
audio: 1,
2,
3,
piano by Lev Oborin,
piano by Mikhail Pletnev w score].
Taneyev's 'Concert Suite' ('Концертная сюита') Op 28 for violin and
orchestra saw performing on 22 Oct 1909 at the Great Hall of the Nobility
[1,
2]
in Moscow w Boris Sibor at violin [*;
audio: 1,
2,
3
w score; Philharmonia Orchestra w Nikolai Malko & David Oistrakh (violin) in London 1956;
Kiev Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra w Dmitry Yablonsky & Annelle Gregory (violin) at the Kyiv Conservatory 2018;
score].
Taneyev's final finished
work was his cantata, 'At the Reading of a Psalm' ('По прочтении псалма') Op 36 in 1915
[*;
audio: Glinka Cappella & Boys Choir w the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev:
1,
2,
3;
Yurlov State Republican Russian Choir Capella w the USSR State Academic S O conducted by
Evgeny Svetlanov;
live performance by the Moscow Chamber Choir & Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev].
Taneyev caught
pneumonia upon later attending the funeral of
Alexander Scriabin.
But upon recovering he died of heart attack near Zvenigorod on 19 June of
1915.
References: Wikipedia.
Compositions: alphabetical: 1,
2,
3;
by genre: 1,
2,
3;
by Opus.
Song texts: 1,
2.
Editions & scores.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
select: 'At the Reading of a Psalm' Op 36 by Glinka Cappella & Boys Choir w the Russian National Orchestra conducted by
Mikhail Pletnev;
'Oresteia' by the Choir & Orchestra of the Belorussian State Bolshoi Theatre of Opera w
Tatiana Kolomiytseva.
Iconography.
Further reading: choral works of:
1,
2;
composition: analysis;
Tchaikovsky and: 1 (Russian),
2,
3;
Turgenev (novelist) and.
Bibliography (Russian).
Other profiles: Catalan;
English;
French;
Japanese;
Russian: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Spanish.
Sergei Taneyev 1912-15 Op 6 Sacred cantata 3 movements Russian National Orchestra Mikhail Pletnev 1908–09 Op 28 5 movements Philharmonia Orchestra Nikolai Malko Violin: David Oistrakh 1883–84 Op 1 Sacred cantata 3 movements Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Vasily Petrenko Op 102 Sonata in D major 1887–94 Opera Overture & 3 acts Belorussian State Opera Tatiana Kolomizheva 1882 C major Orquesta Sinfónica de la Academia de Novosibirsk Thomas Sanderling 1910–11 Op 30 4 movements Piano: Mikhail Pletnev 1896-98 Op 12 4 movements Polish State Philharmonic Orchestra Stephen Gunzenhauser |
 Sergei Taneyev Source: Editions Silvertrust |
|
|
Born in Broadheath near Worcester on 2 June 1857, Sir
Edward William Elgar
is the first major composer from England that these histories have seen
since Henry
Purcell during the Baroque nigh two centuries earlier. Elgar was the
preeminent composer of the Edwardian Era [1901-1910: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5]
following the death of Queen
Victoria in 1901. Elgar had written largely orchestral works,
including cantatas and oratorios. He had also composed music for chamber,
church and song. Elgar was the son
of a piano tuner with a shop where he sold musical instruments and sheet music.
Elgar's father
played organ and violin as well, Elgar himself beginning w piano and
violin at perhaps age seven. At age nine he was writing compositions, his earliest known being 'Bach in
Four Clefs' dated 24 March 1866 by his mother [1,
2].
In 1867 he wrote 'Humoreske' (Elgar Folio 56) for piano for a child's, if
not school, play in Broadheath [1,
2] that he rearranged forty years later for 'Fairies and Giants', that
No.7 of 'The Wand of Youth Suite 1' Op 1a of 1907. The same year saw
incidental music for the same play, 'The Wand of Youth', that he
rearranged
forty years later for 'The Wand of Youth Suite 1' Op 1a in 1907 and 'The
Wand of Youth Suite 2' Op 1b in 1908
[*]. Come
'Chantant' in A minor in 1872 at age fifteen
[IMSLP;
audio w Peter Pettinger at piano],
the year he began performing in public and assumed his first gainful employment as
a clerk to a solicitor. Arrangements of symphonic themes by Beethoven
followed in '73. At age twenty-two he began
teaching, then conducting, at the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum
(now Powick Hospital). Among other means of teaching himself to compose was
Elgar's 1878 'Symphony' in G minor after Mozart's 'Symphony No.40'
[*;
autograph].
As a study, he denied that an Op number, but assigned his Opus 1 to another
work of '78, his 'Romance for Violin and Piano'. IMSLP has that possibly
published in London by Schott
[1,
2] in 1885
[1,
2;
audio: 1,
2 w score;
live performance;
score].
In addition to performing on violin while in Worcester Elgar also played bassoon in a wind quintet. In 1880 he
crossed the Channel to Paris, then headed for Liepzig in 1882. In 1883 he
became a member of a small local orchestra in Birmingham. Two years later he
assumed his father's position as organist at the St. George Roman Catholic
Church, now beginning to compose sacred pieces. On 8 May 1889 he became
happily betrothed to a writer, Caroline Alice Roberts [*], a student of his who
was disinherited for her marriage, yet the major positive force in Elgar's life
until her death in 1920. The couple moved to London for a brief a time,
entertaining themselves by attending concerts at the Crystal Palace
in Hyde Park. Elgar's 'Salut d'Amour' premiered at the Crystal Palace on 11
November 1889 w conducting by August Mannes. Elgar had composed that as a
setting to a poem that his new bride had given him
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio: violin by Dorfman on cylinder (Indestructible 3009 1910);
violin by Prihoda on 78rpm (Polydor 95369 1929);
violin by Tasmin Little;
w score].
During the nineties Elgar steadily built a reputation conducting and
publishing compositions like his secular
cantata, 'The Black Knight' Op 25, conducted by Elgar at
the Worcester Festival on 18 April 1893 [1,
2,
3;
audio by the London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox
w score]. Elgar finished his 'Enigma Variations' Op 36 on 18 February 1899 with
a dedication to "my friends pictured within". Those are less portraits,
though, than in address of some unique notion or occurrence concerning them
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11;
live performances: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra w Jacek Kaspszyk;
UC Davis Symphony Orchestra w Jonathan Spatola-Knoll].
The Theme (Andante) or "dark saying" which introduces the 14 ciphered Variations is said to be
counterpoint to some other well-known composition which has kept scholars
guessing ever since [audio by
the London Symphony Orchestra w Barry Tuckwell]. His oratorio, 'The Dream of Gerontius',
was Elgar's own favorite work, premiering at the Birmingham Town Hall on 3 October 1900
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
live performances: UC Davis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kern Holoman;
SCM Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neil McEwan].
All fine and well, but Elgar is likely most recognized for his 'Pomp and Circumstance
Marches' Op 39 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5], the first of six being 'Land of Hope and Glory'
familiarly called the 'Graduation March' published in 1901
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7]. By 1904
Elgar had sufficiently impressed royalty as
to be knighted at Buckingham Palace on 5 July. From 1905 to 1908 he taught at the
University of Birmingham. In the meantime he rearranged his 'Wand of Youth'
written at age ten (above), premiering 'The Wand of Youth Suite 1' Op 1a at
Queen's Hall in London on 14 Dec 1907 [*;
audio by the Ulster Orchestra w Bryden Thomson;
live performance by the MusicaNova Orchestra w Warren Cohen].
Likewise 'The Wand of Youth Suite
2' Op 1b that he conducted in Worcester w the Three Choirs Festival
Orchestra on 9 Sep 1908 [*;
audio by the London P O w Sir Adrian Boult w score;
score].
Elgar's 'Symphony No.1' in A flat major Op 55 saw conducting of the Hallé
Orchestra by Hans Richte in Manchester on 3 Dec 1908
[1,
2;
audio by the London P O w Bryden
Thomson w score]. Back in 1890 Elgar had written a violin concerto that he
didn't like, thus destroyed. He composed 'Violin Concerto' in B minor Op 61 for
violinist, Fritz Kreisler, who premiered it at Queen's Hall in London on 10
November 1910 [1,
2,
3;
live performances: Nigel Kennedy violin;
Tasmin Little violin;
score].
Elgar conducted the premiere of 'Symphony 2' in E flat major Op 63 at Queen's
Hall to a slightly disappointing reception in 24 May 1911
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio by the Royal Stockholm P O w Sakari Oramo;
live performance by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra w Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider]. Elgar was made a member of the exclusive Order
of Merit by King George V in June of 1911. His symphonic poem, 'Falstaff',
premiered at the Leeds Festival on 1 October 1913, referring to the fat
knight in Shakespeare's 16th century 'Henry IV'
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5
(pdf);
audio w score].
Once the new technology of acoustic recording came about musicians in
general shunned it for its poor fidelity, quick to get back to live
audiences after making obligatory contributions to the new science. Among
notable exceptions was Elgar who figured that technology would improve,
while in the meantime recording offered an expanded audience for which poor
sound quality was better than nothing at all. Elgar's association with the
Gramophone Company, known by its
associated label as
HMV or His Master's Voice, began
in 1914. In her 'The Orchestra' of 2006,
Joan Peyser has Elgar making his first recording on 20 or
21 Jan 1914 toward a version of 'Carissima' [1,
2]
issued in April. Come an abridged
version of the 'Pomp and Circumstance March' No.1 on 26 June toward issue in
Oct. [For discographical data concerning Elgar's 57 recording sessions to
1934, all of his own compositions, see 'The Cambridge Companion to Elgar' by Grimley & Rushton
(Cambridge U Press 2005); Jerrold Northrop Moore; 'Gramophone Records of the First
World War: An HMV Catalogue 1914–18' w Introduction by Brian Rust (Newton
Abbot; David & Charles 1975): 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.] Elgar became a special constable and volunteer in
the reserves during World War I, yet continued composing without incident.
On July 10 1919 Elgar gave his shortest work of approximately 42 seconds in
length his longest Opus number, that his 'Smoking Cantata' Op 1001
concerning his taste for cigars in a world where not everyone loved his
smoke [1,
2;
audio: 1,
2].
The loss of Elgar's wife to lung cancer in 1920 marks the major shift in his
career from a musician yet on the make to a musician in decline and living
on glory. His latter years, however, were not without historic event. Elgar opened Gramophone's first
HMV shop in London on 21 July 1921. On 20 June the next month he
conducted the overture, 'Cockaigne (in London Town)' Op 40, w the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra at Queen's Hall [1,
2,
3;
audio: BBC National Orchestra of Wales w Jac van Steen;
New Philharmonia Orchestra w Arthur Bliss w score;
live performance by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra w Sakari Oramo].
In November and December 1923 Elgar took a trip to Brazil to cruise the
Amazon River, the only account of such being the largely fictional novel, 'Gerontius',
by James Paterson in 1989.
The invention of the microphone and electronic recording in 1925 quickly put
the acoustic method of mechanically scratching wax for the last 48 years out
of date [see recording technology references below]. With sound quality
improved like the difference between night and day, Elgar's were among the
load of new electronic recordings made in 1926 including his first,
'Cockaigne', w the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra on 27 April followed by his
first two 'Pomp
and Circumstance' marches and 'Enigmatic Variations'. In 1928 Gramophone bought a nine-bedroom house that it converted into
recording studios opened by Elgar in 1931 with a performance of 'Land of
Hope and Glory' [1,
2]. Those were the Abbey Road Studios occasioning the March
1931 merger of Gramophone w Columbia Gramophone to form EMI (Electric and
Musical Industries). On 12 Nov 1931 Elgar conducted 'Pomp and Circumstance'
No.1 on film to occasion the opening of EMI's Abbey Road Studios
[1,
2]. The Gramophone name continued in use until it became
EMI Records in 1973. As for Abbey Road Studios, most are more recently
acquainted w the company per its frequent and most famous client, the
Beatles. Among Elgar's latter works was
'Serenade' in G major composed in '32 for publishing in '33, the latter year
finding him conducting in Paris. The terrier named Nipper who is listening
to his master's voice emanating from a Gramophone on the HMV label wasn't
the only dog that Elgar liked. His 'Mina' in B flat major of 1933 saw
performing on 8 Feb 1934, Mina being one of his terriers. Elgar died fifteen
days later of colorectal cancer on 23 Feb 1934. It is commonly documented
that he directed a recording of his music via telephone even from his
deathbed where he also received last Roman Catholic rites. Among works left unfinished
was 'Symphony No.3' in C minor Op 88 (posthumously assigned) originally
commissioned by the BBC. With well above a hundred
sketches left by Elgar,
it was eventually completed by Anthony Payne in 1997 for its first
performance at the Royal Festival Hall on 15 February 1998 by the BBC
Symphony Orchestra conducted by sir Andrew Davis
[1,
2,
3,
4;
live performance].
Another work left unfinished was Elgar's only approach to opera, 'The
Spanish Lady' Op 89 w libretto by Sir Barry Jackson from Ben Johnson's 'The
Devil is an Ass' of 1616. Working on that concurrently w 'Symphony No.3' in
1933, Elgar's want of real interest in the project meant another half
century before Percy Young eventually arrived to a performable version in
1986 [1,
2;
audio by the Scottish Opera Chorus & BBC Scottish S O w Anne Manson conducting
(1995); Young's score].
Elgar's last posthumously assigned Opus was also left incomplete, his 'Piano Concerto' Op
90 begun as early as 1909, but put aside until 1913 to yet not be completed
w the exception of its second movement called the 'Slow Movement' which
Percy Young orchestrated for piano and strings to be performed by Harriet
Cohen in 1956 [1,
2:
audio: piano by Margaret Fingerhut,
piano by Benjamin Grosvenor].
As mentioned above, upon
the death of his wife in 1920 Elgar's musical perspective shifted more
toward retrospection of a career already made than toward a career to come,
opening a gap for extra-musical pursuits. Among Elgar's greater interests
had been chemistry, horse racing and
bicycling [see recreation]. In the photo to the far above Elgar poses with one of the Royal Sunbeam
bicycles that he bought in 1903 for himself and Caroline.
References for Elgar: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Chronologies: 1,
2.
Compositions: alphabetical;
chronological;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
by Opus: 1,
2,
3;
Spanish.
Song texts: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: English: 'Collected Correspondence';
'Elgar Complete Edition'
Worldcat;
Deutsch;
Francais: 1,
2.
Collections: National Archives (UK).
Sheet music: 1,
2,
choral works.
Texts to vocal works.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4;
BBC: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3;
select: 'Elgar Conducts Elgar' (by Elgar 1926 to 1933 remastered)
*,
album notes,
review;
'Elgar: Piano Music' by Peter Pettinger (piano)
*,
album notes;
'The Wand of Youth Suite 1' & 'The Wand of Youth Suite 2'
*.
Usage of Elgar in modern media.
Documentaries: 'Elgar' by Ken Russell for the BBC aired 11 Nov 1962:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4;
see also: 1,
2,
3,
DVD.
Iconography.
Further reading: Elgar and Bach
(Alison Shiel 2004); recording and: 1,
2,
3,
'Current Opinion' (Oct 1922);
residences;
growing significance of (Simon Mundy 2007); sketch books of: by Barry Cooper;
by Pamela Willetts
(alt);
trivia.
Bibliography: 1,
2;
'Sir Edward Elgar' by Robert Buckley (J. Lane 1905);
'Edward Elgar: A Research and Information Guide' by Christopher Kent (Routledge 2012);
'Elgar and Academicism 1: The Untutored Genius' by Brian Newbould
('Musical Times' 1891).
See also: the Edward Elgar Foundation;
the Elgar Society.
Other profiles: English:
British Library;
encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3;
history;
musical: 1,
2,
3;
Italiano;
Spanish: 1,
2.
References for early recording: technology:
acoustic versus
electric: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9;
early 78 rpm record labels;
HMV (His Master's Voice): acoustic;
early electronic recordings;
first electronic recordings;
company timeline.
Sir Edward Elgar 1919 Op 85 4 movements Orchestra: Kammerorchester Basel Paul McCreesh Cello: Sol Gabetta 1899-1900 Op 38 Sacred oratorio Sacramento Opera Chorus University & Alumni Chorus UC Davis Symphony Orchestra 1899 Op 36 Orchestral portraits BBC Symphony Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1907-08 Op 55 4 movements BBC Symphony Chorus London Philharmonic Choir BBC Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins 1909-11 Op 63 4 movements Texas Festival Orchestra/Perry So 1905-10 Op 61 3 movements BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis Violin: Tasmin Little |
 Sir Edward Elgar 1903 With Royal Sunbeam Bicycle Source: Sunbeam Museum |
|
 Giacomo Puccini 1908 Source: Britannica |
Born in Lucca, Tuscany, on 22 Dec 1858, opera composer,
Giacomo Puccini
was the great-great grandson of opera composer, Jacapo Puccini
(1712-81). He was only six when his father died, thus the first in his family to
not
become maestro di cappella at the Cattedrale di San Martino, a position that
had been handed father to son for well over a century. Puccini would instead
develop into a post-Romantic composer, some of his work, 'Tosca' in
particular, identified with verismo (naturalism, realism). He took
his diploma from the Pacini School of Music in 1880. Among his first
compositions was 'Messa a Quattro Voci' ('Messa di Gloria'), his graduation exercise begun in
1878 toward its first performance on 12 July 1880
[1,
2,
3;
audio;
live performance]. He then studied composition for three years at the Milan Conservatory.
Puccini's first professional opera, 'Le Villi' ('The Willis'), premiered at
the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan on 31 May 1884 w libretto by Ferdinando
Fontana [1,
2;
audio: *
(alt)]. His
second opera, 'Edgar', appeared at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan w another
libretto by Fontana on 21 April 1889 to a discouraging so-so reception
[1,
2,
3
4;
live performance]. His
third opera, 'Manon
Lescaut', put Puccini on the map, premiering to highly positive results at
the Teatro Regio in Turin on 1 February 1893 w libretto by Luigi Illica,
Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
live performance].
Puccini painted his wagon and took it to town with 'La Bohème' premiering at
the Teatro Regio in Turin on 1 February 1896 w libretto by Luigi Illica and
Giuseppe Giacosa after Henri Murger's 'Scènes de la vie de bohème' of 1851
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
live performance]. Puccini then
plumed his hat w 'Tosca' premiering at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, with its
setting in Rome, on 14
January 1900 w libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
live performance]. Included in
Act II of that is his favored aria for soprano, 'Vissi d’Arte' (I Lived for Art')
[1,
2;
audio of various]. 1903 saw Puccini healing from a serious auto
accident that February on the 25th, the car his chauffer was driving leaving the road
and flipping over atop Puccini. His wife and son escaped severe injury, but
he and his chauffer fractured a femur. Puccini nevertheless premiered the
work for which he is most famous 51 weeks later at la Scala on 17 Feb 1904,
'Madame Butterfly' w its setting in Japan, to text by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12;
live performance].
Puccini's fifth revision as of 1907
is the standard. Puccini embarked on his first boat to New York in 1907.
Another trip in 1910 saw 'La Fanciulla del West' ('The Maiden of the West')
w its setting in America premiering at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on
10 December [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
live performance].
The libretto for that was written by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini
from the play of 1905 by American author, David Belasco, 'The Girl of the
Golden West'. Puccini weathered the Great War seemingly apolitical, it
appearing, anyway, that it mattered not to him which powers won. One source
speculates that he may have been a monarchist if anything. It was during that conflict
that 'La Rondine' ('The Swallow') arrived to either the Grand
Théâtre de Monte Carlo or the Théâtre du Casino in Monte Carlo on 27 March
1917 w libretto by Giuseppe Adami [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
live performance;
score].
Another trip to America only one month after the end of World War I saw
'Gianni Schicchi' premiering at the Metropolitan Opera on 14 December 1918 w
libretto by Giovacchino Forzano [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
live performance].
That included another of Puccini's popular arias for soprano, 'O Mio Babbino
Caro' ('O My Dear Papa') [*;
audio;
lyrics]. In 1924
Puccini became a senatore a vita in
Italy, hoping to erect a theatre in Viareggio. A senatore viva is an
honorary senator chosen by the President of the Italian Republic, the
practice continuing to this day. In Puccini's time it required him to twice
meet the young Benito Mussolini in 1923. Mussolini had been prime minister
for about a year at that time. Puccini died on 29 November 1924 before Mussolini's fascist
dictatorship took control in December (announced in January '25). His death
was due to radiation treatment for throat cancer w surgery followed by a
heart attack the next day.
Puccini was working on 'Turandot', his final opera, at the time w libretto
by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. It was completed by Franco Alfano for
its first posthumous performance at la Scala in Milan conducted by Arturo Toscanini on 25 April 1926
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11;
live performance;
score]. Puccini wrote other
music, but opera was the rabbit in his hat. Among his favorite things beyond
music was an odoriferous Toscano cigar.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6 w scores;
theatrical: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
operas;
French.
Sheet music: 1,
2.
Lyrics & texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7 w reviews;
cylinder.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
select: 'Gianni Schicchi':
about.
Performances of on Broadway;
in modern media.
Further reading: criticism: Adriano Lualdi,
David Salazar;
Opera Wire.
Bibliographies: 1,
2,
3,
4.
See also: American Center for Puccini Studies
*,
Centro Studi Giacomo Puccini
*,
Lucca International Festival
*,
Ricordi Historical Archive Milan
*,
Villa Museo Giacomo Puccini
*.
Other profiles: Catalan;
Cebuano;
English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
musical: 1,
2,
3;
travel;
Finnish;
French;
German;
Italian:
Treccani:
1,
2,
3.
Norwegian;
Spanish.
Giacomo Puccini Op 102 Sonata in D major Gitarre: Spiro Thomatos Klavier: Fritz Bernhard Op 102 Sonata in D major Wienes Staatsoper Orchester Conductor: Franz Welser-Möst Op 102 Sonata in D major Gitarre: Spiro Thomatos Klavier: Fritz Bernhard Op 102 Sonata in D major Wichita Grand Opera Director: Shayna Leahy Op 102 Sonata in D major Gitarre: Spiro Thomatos Klavier: Fritz Bernhard Op 102 Sonata in D major Gitarre: Spiro Thomatos Klavier: Fritz Bernhard Op 102 Sonata in D major Gitarre: Spiro Thomatos Klavier: Fritz Bernhard |
|
|
Hugo Wolf
was born on 13 March 1860 in Windischgrätz, Austria (now Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia).
He began playing piano and violin at age four. Schooled locally until age
10, he left home for the Gymnasium at Graz in 1870, the Gymnasium at St.
Paul in 1872 and at Marburg in '74. His Op 1 is an unfinished sonata written
circa 1875 while attending the latter Gymnasium, existing in fragments and
so ignored that most catalogues don't bother to list it. His Op 2 was
completed about the same time and yet exists, 'Variations' in C for piano
[audio by Emese Virág]. He entered the Vienna
Conservatory in 1875 where he met
Wagner
with whom he shared a strong
distaste for
Brahms. He wrote 'Traurige Wege' in Jan 1877 to text by Nikolaus Lenau
[piano by Dido Keuning;
text: 1,
2]. He was expelled from the Conservatory
early the same year for outspoken criticism
[1,
2,
3,
4]. Upon getting the boot,
he taught in Vienna and discovered benefactors permitting him more time to
compose.
Ernest Newman has Wolf writing 'Morgentau' ('Morning Dew')
[audio] in June of 1877, that to
go toward 'Sechs Lieder fur eine Frauenstimme' not published until 1888
[1,
2,
audio: 1,
2;
text: 1,
2]. In 1880 Wolf began work on the twenty songs of
Joseph von Eichendorff
in his 'Eichendorff-Lieder' (W 2)
eventually published in 1889 [*;
audio: 1,
2;
text].
