Charley and Steve Blatt talk about the "From the Performance Studio" CD.
Robert Schumann: “Aria” (2nd movement) from Piano Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op.11
Barry Douglas, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 3/19/09 MS
Also, Friends of Chamber Music
Marc Andre Hamelin, piano.
Frédéric Chopin: Barcarolle in F sharp major, op.60
Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 3 in A flat major, op.47 16:17
Marc Andre Hamelin: Etude no.7 (after Tchaikovsky)
Marc Andre Hamelin: Etude no.8, Erlkönig (after Goethe) 9:46
Leopold Godowsky: Symphonic Metamorphoses on Johann Strauss's Wine, Woman and Song 11:06
Marc Andre Hamelin: Diabolical Suggestion 1:20 (5/14/08)
And, Isaac Albéniz: “Rumores de la Caleta” from Recuerdos de viaje
Jason Vieaux, guitar
KVOD Performance Studio 10/5/07 MS
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Monday February 15, 2010
Charley and Steve Blatt talk about the "From the Performance Studio" CD.
Traditional Chinese: Fisherman's Song
Linda Wang, violin; Alice Rybak, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 2/13/07 MS
Also, Strings in the Mountains Music Festival
Vivaldi: Concerto No. 3 in F major (“Autumn”) from The Four Seasons, Op.8
Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Strings in the Mountains Chamber Orchestra (8/14/04)
Chopin: Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op.53 (Heroic)
Jon Nakamatsu, piano (8/17/04)
Gershwin-Singleton: Rhapsody in Blue
Ralph Votapek, piano; Kimberly Aseltine, clarinet; Alpen Brass; Paul Eachus, conductor (7/2/04)
And, Felix Mendelssohn: "Allegro vivace—Presto" (1st movement) from String Quartet in F minor, Op.80
Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee, Meg Freivogel, violins; Liz Freivogel, viola; Daniel McDonough, cello)
KVOD Performance Studio 12/6/07 MS
Traditional Chinese: Fisherman's Song
Linda Wang, violin; Alice Rybak, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 2/13/07 MS
Also, Strings in the Mountains Music Festival
Vivaldi: Concerto No. 3 in F major (“Autumn”) from The Four Seasons, Op.8
Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Strings in the Mountains Chamber Orchestra (8/14/04)
Chopin: Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op.53 (Heroic)
Jon Nakamatsu, piano (8/17/04)
Gershwin-Singleton: Rhapsody in Blue
Ralph Votapek, piano; Kimberly Aseltine, clarinet; Alpen Brass; Paul Eachus, conductor (7/2/04)
And, Felix Mendelssohn: "Allegro vivace—Presto" (1st movement) from String Quartet in F minor, Op.80
Jupiter String Quartet (Nelson Lee, Meg Freivogel, violins; Liz Freivogel, viola; Daniel McDonough, cello)
KVOD Performance Studio 12/6/07 MS
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Friday February 12, 2010
Charley and Steve Blatt talk about the "From the Performance Studio" CD.
Johann Sebastian Bach: "Gigue" from Solo Cello Suite No.1 in G major, BWV 1007
Johannes Moser, cello
KVOD Performance Studio 3/29/07 MS
Also, Charley anticipates the Boulder Philharmonic's concert on Sunday.
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Butterman, conductor; Kenrick Mervine, organ
Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op.78 (Organ) 37:26
Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (10/4/08)
And, Maurice Durufle: "Ubi Caritas" from Four Motets on Gregorian Themes
Lamont Chamber Choir Ensemble (Evans Choir)
Catherine Sailor, conductor
KVOD Performance Studio 4/28/09 MS
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Opus 78 (Organ Symphony)
I. Adagio, Allegro moderato, Poco adagio
II. Allegro moderato; Presto; Maestoso
``With it, I have given all I could give,'' said Saint-Saëns of his Third Symphony. ``What I did I could not achieve again.''
Saint-Saëns had already sketched a few ideas for a new symphony when he visited Franz Liszt in Paris in April, 1886. By the time he reached London, Francesco Berger approached him with a commission from the London Philharmonic Society.
A few months later, Saint-Saëns wrote Berger that the symphony was ``well under way. It will be terrifying, I warn you....This imp of a symphony has gone up a half-tone; it didn't want to stay in B minor and is now in C minor. It will be a treat for me to conduct it. Will it be a treat, though, for the people who hear it? That is the question. It's you who asked for it. I wash my hands of the whole thing.''
Saint-Saëns conducted the London Philharmonic in the first performance of the Third Symphony on May 19, 1886. Sir Arthur Sullivan conducted the balance of the program, which included Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, with Saint-Saëns as soloist. When the Symphony was played in Paris, Charles Gounod remarked: ``Behold, the French Beethoven!''
For the London performance, the composer provided the following analysis: ``This symphony, divided into two parts, nevertheless includes practically the traditional four movements: the first, checked in its development, serves as an introduction to the Adagio, and the Scherzo is connected after the same manner with the Finale. The composer has thus sought to shun in a certain measure the interminable repetitions that are more and more disappearing from instrumental music.''
The Third Symphony is called the Organ Symphony for obvious reasons, but the organist's role in the work is more of a participant than soloist. Saint-Saëns once provided a clue to his intent in the Symphony: ``If the sound of the organ, an harmonious noise rather than exact music, produced little that is worth writing down on paper, then it belongs to the same category as those old stained-glass windows where you can hardly discern the shapes but which, nevertheless, have more charm than their modern counterparts.''
