Friday February 19, 2010

Charley talks with Cantaloupe Records manager Alec Bemis about the Mile High Voltage Festival at the Newman Center this weekend.
Newman Center Presents
Benjamin Hudson, violin; Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056 10:42
Peter Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C major, Op.48 31:00 (3/21/07)
Also, Charley talks with conductor Cynthia Katsarelis about the Haiti Benefit Concert tomorrow.
Wolfgang Mozart: "Allegro asai" (3rd movement) from Divertimento in D major, K.136
Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra/ Cynthia Katsarelis
NCA (12/2/07)
And, Charley talks with Kantorei music director Richard Larson about their Augustana Arts concert on Sunday.
Eric Whitacre: "The Eel," "The Kangaroo" & "The Canary" from Animal Crackers No.2
Kantorei/ Richard Larson
NCA (10/2009)
Evan Ziporyn: Excerpt from Frog's Eye
Evan Ziporyn,bass clarinet; Boston Modern Orchestra Project/ Gil Rose
Cantaloupe 21040 Track 1 1:48


Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Serenade for Strings in C major, Opus 48
I. Piece in the Form of a Sonata: Andante non troppo; Allegro moderato
II. Waltz: Moderato, tempo di valse
III. Elegy: Larghetto elegiaco
IV. Finale: Andante; Allegro con spirito

``Whether because it's my latest child or because it really isn't bad,'' Tchaikovsky wrote to his publisher, ``I'm terribly in love with this serenade.'' The Serenade for Strings was written in just seven weeks during the fall of 1880, at the same time as the 1812 Overture. ``My muse has been benevolent of late,'' Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck. ``I have written two long works very rapidly: the festive overture and a Serenade in four movements for string orchestra. The overture will be very noisy. I wrote it without much warmth or enthusiasm; and therefore it has no great artistic value. The Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from an inward impulse; I felt it; and I venture to hope that this work is not without artistic qualities.''
The Serenade was introduced by Eduard Napravnik and the Russian Musical Society in St. Petersburg on October 30, 1881. When Tchaikovsky conducted the work in London, the Musical Times reported applause ``far beyond the limit of merely courteous approbation.''
Tchaikovsky again wrote to his patroness: ``I wish with all my heart that you could hear my Serenade properly performed. I think that the middle movements, as played by the strings, would win your sympathy....The first movement is my homage to Mozart: it is intended to be an imitation of his style, and I should be delighted if I thought I had in any way approached my model.''
Biographer John Warrack says ``the opening movement used the strong opening descending scale figure again at the end, and the Waltz, justly one of his most famous, and Elegy both base their tunes, so different in effect, on a rising scale. The Finale makes use of two Russian themes. The second of them is again built out of a descending scale, and Tchaikovsky subjects it to delightfully varied treatment on each of its repetitions....At the end, he brings back the descending scale theme of the very opening before blowing it away with a last statement of the second, boisterous Russian theme.''