Richard Stokes at
Hyperion has Wolf composing 'Erwartung'
[audio], 'Die Nacht' and 'Nachruf' as early
as 1880. Upon
Wagner's death in
1883 Wolf found another composer to champion in
Franz Liszt, meanwhile finding
Anton Rubinstein utterly unpleasant.
Wolf's censorious nature wouldn't serve him well when, after a brief term as
second kapellmeister in Salzburg in '82, he returned to Vienna to publish
his first weekly review in the 'Wiener Salonblatt' in 1883. Wolf's
gig with the 'Salonblatt' came to an end in 1887, his negative
treatment of
Brahms
particularly unpopular [1,
2].
In the meantime Wolf's symphonic poem, 'Penthesilea', was finished and ready for
premiere in
1885 by
the Vienna Philharmonic to whom Wolf submitted it, though it was
neither performed nor published in his lifetime [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio]. Wolf's W 1 is assigned to the 'Morike-Lieder' of
Eduard Mörike that he composed
in 1888-89. Where "W" numbers are used w Wolf they refer to the 'Kritische Gesamtausgabe'
('Critical Complete Edition') by the International Hugo Wolf Society of
Vienna, that project of 1956 to 1991 headed by Hans Jancik, from '91 to '98
by Leopold Spitzer [1,
2]. 'The Complete Edition' was published by the Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag Wien (MVW) in 1998 [1,
2,
3]. As for Wolf's 'Morike-Lieder'
[1,
2;
score;
text], three of those were performed live in 1987 by Hartmut Höll (piano) and
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone). Wolf's 'Goethe-Lieder' (W 3) of 51 songs by
Johann Goethe
was much composed alongside 'Morike-Lieder' about the same time toward publishing in
1889 [1,
2;
audio: 1,
2;
score;
text].
Favored among his songs by Goethe are his four 'Mignon' [see Rivera] w 'Mignon I-III' assigned
to Nos. 5-7 [audio: 1,
2,
3]
and 'Mignon: Kennst du das Land?' assigned to No.9 [audio
by Marilyn Horne]. In 1891 Wolf published his 'Spanisches
Liederbuch' (W 4), a collection of 44 songs in two volumes written from
October 1889 to April 1890 to texts by Paul Heyse and
Emanuel Geibel [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio: 1,
2;
text Vol 1: 1,
2;
text Vol 2: 1,
2]. Wolf's
'Italienisches Liederbuch' (W 5) was written between September 1890 and
December 1891 toward publishing in '92, that a collection of 46 lieder
written by Heyse borrowed from Italian folk songs
[1,
2;
audio: 1,
2;
live performance;
text;
vinyl].
Of the two operas that Wolf wrote he completed only the comedy, 'Der Corregidor',
w libretto by Rosa Mayreder, that premiering at the Nationaltheater Mannheim
on 7 June 1896 [1,
2,
audio].
He left 'Manuel Venegas' unfinished in '97, the same year he wrote his
'Michelangelo-Lieder' consisting of three songs written by Walter Heinrich
Robert-Tornow after Michelangelo Buonarroti
[1,
2;
audio;
text].
Wolf had been placed
in a mental home in '97, released four months later in January of '98
[1,
2].
His last composition arrived in '98 before attempting to drown himself in October.
At his own request he was that
month committed to an asylum in Vienna where he died on 22 Feb 1903 of
syphilis three weeks shy of his 43rd birthday.
References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Chronology.
Compositions: 1,
2;
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3;
early works (Op 1-14 1875-76);
by genre;
'Hugo Wolf Gesamtausgabe' ("W" 1960-98);
published.
Authorship: correspondence.
Editions & scores 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2,
3;
German: 1,
2;
Swedish.
Collections: the Safe Collection.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3.
Song texts: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
select: Piano music of Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) w piano by
John Kersey;
'The Complete Songs' Stone Records:
Vol 5,
Vol 9.
Iconography.
Further reading: 'Hugo Wolf' by Ernst Decsey (Schuster & Loeffler 1903)
*;
'Hugo Wolf' by Ernest Newman (Methuen & Company 1907)
*;
'... Rollengedichte of Hugo Wolf' ('Eichendorff' & 'Morike') by John Carlo Pierce
*;
'Musicians of Today' by Romain Rolland (Henry Holt & Company 1915)
*;
'The Development of the Song Literature of Hugo Wolf' by Edward Sand (Central Washington U 1964)
*;
'Hugo Wolf' by David Wright
*.
Bibliography:
'Hugo Wolf and the Wagnerian Inheritance' by Amanda Glauert (Cambridge U Press 2006)
*;
'The Songs of Hugo Wolf' by Eric Sams (Faber & Faber 2011)
*.
See also the Hugo Wolf Academy.
Other profiles:
Deutsch: 1,
2,
3;
Dutch;
English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Italian: 1,
2;
Japanese;
Russian: 1,
2,
3;
Swedish.
Hugo Wolf Eichendorff Lieder [selections] Librettist: Joseph von EichendorffBaritone: Barry McDaniel Piano: Aribert Reiman Italian Serenade for Chamber Orchestra 1892Chamber Orchestra Mechelen Tom Van den Eynde Viola: Mattijs Roelen Italienisches Liederbuch [selections] 1891 Librettist: Paul HeyseMezzosoprano: Christa Ludwig Piano: Erik Werba 1897 Librettist: Walter Robert-Tornow (After Michelangelo Buonarroti) Bass: Leonard Andrzej Mróz 1885 Symphonic poem 3 movements Staatskapelle Berlin/Otmar Suitner Spanisches Liederbuch [selections] 1891Piano: Joseph Yungen Soprano: Elizabeth Smith 1878 4 movements Quaertetto Prometeo |
 Hugo Wolf Source: Wikipedia |
|
| Born on 29
May
1860 in Camprodon, Catalonia,
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual began
playing piano at age four. As his father was a customs agent, requiring him
to travel abroad, one could say that Albeniz became an international
performer at age twelve, traveling with his father and sister, Clementine.
His first known composition, 'Marcha Militar', appeared in 1868, published
in '69 [audio: 1,
2]. 1876
found him at the Leipzig Conservatory, later the Royal Conservatory of
Brussels. He traveled to Budapest in 1880 to study with
Franz Liszt, missing him, as
the latter was in Weimar, Germany. Perhaps his most important musical
association was Spanish composer, Felipe Pedrell, which teacher he met in 1883 and
who persuaded him to compose in terms of a Spanish national identity, long
time coming. From that time to 1886 Albeniz produced more than fifty piano
pieces instrumentally based on guitar. The guitar had largely evolved in
Spain during the Renaissance, was the favored folk instrument there, and was
indeed to become bound up with Spain's identity in both classical and
flamenco. Probably all of Albeniz' piano works have
been transcribed for guitar, one example being
'Sevilla'
Op 47 No.3 which he performed
on piano in Paris on 24 January 1885
[audio: piano by Miguel Baselga;
guitar by Shon Boublil].
Albeniz himself thought that some of his pieces for piano worked better on
guitar. 'Sevilla' was part of a greater work largely written in '86 to eventually consist
of eight movements, 'Suite Española No.1' Op 47
[1,
2,
3,
4;
piano by Alicia de Larrocha w score;
score].
Op 47 No.5 is 'Asturias' [*;
guitar by John Williams;
score: 1,
2].
In 1886 and '87 after moving to Madrid Albeniz composed 'Recuerdos de Viaje' Op 71 for piano
[1,
2;
piano by Esteban Sánchez w score;
score].
Consisting of seven pieces, 'Rumores de la Caleta' is Op 71 No.6
[*;
piano by Esteban Sanchez;
score].
Albeniz' five 'Chants d'Espagne' Op 232 appeared
in 1892 [1,
2;
piano by Miguel Baselga;
guitar by Alicia de Larrocha].
Into the 20th century Albeniz began his opera, 'Merlin', in 1902 of which
only the Prelude he finished in his lifetime [1,
2,
3]. Based in Arthurian legend w a
difficult English libretto by Francis Money-Coutts, it wasn't performed in
full until 20 June 1998 at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid. José de Eusebio
conducted a studio recording in 2000
[Acts I & II,
Act III] that led to
another staging at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2003. Albeniz began working on his
far more popular piano
suite, 'Iberia', in 1905 toward eventual completion in 1909, that consisting
of four Books of three pieces each [1,
2,
3,
piano by Rafael Orozco;
MIDI files;
score].
Albeniz died on 18 May 1909. He had written largely
Romantic salon pieces for piano as well as operas and zarzuelas.
References: 1,
2.
Compositions:
alphabetical;
by genre: 1,
2,
3;
by Opus.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
facsimiles;
French,
German.
Sheet music: 1,
2.
Texts to vocal works.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
select: 'Iberia' w piano by Mark-Andre Hamelin;
'Merlin'.
Usage of Albeniz in modern media.
Further reading: Yale Fineman;
mfiles.
Iconography.
Bibliography:
'Isaac Albeniz: A Guide to Research' by Walter Aaron Clark (Routledge 2013)
*;
'Isaac Albeniz: 26 Pieces Arranged for Guitar' by Stanley Yates (Mel Bay Publication3 2011)
*.
See also the Albeniz Foundation.
Other profiles: English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
musical: 1,
2,
3.
German;
Italian: 1,
2;
Japanese: 1,
2;
Russian;
Spanish: 1,
2.
Isaac Albéniz 1884-88 4 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1884-88 4 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1884-88 4 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1884-88 4 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1884-88 4 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1884-88 4 movements Ukiah Symphony Orchestra Piano: Elena Casanova 1884-88 4 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein |
 Isaac Albeniz Source: Last FM |
|
 Gustav Mahler 1907 Source: Wikipedia |
Born on 7 July 1860 in Kalischt, Bohemia (now Kaliště,
Czech Republic),
Gustav Mahler
arrives at the culmination of the Romantic period. Though romantic to the
finish there are modernistic touches to his work.
His oeuvre is largely vocal and orchestral, especially symphonies. He also
composed for chamber and stage, some of those joining other scores that are
lost. Mahler was principally a conductor, making for a plentiful though not
especially prolific legacy of works. More appreciated during his time for
the concerts he gave than his composing per se, recognition of the latter has been largely posthumous, notably excepting banishment by the Nazi
regime for being Jewish. Mahler had a distiller and tavern keeper for a father. His grandmother
had a piano that he began to play at age four. In 1875 he began studying
piano, then composition, at the Vienna Conservatory. Mahler attended the
University of Vienna for a year before becoming a piano teacher. On 10 July
of 1876 he performed on piano his only surviving work for chamber at the
Conservatory, the first movement of an otherwise abandoned quartet, which
section alone has come down as 'Piano Quartet' in A minor
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio
w score]. Mahler began the text of his cantata, 'Das Klagende Lied' ('Song
of Lamentation'), during his last year at the Conservatory in 1878, music
following the next year toward completion on 1 November 1880. It wasn't
performed, however, until Mahler conducted it on 17 February 1901 in Vienna,
having been twice revised in 1893 and 1899
[1,
2,
3,
4;
live performance Version 2;
text]. Mahler had taken his first conducting position
in 1880 in a little town
called Bad Hall, then at a theatre in Laibach (presently, Ljubljana,
Slovenia) the next year. After a couple more small theatres in towns off
route Mahler finally landed work conducting at the Liepzig Opera in 1886. He
became director at the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest in Oct of 1888.
He there conducted his
'Symphony No.1' ('Titan') in D major on 20 November 1889 to small success
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9;
live performances:
Vienna P O w Leonard Bernstein;
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam w Daniel Harding;
National Orchestra of France w Neeme Järvi]. In 1891 Mahler
exchanged Hungary for Germany, conducting at the Hamburg State Opera in
1891, becoming Director in 1894. In the meantime he visited London w the
Hamburg Singers in the summer of '92 prior to building a composing hut at
Steinbach am Attersee in Austria in the summer of '93
[1,
2,
3].
He there completed his second and third symphonies. Mahler conducted the premiere of his 'Symphony No.2'
('Resurrection Symphony') in Hamburg on 13 Dec 1895, which didn't make him a rock star
of the symphony though it came to better reception than his first in '89
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio by the New York Philharmonic w Leonard Bernstein w score;
live performances:
UC Davis Symphony Orchestra w Dallas Kern Holoman;
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra w Mariss Jansons]. Mahler's autograph of
his second symphony is estimated by Sotheby's auction house to be worth above four
million dollars [*].
'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' is one of Mahler's song cycles, this
consisting of four pieces first
performed on 16 March 1896 [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio by the Wiener Philharmoniker w Leonard Bernstein;
score;
text]. His 'Symphony
No.3' in D minor is Mahler's longest symphony of at least ninety minutes. It saw performance of only its second movement on 9 Nov 1896
in Berlin, again on 9 March 1897 w Movements 3 and 6. The whole didn't see
premiere until 9 June 1902, conducted by Mahler
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
live performances: Wiener Philharmoniker w Leonard Bernstein;
Concertgebouw Orchestra w Mariss Janson;
New England Conservatory Philharmonia w Hugh Wolff]. In 1897 Mahler converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism to become
director at the Vienna Court Opera [Vienna Hofoper: 1,
2], bypassing that
theater's ban against that position being filled by a Jew. Now in a highly
suitable position, Mahler began composing 'Kindertotenlieder' in the summer
of 1901, another song cycle, this a set of five w texts by Friedrich
Rückert that he gradually finished toward performance on 29 January 1905
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio: Wiener Philharmoniker w Leonard Bernstein w score; BBC;
score].
In the meantime he conducted 'Symphony No.4' in G major in Munich on 25
November 1901 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio
by the Budapest Festival Orchestra w Ivan Fischer w score;
live performances: Lucerne Festival Orchestra w Claudio Abbado;
Filarmonica della Scala w Myung-Whun Chung].
The fourth movement of that is set around a song he'd written for soprano back in 1892, 'Das himmlische Leben' ('The Heavenly Life')
[*;
live performance
by Henriette Bonde-Hansen;
text: 1,
2].
Mahler began the 20th century with another composing hut built in 1900 on
Lake Wörthersee at Maiernigg in Carinthia, Austria, where he would write his fifth
through seventh symphonies [1,
2,
3].
But he would marry Alma Mahler
[compositions] first on 9 March 1902. Alma wouldn't die
until December 1964, 53 years after Gustav, and long enough to witness the
British Invasion of the United States by the
Beatles and
Rolling Stones the
same year. Alma's, however, was a rarified classical world in which such as
Mercy beat and R&B didn't much register. There were other things that didn't
quite register w Alma, that being her accounts of life w Gustav which
made research confusing for Mahler scholars for a time due to inaccuracies
[*].
Composing 'his 'Symphony No.5' in 1901 and 1902 largely at Maiernigg, Mahler conducted the Gurzenich Concert Orchestra's performance of
it in Cologne on 18 Oct 1904
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
live performance by the World Peace Orchestra w Valery Gergiev].
In 1903 and '04 Mahler wrote his 'Symphony No.6' ('Tragic') toward its first
performance at the Saalbau Essen in Germany on 27
May 1906 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10;
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra w Leonard Bernstein:
audio
w score;
live performance]. Mahler finished the dated score of 'Symphony No. 7' ('Lied der Nacht') in E
minor on 15 August 1905, its orchestration the next year, though he
wouldn't conduct it until 19 September 1908 in Prague w the Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
live performance].
Though Mahler had no interest in the poor fidelity of early cylinder or flat disc
recording, he made more truly rendering piano rolls of four of his works. Three of
them had gone down for Welte-mignon on 9 November 1905: 'Ich ging mit Lust', 'Ging
heut morgens ubers Feld' and 'Das Himmlische Leben'. A version from the 1st
movement of his 5th symphony was produced on the same date per Bert van der
Waal van Dijk at the Mahler Foundation
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio].
Mahler began writing 'Symphony No.8' ('Symphony of a Thousand') in E-flat in
June of 1906 though he didn't conduct it until 12 September 1910 in Munich w
the Munich Philharmonic. That was the last symphony of his that he would
perform [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
live performances:
Netherlands P O w Marc Albrecht;
Vienna P O w Leonard Bernstein]. He remained at the Vienna Court Opera
until October of 1907 when anti-Semitism, unlike ten years earlier when he'd
signed on as Director, nevertheless became a factor in
his resignation. He then left for the Majestic Hotel in New York in December that year, his
conducting debut in America at the Metropolitan Opera [1,
2] on 1 January 1908
where he conducted
Wagner's 'Tristan
und Isolde' which work itself wasn't anti-Semitic. Returning to Europe in April for conducting engagements there,
he was back to New York the same year in November to stay at the Savoy while
conducting for the New York Symphony followed by the New York Philharmonic.
Returning to Europe again in April of 1909, he was back in New York in
October. He last conducted
at the Met in March 1910, a performance of
Tchaikovsky's
'The Queen of Spades'. Mahler sailed for Europe again in April of 1910 where
he took a walk for several hours in Holland w Sigmund Freud on 26 August
[1,
2,
3;
see also 'Mahler on the Couch' 2010]. He was back in New York
a fourth and final period in October that year. That tour occasioned his
last performance as a conductor on 22 February 1911, premiering
Ferruccio Busoni's
'Berceuse élégiaque' at Carnegie Hall within walking distance of the Savoy [1,
2]. Carnegie
Hall had first opened its doors only
twenty years prior in May of 1891
w
Tchaikovsky performing, to become home to the New York
Philharmonic from 1892 to 1962. As for Mahler, his usual return to Europe in
April for the purpose of a summer
season was made, instead, to having fallen ill. His death arrived on 18 May
1911 in Vienna of endocarditis
[obit].
During the period that Mahler spent floating back and forth across the
Atlantic he applied his hand to compositions that didn't see performance in
his lifetime. The majority of 'Das Lied von der Erde' ('The Song of the
Earth') had been written at Toblach in 1908, that a symphonic rendering of
six songs for two vocalists categorized as a symphony. Bruno Walter conducted its first posthumous
performance in Munich on 20 Nov 1911 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
audio: BBC;
Chicago Symphony Orchestra w Daniel Barenboim;
Vienna Philharmonic w Leonard Bernstein w score;
live performance by the Texas Festival Orchestra w Vladimir Kulenovic].
Mahler composed 'Symphony No. 9' at Altschluderbach near Toblach in Italy
in 1908-09, posthumously premiering in Vienna on 26 June 1912 w Bruno Walter
conducting the Vienna P O [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio by the Berlin P O w Leonard Bernstein w score;
live performance by the Staatskapelle Berlin w Daniel Barenboim].
'Symphony No.10' was begun at Altschluderbach in summer of 1910 though left
unfinished. There was no rush to complete a performable version of that, not
premiering for another half century at Royal Albert Hall on 13 August 1964 w
Berthold Goldschmidt conducting the London P O
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio by the Bournemouth S O w Simon Rattle,
note]. References: 1,
2,
3;
international Wikipedia:
English;
Finnish,
French,
Russian,
Spanish.
Chronologies: 1,
2,
Spanish.
Compositions: in Deutsch,
Finnish,
French,
Russian,
Spanish;
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3;
chronological: 1,
2;
by genre: English: 1,
2,
French,
Spanish;
symphonies: IMSLP:
'Das Lied von der Erde',
No.1,
No.2,
No.3,
No.4,
No.5,
No.6,
No.7,
No.8,
No.9,
No.10.
Publishers.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
Mahler Foundation.
Recordings of: discos: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
French,
Spanish;
select: 'Mahler Plays Mahler' (piano rolls).
Documentaries:
'Mahler' directed by Ken Russell 1974.
Usage in modern media.
Further reading by source: Gabriel Engel;
gustav-mahler;
F.R. Kinnett;
'New York Times';
Tom Service;
Bert van der Waal van Dijk.
Further reading by topic: composition:
cabins;
characteristics of;
contemporaries;
death;
family;
Oscar Freed (conductor) and;
Mahler in New York: 1,
2,
3,
exhibition;
symphonies: 'Das Lied von der Erde':
1,
2,
3;
ANDaNTE: No.1,
No.2,
No.3,
No.4,
No.5,
No.6,
No.7,
No.8,
No.9;
Mahler Foundation: No.1,
No.2,
No.3,
No.4,
No.5,
No.6,
No.7,
No.8,
No.9,
No.10;
Wikipedia: No.1,
No.2,
No.3,
No.4,
No.5,
No.6,
No.7,
No.8,
No.9,
No.10;
Toblach: 1,
2;
travel;
trivia;
see also the Chicago Mahlerites (Mahler Society of Chicago);
the
International Gustav Mahler Society Vienna.
Bibliography: English: 1,
2;
Spanish;
'Gustav Mahler' by Jens Malte Fischer (Yale U Press 2011);
'The Mahler Companion' by Mitchell & Nicholson (Oxford U Press 2002);
'Gustav Mahler and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra Tour America' by Mary Wagner (Scarecrow Press 2006).
Other profiles: English:
didactic;
encyclopedic:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French;
German: 1,
2;
Italian:
Treccani: 1,
2,
3;
Russian.
Gustav Mahler 1884-88 4 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1896 6 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1900-01 4 movements Istituto Europeo di Musica World Orchestra for Peace/Valery Gergiev 1902 5 movements Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein 1904-1906 5 movements Multiple keys Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Claudio Abbado 'Symphony of a Thousand' 1906–07 2 parts Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein Closing adagio in D flat 1909-10 4 movements Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester Claudio Abbado |
 Metropolitan Opera House 1910 Source: Shutterstock  Carnegie Hall Circa 1900 Source: Concert Database |
 Ignacy Paderewski Photo: Troy Chromatic Concerts Inc Source: Polonia Music |
Born on 18 November 1860 in Kuryłówka, Russia,
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
was a Polish composer and pianist who enrolled into the Warsaw
Conservatorium in 1872. He was yet a student in 1876 when he wrote a lost 'Valse
mignonne' and about 1876 when 'Walc in F major' arrived
[*], listed in Vol 4 of
the DzW (Dzieła wszystkie Paderewskiego) of 1997.
Another authority is the Bote und G. Bock publishing firm in Berlin [B&B] which
published Paderewski since 1882. Bote & G. Bock had been founded in 1838 by Eduard
Bote and Gustav Bock. In turn, I draw information for this column from
Osrodek Dokumentacji Muzyki Polskiej [ODMP
(Documentation Center for Polish
Music)] and
Malgorzata Perkowska.
Paderewski became a private tutor at the Conservatory upon graduating in 1878.
His original Op 1 as written on the manuscript in 1879 is now catalogued as
Op 1a, 'Suite' in E Flat Major for piano believed written in 1879. Of its
four movements 'Preludium' was published by B&B in 1886 as Op 1 No. 1,
'Minuet' as Op 1 No.2. What is catalogued as Op 1 wouldn't be composed until
numerous higher had been written and published, starting w Op 2, 'Trois
Morceaux' pour piano published by Kruziński and Levi in Warsaw in 1881
[IMSLP;
'Gavotte' Op 2 No.1 in E minor by Karol Radziwonowicz].
Paderewski's wedding to fellow student, Antonina Korsakówna, had occurred
the prior year in 1880.
'Stara Suita' Op 3 is thought composed in 1880-81. Perkowska lends a
reference to B&B 1882 although ODMP states it went unpublished during
Paderewski's lifetime. His wife, Antonina, died in 1881 only several weeks
after giving birth to a handicapped son, Alfred. Paderewski began studies in composition in Berlin in 1881
with Friedrich Kiel and Heinrich Urban. Come 'Elegy' in B flat major Op 4
published by B&B in 1882 [IMSLP;
'Elegy' by Emmanuel Garnier w score;
by Karol Radziwonowicz].
'Danses Polonaises' Op 5 consisting of three pieces for piano had been composed in '81 for publishing
by B&B in '82 [IMSLP;
audio by Karol Radziwonowicz: 1,
2].