When Liszt died in Bayreuth just two months after the London première of the Third Symphony, Saint-Saëns dedicated the work to the great pianist.
Vincent d'Indy said the Third was ``full of indisputable talent and seems to constitute a wager against the traditional laws of tonal construction--a wager that the composer sustains with adroitness and eloquence. But in spite of this work's undeniable interest...the final impression remains one of doubt and sadness.''
Biographer James Harding points to the finale, ``in which every trick of the trade is used to pile up an exciting climax underlined by thunderous reverberations from the organ. The texture of the score is lightened from time time with runs and arpeggios written to be played at will on the piano by two performers or one. A very large orchestra is required for this monumental attempt at grandiose utterance by a man whose natural bent was for wit rather than passion. The emotion is strangulated. Like Tchaikovsky, he strives for tragedy and achieves pathos. It is as if Ravel had attempted, with sincerity, to write Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. And yet...and yet there are half lights, muted moments, when the pangs of genuine emotion stab through the glittering web that the magician of the orchestra is so deftly spinning.''
The Symphony is scored for piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contra-bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, timpani, organ, piano and strings.
Johann Sebastian Bach: "Gigue" from Solo Cello Suite No.1 in G major, BWV 1007
Johannes Moser, cello
KVOD Performance Studio 3/29/07 MS
Also, Charley anticipates the Boulder Philharmonic's concert on Sunday.
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Butterman, conductor; Kenrick Mervine, organ
Camille Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op.78 (Organ) 37:26
Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (10/4/08)
And, Maurice Durufle: "Ubi Caritas" from Four Motets on Gregorian Themes
Lamont Chamber Choir Ensemble (Evans Choir)
Catherine Sailor, conductor
KVOD Performance Studio 4/28/09 MS
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Opus 78 (Organ Symphony)
I. Adagio, Allegro moderato, Poco adagio
II. Allegro moderato; Presto; Maestoso
``With it, I have given all I could give,'' said Saint-Saëns of his Third Symphony. ``What I did I could not achieve again.''
Saint-Saëns had already sketched a few ideas for a new symphony when he visited Franz Liszt in Paris in April, 1886. By the time he reached London, Francesco Berger approached him with a commission from the London Philharmonic Society.
A few months later, Saint-Saëns wrote Berger that the symphony was ``well under way. It will be terrifying, I warn you....This imp of a symphony has gone up a half-tone; it didn't want to stay in B minor and is now in C minor. It will be a treat for me to conduct it. Will it be a treat, though, for the people who hear it? That is the question. It's you who asked for it. I wash my hands of the whole thing.''
Saint-Saëns conducted the London Philharmonic in the first performance of the Third Symphony on May 19, 1886. Sir Arthur Sullivan conducted the balance of the program, which included Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, with Saint-Saëns as soloist. When the Symphony was played in Paris, Charles Gounod remarked: ``Behold, the French Beethoven!''
For the London performance, the composer provided the following analysis: ``This symphony, divided into two parts, nevertheless includes practically the traditional four movements: the first, checked in its development, serves as an introduction to the Adagio, and the Scherzo is connected after the same manner with the Finale. The composer has thus sought to shun in a certain measure the interminable repetitions that are more and more disappearing from instrumental music.''
The Third Symphony is called the Organ Symphony for obvious reasons, but the organist's role in the work is more of a participant than soloist. Saint-Saëns once provided a clue to his intent in the Symphony: ``If the sound of the organ, an harmonious noise rather than exact music, produced little that is worth writing down on paper, then it belongs to the same category as those old stained-glass windows where you can hardly discern the shapes but which, nevertheless, have more charm than their modern counterparts.''
When Liszt died in Bayreuth just two months after the London première of the Third Symphony, Saint-Saëns dedicated the work to the great pianist.
Vincent d'Indy said the Third was ``full of indisputable talent and seems to constitute a wager against the traditional laws of tonal construction--a wager that the composer sustains with adroitness and eloquence. But in spite of this work's undeniable interest...the final impression remains one of doubt and sadness.''
Biographer James Harding points to the finale, ``in which every trick of the trade is used to pile up an exciting climax underlined by thunderous reverberations from the organ. The texture of the score is lightened from time time with runs and arpeggios written to be played at will on the piano by two performers or one. A very large orchestra is required for this monumental attempt at grandiose utterance by a man whose natural bent was for wit rather than passion. The emotion is strangulated. Like Tchaikovsky, he strives for tragedy and achieves pathos. It is as if Ravel had attempted, with sincerity, to write Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. And yet...and yet there are half lights, muted moments, when the pangs of genuine emotion stab through the glittering web that the magician of the orchestra is so deftly spinning.''
The Symphony is scored for piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contra-bassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, timpani, organ, piano and strings.
Thursday February 11, 2010
Charley and Steve Blatt talk about the "From the Performance Studio" CD.
