Friends of Chamber Music
Julia Fischer, violin; Milana Chernyavska, piano
Wolfgang Mozart: Violin Sonata in C major, K.296
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op.80 (5/6/09)
Also, Charley talks with Niwot Timberline Symphony conductor Devon Patrick Hughes and pianist Stephen Fiess about their concert Friday.
Frédéric Chopin: Etude in A flat major, Op.25 No.1 (Aeolian Harp)
Stephen Fiess: "Calm at Sea" from Lorelei Suite. Op.2
Stephen Fiess, piano
KVOD Performance Studio 3/16/10 MS
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Violin Sonata in C major, K.296
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Rondo: Allegro
Mozart wrote K.296 in Mannheim for his fifteen-year-old pupil, Theresa Pierron Serrarius. As he complained of his “leisurely” attempts to finish the flute pieces commissioned by the Dutchman De Jean, he wrote to his father: “Hence as diversion I compose something else, such as duets for clavier and violin.” He finished the sonata on March 3, 1778.
Two years later the C major Sonata and the Violin Sonatas, K.376-380 were published in Vienna as Opus 2, with a dedication to Josepha von Aurnhammer, another of Mozart’s pupils. This group of sonatas was reviewed in Cramer’s Musical Magazine: “These sonatas are the only ones of this kind. Rich in new ideas and in evidence of the great musical genius of their author. Very brilliant and suited to the instrument. At the same time the accompaniment of the violin is so artfully combined with the clavier part that both instruments are kept constantly on the alert; so that these sonatas require just as skillful a player on the violin as on the clavier.”
In The Compleat Mozart, Marius Flothuis writes of K.296: “The first movement opens with vigor and élan, very much in keeping with its bright C-major tonality, and retains that mood throughout. The Andante is tender and dreamlike.” The second movement resembles an aria by Johann Christian Bach, which cannot be accurately dated and therefore we don’t know who borrowed the theme from whom. Mozart and the “London” Bach had known each other since Mozart’s child prodigy days. The end of the third movement recalls the finale of the Flute-Harp Concerto (K.299), which Mozart finished a month later in Paris.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Opus 80
I. Andante assai
II. Allegro brusco
III. Andante
IV. Allegrissimo
During the summer in 1938, while listening to Handel's music, Prokofiev sketched his F minor Violin Sonata. He didn't finish it until the summer of 1946, some two years after the D major Sonata, Op.94. Nevertheless, the F minor was designated ``No. 1,'' as it was begun first.
Prokofiev played through the completed work for David Oistrakh, who recalled: ``It seemed to me that on this occasion he played somehow with great restraint, even timidly. Even so, the music itself made an enormous impression--one had the feeling of being present at a very great and significant event. Nothing written for the violin in many decades--anywhere in the world--could equal this piece in beauty and depth. I can make that statement without the slightest exaggeration.''
The work is dedicated to Oistrakh, who gave the first performance on October 23, 1946 in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with pianist Lev Oborin. Nikolai Miaskovsky noted in his diary: ``Heard Prokofiev's new violin sonata in its entirety-a work of genius (Oistrakh's playing was inspired).'' The Sonata was hailed by Pravda, which noted the ``Russian national spirit'' and ``stern, epic grandeur'' in the work. The next year it was awarded the Stalin Prize.
``In mood it is more serious than the Second,'' Prokofiev said of the First Sonata. ``The first movement...is severe in character and is a kind of extended introduction to the second movement, a sonata allegro, which is vigorous and turbulent, but has a broad second theme. The third movement is slow, gentle, and tender. The finale is fast and written in complicated rhythm.''
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Monday March 22, 2010
National Repertory Orchestra
JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op.68 41:05 (6/27/07)
Also, Charley anticipates Katie Mahan's appearance with the Denver Philharmonic this Friday.
Franz Schubert: Impromptu No.2 in E flat major, Op.90 & Impromptu No.3 in G flat major, Op.90
Katie Mahan, piano
katiemahan@comcast. net
And, Charley talks with Niwot Timberline Symphony conductor Devon Patrick Hughes about their concert Friday.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68
I. Un poco sostenuto; Allegro
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
IV. Adagio; Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
Unlike Haydn, who wrote his first symphony in his early twenties and kept going until he had amassed more than a hundred, Brahms waited until his early forties and stopped at four. Of course, symphonies had changed considerably in this interval of over a century. Brahms himself observed: ``A symphony is no laughing matter nowadays.''
Brahms had other reasons for procrastinating. When urged by Schumann and others to make the attempt, he insisted: ``I shall never write a symphony. You have no idea how the likes of us feel, when we hear the tramp of a giant like him behind us.'' The ``giant'' was Beethoven, whom even Haydn regarded as ``that Great Mogul.''