Paderewski left Berlin for Vienna in 1884 to study w Theodor Leschetizky.
His first professional performance was in Vienna in
1887, the year he began to write 'Humoresques de Concert' Op 14 consisting of
Cahier I: 'à l'Antique' and Cahier II: 'Moderne' w three pieces each
[IMSLP;
audio
of Cahier I & II by Karol Radziwonowicz w score;
live performance of Cahier I by Jonathan Plowright;
score].
Paderewski began sketching his 'Sonata pour Piano' in E flat minor in April
of 1887, not to complete it until 1903 toward publishing in 1906
[1,
2;
audio by Anderzej Stefanski w score;
live performance by Benny Wollin].
Leading a highly successful career from the start,
Paderewski made Paris in
1889, London in 1890, and was rich by the time he gave his first performance
in New York City at Carnegie Hall on 17 November 1891.
Tchaikovsky had only
recently officially opened Carnegie Hall in May of '91. Busoni
had also first arrived to New York in August before moving on to Boston.
Paderewski would spend the coming years continually touring venues in
America and Europe. His relationship with Steinway & Sons
[1,
2] began per his
tour of the United States and Canada in 1892, presenting problems for the
1893 World's Fair in Chicago [1,
2,
3] as he refused to play any piano but the one
Steinway had made for him [1,
2,
3;
see also Paderewski's 1925 Warsaw Musical Conservatory
Steinway].
It was 31 May of 1899 when he married Helena Maria von Rosen, having met her
back in '78 prior to his brief marriage to Antonina in '80.
Paderewski's solitary opera, 'Manru', premiered in
Dresden on 29 May of 1901 w libretto by Alfred Nossig
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio extract Act III;
libretto;
score].
Jed Distler indicates that Paderewski made 16 piano rolls for Welte-mignon
in 1906, fourteen of which are listed w a date of 27 Feb 1906 at Peter's
MIDI [*;
audio].
Most of those were pieces by other composers like
Chopin,
Schubert and
Liszt including one of his favorite works,
Beethoven's
'Moonlight Sonata' requiring two cylinders per Welte-mignon 1246 and 1247
[audio: 1,
2]. His own 'Nocturne' Op 16 No.4 and 'Minuet'
in G Op 14 No.1 saw issue
on 1262 and 1263 [audio]. Paderewski recorded that on multiple occasions. He also made rolls for Aeolian.
With the exception of a hymn in 1917 Paderewski completed his last
composition, 'Symphony in B minor' ('Polonia'), in time for its first
performance on 12 Feb 1909 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Max
Fiedler [1,
2,
3;
audio by the Symphony Orchestra of Pomerania w Bohdan Wodiczko: 1,
2,
3].
Paderewski recorded multiple issues on flat disc for
Gramophone (parent to HMV),
the latter in 1911 at his residence in Switzerland to include five pieces by
Chopin
and his own 'Minuet' in
G on
045530 [1,
2;
see DAHR Gramophone matrix 345aj recorded in July
of '11]. He would also issue numerous 78 rpms on Victor. Paderewski moved to the U.S. in 1913,
there to purchase country in California for a vineyard. He later purchased
land in Santa Maria toward oil exploration. The opening of World War I in
1914 saw Paderewski adding political activism to his schedule in 1915 as he
began to make speeches toward the relief of Polish casualties and the
establishment of an independent Poland, agendas meeting the support of
Presidents Wilson and Hoover while raising millions of dollars for Polish
victims of the Great War. In the meantime Paderewski composed his last work,
'Hej, Orle Bialy' ('Hey, White Eagle'), in 1917, that a hymn for male chorus
and piano or wind orchestra with text by himself
[audio;
score: 1,
2,
3,
4;
text;
see also the Polish coat of arms:
1,
2,
3,
4].
That was about the time that
Paderewski's activism developed toward statesmanship upon joining the Polish National Committee
(PNC)
in Paris, founded in 1917 to the purpose of creating the state of Poland. It
was Paderewski's speech in Poznań in 1918 that instigated the Greater Poland
Uprising against Germany. Paderewski became Prime Minister and Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the new state of Poland on 18 January 1919, thereat the PNC
closing shop [1,
2]. He resigned as Foreign Minister the same year, becoming
Polish Ambassador to the League of Nations instead. Serving as Prime
Minister to 27 November 1919, he resigned from politics
in 1922 to take up performing again, his first concert at
Carnegie Hall. He next played at Madison Square Garden [1,
2], then toured the
United States via his own private railway car. He hesitated, then consented to
appear in the film, 'Moonlight Sonata', playing himself, in 1936
[1,
2,
playing Beethoven,
playing Chopin].
In 1938 Scribner published 'The Paderewski Memoirs' written w the assistance
of Mary Lawton. The opening of World War
II in September 1939 saw Paderewski back in politics, becoming head of Polish parliament in
exile in London. The next year he was eighty years old. Scheduled to
appear at Madison Square Garden, he refused, his explanation that he had
already played there, referring to his performance twenty years prior as if
it had been only recently. His last visit to America commencing in November
of 1940, Paderewski died of pneumonia while on tour on 29 June 1941 in
New York. His burial at Arlington, Virginia, with military honors, was meant
to be temporary, though his remains didn't see removal to St. John's Archcathedral
in Warsaw until 1992. His heart, however, is buried separately in
Doylestown, Pennsylvania [1,
2;
estate].
References: 1,
2,
3.
Chronologies: 1,
2.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
Polish;
by Opus: 1,
2.
Authorship (musical and political):
poetry;
'Poland Past and Present' (address 5 February 1916):
1,
2,
3.
Editions & scores: Czech;
English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2;
German;
select: 'Complete Works'.
Collections.
Sheet music.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
Karol Radziwonowicz.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
select: 'His Final Recordings' (HMV 1937 & 1938): 1,
2;
'Paderewski'
w piano by Jonathan Plowright:
review.
Modern media.
Iconography.
Further reading by source: Paderewski Chamber Orchestra;
Paderewski Music Society.
Further reading by topic: Paderewski and America:
1,
2;
unknown compositions (Perkowska);
correspondence;
newspaper articles: 1,
2;
private life.
See also: Academy of Music of Ignacy Jan Paderewski
*;
International Paderewski Piano Competition
*;
the Paderewski Festival
*;
Paderewski Music School Tarnów
*;
Paderewski State Primary School of Music Kartuzy
*.
Bibliographies: 1,
2.
Other profiles: Czech;
English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
'Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians' (1916):
1,
2;
exhibition;
history;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
French;
German;
Italian;
Polish: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
Russian: 1,
2;
Spanish: 1,
2. Per below, Paderewski is filmed playing
Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata'
in 1936. Ignacy Paderewski Composition: Beethoven 1801 Film: 'Moonlight Sonata' 1937 Piano: Ignacy Paderewski 1888 Op 17 Movement 1 Liepaja Symphony Orchestra Miroslaw Jacek Blaszczyk Piano: Pawel Kowalski 1888 Op 17 Movement 1 Liepaja Symphony Orchestra Miroslaw Jacek Blaszczyk Piano: Pawel Kowalski 1888 Op 17 Movement 1 Liepaja Symphony Orchestra Miroslaw Jacek Blaszczyk Piano: Pawel Kowalski 1903 Op 21 Piano: Anderzej Stefanski 1893 Op 19 Polish National Radio SO/Michael Bartos Piano: Thomas Tirino 1893 Op 19 Polish National Radio SO/Michael Bartos Piano: Thomas Tirino 1893 Op 19 Polish National Radio SO/Michael Bartos Piano: Thomas Tirino 1885 Op 13 Piano: Joanna Czapinska-Wróblewska Violin: Katarzyna Bakowska |
|
 Marco Enrici Bossi Source: Provincia di Torino |
Born on
25 April 1861 in Salo, Lombardy,
Marco Enrico Bossi
was an obscure Italian composer occupying what had become, but for church
music, a niche in classical music ever since the invention of the much more
popular pianoforte (piano) circa 1700 that replaced the harpsichord: organ
music of which he wrote a load,
also producing works for chamber, orchestra, piano and voice w above 150 works in
his repertoire. Having a father who was an organist at the Salò Cathedral,
Bossi received training at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna from age ten,
transferring to the Milan
Conservatory in 1873 where he studied piano under Francesco Sangalli,
composition beneath Amilcare Ponchielli and organ w Polibio Fumagalli until
1881, the latter from which he didn't graduate before that year becaming director and organist at the Coma Cathedral.
Any familiar w Bossi would recognize his '5 Pieces' Op 113 of which No.3 is 'Canzoncina
a Maria Vergine' [audio w organ by
Silvio Celeghin,
Paolo Filippini,
marcothart,
Giovanni Marelli,
Roberto Stirone;
score]. Bossi began teaching harmony at the Naples Conservatory in 1900. Upon
returning to Europe from a
tour of the United States begun in 1924 he died while at sea on 20 Feb
1925. References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3;
by genre: English:
1,
2;
русском.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
'The Compete Works' Vol. I through Vol. XIV issued by Tactus.
Other profiles: English,
Espanol,
Italiano,
русском.
Marco Enrico Bossi Op 100 Orchestra Fabio da Bologna Alessandra Mazzanti Organ: Francesco Bongiorno Op 130 Organ: Domenico Severin Op 49 Organ: Omar Caputi Op 115 Organ: Artruro Sacchetti |
|
 Claude Debussy Photo: Getty Images Source: Universitatea Babes-Bolyai |
Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 22 August 1862,
Claude
Debussy composed
largely chamber and orchestral works, and a great number of songs and pieces
for piano. His 227 works are listed to 150 in the Lesure directory of 2001
[Wikipedia]. He remains among
the most influential of classical composers, dissonant chords and
harmonies among his trademarks.
His hero was
JS Bach, the "good God of music", though his reputation joins that of Ravel
as a so-called father of impressionist music who made no such connection himself
and said so, his
alignment w Impressionism made by critics of the time in recognition of
similarities. Debussy was a pantheistic [*] symbolist more aligned with
Wagner
as a naturalistic realist [1,
2,
3].
See references to isms surrounding Debussy. Debussy had been born to a father
who
owned a china shop and a mother who was a seamstress. At age five Debussy's
parents moved to Paris where he began to study piano at age seven. In 1872
he entered the Paris Conservatoire [1,
2]. He there studied piano and composition
for the next eleven years. His first public appearance was in 1876,
accompanying singer, Léontine Mendès. Debussy was about fifteen when he
determined to become a composer, his earliest compositions per the "L"
directory arriving in 1879. L numbers in Debussy are per François Lesure
[x]
and can be confusing since there are two editions which differ but aren't
always distinguished. L numbers of 2001 are differentiated from L numbers of
1977 w a "CD" designation illustrated at
IMSLP
and Wikipedia. 'Ballade à la lune: C'était dans la nuit brune' of 1879, for
instance, is L 1 per the 1977 edition, but isn't listed at all in the 2001
version.
The catalogue of L numbers at Classic Cat are actually the
new Lesure
numbers (CD) of 2001. 'Ballade à la lune' was set to a poem by Alfred de
Musset, as was 'Madrid' of 1879 (in the old "L" as 2 and the new "L" [CD] as 1)
[audio
by
Véronique Dietschy (soprano) & Emmanuel Strosser (piano)]. Debussy's 'Starry Night' of 1880
was set to a text by Théodore de Banville
[IMSLP,
audio,
text]. Debussy would set
numerous poems by Banville to music. Another of his early comps of
1880 was 'Piano Trio' in G major for piano, cello and violin
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio:
1,
2,
w score;
live performance].
Also written in 1880 was 'Danse Bohémienne'
for piano [1,
2;
audio: 1,
2].
Debussy spent July to November of 1880 w
Tchaikovsky's
Russian patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, as she traveled about Europe on summer holiday. Debussy and
Tchaikovsky
never met, but the latter had some tough criticism for 'Danse Bohémienne'
upon Meck showing him Debussy's score. Though Meck put the notion of Debussy
marrying one of her daughters to rest, toward the end of the year he met the
amateur soprano and
wife of Henri Vasnier, Marie, and fell in love [*] to write numerous melodies
[*]
for her to sing while beneath her spell, such as his setting to Banville's 'Aimons-nous et dormons'
[*;
audio
by Veronique Dietschy w score;
live performance by Serena Eduljee;
text: 1,
2,
3].
Debussy received his first student as a tutor in 1881 before another season with Meck between July and December of '81, this time
beginning in Moscow, then on to Rome prior to Florence. A third season w
Meck began in Plechtchevo in Sep of '82 before he accompanied her to Vienna
from October to December. In 1884 Debussy won the Prix de Rome for his cantata, 'L'enfant Prodigue'
('The Prodigal Son') w text by Édouard Guinand [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio w
score]. Numerous musicians in these histories had won the
Paris Conservatoire's Prix de
Rome. Founded in 1663 to encourage students of painting, it was later
expanded to include architecture, engraving, sculpture and music. The Prix
de Rome was Europe's most prized scholarship program, awarding three to five
years of study in Italy with accommodations [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7]. The
last couple years of Debussy's Prix de Rome found him at Villa Medici
[1,
2] before
returning to Paris in 1887.
Among numerous
titles written by Debussy in 1880-81 was 'Beau Soir' ('Beautiful Evening') set to a text by Paul Bourget,
and the last of several collaborations between
Bourget and Debussy
in the Lesure directory. Wikipedia has 'Beau Soir' originally written in E
major to F sharp minor [1,
2;
audio: by Rene Fleming w score;
arranged for violin;
score;
text: 1,
2].
Debussy dabbed the drifting subtlety of lightly
sprinkling notes along the gentle waves of 'Reverie' for piano in 1890
[1,
2;
audio
w Walter Gieseking at piano in 1939]. Also written, or at least begun, in
1890 was one of Debussy's more famous works, 'Suite Bergamasque', eventually
revised for publication in 1905
[1,
2,
3;
audio w score]. The 3rd of four movements in
that is Debussy's popular 'Clare de Lune' ('Moonlight'), a setting to the
1869 poem by
Paul Verlaine
[1,
2;
audio w Moura Lympany at piano;
score].
Debussy would set numerous texts by Verlaine to music in the early eighties,
nineties and 20th century. The only Opus number Debussy gave to a work was Op 10 assigned to 'String
Quartet' in G minor composed in 1893 [1,
2,
3,
4;
live performances by the Danish String Quartet & the Faust Quartett].
In October 1899 Debussy married
fashion model, Rosalie Texier (aka Lilly), who was only twenty years younger than the
first time garments saw modeling in 1853, that by the wife of the father of haute
couture, Charles Frederick Worth, who approached
garment design as an artist rather than a tailor [1,
2,
3,
4,
5]. Of the multiple operas that Debussy started, he finished only 'Pelleas et
Melisande', begun back in 1893 upon the premiere that year of the eponymous
play by
Maurice Maeterlinck.
Debussy's opera premiered at the Opéra Comique in Paris on 30 April 1902
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio by the Wiener Philharmoniker w Claudio Abbado
w score;
score;
text].
Act III Scene 1 begins with Melisande singing 'Mes longs cheveux descendent' which
Debussy recorded w Mary Garden in Paris in May of 1904, G & T (Gramophone &
Typewriter) matrix 3078F-11 issued per 33447, that one of four titles in all
[1,
2,
3;
audio].
A couple months later in July he composed 'Masques' for piano toward premiere
at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 18 February 1905 by pianist, Ricardo Viñes
[1,
2,
3,
4;
live performances by
Nathan Carterette
& David Korevaar].
Yet married to Texier, in the summer of 1904 Debussy had met Emma Bardac,
the mother of one of his students and wife of a Parisian banker. They soon
took off for Normandy together that July. The next month Debussy sent Texier a letter of
intent to end their marriage. Texier, who had threatened to kill herself
five years earlier if Debussy didn't marry her, attempted suicide on the 14th of
October, five days before their fifth wedding anniversary, and lived thereafter with a bullet lodged in her spine.
Meanwhile Bardac and Debussy each obtained a
divorce and bought a house in Paris that Debussy would call home until his
death. Debussy and Bardac married in 1908, three years after the birth of their
daughter, Claude-Emma (aka Chou-chou) in October 1905. It was Chou-chou for
whom Debussy wrote 'Children's Corner' which eventually premiered in Paris
on 12 Dec 1908 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
audio
w piano by Pascal Rogé]. The sixth and final movement of that is Debussy's famous
'Golliwogg's Cakewalk'.
In 1913 Debussy produced fourteen works on six piano rolls for Welte & Sons on unknown
dates, though a letter from Debussy to Welte on 1 Nov 1913 indicates that
Debussy had heard the results to considerable satisfaction [1,
2]. One of those was
'Children's Corner' on WM (Welte-mignon) 2733 [audio]. 'La soirée dan Grenade'
saw release on WM 2735 [audio].
Debussy's last work in the Lesure directory of 2001 is CD 150 (missing
from the '77 directory), 'Les Soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon'
('Evenings Lit by Burning Coals') in A flat major composed in 1917, that a
line from Charles Baudelaire's 'The Balcony'
in 'Les Fleurs du Mal' of 1857
[*;
audio w piano by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
&
Ernst Ueckermann;
orchestrated by Colin Matthews].
Debussy died of rectal cancer during World War I on 25 March 1918 as German artillery was shattering Paris.
References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Chronology.
Compositions: 1,
2;
alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological;
by CD (L 2001);
CD & L cross references: 1,
2,
3 w genre schematic;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Editions & scores: 'Cahiers DeBussy';
English: 1,
2,
3,
4.
5;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Song texts: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10 (MIDI files).
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4;
select: 'The Composer as Pianist' *;
'Debussy Plays Debussy' *;
'Debussy | Ravel' (string quartets by the Kodály Quartet)
*,
review.
Performances of on Broadway.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography.
Further reading by source: Debussy Blog;
Debussy Page;
'The Velvet Revolution of Claude Debussy' by Alex Ross.
Further reading by topic: Henri Bergson and;
flute and;
'Naturalism' by Stephen Wagner 1993 (U of Notre Dame Press 1993);
'Realism, Naturalism and Symbolism' ed. by Roland Stromberg (Palgrave Macmillan 1968);
solo piano by Robert Andres;
song triptychs by D.J. Code;
trivia.
See also: the Debussy Centre de Documentaation
*;
the Debussy Museum St. Germain-en-Laye
*.
Biblio: 1,
2;
'Rethinking Debussy' by Antokoletz & Wheeldon (Oxford U Press 2011)
*;
'Debussy Redux: The Impact of His Music on Popular Culture' by Matthew Brown (Indiana U Press 2012)
*;
'Debussy and the Veil of Tonality' by Mark DeVoto (Pendragon Press 2004)
*;
'Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound' 2nd Edition by Frank Hoffman (Taylor & Francis 2014)
*;
'Golliwog's Cakewalk' by Elizabeth de Martelly
*;
'The Development of Debussy' by Ernest Newman ('The Musical Times' 1918)
*;
'The Symbolists and Debussy' by C. Henry Phillips ('Music & Letters' 1932)
*;
'Debussy: A Painter in Sound' by Stephen Walsh (Knopf Doubleday 2018)
*;
'Debussy's Legacy and the Construction of Reputation' by Marianne Wheeldon (Oxford U Press 2017)
*.
Other profiles: English: didactic;
encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
musical: 1,
2,
3;
French: 1,
2;
German.
L numbers below are per François Lesure, 1977. Claude Debussy 1880 L 9 Piano: Veronika Kopjova L'enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Child) 1884 Revised 1908 L 57 Sacred cantataStuttgart Radio Symphony/Gary Bertini 1903 L 100 3 pieces 1: Pagodes 2: La soirée dans Grenade 3: Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) Piano: Anna Zassimova 1905 L 110 3 pieces 1: Reflets dans l'eau 2: Hommage à Rameau 3: Mouvement Piano: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 1907 L 111 3 pieces 1: Cloches a travers les feuillies 2: Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut 3: Poissons d'or (Goldfish) Piano: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 1903-05 Revised 1908 L 109 Sketch for orchestra 3 movements 1: De l'aube à midi sur la mer 2: Jeux de vagues 3: Dialogue du vent et de la mer 1897-99 L 91 3 pieces 1: Nuages (Clouds) 2: Fêtes (Holidays) Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra 1897-99 L 91 3 pieces 3: Sirènes (Sirens) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Bernard Haitink Book 1: 1909–1910 L 117 Book 2: 1912–1913 L 123 Piano: Theodore Paraskivesco ^ Note: Isms surrounding Debussy: Impressionism: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Pantheism: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Realism: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: painting and: 1, 2; religion and: 1, 2; socialism and: 1, 2; theatre and: 1, 2. Compare Realism to closely related Naturalism: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; versus Romanticism; Realism of Woodbridge and; modern. Compare all to Symbolism: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. |
|
|
Born in Munich on 11 June 1864,
Richard Strauss
was the son of Franz Strauss.
He wasn't related to the waltzing Johann Strauss I
or II. Strauss has
been regarded by not a few to have been the preeminent composer of the first
half of the 20th century. Of well over 300 works eighteen were operas and
ten were tone poems, genres by which he is best known.
Strauss began composing at age six before he could write, exampled by 'Schneiderpolka'
for piano [audio by Dario Bonuccelli at piano].
That is catalogued in one of three ways: AV 1, TrV 1 or o. Op 1. "AV"
numbers w Strauss are per the 'Thematisches Verzeichnis' of E. H. Müller von
Asow (Vienna 1959). "TrV" numbers are per the 'Werkverzeichnis' of Franz and
Florian Trenner 3rd Edition (Munich 1999). An Op preceded by "o." is a work
Strauss neglected to assign an Opus number.
Compare AV to TrV.
Strauss began with lied and piano
pieces as a child, gradually moving upward through chorals and chamber music,
then larger orchestral works. His first opera, never performed, had appeared
at about age twelve, 'Der Kampf mit dem Drachen' AV 206 TrV 44.
Strauss assigned his first Opus number to another work composed in 1876,
that being 'Festmarsch' in E flat major for orchestra, Op 1 TrV 44, which
eventually premiered in Munich on 26 March 1881 [IMSLP;
audio by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra w Neeme Järvi
& Nürnberger Symphoniker w Klauspeter Seibel].
Strauss' initial tone poem was 'Aus Italien' ('From Italy') Op 16 finished
in 1886, the result of a trip to Italy with Johannes Brahms
[1,
2;
live performance by MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra w Kristjan Järvi].
His initial opera to be performed was 'Guntram' Op 25 w libretto by himself.
That premiered on 10 May 1894 at the Grossherzogliches Hoftheater in Weimar
w the soprano role of Freihild filled by his wife to be, Pauline de Ahna
[1,
2,
3,
4;
libretto;
audio: Acts I & II,
Act III Scene 4 Finale].
Pauline and Richard later married on 10 September that year, the same that
he conducted for the first time at the Bayreuth Festival [1,
2], his wife
singing soprano in the role of Elisabeth in a rendition of
Wagner's 'Tannhäuser'. The premiere of
Strauss' tone poem, 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' Op 30 AV 30 TrV 176, arrived
in Frankfurt on 27 November 1896
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
audio by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra w Georg Solti;
score]. 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' is needful
mention in accounts of Strauss for two main reasons in the broader spectrum: It was an
interpretation of one of the literary giants of the latter 19th century,
Friedrich Nietzsche,
the latter only recently publishing 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' in four parts
from 1883 to 1885. The second is that Strauss' work is now far more famous in modern times
than it was back then, due to its inclusion in the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film
'2001: A Space Odyssey'.