Johann Sebastian Bach: "Gigue" (4th movement) from Solo Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Yumi Hwang-Williams, violin
KVOD Performance Studio 2/19/07 MS
Also, Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Jeffrey Kahane, conductor; Christine Brewer, soprano
Ludwig van Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus Overture, Opus 43
Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs (11/20-21/09)
And, Opera Colorado Outreach Ensemble Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville
"La Calunnia" from Act II
Alexander Scopino, bass; Steven Aguiló-Arbues, pianist
Duet, "Dunque io son" from Act II
Ted Federle, baritone; Julia Tobiska, mezzo-soprano; Steven Aguiló-Arbues, pianist
"Il vecchiotto cerca moglie" (Berta's Aria) from Act III
Donata Cucinotta, soprano; Steven Aguiló-Arbues, pianist
KVOD Performance Studio 1/19/10 MS
David Mullikin: "Chanson" (3rd movement) from Trio for flutes, violin and viola
Ivy Street Ensemble (Catherine Peterson, piccolo; Erik Peterson, violin; Phillip Stevens, viola)
KVOD Performance Studio 6/1/06 MS
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Overture to the Ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, Opus 43
Sometime in 1800, Beethoven was commissioned to write the music for a new ``heroic-allegorical ballet'' titled The Creatures of Prometheus. Intended as a compliment to the Emperor Franz's second wife, Maria Theresia, the ballet was choreographed by Salvatore Vigano, the ballet master at the court theater in Vienna. When Beethoven finished the music, he wrote to his publishers: ``I have written a ballet, in which, however, the ballet master has not made the best of his part.''
Nevertheless, The Creatures of Prometheus was a moderate success at its first performance, a benefit for the prima ballerina, one Fräulein Casentini, on March 28, 1801 at the Court Theater. The work was given fourteen times that year; nine times the next.
One day, Beethoven ran into his former teacher, Franz Joseph Haydn, whose oratorio The Creation had been a sensation only three years earlier. Haydn: ``Well, I heard your ballet yesterday and it pleased me very much!'' Beethoven: ``O, dear Papa, you are very kind; but it is far from being a Creation. Haydn: ``That is true; it is not yet a Creation and I can scarcely believe that it will ever become one.'' Whereupon both men, somewhat embarrassed, went their separate ways.
The program at the first performance summarized the action of the ballet: ``The basis of this allegorical ballet is the fable of Prometheus. The Greek philosophers, by whom he was known, allude to him as a lofty soul who drove the people of his time from ignorance, refined them by means of science and the arts, and gave them manners, customs, and morals. As a result of that conception, two statues which have been brought to life are introduced into this ballet, and these, through the power of harmony, are made sensitive to the passions of human existence. Prometheus leads them to Parnassus, in order that Apollo, the god of the arts, may enlighten them. Apollo gives then as teachers Amphion, Arion, and Orpheus to instruct them in music, Melpomene to teach them tragedy; Thalia, comedy, Terpsichore and Pan, the shepherd's dance, and Bacchus, the heroic dance, of which he was the originator.''
The Overture contains several themes from the ballet proper. A slow introduction representing ``the solemn appearance of Prometheus'' is followed by a fast section depicting ``human creatures led to joy.'' The stormy climaxes towards the end suggest the flight of Prometheus from ``the mighty wrath of Heaven.''
The Overture is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder)
I. Frühling (Spring)
II. September
III. Beim Schlafengehen (Falling Asleep)
IV. Im Abendrot (In the Sunset)
In 1948, a year before his death, Strauss and his wife Pauline moved to the Palace Hotel in Montreux. There he composed his last work, Four Last Songs. Two years earlier he had read Joseph von Eichendorff's poem Im Abendrot (In the Sunset), about an old couple regarding the sunset and asking ``Is that perhaps death?'' By May 6, 1948 he finished an orchestral song setting of the poem, in which he quoted from his own Death and Transfiguration of 1889.
Meanwhile an admirer sent him a volume of poems by Hermann Hesse. Strauss planned to set four of the poems, and add them to the Eichendorff setting to form a cycle of five. He finished only three of the Hesse settings, the last one, September, on September 20. He died a year later.
Strauss's publisher Ernest Roth gave the works the collective title of Four Last Songs. The first performance was given at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 22, 1950. Kirsten Flagstad, who had been selected by Strauss before his death, was the soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.
``In trying to understand the poignant feelings they arouse the word nostalgia comes to mind,'' writes biographer Norman Del Mar, ``but this is too superficial to cover music of the calibre of these songs, although their beauty undoubtedly contains a nostalgic element, as well as sadness. Yet the tiredness of great age in the presence of impending and welcome death is not really sad but something far deeper. It is the prerogative of great art that it arouses nameless emotions which can tear us apart. With his last utterances, as at intervals during his long life, Strauss showed himself such a genius of the highest rank.''
The score calls for soprano, piccolo, 4 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, celestra and strings.
Texts of Four Last Songs
I.Frühling (Hesse)
In dämmrigen Grüften
Träumte ich lang
Von deinen Bäumen und blauen Lüften
Von deinem Duft und Vogelsang.
Nun liegst du erschlossen
In Gleiss und Zier,
Von Licht übergossen
Wie ein Wunder vor mir.
Du kennst mich wieder,
Du lockest mich zart,
Es zittert durch all meine Glieder
Deine selige Gegenwart.
(Spring)
(In shadowy grottoes,
I dreamt long
Of your trees and blue skies,
Of your fragrance and birdsong.
Now you lie opened up
In glitter and ornament,
Bathed in light
Like a wonder before me.
You also recognize me
You sweetly tempt me,
Your blessed presence
Trembles through all my limbs.)
II. September (Hesse)
Der Garten trauert,
Kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.