After hearing a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Brahms set out in earnest to write his First, finishing it, after a few false starts, in 1876. The first performance took place in Karlsruhe on November 4, 1876.
Conductor Hans von Bülow immediately pronounced the work ``Beethoven's Tenth.'' Indeed, there is some similarity between the theme of Brahms' last movement and the finale of Beethoven's Ninth. When someone pointed this out to Brahms, he replied: ``Any ass can see that.''
It was also von Bülow who made the familiar coupling of the three ``B's,'' when he said: ``I believe it is not without the intelligence of chance that Bach, Beethoven and Brahms are in alliteration.''
These kinds of remarks served only to embarrass Brahms and inflame his critics. Hugo Wolf reported: ``The art of composing without ideas has decidedly found in Brahms one of its worthiest representatives....He understands the trick of making something out of nothing.''
But it was the influential critic Eduard Hanslick who insured the First Symphony's success. After the Viennese performance, he wrote: ``The new symphony displays an energy of will, a logic of musical thought, a greatness of structural power and a mastery of technique such as is possessed by no other living composer.''
``The gloomy, painfully struggling first movement,'' writes biographer Karl Geiringer, ``is dominated by a sort of musical motto, which plays an important part in the Introduction, supplies the counterpoint to the main subject, and is the leading feature in the second subject and the development....The two middle movements, however, are lighter and shorter...(providing) the indispensable moments of relief in the dramatic action of the whole composition. For not only the first movement, but the beginning of the Finale, conjures up a vision of a gloomy Inferno. Everything in this last movement seems to be hastening towards a catastrophe, until suddenly a horn solo sounds a message of salvation. Then the broadly flowing, hymn-like Allegro proclaims its triumph over all fear and pain.''
The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op.68 41:05 (6/27/07)
Also, Charley anticipates Katie Mahan's appearance with the Denver Philharmonic this Friday.
Franz Schubert: Impromptu No.2 in E flat major, Op.90 & Impromptu No.3 in G flat major, Op.90
Katie Mahan, piano
katiemahan@comcast. net
And, Charley talks with Niwot Timberline Symphony conductor Devon Patrick Hughes about their concert Friday.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68
I. Un poco sostenuto; Allegro
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
IV. Adagio; Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
Unlike Haydn, who wrote his first symphony in his early twenties and kept going until he had amassed more than a hundred, Brahms waited until his early forties and stopped at four. Of course, symphonies had changed considerably in this interval of over a century. Brahms himself observed: ``A symphony is no laughing matter nowadays.''
Brahms had other reasons for procrastinating. When urged by Schumann and others to make the attempt, he insisted: ``I shall never write a symphony. You have no idea how the likes of us feel, when we hear the tramp of a giant like him behind us.'' The ``giant'' was Beethoven, whom even Haydn regarded as ``that Great Mogul.''
After hearing a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Brahms set out in earnest to write his First, finishing it, after a few false starts, in 1876. The first performance took place in Karlsruhe on November 4, 1876.
Conductor Hans von Bülow immediately pronounced the work ``Beethoven's Tenth.'' Indeed, there is some similarity between the theme of Brahms' last movement and the finale of Beethoven's Ninth. When someone pointed this out to Brahms, he replied: ``Any ass can see that.''
It was also von Bülow who made the familiar coupling of the three ``B's,'' when he said: ``I believe it is not without the intelligence of chance that Bach, Beethoven and Brahms are in alliteration.''
These kinds of remarks served only to embarrass Brahms and inflame his critics. Hugo Wolf reported: ``The art of composing without ideas has decidedly found in Brahms one of its worthiest representatives....He understands the trick of making something out of nothing.''
But it was the influential critic Eduard Hanslick who insured the First Symphony's success. After the Viennese performance, he wrote: ``The new symphony displays an energy of will, a logic of musical thought, a greatness of structural power and a mastery of technique such as is possessed by no other living composer.''
``The gloomy, painfully struggling first movement,'' writes biographer Karl Geiringer, ``is dominated by a sort of musical motto, which plays an important part in the Introduction, supplies the counterpoint to the main subject, and is the leading feature in the second subject and the development....The two middle movements, however, are lighter and shorter...(providing) the indispensable moments of relief in the dramatic action of the whole composition. For not only the first movement, but the beginning of the Finale, conjures up a vision of a gloomy Inferno. Everything in this last movement seems to be hastening towards a catastrophe, until suddenly a horn solo sounds a message of salvation. Then the broadly flowing, hymn-like Allegro proclaims its triumph over all fear and pain.''