It was upon the premiere of his tone poem, 'Don Juan' Op 20, in Weimar on 11 Nov of
1889 that Strauss began acquiring notable attention
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5]. Though
he had
conducted Mozart’s 'Don Giovanni' in Munich before composing it, he drew
from the 1851 tale, 'Don Juan', by Nikolaus Lenau. Thirty years later in 1929 Strauss recorded a version of that issued in four parts on Deutsche Grammophon 90046 and 90047 [audio
(alt)]. Considerably more popular
than 'Don Juan' was his opera, 'Salome' Op 54, which premiered on 9 December
1905 at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13;
live performance
by the Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stefan Soltesz w Angela Denoke as Salome].
The libretto [1,
2,
3] for 'Salome' was written by Hedwig Lachmann upon translating
Oscar Wilde's play by the same name published in Francais in 1891, English
in 1894. Widely cited in
'Salome' is
'Dance of the Seven Veils' in its final scene [audio w score;
live performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Daniele Gatti w Malin Byström as Salome
and choreography by Wim Vandekeybus]. Also much esteemed is Strauss' first of seven operas w
librettos by playwright, Hugo von Hofmannsthal [1,
2],
that being 'Elektra' Op 58
premiering at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden 25 January 1909
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
live performances w Elektra by sopranos
Leonie Rysanek
&
Iréne Theorin].
Come 'Der Rosenkavalier' ("The Knight of the Rose') Op 59 TrV 227 w another
libretto by Hofmannsthal premiering at the Königliches Opernhaus in Dresden
on 26 January 1911 [1,
2;
1985 film performance directed
by Brian Large & John Schlesinger w conducting by George Solti;
score].
Strauss is thought to have made his first piano rolls in late 1905, perhaps
issued in Feb 1906 [*].
Discographical data for Strauss has been compiled by Peter Morse made
available by ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections). Morse traces
Strauss through 25 recording sessions on roll or flat disc, either playing
piano or conducting, to as late as a September 1944 radio broadcast taped in
either Vienna or Munich. Among titles issued in 1906 was 'Fragments' from
'Salome' on WM 1182 [audio].
'Dance of the Seven Veils' was issued on WM 1183. Morse doesn't have
Strauss recording again until circa 1914 (World War I starts July 1914), making several rolls for Hupfeld. Circa December 1921 saw eight more rolls now for Ampico. Strauss'
tone poem, 'Eine Alpensinfonie' ('An Alpine Symphony') Op 64, saw its first
performance in Berlin on 28 October 1915 w an orchestra of above 120 players
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra w Jakub Hrusa audio;
Frankfurt Radio Symphony w Andrés Orozco-Estrada: live performance,
recording].
Morse (above) estimates autumn of 1917 when Strauss recorded his first
string of 78 rpm flat discs for Gramophone, those including a version of
'Don Juan' in four parts issued on Deutsche Grammophon 65856 and 65857
[audio].
Strauss would also later record for Polydor (issued on Brunswick), Columbia
and HMV (Gramophone branch). Most of his records were recorded in
Germany, also holding sessions in London. Morse (above) has Strauss
documenting 'Salome's Dance' in 2 parts in Chicago, Illinois, as well, that
likely on 2-6 Nov 1921 for issue on Brunswick 50002 [see also DAHR;
audio].
Strauss also recorded a couple
parts of 'Der Burger als Edelmann' at that time toward issue on Brunswick
50017. The twenties through the Second German Reich that was the Weimar
Republic [1918-33] saw works for voice, chamber, opera, orchestra, a couple
ballets and fanfares as well as his song cycle, 'Die Tageszeiten' Op 76 TrV
256, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic on 21 July 1928 with the Wiener
Schubertbund (Vienna Schubert Society) [1,
2;
audio by the Ernst-Senff Chor].
Come his opera, 'Arabella' Op 79, on 1 July 1933, his last of six operas w
text by Hofmannsthal [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio w Montserrat Caballé as Arabella
]. Though Strauss had continued working largely as usual through World War I, World War II
wrought some disturbance. Albeit Strauss wasn't Nazi, he was made president
of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Music Bureau)
in November 1933, that when Jews were being
excluded from musical positions in Germany. Complicating that detour was a Jewish
daughter-in-law. Strauss complied with the ban on Jewish composers until 1935
when he curved w 'Die schweigsame Frau' ('The Silent Woman') Op 80 adorning a libretto by
Stefan Zweig, a Jewish writer [Wikipedia;
audio Act I
(alt)].
premiering at the Semperoper in Dresden on 24
June 1935, the opera was banished and Strauss dismissed
from his posts at the Reichsmusikkammer and the Bayreuth Festival. He yet owned the influence, however,
to rescue his daughter-in-law from fate at a concentrate camp. His efforts
to save others in her family were unsuccessful. The foregoing bespeaks
knowledge of the German Reich of which
Adolf Hitler's [1,
2,
3,
4,
5] was the Third
[1,
2,
3] from 1933 to
1945 per National Socialism [Nazism: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5], the
Third Reich also referring to
Hitler's notion of a millennial-long realm that it was his to establish. That
came to less glory, however, than surrender to the Allies during World War
II along w a bad reputation per the Jewish Holocaust
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6]. Strauss' last
opera to see performance in his lifetime was 'Capriccio' Op 85, arriving to
the Nationaltheater in München on 28 October 1942, the Allies having yet to
arrive to Germany [1,
2,
3,
4;
live performance
by the Vienna State Opera Orchestra w Christoph Eschenbach conducting].
Strauss began composing 'Metamorphosen' AV 142 TrV 290 in Vienna on 13 March 1945 beneath
Soviet siege of the city, Vienna surrendering the day after Strauss
completed his 23 studies for string instruments of which 'Metamorphosen'
consists. The Allies claimed victory over the European theatre two months
later, four months later in the Pacific per Japan's surrender. Paul Sacher
conducted the premiere of 'Metamorphosen' in Zurich on 25 January 1946 after
the War [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio by the Staatskapelle Weimar w score;
live performance by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra]. Among Strauss' final compositions
was 'Allegretto' in E major for violin and piano AV 149 TrV 295 w a date of
5 August 1948
[see Lütteken;
audio;
live performance]. Strauss' last four songs
weren't entirely so, though he composed his
'Four Last Songs' ('Vier Letzte Lieder') TrV 296 from 5 May to 20 Sep of 1948 with texts related to
death by Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff
[1,
2,
3,
4;
live performances by
Lee Abrahmsen &
Pamela Coburn].
Albeit completed in 1948, they didn't see performance, posthumous, until 22 May 1950 by
soprano, Kirsten Flagstad, at Royal Albert Hall in London. They were
published that year as a compiled unit by Ernst Roth. Strauss had intended
to include 'Besinnung' w another text by Hesse but it became "too
complicated" to finish. Strauss' swan song (last song) was actually 'Malven' TrV 297
completed 23 Nov 1948 to a text by Betty Wehrli-Knobel
[audio by sopranos Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
& Jessye Norman]. Strauss had been creating sketches for his Singspiel
(opera genre),'Des Esels Schatten' ('The Donkey’s Shadow') AV 300 TrV 294 [1,
2,
3],
when he died on 8 September 1949, three weeks shy of the
official announcement of the existence of the People's Republic of China on
October 1 of '49. 'The Donkey's Shadow' eventually saw posthumous performance on 7 April 1964
to a score completed by Karl Haußner. References:
Classical Net;
Wikipedia: English,
French,
German,
Spanish.
Chronologies (auf Deutsch): 1,
2.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
cross references (Opus, AV & TrV):
1,
2;
by genre: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
German: 1,
2;
operas: English: 1,
2,
3;
German;
Spanish;
tone poems: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: 'Critical Edition';
English: 1,
2 (Australia),
3,
4,
5;
French: 1,
2;
German: 1,
2.
Sheet music: 1,
2.
Song texts: 1,
2,
3.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
cylinder.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
'Four Last Songs'.
Documentaries: 'Dance of the Seven Veils' by Ken Russell (1970).
Iconography.
Usage in modern media.
Further reading: correspondence;
'Toward a Discography of Composer-Pianists' by Christopher Madden;
'Strauss in Greece' by Michele Napolitano;
'Richard Strauss' by Ernest Newman (Books for Libraries Press 1969);
newspapers;
Richard Strauss Ausgabe;
Jürg Schoch (Switzerland after WW II);
Tom Service ('The Guardian');
'Richard Strauss als Musikdramatiker' by Eugen Schmitz;
Srauss A-Z;
Third Reich and.
See also: Radio WQXR: Part 1:
tone poems,
Part 2:
operas,
Part 3:
enigmas;
the Richard Strauss Festival: 1,
2;
the Richard Strauss Institut;
the Richard Strauss Quellen Verzeichnis.
Biblio: 1,
2;
'Richard Strauss and His World' by Bryan Gilliam (Princeton U Press 1992);
'German Lieder in the Nineteenth Century' by Rufus Hallmark (Routledge 2010);
'Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma' by Michael Kennedy (Cambridge U Press 2006);
'Richard Strauss: Die Opern' by Laurenz Lütteken (C.H.Beck 2013);
'Strauss' by Laurenz Lütteken (Oxford U Press 2019);
'Richard Strauss: A Chronicle of the Early Years 1864-1898' by Willi Schuh (CUP Archive 1982).
Other profiles: English: didactic;
encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
German: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Italian (Treccani): 1,
2,
3.
AV numbers below per Von Asow,
third edition. TRV numbers per Franz and Florian Trenner, 1999. Richard Strauss 1915 TRV 233 Op 64 Symphonic poem 22 sections San Francisco Symphony Herbert Blomstedt 1886 Op 16 TRV 147 Symphonic fantasie Staatskapelle Dresden Rudolf Kempe 1896 Op 30 TRV 176 Symphonic poem Chicago Symphony Orchestra Georg Solti 1889 TRV 156 Op 20 Symphonic Poem Staatskapelle Berlin Conductor: Richard Strauss 1897 Op 35 TRV 184 Fantasie variation 3 sections NHK Symphony Wolfgang Sawallisch 1948 AV 150 TRV 296 Alpine Symphony Christian Thielemann Soprano: Anja Harteros 1898 TRV 190 Op 40 Symphonic poem Orchestrer des Bayerischen Rundfunks Conductor: Mariss Jansons Violin: Anton Barachovsky 1945 AV 143 TRV 290 Study for strings Staatskapelle Weimar Antoni Wit 1903–05 Op 54 TRV 215 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Karl Bohm Direction: Götz Friedrich Salome: Teresa Stratas 1902-03 Op 53 TRV 209 Symphonic poem Scottish National Orchestra Neeme Jarvi |
 Richard Strauss 1918 Painting: Max Liebermann Source: All World Art |
|
| Born on 9
June
1865 on the Danish island of Funen,
Carl August Nielsen
is a secondary though well-regarded composer who
had a house painter for a father. A romantic-modern bridge figure,
Nielsen played piano and violin as a child, producing a lullaby and polka at
about age eight or nine. Nielsen is catalogued via three systems: Opus by
Nielsen, the CNW and the FS.
The "CNW" lists 419 works per the 'Catalogue of Carl Nielsen's Works' first published online by the Danish Royal Library in 2015.
The "FS" is largely chronological per Dan Fog and Torben Schousboe in
'Kompositioner' (Busck 1965), updated in '98 for CD. [See references for
Compositions below.] Accordingly, Nielson's FS 1 is CNW 44, that a juvenile work
at about age nine that Nielson denied an Opus number
called 'Polka' in A
major for violin as of 1874.
Nielsen's FS 2 is another juvenile work not permitted an Opus number, that assigned to 'Skomagerens Brudevals' ('Cobbler's
Bridal
Waltz') for piano w a date of 1878 [audio by Claus Jørgensen].
His FS 3 is divided into early unpublished pieces w dates estimated from 1879 through
1887 as FS 3a through FS 3u. FS 3d, for example, is assigned to 'String
Quartet' in D minor as of 1882 or '83 also listed as
CNW 49 [audio ]. FS 3g is
assigned to 'Vuggevise' ('Lullaby' aka 'Cradle') for solo voice w a date circa 1883
also catalogued as CNW 390.
Nielsen began studies in violin and composition at the Royal Danish Academy
of Music in 1884, there to attend until Dec 1886. His 'String Quartet' in F
major arrived in 188, catalogued as unpublished per FS 3k corresponding to
CNW 50 [audio].
Nielson finally documented his Opus 1 (CNW 32 FS 6) per 'Suite for Stings'
consisting of 3 pieces first performed at the Tivoli in Copenhagen on 8 Sep
1888 [1,
2,
3;
audio w score by the Young Danish Chamber Orcestra w Gunnar Tagmose;
live performance by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra Terje Tønnesen;
score]. From 1889 to 1905 he was second violinist in the Royal Danish Orchestra at
the Royal Theatre. During that time he toured Europe on scholarship and met
Danish sculptor, Anne
Marie Brodersen [1,
2], also touring on
scholarship, whom he married on 10 May
of 1891. Anne Marie would bear three of Nielsen's five children, two of
which were
illegitimate, he already having a son when he married Anne Marie. They are
largely his symphonies and concertos for which Nielson is known, his
'Symphony No.1' Op 7 CNW 25 FS 16 premiering in Copenhagen on 14 March 1894
w Johan Svendsen conducting the Kongelige Kape (Royal Cape) Orchestra
[1,
2;
audio: San Francisco Symphony w Herbert Blomstedt w score,
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra w Neeme Järvi;
CD].
Written in 1895-96 were Nielsen's 'Six Songs' Op 10 set to texts by Ludvig
Holstein published sometime in 1897. Nielsen's cantata, 'Hymnus Amoris' Op 12, saw its initial performance on 27
April 1897 in Copenhagen [1,
2;
live performance w soprano by Eleni Calenos;
audios w soprano by Jocelyn Ascherl;
Inga Nielsen;
score]. Nielsen received a state pension in 1901 to
supplement his income as a violinist, permitting him to cease teaching
and more concentrate on composing.
Sampling one of Nielson's operas toward the end of his early period is 'Saul og
David' CNW 1 FS 25, to the Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen on 28 November
1902 w a libretto by Einar Christiansen [1,
2,
3;
live performance by the Royal Danish Opera w Sixten Ehrling;
CD].
Three days later on 1 Dec Nielsen conducted the first performance of
'Symphony No.2' ('The Four Temperaments') OP 16 FS 29
[1,
2,
3,
audio: San Francisco Symphony w Herbert Blomstedt,
Gothenburg S O w Neeme Järvi;
live performance by Estonian Festival Orchestra w Paavo Järvi
(son to Neeme)]. 'Symphony No.2' is
particularly identified w Nielsen's so-called "psychological" period of 1897
to 1904 during troublesome times in his marriage to Anne Marie.
Nielson's 'Helias Overture' Op 17 appeared at the Odd Fellows Mansion in
Copenhagen in 8 Oct 1903, w Johan Svendsen conducting the Royal Danish
Orchestra [1,
2,
3;
audio by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt w sore]. That had been inspired by the sun over the Aegean Sea on a
trip to Greece, Turkey and Italy earlier that year. Nielsen spent 1905 to 1914 as second conductor at the Royal Theatre.
Nielsen's middle period of mature works included his neoclassical 'Violin Concerto' Op 33 CNW 41 FS 61
written for violin virtuoso, Emil Telmányi in 1911
[1,
2,
3;
audio w violin by Leonidas Kavakos
&
Nikolaj Znaider;
CD].
Later Neoclassicism [1,
2,
3,
4] of Nielson's time labels a
reactionary movement to latter Romanticism.
Bringing up old classical forms again, Neoclassicism was antithetical to Modernism
for which Nielson is considerably more famous
[Modernism and its various camps: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7; see also
Postmodernism].
Nielsen began conducting the
orchestra of the Musikforeningen in 1914, then began teaching at the Royal
Danish Academy in 1916. Nielsen's incidental music for 'Aladdin' arrived to
the Royal Theatre in February 1919 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio: w score;
CD;
live performance by the Orchestra Now w JoAnn Falletta;
score].
Nielson's 'Symphony No. 3' ('Sinfonia Espansiva') Op 27 FS 60 witnessed its debut performance on 28 Feb 1912
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio: Royal Danish Orchestra w Leonard Bernstein,
Danish National S O w Michael Schønwandt,
CD].
In 'The 'Arcadian' Flute' Beth Chandler discusses 'Symphony No. 3' at
the delineation of Nielsen's career into two periods of first and last. She
otherwise finds him in four periods, the first to 1903 ending with 'Symphony
No. 2' and the 'Helias Overture', his second 1903-12 citing his cantata,
'Søvnen' ('Sleep') Op 18 at its beginning,
his third 1912-22 ending w his 'Symphony No.5'
and 'Wind Quartet' Op 43 [1,
2], and his fourth thereafter to '31.
Among Nielson's works most often performed is his 'Symphony No.4' Op 29
premiering on 14 April 1916, written during WW I and reflecting as much in its
"battle" of timpani [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio by San Francisco Symphony w Herbert Blomstedt,
live performance by Frankfurt Radio S O w Paavo Järvi]. Nielsen
is also well-known for 'Symphony No.5'
Op 50 FS 97 that appeared for a Music Society concert on 24 January 1922.
Regarded as a masterpiece, it incorporates multiple modernistic devises toward
an overall exercise of contrasts
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio
by the New York Philharmonic w Leonard Bernstein
& the
Gothenburg S O w Neeme Järvi].
Nielsen's 'Symphony No.6' ('Simple Symphony'), the last, was another to employ modernistic
techniques, he conducting that in Copenhagen on 11 Dec 1925
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio by the San Francisco S O w Herbert Blomstedt;
live performance by the Frankfurt Radio S O w Paavo Järvi]. Another departure from
the romantic via the neoclassical was 'Flute Concerto' CNW 42 FS 119
premiering in Paris on 21 October 1926 w Holger Gilbert-Jespersen at flute
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio w flute by Denis Bouriakov,
Gareth Davies w score,
Aurèle Nicolet] w score.
Nielson's last principal orchestral work was 'Clarinet Concerto' Op 57 CNW
43 FS 129, another study in contrasting elements first performed on 11 Oct
1928 in Copenhagen [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio w clarinet by Mark van de Wiel w score;
live performances w clarinet by Staff Sgt. Patrick Morgan
&
Charles Neidich].
Nielsen died on 3 October 1931, having completed only two operas, though nearly 300 songs and
hymns. On 17 Dec 1939 his wife, Anne Marie, unveiled her monument to Nielsen. Albeit a steadily prolific composer,
he wasn't so popular
as others touching his span, his modernistic composing in particular more
appreciated now than then, it also taking some time to acquire an
international recognition beyond Denmark.
References: 1,
2.
Chronologies: 1,
2.
^
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological: 1,
2;
CNW: 1,
2;
CNW, FS and Opus cross referencing:
1,
2;
FS;
FS & Opus cross referencing:
1,
2;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Klassika (alpha, chrono, FS and Op);
songs.
Authorship.
Editions & scores: 'Carl Nielsen Edition': Danish,
English;
English: 1,
2,
3;
French;
German.
Sheet music: 1,
2
(alt).
Song texts: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
BBC: 1,
2;
NPR:
'Symphonies Nos. 1-6'.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
select: 'Carl Nielson on Record' (box compilation of 30 CDs).
Documentaries: 'The Light and the Dark' by Karl Aage Rasmussen.
Iconography:
gravesite.
Further reading: Carl Nielson 2015;
childhood
to 1879; early years
to 1889,
to 1902;
education;
fame 1906-11;
family;
flute and (Beth E. Chandler);
last years: 1924-31;
1926-31;
marriage: 1,
2,
3;
middle career 1894 to 1925;
military and;
Modernism
and;
operas;
popular song and;
youth 1888-91 (age 23-26).
See also the Carl Nielson Museum;
the Carl Nielson Symposium 2011.
Biblio: 1,
2;
'Den Lille Carl Nielsen' by Peter Dürrfeld (Informations Forlag
2015);
'Nielsen: Symphony No. 5' by David Fanning (Cambridge University Press 1997);
'Carl Nielsen's Voice: His Songs in Context' by Anne-Marie Reynolds (Museum Tusculanum Press 2010);
'The Concert' by Michael Steinberg (Oxford U Press 2000).
Other profiles: Dansk: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Deutsch;
English: Christensen;
encyclopedic: 1,
2;
musical; 1,
2,
3,
4;
Español:
Français:
Italiano;
русском. Carl Nielsen 1918–19 Op 34 Incidental music 7 pieces Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Neeme Järvi 1928 Op 57 Korean Broadcasting System SO Alexander Rahbari Clarinet: Julian Bliss 1926 FS 119 2 movements Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra John Frandsen Flute: Jean Pierre Rampal 1901 Op 17 Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra Giordano Bellincampi An Imaginary Trip to the Faroes 1927 FS 123 Rhapsodic overtureDanish Radio Symphony Orchestra Herbert Blomstedt 1899–1900 FS 25 Opera Royal Danish Opera Sixten Ehrling David: Kjell Magnus Sandve Saul: Leif Roar 1897-98 Revised 1899 Op 14 Danish String Quartet 1901-02 Op 16 'The Four Temperaments' Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Sakari Oramo 1910-11 Op 27 4 movements Danmark Radio SO/Thomas Dausgaard 1922 Op 43 Carion ^ Note: Various camps associated w Modernism: Abstract Absolute Music Eclecticism Electronicism Expressionism: 1, 2 Futurism Hyperrealsim Indeterminism Jazz Minimalism New Objectivity Neo-Romanticism Primitivism Serialism Texturalism |
 Carl Nielsen Source: The Guardian |
|
 Jean Sibelius Source: Counter-Currents |
Jean Sibelius
[pronunciation]
was born on 18 Dec 1865 in Hämeenlinna, Finland, then part of Russia, to
become a major composer in critical regard to remain so to this day. About age fifteen
he aspired to become a violin virtuoso. Among his earliest compositions was
his brief pizzicato (plucking) 'Vattendroppar' ('Raindrops') JS 216 for violin and
cello circa 1881 [audio w violin by Justina Auškelytė;
live performance w violin by Janine Jansen]. "JS" in Sibelius =
deest or WoO (Without Opus). Sibelius began to study law upon graduation from high
school in 1885, but quickly switched to the Helsinki Music Institute (now
the Sibelius Academy) from which he graduated in 1889. He studied another
year in Berlin with Albert Becker, then in Vienna with
Karl Goldmark. About that
time he changed his musical direction, thinking he'd begun to play violin
too late to become virtuosic. Sibelius studied another year in Italy before beginning a
career in composition and conducting that would find him traveling to points
in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Asami Hagiwara
assists in understanding Sibelius by finding him in three periods according
to piano works, beginning the first from 1890 to 1903 described as national
romantic w 'Six Impromptus' Op 5 [1,
2;
audio w Håvard Gimse at piano;
score].
Sibelius' middle period, labeled
neo-classical from 1903 to 1919, begins w 'Ten Pieces' Op 58. Hagiwara
describes Sibelius' final period as synthesis style starting w 'Six Pieces'
Op 94, 'Sechs Bagatellen' Op 97 and 'Huit petits Morceaux' Op 99. Largely
known for symphonic works, toward the beginning of his early period Sibelius premiered his
set of five tone poems, 'Kullervo', on 28 April 1892 to considerable
critical applause [1,
2,
3
(alt);
audio: Bournemouth S O w Paavo Berglund,
BBC Scottish S O w Thomas Dausgaard;
live performance by the Finnish Radio S O w Jukka-Pekka Saraste].
Sibelius' Opus 1 is assigned to 'Five Christmas Songs' [1,
2]
the earliest of which was composed in 1897,
that 'Det Mörknar Ute' No.3 to text [1,
2] by Zacharias Topelius. The
four remaining were written from 1901 to arrangements as late as 1954.