Der Sommer schauert
Still seinem Ende entgegen.
Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt
Nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum.
Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt
In den sterbenden Gartentraum.
Lange noch bei den Rosen
Bleibt er stehen, sehnt sich nach Ruh.
Langsam tut er die grossen
Müdgewordenen Augen zu.
(September)
(The garden mourns,
Rain sinks cool into the flowers.
Summer trembles quietly,
Faced with its end.
Leaf after leaf drops, golden
Down from the high acacia.
Summer smiles astonished and faintly
Into the dying garden-dream.
Long yet by the roses
It remains standing, longing for rest.
Slowly the big
Tired eyes are closed.)
III. Beim Schlafengehen (Hesse)
Nun der Tag mich müd gemacht,
Soll mein sehnliches Verlangen
Freundlich die gestirnte Nacht
Wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.
Hände lasst von allem Tun,
Stirn vergiss du alles Denken.
Alle meine Sinne nun
Wollen sich in Schlummer senken.
Und die Seele unbewacht
Will in freien Flügen schweben,
Um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
Tief und tausendfach zu leben.
(Falling Asleep)
(Now the day has made me tired,
Let the starry night
Receive my ardent demand,
As if I were a tired child.
Hands, leave off from every action,
Brow, forget all thinking.
All my senses now
Wish to sink into slumber.
And the soul, unfettered,
Wants to soar in free flight
In the magic circle of night,
Deeply and a thousandfold to live.)
IV. Im Abendrot (Eichendorff)
Wir sind durch Not und Freude
Gegangen Hand in Hand;
Vom Wandern ruhn wir beide
Nun überm stillen Land.
Rings sich die Täler neigen.
Es dunkelt schon die Luft,
Zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen
Nachtträumend in den Duft.
Tritt her, und lass sie schwirren,
Bald ist es Schlafenszeit,
Dass wir uns nicht verirren
In dieser Einsamkeit.
O weiter, stiller Friede
So tief im Abendrot
Wie sind wir wandermüde--
Ist dies etwa der Tod?
(In the Sunset)
(We have, in need and joy,
Gone hand in hand;
From wandering let us rest
Now in this silent land.
The valleys press around us,
Soon the air will darken,
Two larks rise,
Dreaming in the fragrance.
Come here, and let them whirr,
Soon it will be time to sleep,
So that we do not lose ourselves
In this loneliness.
O wide, still peace
So deep in the sunset
How tired we are of wandering--
Is this perhaps death?)
Johann Sebastian Bach: "Gigue" (4th movement) from Solo Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Yumi Hwang-Williams, violin
KVOD Performance Studio 2/19/07 MS
Also, Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Jeffrey Kahane, conductor; Christine Brewer, soprano
Ludwig van Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus Overture, Opus 43
Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs (11/20-21/09)
And, Opera Colorado Outreach Ensemble Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville
"La Calunnia" from Act II
Alexander Scopino, bass; Steven Aguiló-Arbues, pianist
Duet, "Dunque io son" from Act II
Ted Federle, baritone; Julia Tobiska, mezzo-soprano; Steven Aguiló-Arbues, pianist
"Il vecchiotto cerca moglie" (Berta's Aria) from Act III
Donata Cucinotta, soprano; Steven Aguiló-Arbues, pianist
KVOD Performance Studio 1/19/10 MS
David Mullikin: "Chanson" (3rd movement) from Trio for flutes, violin and viola
Ivy Street Ensemble (Catherine Peterson, piccolo; Erik Peterson, violin; Phillip Stevens, viola)
KVOD Performance Studio 6/1/06 MS
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Overture to the Ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, Opus 43
Sometime in 1800, Beethoven was commissioned to write the music for a new ``heroic-allegorical ballet'' titled The Creatures of Prometheus. Intended as a compliment to the Emperor Franz's second wife, Maria Theresia, the ballet was choreographed by Salvatore Vigano, the ballet master at the court theater in Vienna. When Beethoven finished the music, he wrote to his publishers: ``I have written a ballet, in which, however, the ballet master has not made the best of his part.''
Nevertheless, The Creatures of Prometheus was a moderate success at its first performance, a benefit for the prima ballerina, one Fräulein Casentini, on March 28, 1801 at the Court Theater. The work was given fourteen times that year; nine times the next.
One day, Beethoven ran into his former teacher, Franz Joseph Haydn, whose oratorio The Creation had been a sensation only three years earlier. Haydn: ``Well, I heard your ballet yesterday and it pleased me very much!'' Beethoven: ``O, dear Papa, you are very kind; but it is far from being a Creation. Haydn: ``That is true; it is not yet a Creation and I can scarcely believe that it will ever become one.'' Whereupon both men, somewhat embarrassed, went their separate ways.
The program at the first performance summarized the action of the ballet: ``The basis of this allegorical ballet is the fable of Prometheus. The Greek philosophers, by whom he was known, allude to him as a lofty soul who drove the people of his time from ignorance, refined them by means of science and the arts, and gave them manners, customs, and morals. As a result of that conception, two statues which have been brought to life are introduced into this ballet, and these, through the power of harmony, are made sensitive to the passions of human existence. Prometheus leads them to Parnassus, in order that Apollo, the god of the arts, may enlighten them. Apollo gives then as teachers Amphion, Arion, and Orpheus to instruct them in music, Melpomene to teach them tragedy; Thalia, comedy, Terpsichore and Pan, the shepherd's dance, and Bacchus, the heroic dance, of which he was the originator.''