The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Friday March 19, 2010
Charley talks with Barbara Hamilton Primus and Paul Primus about the Colorado Chamber Players Bach concerts this weekend.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Contrapuncti 1 & 11 from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 7:34
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus and David Waldman, violins; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr.Dmitry Sitkovetsky): Aria and Variations 8, 11 & 25 from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 10:15
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus, violin; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
KVOD Performance Studio 3/17/10 MS
Also, Colorado College Summer Music Festival
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Romance in A Major, Waltz in A Major
Anne Epperson, John Novacek, Susan Grace (6/29/08) 4:59 + 2:20
Jacob Druckman: Valentine
Susan Cahill, bass (6/25/08) 10:14
Dmitri Shostakovich: 5 Pieces for Two Violins & Piano
Mark Fewer and Jonathan Crow, violins; John Novacek, piano 6/29/08) 11:34
And, Charley anticipates the St. Martin's Chamber Choir concerts with the Colorado Chorale this weekend.
Wolfgang Mozart: Motet, "God Is Our Refuge," K.20
St. Martin's Chamber Choir/ Timothy Krueger
Cygnus 12 Track 1 1:01
In Addition, Charley anticipates Anne Guzzo's new composition on the Telling Stories'"Sounds of Silence" program tomorrow.
Anne Guzzo: "Contemplation from Two Pieces for Clarinet
Anne Guzzo, clarinet
KVOD Performance Studio 9/29/09 MS
Johann Sebastian Bach: Contrapuncti 1 & 11 from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 7:34
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus and David Waldman, violins; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr.Dmitry Sitkovetsky): Aria and Variations 8, 11 & 25 from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 10:15
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus, violin; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
KVOD Performance Studio 3/17/10 MS
Also, Colorado College Summer Music Festival
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Romance in A Major, Waltz in A Major
Anne Epperson, John Novacek, Susan Grace (6/29/08) 4:59 + 2:20
Jacob Druckman: Valentine
Susan Cahill, bass (6/25/08) 10:14
Dmitri Shostakovich: 5 Pieces for Two Violins & Piano
Mark Fewer and Jonathan Crow, violins; John Novacek, piano 6/29/08) 11:34
And, Charley anticipates the St. Martin's Chamber Choir concerts with the Colorado Chorale this weekend.
Wolfgang Mozart: Motet, "God Is Our Refuge," K.20
St. Martin's Chamber Choir/ Timothy Krueger
Cygnus 12 Track 1 1:01
In Addition, Charley anticipates Anne Guzzo's new composition on the Telling Stories'"Sounds of Silence" program tomorrow.
Anne Guzzo: "Contemplation from Two Pieces for Clarinet
Anne Guzzo, clarinet
KVOD Performance Studio 9/29/09 MS
Thursday March 18, 2010
Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner, conductor; Leila Josefowicz, violin
Modest Moussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Opus 19 (1/8-9/10)
Also, Charley talks with Barbara Hamilton Primus and Paul Primus about the Colorado Chamber Players Bach concerts this weekend.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Contrapuncti 1 & 11 from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 7:34
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus and David Waldman, violins; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr.Dmitry Sitkovetsky): Aria and Variations 8, 11 & 25 from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 10:15
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus, violin; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
KVOD Performance Studio 3/17/10 MS
Modest Moussorgsky (1839-1881): Night on Bald Mountain
Notorious for leaving works unfinished, Moussorgsky was also loathe to abandon good material. The music now known as Night on Bald Mountain popped up in various guises for over twenty years and only emerged fully after the composer's death.
On Christmas Day, 1858 Moussorgsky announced plans to make an opera of Gogol's St. John's Eve. Less than two years later, he spoke of a commission for incidental music to a play called The Witches by his old army buddy Baron Georgy Mengden. The music for both these projects, if he ever wrote any of it at all, is lost. Parts of the Bald Mountain music appeared in his unfinished opera Salammbô of 1864.
Something concrete finally surfaced on June 23, 1867 (St. John's Eve), when Moussorgsky completed an orchestral fantasy titled St. John's Night on Bare Mountain. ``I wrote it quickly,'' he said, ``straight away in full score without preliminary drafts, in twelve days. It seethed within me, and I worked day and night, hardly knowing what was happening within me. And now I see in my sinful prank an independent Russian product, free from German profundity and routine.''
Based on the legend of the witches' sabbath on St. John's Eve at Mt. Triglav near Kiev, the music, said Moussorgsky, is ``a very graphic depiction of a Witches' Sabbath provided by the testimony of a woman on trial, who was accused of being a witch and had confessed love pranks with Satan himself to the court. The poor lunatic was burnt. All this occurred in the Sixteenth Century. From this description I stored up the construction of the Sabbath.''