'Finlandia' Op 26 is another tone poem of about eight minutes that saw its
premiere on 2 July of 1900 in Helsinki w conducting by Robert Kajanus
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio: National Military Band on Edison cylinder;
Estonian National Male Choir & S O w Paavo Jârvi;
live performance by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra w Mariss Jansons].
Finland was a Russian domain until declaring independence in Dec 1917 as of
the Bolshevik Revolution [Russian Revolution: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8]
amidst the climate of WW I. In 1927 Sibelius published the 'Finlandia Hymn'
drawn from 'Finlandia' w text by opera singer, Wäinö Sola, that the last of
12 pieces in 'Masonic Ritual Music' Op 113 [*;
audio]. That saw publishing in America
in 1937 by the Grand Lodge of New York [*]. The 'Finlandia Hymn' also
supplies the setting to a couple of Christmas hymns, one of which is 'Be
Still My Soul' w original text by Katharina Amalia Dorothea as of 1752
[*;
audio: 1,
2;
score;
text: 1,
2]. The nationalistic 'Finlandia Hymn'
arrived in 1941 w text supplied
by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi. The national anthem of Finland, however,
didn't arrive until 'Maamme' in 1948 w music by Fredrik Pacius
and text
by Johan Ludvig Runeberg. Though not Finland's official anthem, Pacius' 'Maamme'
has ever been employed as if it were. A couple weeks after the first performance of 'Finlandia' Sibelius' 'Symphony No.1' in E
minor Op 39 appeared in Berlin on 18 July 1900 w Robert Kajanus conducting the
Helsinki Philharmonic [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio: BBC;
Berliner Philharmoniker w Herbert von Karajan;
live performances by the Orchestre de Paris w Paavo Järvi,
the Singapore Symphony Orchestra w Hannu Lintu
the Lahti Symphony Orchestra w Jukka-Pekka Saraste].
Come 'Violin Concerto' in D minor Op 47 premiering in Helsinki on 8 Feb 1904
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio w Camilla Wicks at violin w score;
CD by the Lahti S O w Osmo Vänskä].
As implied above, Sibelius was a Freemason as had been
composers such as
Frederick II and Franz Liszt. Freemasonry
had been banned
from Finland under the Russian monarchy until winning independence in 1917
to become a republic in 1919.
Sibelius became a founding member of Suomi Lodge 1 in Helsinki in 1922 while
composing 'Symphony No.6' in D minor Op 104 toward its premiere by the Helsinki
Philharmonic Orchestra on 19 February 1923 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra w Leif Segerstam;
live performance by the Swedish Radio S O w Esa-Pekka Salonen]. 'Symphony No.7' in C major
Op 105
arrived to Stockholm on 24 March 1924 w Sibelius conducting
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio by the Danish National S O w Leif Segerstam &
the Minnesota S O w Osmo Vänskä;
live performances by the Hallé Orchestra w Sir Mark Elder
& the Mahler Chamber Orchestra w Daniel Harding].
Come incidental music for Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' of 1610-11 w 'The
Tempest' Op 109 first performed on 15 March 1926 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
live performance of No.1 that is the
'Overture' by Podlasie Opera na Philharmonic w Young Chil Lee;
audio of No.2 that is 'Berceuse' ('Miranda Falls Asleep') which opens Act I]
by the National Philharmonic w Charles Gerhardt. In 1929 [IMSLP]
Sibelius published the 'Overture' as a
work in itself along w two Suites comprised of 19 pieces from 'The Tempest'
in which it appeared as 'Suite 1' No.9. 'Berceuse' saw publishing in the Suites as 'Suite 1'
No.7b ['Suite' No.1 & No.2: *;
audio by the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra w Leif Segerstam].
Sibelius' final symphonic poem was 'Tapiola' Op 112 premiering on 26
December 1926 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio: BBC;
by the Gothenburg S O w Neeme Järvi;
the Philharmonia Orchestra w Herbert von Karajan;
the
Danish National S O w Leif Segerstam].
Sibelius began an eighth symphony in 1926 with which he fought until its
abandonment about 1938 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5]. Sibelius is thought to have destroyed the whole
argument in 1945 but fragments may yet possibly exist [1,
2,
3]
which have been
put to music and recorded by such as the BBC Philharmonic w John Stogards
[audio: 1,
2].
Sibelius' last Opus is 116 (listed as 117 in Fazer 1993 but not used)
assigned to '3 Pieces for Violin and Piano' composed in '29, published in
1930 [IMSLP;
audio]. Sibelius One traces him composing 'Rakkaalle Ainolle' ('To My
Beloved') to as late as 1931 in its listing of Sibelius JS (deest or WoO).
The latter years of Sibelius' career were spent largely on arrangements and
revisions, such as those performed by Kim Borg on 14 June 1957 in Helsinki,
one being 'Kullervon Valitus' ('Kullervo's Lament') from his 1892 Op 7, the
other being 'Kom
nu hit, död' ('Come Away, Death') from his 1909 Op 60 No.1 of Shakespeare's
'Twelfth Night' (1601-02). Sibelius died a few months later on 20 Sep
1957.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Chronology.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4;
JS (deest or WoO): English,
Japanese;
by Opus: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
Finnish,
French,
Japanese;
Symphonies 1-7: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
'Jean Sibelius Werke': 1,
2.
Sheet music.
Song texts: 1,
2,
3.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
Symphonies 1-7
(NPR);
Symphonies 1-3,
Symphonies 1-4.
Live performances.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Usage in modern media.
Documentaries: 'Jean Sibeliuksen' by Aho & Soldan 1961
(alt);
'Jean Sibelius' by Christopher Nupen 1984:
Part 1: 'The Early Years',
Part 2: 'Maturity and Silence'.
Radio interview 6 Dec 1948.
Iconography.
Further reading by source: Leon Botstein;
Sibelius.
Further reading by topic: chamber music for cello;
choral works;
recently discovered works;
Freemasonry music: 1,
2;
incidental music;
organ compositions;
piano compositions;
songs;
symphonies;
trivia: 1,
2.
See also: the Sibelius Museum;
Sibelius Societies: Deutsch,
Finnish.
Biblio: 1,
2,
3;
'The Cambridge Companion to Sibelius' by Philip Grimley (Cambridge U Press 2004);
'Jean Sibelius' by Tomi Mäkelä (Boydell & Brewer 2011).
Other profiles: English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3;
journalistic;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Finnish: 1,
2,
3;
French: 1,
2;
Italian
(Treccani);
Spanish
(Wikipedia).
Jean Sibelius 1895 Revised 1897 1900 Op 22:2 Symphonic poem 1 movement BBC National Orchestra of Wales Thomas Søndergård 1889 Op 39 4 movements Berliner Philharmoniker Herbert von Karajan 1901-02 Op 43 4 movements Wiener Philharmoniker Leonard Bernstein 1907 Op 52 3 movements Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra Esa-Pekka Salonen 1910-11 Op 63 4 movements London Symphony Orchestra Sir Colin Davis Op 82 3 movements 1915 Revised 1916-19 Philharmonia Orchestra Vladimir Ashkenazy 1923 Op 104 4 movements Lahti Symphony Orchestra Osmo Vänskä 1918?–1924 Op 105 1 movement Wiener Philharmoniker Leonard Bernstein 1881 JS 216 pizzicato Violin: Janine Jansen |
|
 Alexander Glazunov Source: Dimitri Tiomkin |
Born in Saint Petersburg on 10 August 1865,
Alexander Glazunov (Алекса́ндр
Глазуно́в)
was the son of a rich publisher whose major claim to fame would include
eight symphonies. He began piano at age nine and composing a
couple years later. Glazunov's interests were much aligned w
Tchaikovsky's
toward the
internationalization of Russian music, also finding much to be gained in
Western Europe. Even so, he was a firm romantic for
whom modernistic approaches to composition that arose during his career were
"cacophonic" at best. In 1879 he became protégé to
Rimsky-Korsakov. His
Op 1 is assigned to 'String Quartet No.1' in D major composed in 1881-82
toward publication in 1887 [IMSLP;
audio by Shostakovich Quartet w score &
the Moscow Philharmonic Quartet].
Glazunov wrote six more such quartets to as late as Op 107 ('Hommage au
Passé') in C major in 1930, published in Leipzig in '31 [IMSLP;
audio by Shostakovich Quartet w score &
the Utrecht String Quartet].
Glazunov's 'Symphony No.1' ('Slavonian Symphony') in E major Op 5 was
composed at age sixteen w a dedication to
Rimsky-Korsakov
toward premiere in St. Petersburg sometime in 1882
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio by the Moscow S O w Alexander Anissimov,
the Moscow Radio S O w Vladimir Fedoseyev,
the USSR Ministry of Culture S O w Gennadi Rozhdestvensky]. He quickly came to note internationally
due to falling in w the Belyayev Circle, a loose association of composers
gravitating about publisher, Mitrofan Belyayev.
The Belyayev circle was successor to the Moguchaya Kuchka [the Mighty Bunch
aka The Five: 1,
2]
led by Mily Balakirev whose interest had been in
developing a distinctive nationalistic Russian music. Belyayev's circle owned the same
purpose w the additional task of taking Russia west to Europe, which Belyayev and Glazunov did in 1884
toward the performance of 'Symphony No.1' in Weimar, Germany, in '85,
inaugurating Belyayev's greater project of staging symphonies in Germany by
Russian composers in '86 and '87 following his establishment of a publishing
house in Leipzig in 1885. Though Glazunov was an immediate success in
Germany he didn't begin conducting until 1888. He began teaching at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory
[1,
2] in
1899. Among Glazunov's most favored works is 'Violin Concerto' in A minor Op
82 which premiered in St. Petersburg on 15 Feb 1905 [1,
2,
3;
audio w violin by Chloë Hanslip
&
Oscar Shumsky w score;
live performance by Hilary Hahn]. Glazunov had
dedicated that to violin virtuoso,
Leopold Auer, who performed it. Glazunov
became director at the Petrograd Conservatory in 1905 until 1928 during which
latter time he
championed young
Shostakovich
who became a student there in 1919 at age thirteen. His 'Symphony No.8' in E flat major Op 83 which is
considered by some his best had been composed in 1905 toward publication in
1907 [1,
2;
audio by the Moscow S O w Alexander Anissimov
& the Royal Scottish National Orchestra w José Serebrier
w score]. Glazunov was honored with an
honorary doctorate at both Oxford and Cambridge in 1907. His prestige at St.
Pete's among international peers made his a smooth transition from Imperial
to Bolshevik Russia upon the Revolution of 1917 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8]. There was no problem with
his music and the new regime could use a well-regarded world-class composer.
In 1928 Glazunov left Russia for Vienna, never to return. He toured Europe
and the States, then settled in Paris in 1929. Among Glazunov's more
excursive compositions was per an instrument relatively new and not used a
lot in classical composition, that being 'Saxophone Concerto' in E flat
major Op 109 premiered in Paris by German saxophonist,
Sigurd Raschèr, on 25
Nov 1934 [1,
2;
live performances w saxophone by Juan Pedro Luna Aguda
&
Joseph Lulloff]. Glazunov's last Opus
is 110 assigned to 'Fantasie' in G minor for organ dedicated to organist, Marcel
Dupré, w the manuscript dated 12 April 1935
[IMSLP;
audio w organ by Nicholas Capozzoli;
live performance by Konstantin Volostnov]. He died on 21 March 1936 near Paris,
leaving the first movement of his 'Symphony No.9' in D minor, begun in 1910,
undeveloped [1,
2;
audio by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra w Alexander Anissimov,
CD].
Along with works for chamber and orchestra Glazunov composed for stage, piano and voice as
well as concertantes and instrumentals.
References: 1,
2.
Chronology.
Compositions:
alphabetical;
chronological;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
by Opus;
symphonies.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2.
3;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music: 1,
2.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3,
Russian;
select: 'Complete Symphonies & Concertos' by the Russian National Orchestra w
Jose Serebrier (box set of 8 CDs).
Usage in modern media.
iconography.
Further reading: the Alexander Glazunov Foundation.
Bibliography (Russian).
Other profiles: English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3;
Los Angeles Public Library;
musical: 1,
2;
Wellesley College;
Russian: 1,
2,
3.
Alexander Glazunov 1934 Op 109 Piano: Edward Holly Saxophone: Gavin Brennan 1900 Ballet 1 act Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Ernest Ansermet 1891 Op 34 Symphonic picture in D minor USSR SO/Yevgeny Svetlanov 1885 Op 13 Symphonic Poem B minor 1 movement Vienna Philharmonic Conductor: Wilhelm Furtwangler 1880-82 Op 5 4 movements Moscow Symphony Orchestra Alexander Anissimov 1884-86 Op 16 4 movements USSR Ministry Of Culture SO Gennadi Rozhdestvensky 1893 Op 48 3 movements Russian National Orchestra José Serebrier 1895 Op 55 4 movements USSR Ministry Of Culture SO Gennadi Rozhdestvensky 1902 Op 77 4 movements USSR Ministry Of Culture SO Gennadi Rozhdestvensky |
|
|
Ferruccio Busoni
was born in Empoli,
Italy, on 1 April 1866 to professional musicians, his father a clarinetist, his
mother a pianist. Raised largely in Trieste, his earliest compositions
listed in the "BV" directory were written at age seven. By the time Busoni
had finished assigning opus numbers to his works they'd become confusing
enough to inspire Jürgen Kindermann's BV numbering scheme in 'Busoni-Verzeichnis' published
in 1980 (Regensburg). Where KiV, Kind or K numbering are seen they refer to
the same BV catalogue. Where BV B numbering is seen it refers to adaptations
from other composers such as transcriptional arrangements of their, not his,
original works. Busoni's BV 1, then, is 'Canzone' in C major also listed as
Op 1, an unpublished work thought composed in June of 1873. Busoni was a
virtuosic prodigy who made his first public
appearance at piano at age seven with his parents on 24 Nov of 1873 at the
Schiller-Verein in Trieste. He was playing his own
compositions at age nine, entering the Vienna Conservatory that year. It was
in Vienna that he composed his first published work, 'Cinq Pieces' for piano
BV 71 Op 3 of 1877 [Rodoni].
Busoni further studied beneath Wilhelm Mayer in Graz at age 11 and was
conducting by age 12. Lending example of his early composing is
his '24
Preludes' BV 181 Op 37 written when he was barely age 16 toward publishing
that year [audio w piano by Geoffrey Douglas Madge w score or
Karl-Heinz Schlüter;
scores]. In 1886 Busoni received instruction from
Carl Reinecke in
Leipzig. Taking his first teaching post in 1888 in Helsinki, Busoni then
taught in Moscow in '90 and '91 before touring the United States between 1891 and 1894
[Roberge]
where he taught at Boston's New England Conservatory
in '91 and '92. The NEC [1,
2]
had been founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjée. The
Boston Symphony Orchestra [1,
2] had been founded only ten years prior to Busoni's
arrival in '91 in 1881. It was given a home in 1900 w the erection of Boston
Symphony Hall [*].
Tchaikovsky had also
first arrived to the States in August of 1891 for the official opening of
Carnegie Hall.
Paderewski would visit
the States in November. Returning to Berlin in '94, Busoni then taught in Weimar, Vienna and Basel. It was 10
November 1904 when he first performed one of his best-known compositions, his 'Piano Concerto' in C Major BV 247
Opus 39 w Karl Muck conducting the Berlin Philharmonic
[*;
audio: 1,
2,
3;
live performance w Marc-André Hamelin at piano.
Busoni's BV 248 Op 41 was his romantic 'Turandot Suite' for orchestra premiering in
October 1905 [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio by the Argovia Philharmonic w Douglas Bostock
or
the Hong Kong P O w Samuel Wong]. That was incidental music
to Carlo Gozzi's fairytale of 1762 [play]. On an unidentified date in 1905
Busoni had begun making piano rolls [Kogan]
for Welte-Mignon to as late as 1907 [*], highly criticized as little
representing
his virtuosic pianism. Recording was stuck between a rock and hard place in
the early 20th century. Piano rolls offered clarity but virtuosity on
stilts; acoustic recording could track virtuosity if you could hear it
through noise. The major leap in recording arrived w the invention of the
electronic microphone and electrical recording in the early twenties.
In the meantime two of the rolls Busoni made for Welte-Mignon in 1905 are
believed to be
Chopin's
'Nocturne' in F sharp Op 15 No.2 and
Franz Liszt’s
'Rigoletto Paraphrase'.
Busoni would also make piano rolls for Hupfeld [*], Ampico
[1,
2;
Chopin's
'Ballade No.1' in G minor Op 23 made for Hupfeld circa 1910 converted to Ampico 50047 issued 1916] and
Duo-Art [1,
2,
3,
4].
Busoni enters the annals of early modernism at its avant-garde via his discussion of absolute
music [1,
2,
3]
in his manifesto on modernity in music, 'Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music' published in 1907,
reissued in 1911 [1,
2;
full text: 1,
2]. With that book his composing began to
change as witnessed in 'Elegies'
for piano BV 249 for piano of which six were written
in 1907 w his 'Berceuse' lullaby composed on 5 June 1909 added to a total of seven pieces
[1,
2;
Nos.1-6: live performance w piano by Svetlana Belsky;
No.7 ('Berceuse'): audio w piano by Igor Levit;
scores: Nos. 1-6,
Nos. 1-7].
Busoni's Berceuse Elégiaque' for orchestra BV 252a Op 42 bears a composing
date of 27 Oct 1909 to see conducting for the first time at Carnegie Hall in
the United States by Gustav Mahler on 21 Feb 1911
[1,
2,
3;
audio by the Hong Kong P O w Samuel Wong;
live performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra w Ed Spanjaard].
Busoni's first of three versions of 'Fantasia Contrappuntistica' for solo
piano BV 256 saw composing in June 1910
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio w piano by Wolf Harden w score,
Lukasz Kwiatkowski,
Geoffrey Douglas Madge;
score].
Revisions of 'Fantasia Contrappuntistica' followed on 20 July 1912 (256a)
and 3 July 1921 (256b). Busoni's No.1 of several versions of 'Sonatina'
is dated 4 Aug 1910 numbered BV 257
[IMSLP;
audio w piano by Peter Armstrong;
score: 1,
2].
Busoni wrote the librettos to all four of his operas, three completed of
which the first, 'Die Brautwahl' BV 258, premiered on 12 April 1912 at the
Stadttheater in Hamburg [1,
2,
3;
audio].
Busoni served as director of the Musical Lyceum of Bologna in 1913 until the
start of WW I in July 1914. Busoni had premiered his 'Indian Fantasy' BV 264
Op 44 for
piano and orchestra only four months before in May
[1,
2,
3;
audio w piano by John Ogden;
live performance w piano by Carlo Grante;
score]. That had been based on
research in the music of the American Indian by
Natalie Curtis
in 1910. The next year saw Busoni touring to the United States in January.
By the time he returned to Europe, Italy had declared war on Austria-Hungary
(May 23 1915). Not wishing to work in any
country participating in the War, he headed for Zurich. While in Switzerland he published his
first edition of 'Bach-Busoni' in 1916, a work that would come to seven volumes in
1920 encompassing thirty years' worth of Bach transcriptions
[1,
2].
It was yet World War I, America entering the contest on 6 April 1917, when
Busoni presented a double billing of operas on 11 May 1917 at the Zurich
Opera House, one being 'Arlecchino' ('Harlequin') BV 270, the other 'Turandot'
BV 273 ['Arlecchino': 1,
2,
3;
4;
audio w John Brownlee as harlequin;
live performances w Marco Alemanno
or
Piero Baldini as harlequin;
'Turandot': 1,
2,
3,
4;
live performance].
Busoni's 'Klavierübung' ('Piano Exercises') BV A 3 began to see publishing
in parts in 1918 by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, the Great War ceasing
that year on 11 November 1918. Breitkopf & Härtel was Europe's oldest
music publishing house established in 1719 [1,
2]. It was 18–19
November 1919 that Busoni recorded 13 tracks at Columbia Studios in London,
compositions by Franz Liszt hogging the show w six of them, including a couple of
abbreviations of 'Hungarian Rhapsody No.13'. Those were unfit for
distribution and likely lost, but Busoni would return to future
sessions for Columbia on 27 February 1922 to document thirteen more tracks
including Bach's chorale prelude for organ, 'Rejoice, Beloved Christians' BWV 734 issued on Columbia L 1470 [audio].
In the meantime Busoni labeled his version of modernism "Young Classicism"
in a 1920 letter to German critic, Paul Bekker.
Busoni's new classicism isn't to be confused with Neo-classicism
[1,
2,
3,
4;
music: 1,
2]. Busoni
published another work on music theory in 1922 called 'Von der Einheit der
Musik' ('The Unity of Music') before his death of
kidney disease on 27 July 1924 [Berlin gravesite]. He'd left his fourth and final opera, 'Doktor
Faust' BV 303, unfinished, its libretto begun just after the outbreak of WW
I. 'Doktor Faust' was completed by his student, Philipp Jarnach, toward
its posthumous premiere on 21 May 1925 at the Sächsisches Staatstheater in
Dresden [1,
2,
3,
4;
libretto;
live performance w Thomas Hampson as Doktor Faust].
References: Busoni International Competition;
Wikipedia.
Compositions: adaptations;
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
BV (chronological): 1,
2,
Czech;
BV & Op cross referencing: IMSLP;
as KIV of published works;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Authorship:
'Bach-Busoni Editions' by Busoni 1916/20: 1,
2;
'Klavierübung' 1st Edition 1918.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
French: 1,
2.
Sheet music.
Song texts: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
piano rolls & recordings by Busoni;
Johann Strauss Orchester on Edison Amberol 15096 cylinder 1910;
piano by Wolf Harden;
MIDI file downloads.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
adaptations from Bach.
Usage in modern media.
Documentaries: by Ronald Stevenson 1974;
radio:
Joseph Tushinsky
on Busoni's piano rolls 1969.
Further reading: JS Bach and;
1909 Bösendorfer piano of;
Chopin and;
compositions;
Mahler and;
modernism and;
New England Conservatory (Erinn E. Knyt): 1,
2;
Sitzky and;
transcendence and.
Biblio: 1,
2;
'Ferruccio Busoni: A Musical Ishmael' by Della Couling (Scarecrow Press 2005);
literature by Erinn E. Knyt:
'Approaching the Essence of Music' ('Journal of Musicological Research' 2026) *;
'Ferruccio Busoni and His Legacy' (Indiana U Press 2017) *;
'Ferruccio Busoni and the Absolute in Music' ('Journal of the Royal Musical Association' 2012) *;
'Ferruccio Busoni and the Ontology of the Musical Work' (Stanford U 2010) *;
''How I Compose'' ('The Journal of Musicology' 2010) *;
'Busoni as Pianist' by Grigory Kogan ('Eastman Studies in Music' 2010);
'Busoni and the Piano' by Larry Sitsky (Greenwood Press 1986).