The Overture contains several themes from the ballet proper. A slow introduction representing ``the solemn appearance of Prometheus'' is followed by a fast section depicting ``human creatures led to joy.'' The stormy climaxes towards the end suggest the flight of Prometheus from ``the mighty wrath of Heaven.''
The Overture is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder)
I. Frühling (Spring)
II. September
III. Beim Schlafengehen (Falling Asleep)
IV. Im Abendrot (In the Sunset)
In 1948, a year before his death, Strauss and his wife Pauline moved to the Palace Hotel in Montreux. There he composed his last work, Four Last Songs. Two years earlier he had read Joseph von Eichendorff's poem Im Abendrot (In the Sunset), about an old couple regarding the sunset and asking ``Is that perhaps death?'' By May 6, 1948 he finished an orchestral song setting of the poem, in which he quoted from his own Death and Transfiguration of 1889.
Meanwhile an admirer sent him a volume of poems by Hermann Hesse. Strauss planned to set four of the poems, and add them to the Eichendorff setting to form a cycle of five. He finished only three of the Hesse settings, the last one, September, on September 20. He died a year later.
Strauss's publisher Ernest Roth gave the works the collective title of Four Last Songs. The first performance was given at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 22, 1950. Kirsten Flagstad, who had been selected by Strauss before his death, was the soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.
``In trying to understand the poignant feelings they arouse the word nostalgia comes to mind,'' writes biographer Norman Del Mar, ``but this is too superficial to cover music of the calibre of these songs, although their beauty undoubtedly contains a nostalgic element, as well as sadness. Yet the tiredness of great age in the presence of impending and welcome death is not really sad but something far deeper. It is the prerogative of great art that it arouses nameless emotions which can tear us apart. With his last utterances, as at intervals during his long life, Strauss showed himself such a genius of the highest rank.''
The score calls for soprano, piccolo, 4 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, celestra and strings.
Texts of Four Last Songs
I.Frühling (Hesse)
In dämmrigen Grüften
Träumte ich lang
Von deinen Bäumen und blauen Lüften
Von deinem Duft und Vogelsang.
Nun liegst du erschlossen
In Gleiss und Zier,
Von Licht übergossen
Wie ein Wunder vor mir.
Du kennst mich wieder,
Du lockest mich zart,
Es zittert durch all meine Glieder
Deine selige Gegenwart.
(Spring)
(In shadowy grottoes,
I dreamt long
Of your trees and blue skies,
Of your fragrance and birdsong.
Now you lie opened up
In glitter and ornament,
Bathed in light
Like a wonder before me.
You also recognize me
You sweetly tempt me,
Your blessed presence
Trembles through all my limbs.)
II. September (Hesse)
Der Garten trauert,
Kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.
Der Sommer schauert
Still seinem Ende entgegen.
Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt
Nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum.
Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt
In den sterbenden Gartentraum.
Lange noch bei den Rosen
Bleibt er stehen, sehnt sich nach Ruh.
Langsam tut er die grossen
Müdgewordenen Augen zu.
(September)
(The garden mourns,
Rain sinks cool into the flowers.
Summer trembles quietly,
Faced with its end.
Leaf after leaf drops, golden
Down from the high acacia.
Summer smiles astonished and faintly
Into the dying garden-dream.
Long yet by the roses
It remains standing, longing for rest.
Slowly the big
Tired eyes are closed.)
III. Beim Schlafengehen (Hesse)
Nun der Tag mich müd gemacht,
Soll mein sehnliches Verlangen
Freundlich die gestirnte Nacht
Wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.
Hände lasst von allem Tun,
Stirn vergiss du alles Denken.
Alle meine Sinne nun
Wollen sich in Schlummer senken.
Und die Seele unbewacht
Will in freien Flügen schweben,
Um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
Tief und tausendfach zu leben.
(Falling Asleep)
(Now the day has made me tired,
Let the starry night
Receive my ardent demand,
As if I were a tired child.
Hands, leave off from every action,
Brow, forget all thinking.
All my senses now
Wish to sink into slumber.
And the soul, unfettered,
Wants to soar in free flight
In the magic circle of night,
Deeply and a thousandfold to live.)
IV. Im Abendrot (Eichendorff)
Wir sind durch Not und Freude
Gegangen Hand in Hand;
Vom Wandern ruhn wir beide
Nun überm stillen Land.
Rings sich die Täler neigen.
Es dunkelt schon die Luft,
Zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen
Nachtträumend in den Duft.
Tritt her, und lass sie schwirren,
Bald ist es Schlafenszeit,
Dass wir uns nicht verirren
In dieser Einsamkeit.
O weiter, stiller Friede
So tief im Abendrot
Wie sind wir wandermüde--
Ist dies etwa der Tod?
(In the Sunset)
(We have, in need and joy,
Gone hand in hand;
From wandering let us rest
Now in this silent land.
The valleys press around us,
Soon the air will darken,
Two larks rise,
Dreaming in the fragrance.
Come here, and let them whirr,
Soon it will be time to sleep,
So that we do not lose ourselves
In this loneliness.
O wide, still peace
So deep in the sunset
How tired we are of wandering--
Is this perhaps death?)
