Monday, January 25, 2010

Friday February 5, 2010

Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival
Poulenc: Oboe Sonata
Stephen Taylor, oboe; Jonathan Biss, piano (8/1/04)
Dvořák: String Quintet in E flat major, Op.97
Rossetti String Quartet; Emily Rome, viola (8/1/04)
Also, Charley talks with Colorado All State Choir board member Will Taylor about this year's concert on Tuesday.
Frank Tichelli: There Will Be Rest
2008 Colorado All State Mixed Choir/ Dr. Geoffrey Boers
NCA CD 1 Track 10 5:23

Thursday February 4, 2010


Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Jeffrey Kahane, conductor; Olga Kern, piano; Rhoslyn Jones, soprano; John Danieki, tenor;
Anton Belov, bass; CSO Chorus/ Duain Wolfe, director
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.36 (10/23/09)
Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Bells, Op.35 (10/24/09)
Also, Steve Blatt talks with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, who portrays Rosina in Opera Colorado's production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville.


Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Kolokola (The Bells), Opus 35
I. Allegro ma non tanto: ``The Silver Sleigh Bells''
II. Lento: ``The Mellow Wedding Bells''
III. Presto: ``The Loud Alarum Bells''
IV. Lento lugubre: ``The Mournful Iron Bells''

Rachmaninoff wrote his choral symphony, The Bells, in an apartment once occupied by Tchaikovsky's brother on the Piazza di Spagna in Rome in 1913. ``Nothing helps me so much as solitude,'' he said. ``In my opinion it is only possible to compose when one is alone and there are no external disturbances to hinder the calm flow of ideas. These conditions were ideally realized in my flat on the Piazza di Spagna.''
The idea of setting Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem was first suggested by an anonymous admirer, who sent Rachmaninoff a copy of Konstantin Balmont's translation. Years later she was identified as a cellist in the Moscow Conservatory named Danilova, who was too shy to approach her idol directly.
Balmont’s translation was not strictly faithful to Poe’s original. He deleted some lines and added others of his own, but he did preserve Poe’s four-part structure. Accordingly, each of the four movements represents a different kind of bell and its attendant symbol. The opening movement (“The Silver Sleigh Bells”), featuring solo tenor and chorus, denotes birth and youth. The second movement (“The Mellow Wedding Bells”), for soprano and chorus, refers to gold. Brass is evoked in the third movement (“The Loud Alarum Bells”), scored for chorus only. The solo baritone with the chorus intones the finale (“The Mournful Iron Bells”), signifying death.
Rachmaninoff conducted the first performance, in St. Petersburg on November 30, 1913. He conducted the work in Moscow on February 8, 1914. After this concert he was presented with laurel wreaths and flowers. The work was published in 1920 with a dedication to the Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg.
Instrumentation: soprano, tenor, bass, chorus, piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, pianino, organ and strings.

Text of The Bells

I.
Slyshish, sani mchatsya v ryad,
Mchatsya v ryad,
Kolokolchiki zvenyat.
Serebristym legkim zvonom slukh nash sladostno tomyat,
Etim penyem i gudenyem o zabvenye govoryat.
O, kak zvonko, zvonko, zvonko,
Tochno zvuchnyi smekh rebyonka,
V yasnom vozdukhe nochnom
Govoryat oni o tom,
Shto za dnyami zabluzhdenya Nastupayet vozrozhdenye.
Shto volshebno naslazhdenye, naslazhdenye nezhnym snom.
Sani mchatsya, mchatsya v ryad,
Kolokolchiki zvenyat.
Zvyozdy slushayut, kak sani, ubegaya, govoryat
I, vnimaya im goryat,
I mechtaya, I blistaya, v nebe dukhami paryat;
I izmenchivym siyanyem,
Molchalivym obayanyem,
Vmeste s zvonom, vmeste s penyem, o zabvenye govoryat.

(Hear the sledges dash abreast,
Dash abreast,
Jingle bells!
Their light and silvery tinkle pours sweet anguish in our ears,
All this singing and this ringing sweet oblivion foretells!
Oh, how clear, clear, clear,
As if baby's resonant laughter,
In the icy air of night
Is their chatter:
After days of disillusion hope restores.
The delight is all-enchanting, as enchanting as sweet dreams.
Sledges dash, dash abreast, dash abreast,
Jingle bells!
Stars, attentive to the sledges,
Seem to listen, all aglow,
Dreaming, sparkling in the heavens
With the ever-changing radiance
And with silent fascination
With the ringing and singing sweet oblivion foretell.)