Other profiles: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
Rodoni: 1,
2;
French;
Italian: 1,
2,
3,
Treccani: 1,
2,
3;
Spanish. Ferruccio Busoni 1879–80 Op 37 BV 181 Pianoforte: Geoffrey Douglas Madge 1879–80 Op 37 BV 181 Pianoforte: Geoffrey Douglas Madge British Columbia Records 1913-14 Op 44 BV 264 1 movement Piano: Jeffrey Swann 1913-14 Op 44 BV 264 1 movement Piano: Jeffrey Swann 1904 Op 39 BV 247 5 movements Cleveland Men's Chorus Robert Page Cleveland Orchestra Christoph von Dohnányi Piano: Garrick Ohlsson 1890 Op 29 BV 234 Piano: Rintaro Akamatsu 1898–1900 Op 36a BV 244 3 movements Piano: Noel Mewton-Wood Violin: Max Rostal |
 Ferrucio Busoni 1906 Source: Wikipedia |
|
 Charles Koechlin |
Like
Scriabin
and
Ravel,
Charles Koechlin
was a secondary though strong bridge figure from the Romantic period to the
Modern who hasn't, however, weathered time well, becoming relatively obscure
since his death. He is on this
page rather than in Early Modern because,
like
Scriabin and
Ravel, he was associated
with the Impressionism
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6]
of the late Romantic period. Impressionism in music is to considerable
degree a label derived by critics who saw similarities in Impressionistic
art about the same period. Impressionistic was less a thing to compose like
than a happy resemblance. Koechlin joins others with whom to describe as
impressionistic would be highly confining, his music of a greater scope w concerns
more actual to address. If they called some of his work impressionistic so be
it. Born on 27 November 1867 in Paris to a family wealthy in textile
manufacturing, Koechlin became a student at the Paris Conservatoire in 1890, the same year
he commenced his Op 1, '6 Rondels' w the libretto of the first written by
Charles d' Orléans, the remaining five by Théodore de Banville
[IMSLP;
live performance
of 'Le Thé' Op 1 No.3
by soprano, LaDonna Manternach, backed by Beverly Nichols at piano].
Koechlin later orchestrated '6 Rondels' in '95 toward the first performance
of all six complete on 20 January 1897. Koechlin began '4 Poèmes d'Edmond
Haraucourt' Op 7 in 1890 as well, also to see orchestration in the latter
nineties [1,
2;
'Plein Eau' Op 7 No.2 sung by Michele Command].
His Op 5 is assigned to '5 Melodies' begun in 1893 as well as orchestration
[IMSLP].
One of those is 'Chanson d'Amour' Op 5 No.3 w text by Louis Bouilhet sung by Michele Command w Christophe Durrant at piano.
Another is 'Si Tu le Veux' ('If You Wish') Op 5 No.5 w text by Maurice de
Marsan sung by Claudette Leblanc w Boaz Sharon at piano
[text;
score: 1,
2]. Among
Koechlin's professors at the Conservatoire was
Gabriel Fauré in 1896. Upon
graduation he himself began teaching, later beginning '3 Poèmes du ‘Livre de
la Jungle’ Op 18 in 1899 w orchestration to follow in 1903-04
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio orchestrated version w score]. Texts for
those were written by Louis Fabulet and Robert d' Humières after Rudyard
Kiplings' 'The Jungle Book' of 1894. Koechlin became a critic for the 'Chronique
des Arts' in 1909, then helped to found the Société musicale indépendante with
Ravel in 1910 [*].
Soon upon the end of World War I in Nov 1918 Koechlin
made a lecture tour in the United States to as far west as San Francisco
into 1919, then joined
Érik Satie's brief-existing Nouveaux Jeunes
(New Young)
in 1920 back in Europe, precursor to Les Six [*].
Koechlin began working on his symphonic poem, 'Vers la Voitte Etoilee'
('Toward the Starry Sky') Op 129, in 1923, orchestrated it ten years later
in '33, revised it substantially in '39 [1,
2,
3;
audio by the Radio S O Stuttgart w Heinz Holliger:
1,
2,
3].
Writing numerous books addressing music theory, 'Précis des règles du
contrepoint' appeared in 1926 per IMSLP [1,
2],
preceding his 1927 biography of
Gabriel Fauré
[1,
2].
His 'Traité de l'Harmonie' began its appearance to 3 Volumes in 1928
[1,
2], the
same year he taught a term at the University of California in
Berkeley, returning for a second term in '29. 'Études sur le Choral',
another book in music theory, arrived in '29 as well [1,
2,
3].
In 1934 Koechlin came to his 89 pieces composed for an imaginary film
called 'The Portrait of Daisy Hamilton' Op 140 [*;
audio of No.9].
'Sept Chansons pour Gladys' Op 151 arrived in 1935
[1,
2;
'M'a dit Amour' Op 151 No.1. sung by Caroline MacPhie].
Koechlin made a fourth and final visit to the States in 1937 to teach in San
Diego. He began to write 'Le Docteur Fabricius' Op 202 in 1941 toward
orchestration in '46, though not to see its first performance until 14 January
1949 in Brussels by the INR Orchestra directed by Franz André [1,
2,
3;
audio by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra w Heinz Holliger 1,
2,
3].
Koechlin's last Opus was assigned to 'Quinze Motets de style archaïque a
cappella' Op 225 dans paroles (without words) dated 8-9 June 1950
[*;
audio of 'Chanson' Op 225 No. 9 by the Ensemble Vocal Francais w Gilbert Martin-Bouyer]. Having been a Communist-leaning pantheist, Koechlin died
six months later
on 31 December 1950, New Year's Eve. Koechlin had been a prolific composer,
producing a good number of chamber, orchestral and symphonic works, in
addition to other instrumental music and works for voice, the latter for
which he is presently best-known.
References: 1,
2.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
by genre: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
Italian;
Portuguese;
by Opus.
Authorship (literary works):
1,
2.
Manuscripts.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3;
French: 1,
2;
German.
Song texts.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3;
select: 'Le Docteur Fabricius | Vers la Voitte Etoilee' by the Radio S O Stuttgart w Heinz Holliger;
'The Jungle Book' Radio S O Berlin w David Zinman.
Iconography.
Further reading: family of: 1,
2;
Robert Reilly.
Bibliography: 'Charles Koechlin (1867-1950): His Life and Works' by Robert Orledge (Psychology Press 1989).
Other profiles: English: 1,
2,
3;
French: 1,
2;
German;
Italian;
Portuguese;
Russian;
Spanish.
A sample of a work below that would be called Impressionistic is 'Vers la
Voitte Etoilee'. One can hear how its softly blending and something blurry
passages might compare to the misty Impressionistic paintings to the right. Charles Koechlin 1913–19 Op 65 16 pieces for piano Orchestral version Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra Heinz Holliger Piano: Michael Korstick 1916 Op 63 12 pieces for piano Piano: Michael Korstick 1916 Op 63 12 pieces for piano Piano: Michael Korstick 1933 Op 132 Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester James Judd 1926 Op 57bis SO of Radio Television France Manuel Rosenthal 1943-44 Op 196 London Symphony Orchestra Constantin Silvestri 1923-33 Revised 1939 Op 129 Symphonic poem Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart Heinz Holliger |
 Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1882 'Mademoiselle Marie-Therese Durand-Ruel Sewing' Source: Art History News  Claude Monet 1899 'Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies' |
|
Born in Moscow on 5 May 1869,
Hans Erich Pfitzner
was taken with his family to Frankfurt at age three where he would grow up
to become a composer of works for
stage, chamber, orchestra and voice with piano. He received training in
violin from his father, who was a professional violinist, and began composing
at age eleven. His earliest known works are songs dating from 1884. He
studied at the Hoch Conservatory from 1886 to 1890, during which period his
Op 1 arrived per 'Cello Sonata' in F sharp minor w four movements in 1888
toward publication in 1882 [IMSLP;
live performance of
Op 1 No.4 by Roger Lebow at cello w Gayle Blankenburg on piano]. Upon graduation
Pfitzner
taught piano and theory at the Koblenz Conservatory until becoming conductor
at the Staatstheater Mainz in 1894. Known more for his
musical dramas than
anything else, Pfitzner's first opera was 'Der Arme Heinrich' ('Poor
Heinrich') WoO 15 premiering at the Staatstheater Mainz on 2 April 1895 w a
libretto by James Grun from the 12th century eponymous poem
[1,
2] by Hartmann von
Aue [*;
audio by the Philharmonische Orchester Dortmund w Alexander Rumpf;
libretto].
Come 'Die Rose vom Liebesgarten' w another text by Grun on 9 November 1901
[1,
2,
3;
libretto;
audio excerpt: 'Traumermarsch'].
Songs during that period included '5 Lieder' Op 11 of which 'Gretel' No.5 is
quite popular [audio by Juliane Banse,
Marianna Busching,
Anni Frind,
Keiko Hibi,
Lotte Lehmann
(possibly corresponding w
Victor 1858)
Britta Stallmeister;
score]. Pfitzner served as
kappellmeister at the Theater des Westens
in Berlin from 1903 to 1906. Pfitzner obtained directorship of the conservatory in Strasbourg
in 1908. Among his numerous literary works was 'Vom musikalischen Drama:
Gesammelte Aufsätze' of 1915 in which he elaborates on his position as a
successor to his cultural and musical hero,
Richard Wagner
[*; complete
editions: 1,
2,
3].
It was yet World War I when Pfitzner premiered the work for which he is
best-known at the Prinzregententheater in Munich on 12 June 1917, his opera,
'Palestrina' w libretto by himself borrowed from a legend about the 16th
century composer, Palestrina
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio of Prelude to Act I by the Berliner Philharmoniker w Ferdinand Leitner;
audio of Prelude to Act II by the Munich Philharmonic w Sergiu Celibidache w score;
libretto]. Upon the annexation of Alsace by France after World War I Pfitzner
lost his position in Strasbourg. In 1923 he was in the hospital for gall
bladder surgery when he was visited by Adolf Hitler
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6]. As Pfitzner voiced
disagreement with Hitler's negative view of Jewish philosopher, Otto
Weininger, their dialog came to more harm than good for Pfitzner. Pfitzner
didn't recognize it at the time, but his career saw various interferences
and he was considered a Jewish sympathizer, if not a Jew until an
investigation showing otherwise was made. Pfitzner continued his career in Germany while
at once largely ignorant that he wasn't as favored as he presumed. What kept
him in business while at once compromised was his notion of romantic German
heroism a la Wagner and his reactionary view of the
Weimar Republic [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9] which he
deemed decadent, thus welcoming the rise of
National Socialism [1,
2,
3]. There were
reasons to believe that Pfitzner was reluctant to tow the Party line when it
came to Jews. He made at least one intercession, kept Jewish associations
and was disinclined to denounce certain Jewish personages. However, Pfitzner
did reason Jewry to be ideologically and racially antithetical to German
aspirations and was apathetic overall to their plight, rationalized as
needful to the greater glory of humankind wrought by German culture. Those Jews he
favored were exceptions, to be determined by himself, to the general rule.
Though he never joined the National Socialist Party he aligned himself to
the same as a musical propagandist of National Socialism to further, not
only romantic idealism, but his career. He was
the composer of the Third Reich [1,
2,
3,
4,
5] and
that was his motivation. During Nuremburg denazification Pfitzner was
referred to as one of the greatest criminals of all for having helped to
inspire those
sentiments by which the Nazis waged war and cleaned the world of Jews. But
there was no law against raising patriotic fervor. In the end, World War II
left Pfitzner's home a ruin, after which he lived in a residence for the
elderly until his death on 22 May 1949. His last completed Opus was 56
assigned to 'Phantasy' in A minor for orchestra with a date of 1946-47
[audio by Bamberger Symphoniker w Werner Andreas Albert].
He'd left his cantata, 'Urworte Orphisch' Opus 57 unfinished, to be
completed by Robert Rehan [audio]. Pfitzner had been a Romantic composer
decidedly not
a modernist, finding progressive music popular during the Weimar
Republic that Jews were composing both conformist and decadent. Nor did Pfitzner have any use for American jazz.
The Roaring Twenties had been as decadent in America as the Weimar Republic
in twenties Germany, and Pfitzner thought a few Jews in the
entertainment industry were exploiting a lot of negroes. What he actually
thought concerning Jews may never be resolved because he himself may have
never come to a complete resolution on the matter, despite his ant-Semitic
invectives and written intellectual rationalizations. Pfitzner had been
pumped on romantic idealism, National Socialism its convenient
manifestation in the real world, the glories of which made the Jew thing to
later arise a little easier for Germans to follow. But for Nazi pressures and
the need of a livelihood amidst such a zeitgeist, Pfitzner likely could done
without both National Socialism and its campaign against Jews. Yet, being not so heroic as his
musical ideal, he didn't. A life of limousine transport and chatter
with leading German figures was tempting honey. Though works of his were
highly regarded by such as Gustav Mahler
and Richard Strauss, Pfitzner has
generally been regarded as a barely minor composer. He occupies a
post-Romantic position neither utterly conservative nor quite modern either.
References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Compositions: alphabetical: 1,
2,
3;
chronological;
by genre: English: 1,
2,
3,
German,
Italian;
by Opus;
songs.
Authorship.
Editions & scores: English: 1,
2,
3;
French;
German: 1,
2.
Sheet music.
Song texts: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3;
select: 'Complete Lieder': 1,
2;
'Complete Orchestral Works; 'Palestrina': 1,
2.
Iconography.
Further reading: Pfitzner & the Holocaust;
Mahler and;
newspapers;
Hans Pfitzner Society;
students.
Bibliography.
Other profiles: English: 1,
2;
German: 1,
2,
3;
Italian.
Hans Pfitzner 1923 Song cycle Gitarre: Spiro Thomatos Klavier: Fritz Bernhard 1906 Op 18 E minor Baritone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Wolfgang Sawallisch Baritone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Kleine Sinfonie in G major [Part 1] 1939NDR Symphony Orchestra Klauspeter Seibel Kleine Sinfonie in G major [Part 2] 1939NDR Symphony Orchestra Klauspeter Seibel 1912–15 WoO 17 Opera 3 acts Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin Staatskapelle Berlin Otmar Suitner Palestrina: Peter Schreier Piano Concerto in E flat major 1922 Op 31 4 movementsSächsische Staatskapelle Dresden Christian Thielemann Pianist: Tzimon Barto 1940 Op 46 Wiener Philharmoniker Wilhelm Furtwängler |
 Hans Pfitzner Source: Music Douban |
|
 Alexander Scriabin Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images Source: Music With Ease |
Alexander
Scriabin was another composer dubbed an Impressionist, thus populates this page
of the Romantic period rather than
Early Modern. Those labeled as Impressionistic during the late Romantic
often bridge to Modern. Likewise, what impressionistic manner that exists in
Scriabin's composing is minor in importance compared to such as for which he
became better known as his career progressed. Born into one of the humbler aristocratic families
in Moscow on 6 Jan 1872, Scriabin's father was in the military until the death of Scriabin's
mother when he
was one year old, then a diplomat to Turkey, leaving Scriabin home to be
raised by family. As a youngster Scriabin built pianos, conducted with
other children, and performed puppet operas and plays. He also studied piano
under Nikolai Zverev as a child heading for a career of piano-intensive
composition. At age ten he entered the Second Moscow
Cadet Corps, later studying at the Moscow Conservatory. Scriabin's Op 1 was
'Waltz' in F minor in 1886, in which is heard the delicacy of
Chopin, his
hero as a youth [IMSLP;
audio w piano by Valery Kastelsky,
Valentina Lisitsa,
Xiayin Wang]. He graduated a notable pianist in 1892,
then composed 'Piano Sonata' 1 in F minor the next year [Wikipedia,
IMSLP;
where dates argue between sources those at the Scriabin Association are used;
audio w piano by Vladimir Ashkenazy
w score; piano by
Igor Zhukov;
live performance by Tsotne Tsotskhalashvili]. Scriabin began performing
in St. Petersburg in 1894. The only concerto he wrote was 'Piano Concerto' in F sharp
minor Op 20 written in 1896, orchestrated in May of '87 toward premiere in
Odessa on 23 Oct 1897 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
live performance by Eivind Aadland conducting the Iceland S O w Víkingur Ólafsson at piano:
Movement I (Allegro),
Movement II (Andante),
Movement III (Allegro moderato)].
In the meantime Scriabin married pianist, Vera Ivanovna
Isakovich,
in August of 1897 with whom he then honeymooned in the Crimea prior to Vienna, then Paris. Back in
Russia in 1898, Scriabin began to teach at the Moscow Conservatory that
year. His 'Symphony No.1' in E major was premiered in Moscow in March 1901
by the RMS Orchestra w Vasily Safonov conducting
[1,
2,
3;
Russian National Orchestra w the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir conducted by
Mikhail Pletnev].
'Symphony No.1' included a Finale that was a paean to art w a
text by himself.
Scriabin was at the height of his Romantic period when he wrote 'Symphony
No.2' in C minor Op 29, that closing his first period.
It saw performance on 12 Jan 1902 in St. Petersburg by the RMS Orchestra
conducted by Anatoly Lyadov [1,
2;
audio by the Symphonie Canadiana w Yondani Butt,
the Scottish National Orchestra w Neeme Järvi,
the USSR Symphony Orchestra w Evgeny Svetlanov].
Scriabin's middle or second period
in which he moves away from traditional form commences
with 'Sonata No.4' in F sharp major Op 30 composed in 1903
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio w piano by Mikhail Pletnev w score;
live performances by Jong Hai Park,
Svetlana Smolina].
In 1904 he moved to Switzerland where he composed 'Symphony No.3' ('The
Divine Poem') in C minor Op 43 toward its premiere in Paris on 29 May 1905
[1,
2,
3;
audio by the Danish National Radio S O w Neeme Järvi,
the Philadelphia Orchestra w Riccardo Muti;
live performance by Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia w Dima Slobodeniouk].
He is known to have developed an interest in the Theosophy
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
societies] of Helena
Blavatsky [1831-91: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5]
by April of 1905, occult mysticism to become a major element in future works
to the end of his career. Blavatsky had founded the Theosophical Society w Henry Olcott in New York City in 1875. Scriabin then toured to locations in Switzerland, Italy, France and Belgium
before leaving to the United States in 1906, arriving to Hoboken, New Jersey,
in December [*]. Returning to Paris in 1907,
he was back in Lausanne, Switzerland, the same year to write 'Sonata No.5'
Op 53 toward the end of his second period, counterpoint in which Agustín-Aquino
& Mazzola have analyzed in relation to Scriabin's "mystic" or "Prometheus"
chord while Soomi Song has examined the work's expressionistic elements [1,
2;
see also expressionism in music: 1,
2,
3].
'Sonata No.5' was eventually published in 1910
[1,
2,
3,
audio w piano by Sviatoslav Richter w score].
Scriabin's wife was pregnant as he wrote 'Sonata No.5', to give birth to a
son named Julian in Feb 1908, all to reside in Brussels before returning to Russia permanently in 1909.
In the meantime Scriabin had recorded a strong selection of his own compositions to
numerous piano rolls for
Ludwig Hupfeld
(Triphonola) in
Leipzig in January of 1908 [1,
2,
3
(alt)]
including movements from 'Piano Sonata No.3' in F# minor Op 23 on Hupfeld
54037 and 54038 [audio: 1,
2;
Triphonola issues (frames menu)]. Scriabin's 'Symphony No.4' ('Poem of Ecstasy') Op 54 had
premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York on 10 Dec 1908 w Modest Altschuler
conducting for the Russian Symphony Society of New York
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra w Vladimir Ashkenazy w score;
audio by the London Symphony Orchestra w Valery Gergiev;
live performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen: 1,
2]. Scriabin had begun
writing his fourth symphony ('Poem of Ecstasy') back in 1905, now completing it near the beginning of his third
period in which he employs his mystic chord toward the dissonant harmony
and tonal ambiguity that would find full expression in his next symphony,
'Prometheus', thus also called the "Prometheus" chord. In February 1910
Scriabin was back to making piano rolls, now for Welte-Mignon & Sohne
[1,
2] in Moscow
[audio: 1,
2].
Piano rolls by Scriabin also saw issue by license from Hupfeld or Welte-Mignon on the De Luxe, Ampico and Duo-Art
labels [*].
Making piano rolls was a lot of tinkering about compared to 'Prometheus: The
Poem of Fire' Op 60, his ultimate complete symphonic work for which he is
probably best-known. That premiered in Moscow on 2 March 1911 w conducting
by Serge Koussevitzky. 'Prometheus' was a whole burgeoning of several of the
conceptual and musical elements important to Scriabin's development to that
time, one of which was the employment of his mystic chord to become known as the
Prometheus chord with this work. Scriabin himself referred to it as a
"pleroma"
chord translated to the vicinity of "divinely full" or "fully divine" [mystic
chord: 1,
2,
3
(alt),
4,
5,
6].
Another development was his circle of fifths [def: 1,
2;
Scriabin: 1,
2,
3] derived in the opposite
direction of synesthesia.
That is, rather than seeing sound in colors
as a clinical synaesthete, he
mapped colors to tones [1,
2,
3,
4]
in the broader sense that some may use "synesthesia" or "synesthetic" to mean a correlation
between two or more senses like vision and sound that isn't necessarily neurological or involuntary.
Scriabin's fascination w light saw the arrival of 'Prometheus'
w a clavier à lumières, that is, a keyboard with colored keys [1,
2,
3,
4] corresponding
to his circle of fifths wrapped up w his mystic chord. 'Prometheus' was
performed to colored lighting for the first time at Carnegie Hall on 21 March
1915 w Marguerite Volavy on piano, more recently in 2010 w the assistance of lighting
designer, Justin Townsend, and music theorist, Anna Gawboy w Toshiyuki
Shimada conducting the Yale Symphony Orchestra. See also the visualization by Steffen
Fahl. ['Prometheus': 1,
2,
3;
audio: BBC;
Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus w Pierre Boulez w score].
Scriabin's mystic chord is used in his 'Three Etudes' of 1912 as well
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5
(alt);
audio w piano by Artem Abashev
w score or
allarmunumralla
w score;
live performance by Alexey Chernov].
The mystic chord is also employed in Scriabin's last assigned Opus, 'Five
Preludes' Op 74 composed in 1914 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio w piano by Emil Gilels w score or
Piers Lane]. While
in London in 1914 Scriabin developed a sore on his upper lip resulting in
septicemia, killing him the next year in Moscow on 27 April 1915. He had
left his 'Prefatory Action' begun in 1903 unfinished in sketches to 53
[1,
2,
3], as
distinguished from 72 [1,
2,
3], pages that Alexander Nemtin spent 28 years working
into a performable version which saw first recording in 1973 w conducting by Kiril Kondrashin
[audio by the St Peterburg Chamber Choir w the Deutsches S O Berlin & Vladimir Ashkenazy
1996]. 'Prefatory Action' was Scriabin's cantata Prelude w text by himself to a greater speculative work called 'Mysterium'
[1,
2,
3,
4
(alt),
5] which titles Scriabin often used interchangeably. Scriabin envisioned his
'Mysterium' not yet composed to arrive with an apocalypse that would occur upon its performance at the
base of the Himalayas in India, ushering in a new and improved humankind. Its
first actual performance at the foot of the Himalayas arrived at the Thikse
Monastery in Tibet in 2015, 100 years after Scriabin's death. All in
all, aside from such as German
Beethoven,
French
Chopin and
Hungarian
Liszt,
Scriabin is one more major composer via whom
Russia would come to largely own the Romantic.
References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Compositions:
alphabetical;
chronological;
by genre: English: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
Francais,
Spanish;
by Opus: 1,
2;
sonatas: English,
Francais;
symphonies.
Editions & scores: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Collections.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
piano by Daniel Kunin 1966.
Discos: 1,
2,
3.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography: 1,
2.
Further reading by source: Faubion Bowers;
Arthur Eaglefield Hull 1916;
Richard Overill;
Scriabin Association UK;
Tom Service;
Yevgeny Sudbin;
Sybil Marguerite Warner;
Stephen Wigler.
Further reading by topic: composing of: atonal harmony,
implicit tonality (Baker),
mystic chord: 1,
2,
Omni-art;
megalomania and;
newspapers;
orchestral works: English,
Spanish;
periods of (Kaptein);
piano rolls: 1,
2;
sonatas (Chiang);
symbolism and (Wolfman);
reception through the 20th century (Ballard);
Theosophy and:
Maria Carlson,
the mystic chord,
Christopher Scheer,
René Wadlow.
See also the Alexander Scriabin Museum.