Wednesday February 10, 2010
Charley and Steve Blatt talk about the "From the Performance Studio" CD.
Felix Mendelssohn: Song without Words in G minor, Op.19 No. 6 (Venetian Gondola Song)
Simon Trpceski, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 1/17/07 MS
Wolfgang Mozart (arr. David Overton): “Rondo Alla Turca: Allegretto” (3rd movement) from Piano Sonata in A Major, K. 331
Sir James Galway, Lady Jeanne Galway, flutes; Obadiah Ariss, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 2/20/07 MS
Also, Colorado Music Festival Chamber Players (Vivienne Spy, piano; Joseph Meyer, violin; Courtney Sedgwick Filner, viola; Gregory Sauer, cello; Randall Nordstrom double bass) Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (Trout) 37:52 (7/31/07)
And, Frédéric Chopin: Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 (Minute)
Hsing-ay Hsu, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 11/6/08 MS
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Piano Quintet in A major, D.667 (Trout)
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante
III. Scherzo: Presto
IV. Thema: Andantino
V. Finale: Allegro giusto
During the summer of 1819 Schubert went on a walking tour of upper Austria. He stopped at the small town of Steyr and sent a note to his brother Ferdinand. ``The country round Steyr,'' he wrote, ``is unimaginably lovely.''
In Steyr he stayed at the home of Sylvester Paumgartner, the manager of a local mine. A keen amateur cellist, Paumgartner often entertained in a music room on the second floor of his house. It was he who commissioned Schubert to write the Trout Quintet, stipulating that it should have the same instrumentation as Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Quintet in E flat major, Op.87 (piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass), and that it include a variation movement on Schubert's song of two years before, Die Forelle (Trout), D.550.
Schubert began the work in Steyr that summer and completed it back in Vienna in the fall. Its fourth movement (Andantino) contained the requested variations.
After Schubert's death his brother Ferdinand sold the score to the publisher Joseph Czerny, who issued it as Opus 114. On May 21, 1829 an announcement declared, ``This Quintet, having already been performed in several circles at the publisher's instigation, and declared to be a masterpiece by the musical connoisseurs present, we deem it our duty to draw the musical public's attention to this latest work by the unforgettable composer.''
J.A. Westrup calls the Quintet ``entertainment music from first to last, and should be listened to with simple, unsophisticated enjoyment. To drink--even to talk--during a performance would not be blasphemy.''
In his book on Schubert, Alfred Einstein calls the Quintet ``a serenade for chamber ensemble,'' whose opening movement dispenses with a coda. ``The movement simply comes to an end,'' he writes, ``after a well-ordered sequence of pleasant and increasingly richly figured Schubertian ideas. One of these ideas, the last one in the `angular' rhythm, dominates the contrasting section of the following Andante, with its lyrical opening. It has a faint Magyar or Slav ring about it. And the Finale practically dispenses with fancy dress, and advertises itslef as all' ongarese [in the Hungarian style]. The first subject dominates the movement...and the melodic ideas and rhythms that compete with it are taken from the first movement (the `Trout' Quintet is a very homogeneous work). But Schubert is at his most Schubertian in the concise and stormy Scherzo and Trio, in its contrast between rhythmic emphasis and lyricism.''
The fourth movement is a set of six variations on the opening of the song Die Forelle: ``In a bright stream the capricious trout darted along like an arrow.'' The first three variations are simple melodic embellishments by first piano, then viola and cello, and finally double bass. The next two variations considerably alter the original melody and the final variation presents a grand summing up of all that has come before.
Felix Mendelssohn: Song without Words in G minor, Op.19 No. 6 (Venetian Gondola Song)
Simon Trpceski, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 1/17/07 MS
Wolfgang Mozart (arr. David Overton): “Rondo Alla Turca: Allegretto” (3rd movement) from Piano Sonata in A Major, K. 331
Sir James Galway, Lady Jeanne Galway, flutes; Obadiah Ariss, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 2/20/07 MS
Also, Colorado Music Festival Chamber Players (Vivienne Spy, piano; Joseph Meyer, violin; Courtney Sedgwick Filner, viola; Gregory Sauer, cello; Randall Nordstrom double bass) Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (Trout) 37:52 (7/31/07)
And, Frédéric Chopin: Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 (Minute)
Hsing-ay Hsu, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 11/6/08 MS
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Piano Quintet in A major, D.667 (Trout)
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante
III. Scherzo: Presto
IV. Thema: Andantino
V. Finale: Allegro giusto
During the summer of 1819 Schubert went on a walking tour of upper Austria. He stopped at the small town of Steyr and sent a note to his brother Ferdinand. ``The country round Steyr,'' he wrote, ``is unimaginably lovely.''
In Steyr he stayed at the home of Sylvester Paumgartner, the manager of a local mine. A keen amateur cellist, Paumgartner often entertained in a music room on the second floor of his house. It was he who commissioned Schubert to write the Trout Quintet, stipulating that it should have the same instrumentation as Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Quintet in E flat major, Op.87 (piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass), and that it include a variation movement on Schubert's song of two years before, Die Forelle (Trout), D.550.
Schubert began the work in Steyr that summer and completed it back in Vienna in the fall. Its fourth movement (Andantino) contained the requested variations.