II.
Slyshish, k svadbe zov svyatoy,
Zolotoy.
Skolko nezhnovo blazhenstva v etoy pesne molodoy!
Skvoz spokoinyi vozdukh nochi
Slovno smotryat chyi-to ochi I blestyat,
Iz volny pevuchikh zvukov na lunu oni glyadyat
Iz prizyvnykh divnykh keliy,
Polny skazochnykh veseliy,
Narastaya, upadaya, bryzgi svetlyye letyat.
Vnov potukhnut, vnov blestyat,
I ronyayut svetlyi vzglyad
Na gryadushcheye, gde dremlet bezmyatezhnost nezhnykh snov,
Vozveshchayemykh soglasyem zolotykh kolokolov.

(Hear the call to holy nuptials,
Golden bells!
What a tender bliss the youthful song foretells!
Through the quiet air of night,
As if someone's eyes are gazing, shining
At the moon through the undulating tones
From the wondrous sounding cells,
Full of fairytale rapture,
Mounting, sinking,
Crystal's sprinkle
As they glance
At the future, wherein sleeps tender quietude
Announced by the harmony of bells.)

III.
Slyshish, voyushchiy nabat,
Tochno stonet medniy ad.
Eti zvuki, v dikoy muke, skazku uzhasov tverdyat!
Tochno molyat im pomoch,
Krik kidayut pryamo v noch,
Pryamo v ushi temnoy nochi
Kazhdyi zvuk,
To dlinneye, to koroche
Vyklikayet svoy ispug.
I ispug ikh tak velik,
Tak bezumen kazhdyi krik
Shto razorvannyye zvony, nesposobnyye zvuchat,
Mogut tolko bitsya, bitsya, i krichat, krichat, krichat
I k pylayushchey gromade,
Vopli skorbi obrashchat.
A mezh tem ogon bezumnyi,
I gluykhoy I mnogoshumnyi, vsyo gorit,
To iz okon, to na kryshe
Mchitsya vyshe, vyshe, vyshe,
I kak budto govorit:
Ya khochu
Vyshe mchatsya, razgoratsya vstrechu lunnomu luchu,
Il umru, il totchas, totchas, vplot do mesyatsa vzlechu.
O, nabat, nabat, nabat,
Yesli b ty vernul nazad
Etot uzhas, eto plamya, etu iskru, etot vzglyad,
Etot pervyi vzglyad ognya,
O kotorom ty veshchayesh s voplem, s plachem i zvenya
A teper nam net spasenya.
Vsyudu plamya I kipenye,
Vsyudu strakh I vozmushchenye.
Tvoy prizyv,
Dikikh zvukov nesoglasnost
Vozveshchayet nam opasnost.
To rastyot beda glukhaya, to spadayet, kak priliv.
Slukh nash chutko lovit volny v peremene zvukovoy,
Vnov spadayet, vnov rydayet medno-stonushchiy priboy!

(Hear the wail of the bells,
As if brazen hell is moaning,
Agonized. A tale of terror their turbulence foretells!
As if pleading to be helped,
Screaming out into the night,
Straight into the ears of darkness
Every sound,
Now lengthened, now abrupt
Calling out their lasting fright!
Their horror is so great
And so mad is every shriek
That the punctuated tolling, quite unable to intone,
Keeps on clanging, clanging, as they shriek, shriek, shriek
Toward the fire-engulfed mass,
Sending their appeals for mercy.
While the frantic fires roar,
Dense and deafeningly strident, blazing
Out the windows, on the roof,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
As if saying:
It's our wish
To keep going, to keep blazing toward moonbeams,
Either perish now or reach to the moon itself this instant.
Oh, you bells, bells, bells,
If you'd only turn back
All the terror, all the fire, all the embers, and this sight,
The initial fiery glance
You describe with roar and clamor.
Now we see no liberation--
Boiling fire all around
Full of fear and indignation.
Your command
To fierce cacophony declares
Nothing but a mad distress.
Now the danger ebbs and flows
And our ear distinctly tells all the waves of changing sound,
Swelling, sinking in the brazen breakers' well!)