Bibliography:
books:
'The Music of Alexander Scriabin' by James Baker (Yale U Press 1986),
review;
'The Alexander Scriabin Companion' by Ballard & Bengtson (Rowman & Littlefield 2017);
'Scriabin: A Biography' by Faubion Bowers (Courier Corporation 1996);
'The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin' by Anatole Leikin (Ashgate Publishing 2011),
review;
Peter Sabbagh (Universal Publishers 2003).
Bibliography: journals: 'Scriabin's Implicit Tonality' by James Baker ('Music Theory Spectrum' 1980)
(alt);
'Scriabin's Self-Analyses' by George Perle ('Music Analysis' 1984).
Bibliography by subject: composing of: chronic right-hand pain and;
periods: middle,
post-tonal;
Theosophical: 1,
2.
Other profiles: English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Theosophical;
French;
Russian: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Spanish.
Alexander Scriabin 1888-96 Op 11 Piano: Vladimir Sofronitzky 1896 Op 20 3 movements Helsinborg Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Alexander Vedernikov Piano: Andrei Korobeinikov 1899–1900 Op 26 6 movements Spanish Radio S O & Choir Aleksandar Markovic 1901 Op 29 5 movements Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Eliahu Inbal 'Le Divin Poème' 4 sections 1902-04 Op 43 USSR Symphony Orchestra Evgeny Svetlanov 'Poème de l'Extase' 1905-08 Op 54 Leningrad Philharmonic S O Evgeny Mravinsky 'Le Poème du Feu' or 'Prometheus' 1911 Op 60 State Safonov Philharmonic Orchestra Stanislav Kockanovsky Piano: Evgeni Mikhailov 1886 Op 1 Piano: Xiayin Wang |
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|
The Romantic period is brought to its apex with
Russian composer,
Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Born near Novgorod on 1 April 1873, Rachmaninoff was a virtuoso who
regularly performed compositions in concert which are a challenge to the
world's finest pianists. Rach faced criticism for his lack of interest in
Modernistic trends, but his technical ability was off the charts and his
high popularity due to an ultimate romanticism uttered through strains of
melancholy sufficient to bring a tear as the leaves fall on any given autumn
day. Some find in him no more than a second-class composer for being only
romantic and not writing a lot during the latter decades of his
life. But the Romantic period that
Beethoven began with
beauty and boom as the 18th century became the 19th Rach brought to its
finish w beauty and dipping heart into the 20th century, a "Don't forget me"
to a wind of all now dead and gone, yet in the midst of which brooding waves
exists the counterpoint, so to speak, of some of the most awesome piano
composition ever written. I mean "awesome" not as the watered down term in general use
these years, but in reference to what is actually awesome.
Rachmaninoff's father was an aristocratic army
officer whose marriage brought with it five estates, soon to be reduced to none
via gambling. If his father was the pathological liar that it's said
he was then Rachmaninoff's childhood was likely a nightmare. His mother
brought a tutor from St. Petersburg to their home in 1882 with whom
Rachmaninoff studied until that home was lost and the family moved into an
apartment. In 1883 Rachmaninoff entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
In the fall of '85 he began studies beneath Nikolai Zverev at the latter's
home,
Scriabin
a fellow student. His first composition that is
since lost, 'Etude' in
F sharp major [Gabrelian,
Wikipedia], is thought
to have arrived sometime
between latter 1886 and 1888 prior to entering the Moscow Conservatory on a
Rubenstein scholarship.
His 'Song Without Words' ('Lento') in D minor TN
ii/11 was one of the studies he wrote while a student there perhaps in '88
[piano by Vladimir Ashkenazy
or Idil Biret;
score: 1,
2].
Instant Encore lends 'Romance' in A minor for violin and piano
TN ii/31 a
date of 1889 though earlier dates like 1880 and 1885 are seen
[audio
of Alexander Sinchuk (piano) w Annelle Gregory (violin)]. For the
towering figure that is Rachmaninoff, the dating of his early compositions
is ambiguous or contentious at best, another example being 'Piano Piece' in
D minor widely given a date of 1884
[1,
2,
3] but is more likely to be in the vicinity of
1890-91 [Martyn].
Rach had also begun but abandoned a piano concerto in C minor in 1889 while
yet attending the Conservatory.
As for "TN" numbering, it isn't seen a lot since the works to which it
refers
are generally Rach's lesser known like those without Opus, or arrangements
and transcriptions of pieces by other composers. The TN system is per 'A
Catalogue of the Compositions of S. Rachmaninoff' (London 1982) by R. Threlfall
& G. Norris. Rachmaninoff graduated from the Conservatory in 1891. His 'Trio élégiaque
1' in G minor TN ii/34 was composed between Jan 18 and 21 of 1892 toward its
first performance the next month on 11 Feb in Moscow
[WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2,
3,
4;
audio w piano by Lang Lang w score,
Daniil Trifonov,
the Trio Borodin;
live performances w piano by Anastasia Markina
or
Maria Raspopova].
'Prelude et Danse Orientale' Op 2 for cello and piano had premiered on 30
Jan of '92 at Vostryakov Hall in Moscow
[1,
2;
audio of Truls Mork (cello) w Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano) w score;
scores: 1,
2].
That preceded the premiere of the first movement of his
Opus 1, 'Piano Concerto No.1' in F sharp minor on 17 March 1892
[WD (Wikipedia Deutsch),
WE (Wikipedia English),
WF (Wikipedia Francais),
IMSLP;
audio w piano by Vasily Petrenko w score;
live performances by Anna Fedorova
or
Mimi Minagawa;
score]. Come 'Morceaux de fantaisie' Op 3 to Moscow on 20 Sep 1892
[WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2;
audio w piano by Vladimir Ashkenazy w score
or
Santiago Rodriguez].
Six days later on the 26th he performed 'Prelude' ('The
Bells of Moscow') in C Sharp minor Op 3 No.2 [WD,
WE,
Henle;
audio w piano by Marta Deyanova;
live performance by Lars Roos].
Rachmaninoff completed three of the five operas he'd begun. His first, 'Aleko',
premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 9 May of 1893
[WE,
1,
2;
audio by the Bolshoi Theatre C & O w Nikolai Golovanov,
BBC Philharmonic w Gianandrea Noseda;
Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy w Rani Calderon].
In the summer of 1893 Rach composed the fourteen-minute symphonic poem, 'The
Rock' Op 7, toward its first performance in Moscow by the RMS Orchestra conducted
by Vasily Safonov on 20 March 1894 [WE,
IMSLP,
fugueforthought;
audio by the Philadelphia Orchestra w Charles Dutoit,
the Saint Louis S O w Leonard Slatkin].
His 'Trio élégiaque No. 2' in D minor Op 9 saw writing between 5 Oct 1893
and 15 Dec 1893 toward premiere on 31 January 1894. Its publication
was dedicated to
Tchaikovsky
who had died of cholera during its composing on 6 Nov 1893
[WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2,
3;
audio w Evgeny Svetlanov at piano;
live performance w Dmitri Makhtin at piano]. Rachmaninoff
composed his
'Symphony No.1' in D minor Op 13 between Jan and Oct of 1895 toward a poor
reception in St. Petersburg on 28 March 1897 w
Glazunov
conducting the Russian Symphony Society Orchestra
[WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2,
3,
4;
audio by the Royal Concertgebouworkest w Vladimir Ashkenazy;
live performances by the Netherlands Radio P O w Stanislav Kochanovsky &
and the Aeterna Orchestra w Valeriy Platonov].
From autumn of 1900 to April 1901 Rachmaninoff wrote 'Concerto No.2' Op 18
toward the premiere of its 2nd and 3rd movements on 2 December 1901, its
entirety on 9 November 1901 with Alexander Siloti conducting
[WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
LSO;
audio:
piano by Yefim Bronfman,
Sviatoslav Richter,
Krystian Zimmerman,
live performance w piano by Anna Fedorova].
Rachmaninoff became director of the Bolshoi
Theatre for a couple of years in 1904, after which he worked
briefly in Italy, then spent the next few winters in Dresden, residing in Ivanovka in the summers.
His 'Symphony No.2' in E minor Op 27 was written from 1906 toward its premiere on
8 Feb of 1908 w the Russian Symphony Society Orchestra
[WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
CSO,
the 'Dies Irae' and;
audio of the Concertgebouw Orchestra w Vladimir Ashkenazy;
live performances by the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest w ivind Gullberg Jensen
& the Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia w Sir Antonio Pappano]. 'Symphony No.2' ncludes a strain from the 'Dies irae'
('Day of Wrath') from the Latin Mass for the Dead which would become a motif to recur in
numerous future works [forelmashi (Team Liquid),
Meza Jr.,
Pallaver,
UK Essays,
Woodard].
Rach finished 'Piano Sonata No.1' in D minor Op 28 in 1908
[WE,
WF,
IMSLP;
audio w piano by Greg Anderson].
Come 'The Isle of the Dead' Op. 29 to Moscow on 1 May 1909, which Rach would
take to the United States for performance by the Chicago Symphony in
December that year [WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2;
audio by the Royal Stockholm P O w Sir Andrew Davis w score;
live performance by the Azusa Pacific University Symphony Orchestra w
Christopher Russell]. The 'Dies Irae' emerged again in the 'The Isle
of the Dead' inspired
by the eponymous painting [1,
2] by Swiss artist,
Arnold Böcklin.
Rachmaninoff also took 'Piano Concerto
No.3' Op 30 to America. Completing it in Dresden on 23 Sep 1909, it was
performed in NYC on 28 November that year by the New York S O w Walter
Damrosch conducting [WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2;
live performances w piano by Anna Fedorova,
Olga Kern,
Nikolai Lugansky].
Rach's trip to America included performances w Max Fiedler and the Boston
Symphony Orchestra before returning to Russia in Feb of 1910 to become vice
president of the Imperial Russian Musical Society. Come his 'Liturgy of St.
John Chrysostom' Op 31 written for mixed choir in July toward its first
performance in Moscow on 25 Nov 1910 [WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
British Choirs;
audio of movements 1,
2-4,
1-20;
text].
Late summer of 1911 brought nine exercises called 'Etudes-Tableaux'
('Picture Studies') Op 33 [WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2;
audio of piano by Vladimir Ovchinnikov
w score]. Nine more followed during WW I titled 'Etudes-Tableaux' Op 39
first performed in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on 29 Nov 1916 [WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP;
audio w score;
live performances
by Eduardo Fernandez & Igor Gryshyn].
'Piano Sonata No.2' Op 36 had arrived in 1913 for publishing in '14, later revised
in '31 [WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2,
3;
audio w piano by Kocsis Lugansky w score].
World War I was in form when Rachmaninoff composed the Eastern Orthodox
liturgical 'Vespers' ('All-Night Vigil') Op 37 in 1915 w
fifteen movements [WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2;
audio by the Latvian Radio Choir w Sigvards Klava,
the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir w Valeri Polyansky,
the National Academic Choir Ukraine Dumka w Yevhen Savchuk;
audio of 'Bless the Lord, O My Soul' Op 37 No.2 by the Tambov Chamber Choir;
live performance of 'Blessed Art Thou, O Lord' Op 37 No.9].
'Fourteen Romances' Op 34 contained 14 songs w a disputed publishing date of
at least the last that is 'Vocalise' Op 37 No.14, which is the only of the
fourteen that I've checked. Generally given a composing date of 1912, both
BSO and
Henle prefer 1915 written for soprano, Antonina Nezhdanova,
and orchestrated toward
premiere in Moscow on 25 Jan 1916. 'Vocalise' is a song without words not to
be confused w extemporaneous vocalese in jazz
[audio of orchestrated version
without voice by the Saint Louis S O w Leonard Slatkin,
audio of orchestrated version sung by Anna Moffo,
live performance of arrangement for piano by Daniil Trifonov]. During the Russian
Revolution in 1917 Rachmaninoff came to losing everything but some compositions on
which he was working, leaving Petrograd for Helsinki by sleigh with his
family. He toured Scandinavia for a year before returning to the United
States in
1918. Residing first in Manhattan, he'd not see Russia again, though
numerous trips between the States and Europe would be made. His
career in the States was tour-intensive for the next couple of decades,
composing to arrive but as could amidst emphasis on delivering concerts.
Some fault Rach for rehashing his works on stage rather than inventing new
material, citing the better money to had from concerts than composing. Yet
what he repeated was a far distance from hash. He was in fact polite to the
notion of getting repeated any and everywhere even in the mechanically
stunted form of piano rolls when on 17
March of 1919 he documented the first of 35 of them for Ampico
to as late as 1 Feb 1929. Among the nine that he put away on 17 March of '19
was his 'Prelude' Op 3 No.2 in C# minor on Ampico 57504B
[recordings: WE,
Martyn;
for Ampico: WE,
Davie].
A month later on 18 April of 1919 he recorded the first of eight flat discs
as listed by Gabrelian and Wikipedia for Edison Records' Diamond Disc label
[audio of sessions 19-24 April].
His first sessions for Victor arrived on 3 May 1920, he that day
recording 'Troika en Traineaux' Op 37 No.11 for release on Victor 74630 and
'Prelude' in G major Op 32 No.5 on Victor 74645
[WE,
CUNY (page 28),
DAHR,
Davie (listed as
Gramophone, British parent to a line of HMV and Victor, RCA acquiring Victor in 1929)].
References above trace him through sessions for RCA to as late as 27 Feb
1942 when he recorded three titles by
Chopin,
Schubert
and Schumann. Rach
premiered his 'Piano Concerto No.4' in G minor Op 40 in Philadelphia on 18
March 1927 w a second version arriving in '28 and a third in '41
[WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2;
audio of piano by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli w score;
live performance by Viktoria Postnikova]. Returning to Europe on numerous trips in the twenties,
Rachmaninoff finally purchased a plot of land on which to build a second
home in
Switzerland in 1932, there spending his summers w his family until 1939. He
spent 3 July to 18 August 1934 composing his concertante, 'Rhapsody on a
Theme of Paganini' Op 43, toward its premiere at the Lyric Opera House in
Baltimore on 7 November [WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2;
live performancee by Ekaterina Mechetina
w the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Symphony conducted by Gintaras Rinkevicius]. Opus 43 is another work in which the
'Dies Irae'
motif is found [WE,
1,
2].
'Symphony No.3' Op 44 arrived to Philadelphia on 6 Nov 1936 w
Leopold Stokowski conducting [WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
LA Phil;
audio of the Philadelphia Orchestra w Charles Dutoit &
the USSR Ministry of Culture S O w Gennady Rozhdestvensky].
Rachmaninoff's final Opus was given to 'Symphonic Dances' Op 45 premiering
in Philadelphia on 3 Jan 1941 w a dedication upon its publishing to
Eugene Ormandy
and the Philadelphia Orchestra, his favorite. Rach had privately recorded
from 'Symphonic Dances' on 21 Dec 1940, likely at
Ormandy's
home, prior to its premiere [1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
The work again includes Rach's motif from the 'Dies Irae' in its third movement
[WD,
WE,
WF,
IMSLP,
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio by the St.Petersburg P O w Mariss Jansons;
live performances by
the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest w Edward Gardner &
the Saint-Petersburg P O w Yuri Temirkanov]. While writing 'Symphonic Dances' Rach added an arrangement for two pianos
that he and
Vladimir Horowitz
performed in August 1942 at a private party in Beverly Hills
[audio of Vessela Marinova w Vesko Stambolov,
audio of Ingryd Thorson w Julian Thurber,
live performance by Peter Laul w Sergey Kuznetsov]. In 1942
Rachmaninoff became ill of melanoma, prompting a move to Beverly Hills, CA. He finally became a U.S. citizen with his wife
on 1 Feb 1943, but gave his last piano recital that month, performing
Chopin's 'Piano Sonata
No.2'. Rachmaninoff
died the next month of melanoma in Beverly Hills on 28 March
1943, to be buried in New York. As his heart was as large as Russia's
landscape the latter has sought his reburial there to no success.
Rachmaninoff had written largely
orchestral, chamber and choral works, as well as pieces for piano and voice.
Assisting him was a remarkable memory, able to
play complex works, upon hearing them once, years later.
References: AllMusic,
WD,
WE,
WF.
Compositions:
alphabetical: IMSLP,
1,
2;
chronological: Boosey,
WE.;
by genre: WE,
WF,
1,
2.
3;
by Opus: ClassicCat,
IMSLP,
WD;
Operas;
by period;
piano concertos: IMSLP,
WE;
piano solo;
pianos two;
vocal.
Authorship: correspondence,
published.
Editions & scores: English:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
Deutsch.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
3,
choral works,
Russian.
Song texts: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4;
performed by major composers;
discographies: 1,
2,
3,
4;
MIDI files: 1,
2;
MP3 files;
ranking;
Earl Wild;
YouTube: 1,
2.
Discographies: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
by genre,
by
Opus.
Usage in modern media.
Documentaries.
Iconography: 1,
2.
Further reading by source: 'The Bells' Magazine,
Glenn McNatt,
Charles O'Connell,
Artyom Vargaftik.
Further reading by topic: analysis: diasporic identity,
performing of,
piano and orchestral works,
rhythmic style;
concertos;
Modernism and;
newspapers;
performances as conductor;
performance diaries:
chamber,
conducting,
performances,
piano concerts,
piano recitals;
recording: 1919-23,
1924,
1929,
popularity of;
repute;
Tchaikovsky and;
trivia: 1,
2.
Bibliography: ClassicCat,
WD,
WE,
WF;
'Rachmaninoff: Life, Works, Recordings' by Max Harrison (Bloomsbury Academic 2006),
'Rachmaninoff's Complete Songs' by Richard Sylvester (Indiana U Press 2014).
Other profiles: English: encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
Italian;
Russian.
Rachmaninoff appears on his own recordings below with 'Piano Concerto 2' and 'Rhapsody
on a Theme of Paganini'. The same are played by Arthur Rubinstein in
Early Modern. Sergei Rachmaninoff 1900-01 Op 18 3 movements Philadelphia Orchestra Leopold Stokowski Piano: Sergei Rachmaninoff 1909 Op 30 3 movements Piano: Olga Kern Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini [Part 1] 1934Introduction & 24 variations Philadelphia Orchestra Leopold Stokowski Piano: Sergei Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini [Part 2] 1934Introduction & 24 variations Philadelphia Orchestra Leopold Stokowski Piano: Sergei Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini [Part 3] 1934Introduction & 24 variations Philadelphia Orchestra Leopold Stokowski Piano: Sergei Rachmaninoff 1895 Op 13 4 movements MusicAeterna Orchestra Valeriy Platonov 1906–07 Op 27 4 movements Academy of Santa Cecilia Sir Antonio Pappano 1935–36 Revised 1938 Op 44 3 movements Novosibirsk Philharmonic Gintaras Rinkevičius |
 Sergei Rachmaninoff Source: geenohjeu |
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Born on 11 Jan 1874 in Kiev, Russia (now Ukraine),
Reinhold Moritzevich Glière
(Рейнгольд Морицевич Глиэ́р; Glier in Francais) had a father who was a
professional builder of wind instruments. His initial formal training was in
violin in Kiev in 1891. He entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1894. Dating
early comps and pubs by Gliere is hazardous so I approximate from several
sources with which IMSLP (*) may differ: His Opus
1 arrived circa 1898 or later per 'String Sextet No.1' in
C minor [*,
audio]. It won the
Glinka Prize [established 1884 by publisher, Mitrofan Belyayev] and was
later published w a dedication to one of his teachers,
Sergei Taneyev. Two later
string sextets eventually followed per Opus 7 [*,
audio]
and Opus 11 [*,
audio].
Gliere was yet a student at the Conservatory when he composed his
sufficient though lukewarm 'Symphony No.1' in E flat Op 8 in 1899-1900
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio of the BBC Philharmonic w Edward Downes
& the Orchestra: Slovak P O w Stephen Gunzenhauser]. Having graduated from the Conservatory in 1900 with his first one-act opera,
'Earth and Heaven', written, Gliere began teaching at the
Gnesin School of Music the next year. '2 Morceaux pour Contrebasse et Piano'
Op 9 may have already been published as early as 1900 per UR Research
[*,
audio w Wies de Boevé on double bass].
'Symphony No.2' in C minor Op 25 saw its first performance in Berlin on 23
Jan 1908 w Serge Koussevitzky conducting
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio of the BBC Philharmonic w Edward Downes w score &
the Slovak P O w Stephen Gunzenhauser].
Gliere's symphonic poem in F minor, 'Sirens' Op 33, premiered in Moscow on 23 Jan of
1909 w Emil Cooper conducting the orchestra of the Russian Musical Society
[*;
audio of the Moscow Radio & Television S O w Vladimir Esipov w score &
the Slovak P O w Stephen Gunzenhauser].
Gliere's 'Symphony No.3' ('Ilya Muromets') Op 42 saw premiere in Moscow on 23
March of 1912 w Emil Cooper conducting the RMS again
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio of the BBC Philharmonic w Edward Downes w score &
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln w Neeme Järvi]. He became the first director of the
Kiev Conservatory in 1914, raised in status from a school that year [now NMAU: 1,
2,
3]
to become a Soviet institution. Gliere left the Kiev Conservatory in 1920 to
begin teaching at the Moscow Conservatory [founded 1866 by Nikolai
Rubinstein and Prince Nikolai Troubetzkoy] where he remained until WW II. Being of the nationalist classical
school associated w the Belyayev circle [1,
2,
3],
Gliere would weather the Soviet Union [1922-91: 1,
2,
3] well, the regime assuming that tradition.
His ballet with a Russian Revolutionary theme, 'The Red Poppy',
premiered on 14 June 1927 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow
[1,
2,
3,
4;
audio by the St. Petersburg State S O w
Andre Anichanov].
The best-known part of 'The Red Poppy' is 'Russian Sailors' Dance' ('Танец русского моряка')
No.18 at the end of Act I [audio by St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra w Andre Anichanov]. 'The Sailor's Dance' is from a Russian naval
folk song titled 'Yablochko' ('Яблочко' 'Little Apple') of unidentified
origin [1,
2]. Gliere also pulled a couple of suites from
'The Red Poppy', No.1 Op 70a and No.2 Op 70b. The expanded version of 'The
Red Poppy' was retitled 'The Red Flower'
for its posthumous premiere on 24 November 1957 at the Bolshoi. Gliere had
already accepted three Glinka Prizes when he won the first of three Three
Orders of Lenin in 1945, followed twice more in '50 and '55. His first of
three Stalin Prizes arrived in 1946 for 'Concerto' for coloratura soprano
and orchestra in F minor Op 82 [audio of sopranos Erna Berger w score &
Edita Gruberová; live performance of trumpet arrangement by
Mary Elizabeth Bowden].
Gliere's second Stalin Prize in 1948 was for another composition of 1943, his
'String Quartet No.4' in F minor Op 83 [*;
audio by the Beethoven Quartet].
His third Stalin Prize arrived in 1950 for his ballet, 'The Bronze Horseman'
Op 89 first performed on 14 March 1949 [*]. Gliere pulled four more works from
that as Opp 89a through 89d, the first of which is 'Suite'
[*;
audio by the St. Petersburg State S O w Andre Anichanov or
the BBC Philharmonic w Edward Downes]. 89b consists of
two pieces for solo piano, the second of which is 'Waltz' 89b No.2 [audio of
piano by Cyprien Katsaris].
Another nice example of one of Gliere's works for piano is 'Two Pieces for Piano'
Op 99 composed in 1955 of which 'Melodie' ('Мелодия') in B♭ major is No.2
[audio of piano by Emil Gilels].
Gliere died in Moscow on 23 June 1956, leaving his 'Violin Concert' Op 100
unfinished w that task left to his student, Boris Lyatoshinsky
[*;
audio of the Philharmonia Orchestra w Yondani Butt &
the Moscow P O w Vladimir Yesipov;
live performance by the Kostroma. Gubernsky S O w Pavel Gershtein]. The
majority of Gliere's works had been for chamber, orchestra and stage in addition
to a lot of piano pieces like preludes. Rather than ever visiting either
Western Europe or
America, Gliere had worked in more musically remote areas of Russia such
as Azerbaijan, Siberia and Uzbekistan. Among his pupils had been
Khachaturian,
Prokofiev
and
Myaskovsky.