After Schubert's death his brother Ferdinand sold the score to the publisher Joseph Czerny, who issued it as Opus 114. On May 21, 1829 an announcement declared, ``This Quintet, having already been performed in several circles at the publisher's instigation, and declared to be a masterpiece by the musical connoisseurs present, we deem it our duty to draw the musical public's attention to this latest work by the unforgettable composer.''
J.A. Westrup calls the Quintet ``entertainment music from first to last, and should be listened to with simple, unsophisticated enjoyment. To drink--even to talk--during a performance would not be blasphemy.''
In his book on Schubert, Alfred Einstein calls the Quintet ``a serenade for chamber ensemble,'' whose opening movement dispenses with a coda. ``The movement simply comes to an end,'' he writes, ``after a well-ordered sequence of pleasant and increasingly richly figured Schubertian ideas. One of these ideas, the last one in the `angular' rhythm, dominates the contrasting section of the following Andante, with its lyrical opening. It has a faint Magyar or Slav ring about it. And the Finale practically dispenses with fancy dress, and advertises itslef as all' ongarese [in the Hungarian style]. The first subject dominates the movement...and the melodic ideas and rhythms that compete with it are taken from the first movement (the `Trout' Quintet is a very homogeneous work). But Schubert is at his most Schubertian in the concise and stormy Scherzo and Trio, in its contrast between rhythmic emphasis and lyricism.''
The fourth movement is a set of six variations on the opening of the song Die Forelle: ``In a bright stream the capricious trout darted along like an arrow.'' The first three variations are simple melodic embellishments by first piano, then viola and cello, and finally double bass. The next two variations considerably alter the original melody and the final variation presents a grand summing up of all that has come before.
Tuesday February 9, 2010
Friends of Chamber Music
Trio con Brio Copenhagen
Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio in C major, Op.87
Felix Mendelssohn: “Andante con molto tranquillo” (2nd movement) from Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op.49 (4/23/08)
Also, Charley anticipates the Ars Nova Singers concerts this weekend.
William Bolcom: “Amor” from Cabaret Songs
Tara U'Ren, mezzo-soprano; Brian du Fresne, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 013109 JP
And, Charley talks with music director Cynthia Katsarelis about the Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra's concert Saturday.
Wolfgang Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro Overture
Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra/Cynthia Katsarelis
NCA 4:19
Moreover, Charley talks with conductor Thomas Blomster about the Colorado Chamber Orchestra's concert on Sunday, and with guitarist Neil Haverstick.
Neil Haverstick: "Birth" from Spider
Neil Haverstick, 19-tone guitar; Colorado Chamber Orchestra/ Thomas Blomster
Haverstick 008 Track 1 1:20
Trio con Brio Copenhagen
Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio in C major, Op.87
Felix Mendelssohn: “Andante con molto tranquillo” (2nd movement) from Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op.49 (4/23/08)
Also, Charley anticipates the Ars Nova Singers concerts this weekend.
William Bolcom: “Amor” from Cabaret Songs
Tara U'Ren, mezzo-soprano; Brian du Fresne, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 013109 JP
And, Charley talks with music director Cynthia Katsarelis about the Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra's concert Saturday.
Wolfgang Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro Overture
Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra/Cynthia Katsarelis
NCA 4:19
Moreover, Charley talks with conductor Thomas Blomster about the Colorado Chamber Orchestra's concert on Sunday, and with guitarist Neil Haverstick.
Neil Haverstick: "Birth" from Spider
Neil Haverstick, 19-tone guitar; Colorado Chamber Orchestra/ Thomas Blomster
Haverstick 008 Track 1 1:20
Monday February 8, 2010
Charley talks with music director Michael Butterman about Sunday's Boulder Philharmonic concert.
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Butterman, conductor
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No.8 in G major, Op.88 38:29 (3/21/09)
Also, Charley talks with Colorado All State Choir board member Will Taylor about this year's concert on Tuesday.
Heinrich Schütz (ed.Nancy Grundahl): Cantate Domino
2008 Colorado All State Women's Choir/ Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt
David Conte: Drinking Song from Carmina Juventutis
2008 Colorado All State Men's Choir/ Dr. James Rodde
NCA CD 1 Track 1 1:51 + 4:12
And, Charley talks with music director Cynthia Katsarelis about the Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra's concert Saturday.
Moreover, Charley anticipates the Ars Nova Singers concerts this weekend.
Leo Delibes: Flower Duet from Act I of Lakmé
Tana Cochran, soprano; Tara U'Ren, mezzo-soprano; Brian du Fresne, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 013109 JP
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904): Symphony No. 8 in G major, Opus 88
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio
III. Allegretto grazioso
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
In August of 1889, Dvořák remarked that his “head was so full of ideas” for a new symphony that he could hardly write them down fast enough. This time, he said, he wanted a work “different from the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way.” By the following November, his Eighth Symphony was finished. The first performance was given in Prague, under the composer's direction, on February 2, 1890.
The work is sometimes called the “English” Symphony, for a number of reasons. First, during his sixth visit to London, Dvořák conducted it on April 24, 1890. The Musical Times called the piece “generally speaking, of a pastoral character, having been written, like (Beethoven's) Pastoral Symphony, under the influence of rural sights and sounds....All is fresh and charming.” The reviewer detected a story in the second movement, a story which, if it existed at all, Dvořák never revealed. “Wanting the story,” the critic continued, “one must be content with picturesque utterances, a great deal of absolute beauty, and the fresh aroma which the work gives forth.”