IV.
Pokhoronnyi slyshen zvon,
Dolgiy zvon!
Gorkoy skorbi slyshny zvoki, gorkoy zhizni konchen son.
Zvuk zheleznyi vozveshchayet o pechali pokhoron.
I nevolno my drozhim,
Ot zabav svoikh speshim,
I rydayem, vspominayem, shto i my glaza smezhim.
Neizmenno-monotonnyi,
Etot vozglas otdalyonnyi,
Pokhoronnyi tyazhkiy zvon,
Tochno ston.
Skorbnyi, gnevnyi
I plachevnyi,
Vyrastayet v dolgiy gul,
Vozveshchayet, shto stradalets neprobudnym snom usnul.
V kolokolnykh kelyakh rzhavykh
On dlya pravykh i nepravykh
Grozno vtorit ob odnom:
Shto na serdtse budto kamen, shto glaza somknutsya snom.
Fakel traurnyi gorit.
S kolokolni kto-to kriknul, kto-to gromko govorit,
Kto-to chyornyi tam stoit.
I khokhochet, I gremit,
I gudit, gudit, gudit,
K kolokolne pripadayet,
Gulkiy kolokol kachyet,
Gulkiy kolokol rydayet,
Stonet v vozdukhe nemom
I protyazhno vozveshchayet o pokoye grobovom.

(Hear the mournful toll of bells,
Lasting toll!
Sounds of bitter sorrow are heard as a bitter life's dreams end.
And the iron tone of bells solemn monody foretells.
Inadvertently, we shiver.
All diversions stand away.
We lament, for we discover time will come to end our day.
The inalterably dull
Is this distant voice.
Mournful heavy toll,
A knoll.
Pained, wrathful,
And lamenting,
Growing into lengthy din,
It proclaims that the sufferer fell into eternal dream.
In the rusty cells of the steeple
For the righteous and the wrong
It is menacingly saying:
On the human heart a stone as the orbs will close forever.
A funerial torch is burning.
From the steeple someone yelled, someone called,
Someone all in black stands there
And he laughs, and he drones,
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
As he falls onto the steeple,
Swaying throbbing iron bells.
Throbbing iron bells are moaning,
Groaning in the still of night
And their lingering call proclaims: all is gravely right!)

[Transliteration and translation by Valeria Vlazinskaya]

Wednesday February 3, 2010

Colorado Music Festival Orchestra
Michael Christie, conductor; Colin Currie, percussion
Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzona in the Ninth Tone 5:27
Jennifer Higdon: Percussion Concerto [2010 Grammy award winner for "Best Classical Contemporary Composition] 25:34 (6/29/07)
Also, Jennifer Higdon: Piano Trio 13:36
(Adam Neiman, piano; Anne Akiko Meyers, violin; Alisa Weilerstein, cello)
Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival (7/15/03)
And, Charley anticipates Opus Two's appearance with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra Friday.
Lowell Liebermann: "Allegro energico" (2nd movement) from Violin Sonata No.1, Op.46
Opus Two (William Terwilliger, violin; Andrew Cooperstock, piano)
Troy 684 Track 6 4:34

Tuesday February 2, 2010

Friends of Chamber Music
Pieter Wispelwey, cello; Alexander Melnikov, piano
Bohuslav Martinů: Variations on a Slovakian Folksong, H.378
Frédéric Chopin: Cello Sonata in G minor, Op.65 (11/5/08)
Also, Charley talks with St. Martin's Chamber Choir music director Timothy J. Krueger about this weekend's concerts.
Cecilo Effinger: "No Mark," "Noon" & "Wood" from Four Pastorales
Sue Logan, oboe; St. Martin's Chamber Choir/ Timothy J. Krueger
Cygnus 4 1,2,4 10:48
And, Steve Blatt talks with Opera Colorado general director Greg Carpenter about their production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville.

Monday February 1, 2010

Charley talks with violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen about her recital with pianist Cullan Bryant tonight and tomorrow.

Benjamin Britten: "Perpetual Motion" (2nd movement) & "Waltz" (4th movement) from Suite, Op.6

Jerilyn Jorgensen, violin; Cullan Bryant, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 11/13/09 MS
Also, Colorado College Summer Music Festival
Patrick Cardy: Tango!

Jon Manasse, clarinet; Mark Fewer, violin; John Novacek, piano (6/28/06)
Matthew Hindson: Little Chrissitina’s Major Fantasy

Mark Fewer and Steven Copes, violins (6/28/06)
André Previn: Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano

Robert Walters, oboe; Michael Kroth, bassoon; John Novacek, piano (7/3/06)
Moreover, Charley talks with the Playground Ensemble's Conrad Kehn about their concert Thursday, and anticipates Opus Two's appearances at CU Boulder and with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra this week.
Paul Schoenfield: "Fughetta" from Partita
Opus Two (William Terwilliger, violin; Andrew Cooperstock, piano)
Azica 71241 Track 9 2:23