References: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Compositions: alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological;
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
Dutch,
Italian,
Japanese,
Russian,
Spanish;
by Opus w WoO: 1,
2.
Editions & scores: 1,
2,
3,
4,
France,
Russia.
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
solo piano.
Recordings of: discographies: 1,
2;
select: 'The Gliere Orchestral Collection' by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
*,
'Symphony No.3' by the San Diego Symphony w Yoav Talmi
*.
Documentary by Salnikov & Groom-Grzhimailo for Central Television of the USSR 1968.
Photo archives: 1,
2.
Further reading (Russian):
glier-info;
Pasyuta Alexander
(Пасюта Александр).
Bibliography (Russian).
Other profiles: Dutch;
English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
Italian;
Japanese;
Russian: 1,
2,
3;
Spanish;
Ukrainian.
Reinhold Glière Concerto for horn and orchestrar 1951 Op 91 B flat majorConducting: Caleb Young Horn: I-Ping Chiu Concerto for harp and orchestra 1938 Op 74 E flat majorLondon Symphony Orchestra Richard Bornynge 1927 Op 27 Revised 1949/55 Ballet BBC Philharmonic Sir Edward Downes 1902 Op 3 Piano: Olga Sitkovetsky Violin: Alexander Sitkovetsky 1908 Op 33 Symphonic poem in F minor Moscow Radio & Television SO Vladimir Esipov 1900 4 movements Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Stephen Gunzenhauser |
 Reinhold Glière Source: On Music Dictionary |
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Born on 21 Sep 1874 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,
Gustav Theodore Holst
was a Romantic composer who, being English, thus insisted upon being
peculiar, therefore transitioned more to English than modern. He had a
father who was organist and choirmaster at All Saints' Church. He played
violin and trombone as a child but preferred piano. Even so, he wrote no
works for solo piano, though many a hymn or song. Wikipedia has him
composing 'A Christmas Carol' for chorus and orchestra as early as 1890 w
numerous choral works following. Attending Merton
College at Oxford University in 1891, his first public performance as a
pianist may have arrived in Nov when he and his father played
Brahms'
'Hungarian Dances' at a concert in Cheltenham. Holst wrote his first symphony the
next year. His first employment as a musician was as organist and
choirmaster at the Wyck Rissington parish in Gloucestershire, but he was
soon packing for London in 1893 to study at the Royal College of Music.
Holst's Opus 1 was assigned to his 1895 opera, 'The Revoke'. He
began publishing his works while at RCM, but in 1898 he had to take work as
an organist in London churches and a trombonist in London theatres. He yet
distinguished himself in that capacity and was soon touring with the Royal
Scottish National Orchestra [1,
2]. Along w Indian Sanskrit
literature like the Vedas,
British author, Thomas Hardy [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9], wrote some of Holst's favorite
literature. Texts from both the 'Rigveda' and Hardy saw inclusion in 'Six
Songs' Op 15 of 1902-03. 'Invocation to the Dawn' Op 15 No.1 may have been
Holst's first setting w text translated from Sanskrit by himself. Settings
to Hardy were Nos. 3-5 to include 'The Sergeant's Song', 'In the Wood' and
'Between Us Now'. Holst
himself considered them to be "early horrors" along w all else that he had composed before 1904.
In 1903 Holst left the life of an orchestra musician to concentrate on
composing, the American poet, Walt Whitman
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8], meanwhile another of
his favorite
authors. His 'The Mystic Trumpeter' Op 18 of 1904 is
a setting to Whitman's eponymous poem found in 'From Noon to Starry Night'
from 'Leaves of Grass'. Holst's revised version arrived in 1912
[audio of soprano by Sheila Armstrong,
Ilona Domnich,
Susan Gritton,
Claire Rutter: 1,
2;
text: 1,
2,
3].
Beginning to teach in 1905, he became musical director of the St.
Paul's Girls' School [1,
2] in 1905, a position he would keep until his death. In
1907 he became musical director at Morley College [1,
2] where he
remained until 1924. As the romantic readily shifts toward the exotic, Holst
conducted his 'Beni Mora' Oriental Suite in E minor Op 29 No.1 on 1 May
1912, inspired by a trip to Algeria in 1908. Its last of
three movements is widely cited in its resemblance to much later Minimalist
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5] composing in its repetition of a four-bar theme
[audio of the London Philharmonic Orchestra w Sir Adrian Boult,
the Royal Scottish National Orchestra w David Lloyd-Jones;
live performance by the Tampa Bay Symphony].
Holst was rejected from military service during World War I, during which
time another setting to Whitman arrived in a 'Dirge for Two Veterans' H 121
in 1914 [*;
audio of the Joyful Company of Singers & City of London Sinfonia directed by Richard Hickox
& the
US Army Chorus;
text: 1,
2].
Holst wrote his own libretto for his chamber opera, 'Savitri' Op 25, that
premiering on 5 Dec
1916 at Wellington Hall of St. John's Wood in London [1,
2;
audio of the English Chamber Orchestra w Imogen Holst;
live performances: 1,
2;
libretto]. 1918
found Holst in Greece as a musical organizer for the YMCA. His return to the
UK saw to the public premiere of the work
that would make him internationally famous, 'The Planets' Op 32, at
Queen's Hall in London on 29 Sep 1918.
Composed in 1914-16, though 'Mars'
No.1 [1,
2] and 'Jupiter' No.4
[*] may receive the most performing overall, Holst's own
favorite movement of the seven was
'Saturn' ('Bringer of Old Age') No.5
[audio of Orchestra Wellington w Marc Taddei;
live performances by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra w Charles Mackerras &
the BBC Symphony Orchestra w Susanna Mälkki].
Now a huge celebrity, Holst premiered 'The Hymn of Jesus' at Queen's Hall on
25 March 1920 w libretto translated by himself from the Gnostic text, 'Acts
of John' [1,
2,
3;
audio of the BBC Chorus & S O w Adrian Boult
& the London S O w Richard Hickox w score].
On 27 Oct
1922 Holst recorded the first of numerous tracks for Columbia conducting the London Symphony Orchestra
[1,
2], that being 'Jupiter' released on Columbia L 1459 in Feb of 1923
[1,
2,
3]. His
first recordings of 'The Planets' were the noisy acoustic
[audio],
not long later the better sounding electrical. Holst wrote the libretto to
his opera, 'The Perfect Fool' H 150 Op 39, that premiered at the Covent
Garden Theatre in London on 14 May 1923, but after 'The Planets' his career entered
into its decline [1,
2,
3,
4;
audio of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra the Chorus of Opera North w
Vernon Handley
w score]. In 1927 Holst composed his homage to Hardy (above) titled 'Egdon
Heath'. That confronted poor reception as well, though Holst himself regarded it
to be his best composition [1,
2,
3;
audio of the London Philharmonic Orchestra w Sir Adrian Boult]. Holst lectured at Harvard in 1932 until illness forced
him back to England. Among his last works was the 'Brook Green Suite' H 172
Op 47 of
March 1934 [1,
2,
3;
audio of the English Sinfonia w Howard Griffiths w score &
the New York Classical Players w Dongmin Kim].
Holst's last Opus was assigned to 'Six Choruses' H 186 Op 53 of 1931-32.
That took the place of his original Op 53 that was 'On the Battle Which Was
Fought at Fontenoy', then was left WoO until cataloged as H 186a. Holst's
final composition was 'Lyric Movement' H 191 in 1933
[1,
2,
audio w viola by Timothy Pooley or
Andriy Viytovych w score]. Holst died
on 24 May 1934 of heart failure following surgery for an
ulcer. He'd written largely for stage, such as ballets and operas, as well as piano,
choral music and songs. His instrumental works include concertantes as well
as works for chamber and orchestra like incidental music. References: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
chronological (Spanish);
by genre: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
German;
by H number;
H & Op cross referenced: 1,
2;
by Opus: 1,
2,
Japanese.
Editions & scores: 1,
2,
3,
4;
France: 1,
2;
Germany.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
choral works,
'The Planets' for solo piano (Chester Music).
Audio: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Recordings of: discos: 1,
2,
3;
select: 'The Collected Recorded Works' conducted by Holst
*;
'HOLST' by the City of London Sinfonia w Richard Hickox
*;
'Orchestral Works Vol 3' BBC Symphony C & O Sir Andrew Davis & Susan Gritton:
1,
2.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography.
Further reading: Thomas Hardy and;
Tony Palmer (Guardian);
trivia;
see also the Holst Birthplace Museum,
the Hoslt Foundation.
Biblio: 'Gustav Holst: A Biography' by Imogen Holst (Faber & Faber 2012)
*;
'Gustav Holst: A Research and Information Guide' by Mary Christison Huismann (Routledge 2011)
*;
Miichael Short: 'Gustav Holst 1874-1934: A Centenary Documentation' (White Lion Publishers 1974)
*;
'Gustav Holst: The Man and His Music' (Oxford U Press 1990)
*.
Other profiles: Dutch;
English: encyclopedic: 1;
2,
3;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
German;
Japanese;
Portuguese;
Spanish.
H numbers below are per 'A Thematic Catalogue of Gustav Holst's Music'
(1974) by Holst's daughter of his second marriage in 1901, Imogen Holst.
Gustav also had two sons of a prior marriage in 1885. 'The Planets' by Holst is interpreted by
Eugene Ormandy in
Early Modern. Gustav Holst 1909–1910 H 107 Op 29:1 Oriental Suite 1: First Dance 2: Second Dance 3: Finale: 'In the streets of the ouled nails' Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra Sascha Goetzel 1933 H 190 1: Prelude 2: Air 3: Dance Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda 1908–1912 H 97-100 Op 2614 sacred hymns Royal Philarmonic Orchestra Sir David Willcocks 1927 H 172 Op 47 1 movement BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis 1917 H 140 Op 37 Sacred hymn BBC Chorus & Symphony Orchestra Sir Adrian Boult 1915 H 126 Op 33 6 movements Ulster Orchestra JoAnn Falletta 1904 1912 H 71 Op 18 For soprano and orchestra Royal Scottish National Orchestra David Lloyd-Jones Soprano: Claire Rutter 1914-16 H 125 Op 32 7 movements MusicAeterna Orchestra Perm Opera & Ballet Theatre Orchestra Valeriy Platonov |
 Gustav Holst 1921 Photo: Herbert Lambert Source: Wikipedia |
|
 Maurice Ravel Source: Rate Your Music |
Born on 7 March 1875 in Ciboure (in the Pyrenees in the
southwest corner of France eleven miles from Spain),
Maurice Ravel
was labeled an impressionist composer, and well buttons the late Romantic
period, bridging to modern, on which page he would be placed had he not been
labeled an Impressionist. Like
Debussy and others so
described, the attachment was less made by them than by critics who
saw resemblances between impressionist music [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6] and Impressionist painting
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5].
Writing largely for orchestra, chamber, stage and voice, his catalogue
relatively less extensive than some is due largely to ever reshaping his
works to perfectionistic detail. "Complex" or "exotic" recur often in
descriptions of his work. His mother had been a poor Basque until she
married his father, an impressive engineer and inventor. He began piano at
age six, his M A1, 'La Jeunesse d'Hercule', was a piano four-hands
arrangement of
Saint-Saëns' eponymous Op 50 of 1877. Opera in Ravel are
expressed as "M" with "A" signifying arrangements and transcriptions per
'Maurice Ravel' by Marcel Marnat (Fayard 1986 Paris).
Ravel's M 1 is assigned to
a lost 'Piano Sonata' of 1888. He gave his first public piano recital in 1889. Though he had
earlier studied composition, his first intent works didn't begin to appear
until circa 1893 as a student at the Paris Conservatoire where his choice to
emphasize composing over piano would bring him to write some of the most
difficult pieces that a pianist can play. His first
published work was 'Menuet Antique' in F♯ minor for solo piano M 7 in 1895,
later orchestrated in 1929
[1,
2,
3; piano version by Walter Gieseking
or
Louis Lortie;
orchestrated version by the Cleveland Orchestra w Pierre Boulez;
score].
Though recognized by teachers to be a talented student, his progressive
ideas didn't settle well with the more conservative Conservatoire director,
Théodore Dubois. His failure to adhere to Conservatory authority meant
inability to win enough requisite medals to
keep him in school. He later returned in 1898 to study under
Gabriel Fauré.
He also privately studied with composer, André Gedalge. Around 1900 he began
to hang with the Apaches, a loose group of avant-garde artists, musicians
and poets. Albeit
Claude Debussy
wasn't an Apache, he was the composer whom the Apaches hailed to be at the
vanguard of future French composition. Ravel had met
Debussy,
twelve years his senior, in the nineties, but in 1900 they began a
friendship which nevertheless found them competing with one another
professionally due both to comparative critics and Ravel's reservations as
to Debussy's
symbolism. In 1908 Ravel composed three poems for piano titled, 'Gaspard de
la nuit', a good example of impressionistic approach. Those were based on
1836 poem by Aloysius Bertrand [1,
2,
3;
audio of piano by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet,
Jean-Yves Thibaudet;
libe performance by Ivo Pogorelich]. In 1909
Ravel crossed the Channel to London for the first time, again in 1911 on a tour
including Edinburgh,
Scotland. In the meantime he had accepted his first commission from
impresario,
Sergei Diaghilev, for the one-act ballet, 'Daphnis et Chloé', in 1909,
toward its premiere in Paris on 8 June 1912 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal w Charles Dutoit w score;
live performance by WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln w Jukka-Pekka Saraste].
Ravel made his first piano roll for Welte-Mignon in 1913
[Reeves],
his 'Sonatine' Nos. 1-2 on #2887 [see also 1,
2]. During the Great War
Ravel served as a truck driver at the Verdun front.
Though World War I resulted in endeavors to erase German influence from
French music, Ravel believed that music transcended national boundaries
and didn't participate. It was during the War in January 1915 that his
'Piano Trio' in A minor for piano, violin and cello M 67 premiered in Paris w Alfredo
Casella at piano, Louis Feuillard at cello and Gabriel Willaume at violin
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
audio w piano by Louis Kentner
or
Dario de Rosa].
Also important to French music during the War was the formation of Nouveaux
Jeunes in 1917 by composer, Erik Satie [1,
2,
3,
4,
5], which developed into 'Les Six'
[1,
2,
3,
4].
Modeled after
Balakirev's
Mighty Five, the Six was a reaction to both music of the
German Wagnerian persuasion
and the impressionism of
Debussy and Ravel. Ravel had no
argument with that, it being inevitable that music other than his own should
arise. Another argument, however, might have come to a fatal end when he
accepted another commission from Diaghilev (above) in 1919 for the
ballet, 'La Valse' M 72 toward
its premiere on 12 Dec 1920 in Paris. Having already been at work on an
orchestrated version called 'Vienne', Ravel added an arrangement for solo
piano as well [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7
8,
9;
piano arrangement played by
Soyeon Lee,
Steven Lin
or
Yuja Wang;
orchestrated version performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France w Myung-Whun Chung]. Diaghilev thought
Ravel's work to be less a ballet than a
"portrait of a ballet" for which slight Ravel ended their working relationship.
During a later chance meeting in 1925 Ravel refused to shake Diaghilev's hand. Diaghilev believed
such the affront sufficient cause for a duel, challenged him, but was persuaded to change his mind
[footnote: dueling]. In 1922 Ravel finished his 'Sonata for Violin and Cello'
M 73, dedicated to the
memory of
Debussy,
his major rival who had died in 1918 [1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
audio of Philippe Muller (cello) & Jean-Jacques Kantorow (violin) w score;
live performance by Adrien Bellom (cello) & Charlotte Juillard
(violin)]. Ravel's opera, 'L'enfant et les sortilèges' ('The
Child and the Spells') M 71,
that premiered on 21 March 1925 at the Monte Carlo Opera w conducting by
Victor de Sabata incorporated a ragtime foxtrot [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
live performance by the Orchestre & Choeurs l'Opéra de Lyon w Louis Langree]. That was a one-act fantasy
of two tableaux w libretto by author, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette [1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7].
His 'Violin Sonata No.2' M 77 of 1927 contained blues
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
audio of Franck Braley (piano) & Renaud Capuçon (violin) w score;
live performance by David Brickle (piano) & Régis Pasquier (violin)].
Jazz would show up in future works by Ravel who would also comment that he
preferred jazz to the grand opera. In
December 1927 Ravel left Europe for a tour of the United States commencing
in New York
City to great acclaim in Jan 1928. America had been a proverbial pot of gold for
European composers for the last half century. Ravel's original intention to
tour for two months for $10,000 became four months for $50,000. Along the
way he met
George Gershwin at a soiree in NYC on 7 March 1928,
then visited New Orleans in April, not to perform, but to see the birthplace
of jazz. Upon his return to Paris in April he composed his 'Bolero'
in C major M 81, perhaps his most famous experiment, given a large bump as
well in the soundtrack of the 1979 Warner Brothers film starring Bo Derek, '10'. The
success of its premiere at the Paris Opera on 22 Nov 1928 surprised even
Ravel, having expected none
[1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8;
audio by the Berliner Philharmoniker w Pierre Boulez
& the Chicago Symphony Orchestra w Sir Georg Solti;
live performance by the Wiener Philharmoniker w Gustavo Dudamel]. 'Bolero'
was premiered w conducting by Walther Straram, choreography by Bronislava Nijinska
and stage design by Alexandre Benois. It was published in '29 w dedication
to Russian dancer, Ida Rubinstein [1,
2,
3,
4,
5]. On 8 Oct 1932 Ravel banged his head during an
accident in a taxi, after which he began to have memory and speech troubles.
He was so ill with periods of aphasia when he wrote his final composition, 'Don Quichotte à Dulcinée' M 84,
that he required assistance w notation. Originally intended for a film score
that didn't happen, at least not for Ravel, the three songs of the
orchestrated version of 'Don Quichotte à Dulcinée' premiered at the Théâtre
du Châtelet in Paris in Dec 1934 w baritone by Martial Singher and
conducting by Paul Paray
[1,
2,
3;
audio of baritone, José van Dam, w the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon w Kent Nagano
& the BBC Symphony Orchestra w Pierre Boulez ('Chanson à Boire' M 84 No.2)].
Ravel's last assigned opus in IMSLP is 'Morgaine' M 85 left incomplete in
1932. Thinking the symptoms of his illness might indicate a tumor,
Ravel
underwent surgery on 17 Dec 1937. No
tumor was found, but upon recovering from anesthesia he lapsed into a coma
and died 11 days later on 28 December.
References: 1,
2,
3.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2,
3,
4;
chronological: 1,
2;
by genre: English: 1,
2,
3,
4;
French: 1,
2;
German;
by Marnat (M): English,
French,
русском;
stage.
Manuscripts.
Editions & scores: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
France;
Germany: 1,
2.
Sheet music: 1,
2,
choral.
Audio: 1,
2;
BBC;
discographies: 1,
2,
3,
4;
piano rolls;
ranking.
Discographies: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Usage in modern media.
Iconography: 1,
2.
Further reading by source: maurice-ravel,
Edward Neidermaier,
newspaper archives.
Further reading by topic:
Gershwin and: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
jazz and: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5;
residences;
technique;
travel;
trivia: 1,
2.
See also: the Academie Ravel;
les Amis de Maurice Ravel;
Cahiers Maurice Ravel.
Bibliography: 1,
2;
'The Ballets of Maurice Ravel: Creation and Interpretation' by Deborah Mawer (Routledge 2017);
'Maurice Ravel: A Guide to Research' by Stephen Zank (Routledge 2013);
'A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews' by Arbie Orenstein (Courier Corporation 2003).
Other profiles: English: *;
didactic: 1,
2;
encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7;
French: 1,
2;
German;
Italian: Treccani: 1,
2,
3;
русском: 1,
2,
3. M numbers
below per Marcel Marnat's 'Maurice Ravel' (Fayard 1986 Paris). Maurice Ravel 1928 M 81 Bolero C major 1 movement Münchner Philharmoniker Sergiu Celibidache L' Enfant et les Sortilèges [Bagnoli] 'The Child and the Spells' M 711919–25 Opera 1 act Libretto: Colette Opera de Liege 2013 Director: Enrico Bagnoli Conductor: Philippe Gérard L' Enfant et les Sortilèges [Sabag] 'The Child and the Spells' M 711919–25 Opera 1 act Libretto: Colette Theatro Municipal de São Paulo 2011 Director: Livia Sabag Conductor: Jamil Maluf 1908 M 55 3 piano pieces Gitarre: Spiro Thomatos Piano: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli 1904–05 M 43 5 piano pieces Piano: Lortie Bavouzet 1929-30 M 82 D major 1 movement Orchestra of the U of Music Weimar Nicolás Pasquet Piano: Hélène Tysman 1931 M 83 3 movements Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai Andrej Boreyko Piano: Martha Argerich 1919-20 M 72 Waltz D major Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Myung-Whun Chung ^ Note: The duel had been about for several centuries as a means of "satisfaction" among aristocrats. References [1, 2, 3, 4] refer to trials by combat over land disputes in Germany as early the 8th century. Thousands of gentlemen had lost their lives to the duel, though the purpose wasn't to kill so much as to prove, absolutely, that one's honor had been severely offended. The last duel in England was fought in 1845, in France in 1967. |
|
|
Born on 22 May 1879 in Brest, Brittany, though
Jean Émile Paul Cras
was a fringe composer, something personifying the post-Romantic as adventure, Cras
in terms of the military, travel and the sea. Cras joined the French navy at
age seventeen. He was self-taught until age twenty when he acquired a mentor in Henri
Duparc in 1922, then organist, Alexandre Guilmant. Notable among early works is 'Sonate pour violoncelle
et piano' of 1900 [1,
2;
audio]. Cras had seen battle on both sides of the Atlantic before
being promoted to Lieutenant in 1908. During World War I he worked in
submarine defense and commanded a torpedo boat.
He composed his opera w libretto by Albert Samain, 'Polyphème', during the War, though it didn't
premiere until December 1922 after winning the first Ville de Paris Prize in 1921
[1,
2,
3;
audio].
Come his chamber rhapsody, 'Légende pour violoncelle et orchestra', in 1927
[1,
2;
audio of Henri Demarquette at cello].
Cras was made Major General of the Port of Brest in 1931 and later promoted
to Rear Admiral. Though more a melodic poet than composer of heroics, Cras
actually did such as about which heroic Romantics made a fuss about. His
catalogue of works is relatively brief since his military career left him
little time for composing. He died on 14 Sep 1932, having written largely
for chamber, piano and voice, as well as some some orchestral pieces.
References: 1,
2.
Compositions:
alphabetical: 1,
2;
by genre: 1,
2;
Japanese: 1,
2;
Spanish.
Editions & scores: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6;
France: 1,
2.
Audio: 1,
2,
3.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4.
Discussion.
Bibliography:
'Jean Cras: Polymath of Music and Letters' by Paul-André Bempéchat (Routledge 2017).
Other profiles: English,
Japanese,
Russian,
Spanish.
Jean Cras 1917 Piano: Ernest So 1928 Flûte: Anne Giquet Harpe: Isabelle Marie 1902 From 'Cinq poèmes' (1902-11) Piano: Luca Ciammarughi 1904 From 'Cinq poèmes' (1902-11) Piano: Luca Ciammarughi Published 1927 Cello: Martijn Dendievel Viola: Jonathan Ponet Violin: Diede Verpoest |
 Jean Cras Source: Musicologie |
|
|
This history of the latter Romantic period suspends with Cras.
|
|
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