A year later, Dvořák conducted the Eighth Symphony when Cambridge University gave him an honorary Doctor of Music degree. “I do not like these celebrations,” he later recalled, “and when I have to be in one of them, I am on pins and needles....Nothing but ceremony, and nothing but doctors. All faces were serious, and it seemed to me as if no one knew any other language than Latin.”
While the composer was in England, Hans Richter was conducting the Eighth in Vienna. “Certainly you would have enjoyed this performance,” he wrote to Dvořák. “We all felt it was a splendid work, and consequently we were all enraptured. Brahms had dinner with me after the concert, and we drank to the health of the unfortunately absent father of No. 8.”
The Symphony was issued in 1892 by the English publisher Novello, as a form of revenge on Dvořák's German publisher Simrock, who would have been content with an unending series of Slavonic Dances. His reluctance to publish Dvořák's larger works irritated the composer, who said he had “a lot of ideas for big works in mind.” Negotiations deteriorated, and Dvořák blandly announced: “I shall simply do what God imparts me to do. That will certainly be the best thing.” He then sold the Eighth Symphony to the English publisher, but with a dedication “in gratitude to the Bohemian Academy of the Emperor Franz Joseph of Science, Literature, and the Arts.”
Despite its English connections, biographer John Clapham notes that “there is nothing in the music itself that by any stretch of the imagination can be described as English. Its spirit and thematic basis are thoroughly Czech....Starting with an expressive funereal melody in G minor, the sunshine suddenly breaks through when the flute plays a light-hearted theme in the major key....In the next movement, it is the Adagio's quiet initial phrase which for a while shatters the idyllic peace. A gracious waltz with a rustic trio takes the place of a scherzo; and the work is rounded off with a somewhat freely organized set of variations.”
The Symphony is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani and strings.
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Butterman, conductor
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No.8 in G major, Op.88 38:29 (3/21/09)
Also, Charley talks with Colorado All State Choir board member Will Taylor about this year's concert on Tuesday.
Heinrich Schütz (ed.Nancy Grundahl): Cantate Domino
2008 Colorado All State Women's Choir/ Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt
David Conte: Drinking Song from Carmina Juventutis
2008 Colorado All State Men's Choir/ Dr. James Rodde
NCA CD 1 Track 1 1:51 + 4:12
And, Charley talks with music director Cynthia Katsarelis about the Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra's concert Saturday.
Moreover, Charley anticipates the Ars Nova Singers concerts this weekend.
Leo Delibes: Flower Duet from Act I of Lakmé
Tana Cochran, soprano; Tara U'Ren, mezzo-soprano; Brian du Fresne, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 013109 JP
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904): Symphony No. 8 in G major, Opus 88
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio
III. Allegretto grazioso
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
In August of 1889, Dvořák remarked that his “head was so full of ideas” for a new symphony that he could hardly write them down fast enough. This time, he said, he wanted a work “different from the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way.” By the following November, his Eighth Symphony was finished. The first performance was given in Prague, under the composer's direction, on February 2, 1890.
The work is sometimes called the “English” Symphony, for a number of reasons. First, during his sixth visit to London, Dvořák conducted it on April 24, 1890. The Musical Times called the piece “generally speaking, of a pastoral character, having been written, like (Beethoven's) Pastoral Symphony, under the influence of rural sights and sounds....All is fresh and charming.” The reviewer detected a story in the second movement, a story which, if it existed at all, Dvořák never revealed. “Wanting the story,” the critic continued, “one must be content with picturesque utterances, a great deal of absolute beauty, and the fresh aroma which the work gives forth.”
A year later, Dvořák conducted the Eighth Symphony when Cambridge University gave him an honorary Doctor of Music degree. “I do not like these celebrations,” he later recalled, “and when I have to be in one of them, I am on pins and needles....Nothing but ceremony, and nothing but doctors. All faces were serious, and it seemed to me as if no one knew any other language than Latin.”
While the composer was in England, Hans Richter was conducting the Eighth in Vienna. “Certainly you would have enjoyed this performance,” he wrote to Dvořák. “We all felt it was a splendid work, and consequently we were all enraptured. Brahms had dinner with me after the concert, and we drank to the health of the unfortunately absent father of No. 8.”
The Symphony was issued in 1892 by the English publisher Novello, as a form of revenge on Dvořák's German publisher Simrock, who would have been content with an unending series of Slavonic Dances. His reluctance to publish Dvořák's larger works irritated the composer, who said he had “a lot of ideas for big works in mind.” Negotiations deteriorated, and Dvořák blandly announced: “I shall simply do what God imparts me to do. That will certainly be the best thing.” He then sold the Eighth Symphony to the English publisher, but with a dedication “in gratitude to the Bohemian Academy of the Emperor Franz Joseph of Science, Literature, and the Arts.”
Despite its English connections, biographer John Clapham notes that “there is nothing in the music itself that by any stretch of the imagination can be described as English. Its spirit and thematic basis are thoroughly Czech....Starting with an expressive funereal melody in G minor, the sunshine suddenly breaks through when the flute plays a light-hearted theme in the major key....In the next movement, it is the Adagio's quiet initial phrase which for a while shatters the idyllic peace. A gracious waltz with a rustic trio takes the place of a scherzo; and the work is rounded off with a somewhat freely organized set of variations.”
The Symphony is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani and strings.
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