Accordingly, Moussorgsky prefaced the score with the program: ``Subterranean din of unearthly voices. Appearance of the Spirits of Darkness, followed by that of the god Tchernobog. Glorification of the Black God, the Black Mass. Witches' Revels. At the height of the orgies, there is heard from afar the bell of a little church in the village. The spirits of Darkness disperse. Daybreak.''
St. John's Night on Bare Mountain was never performed during Moussorgsky's lifetime. In 1871 he added a chorus to form ``The Sacrifice of the Black Goat on the Bald Mountain,'' a portion of the opera-ballet Mlada, a collaboration with Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. It, too, was never performed.
In 1877 the same music was reworked as an intermezzo titled ``Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad'' from the comic opera Sorochintsy Fair. It was this version that Rimsky-Korsakov arranged and titled Night on Bald Mountain for a St. Petersburg performance on October 27, 1886. Moussorgsky's original 1867 version wasn't published until 1968.
It was also Rimsky-Korsakov who compounded the confusion by insisting that the Bald Mountain music originated as a piece for piano and orchestra, along the lines of Liszt's Totentanz. As Moussorgsky's biographer, M.D. Calvocoressi, puts it, ``there is good reason to believe that it never existed outside Rimsky-Korsakov's notoriously faulty memory.''
There was yet another version of the Bald Mountain music. In 1878, on a concert tour of the Ukraine, Crimea and towns along the Don and the Volga, Moussorgsky played piano transcriptions of his orchestral music, including ``a musical picture from a new comic opera, Sorochintsy Fair.'' It was the very same Bald Mountain music.
Rimsky Korsakov's orchestration of the work calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, a bell in D, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, harp and strings.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Opus 19
I. Andantino
II. Scherzo: Vivacissimo
III. Moderato; Allegro moderato
Early in 1915 Prokofiev sketched an opening melody for a one-movement violin concertino. ``I often regretted,'' he later recalled, ``that other work prevented me from returning to the pensive opening'' of the piece.
His chance came two years later, when he spent the summer at a country house near Petrograd reading Kant and Schopenhauer and turning his early sketch into a full three-movement violin concerto. A pianist, Prokofiev sought advice in writing for the violin from the Polish violinist Paul Kochanski, who was scheduled to play the premiere the following November. But World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution intervened, and the planned performance was postponed.
Indeed, the first performance didn't take place until October 18, 1923 in Paris. By then Prokofiev had left Russia, toured the United States and made his way to Paris, where Serge Koussevitzky offered to conduct the work. Several soloists, including Bronislaw Huberman, had refused to play it, so the concertmaster Marcel Darrieux was engaged. He ``did quite well with it,'' according to the composer.
Modernists criticized the work for not being complex enough. Georges Auric accused it of ``Mendelssohnism.'' A year later Joseph Szigeti took up the Concerto, playing it all over Europe, and its entry into the standard repertory was assured.
Biographer Israel Nestyev writes of the ``unusual sequence'' of the Concerto's three movements, ``the first and third are predominantly tender and melodic, while the second...is a fast, grotesque, and mocking scherzo....Unexpectedly for Prokofiev's music, a tenderly melodious, lyrical theme predominates in the first movement (and is restated in the finale). It is almost impossible to find in any of Prokofiev's early works a melody so simple and clear, so soulful and warm.''
In the second movement, says Nestyev, ``the whole gamut of scherzo-like moods and images'' is presented. ```Perpetuum mobile' and sparkling, sometimes mischievous humour predominate....In the third movement serene lyricism once again prevails....Just as in the beginning, the violin sings in a full voice of the beautiful and lofty feelings of man.''
The score calls for solo violin, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, tuba, timpani, side drum, tambourine, harp and strings.
Edward Gardner, conductor; Leila Josefowicz, violin
Modest Moussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Opus 19 (1/8-9/10)
Also, Charley talks with Barbara Hamilton Primus and Paul Primus about the Colorado Chamber Players Bach concerts this weekend.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Contrapuncti 1 & 11 from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 7:34
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus and David Waldman, violins; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr.Dmitry Sitkovetsky): Aria and Variations 8, 11 & 25 from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 10:15
Colorao Chamber Players (Paul Primus, violin; Barbara Hamilton Primus, viola; Judith McIntyre, cello)
KVOD Performance Studio 3/17/10 MS
Modest Moussorgsky (1839-1881): Night on Bald Mountain
Notorious for leaving works unfinished, Moussorgsky was also loathe to abandon good material. The music now known as Night on Bald Mountain popped up in various guises for over twenty years and only emerged fully after the composer's death.
On Christmas Day, 1858 Moussorgsky announced plans to make an opera of Gogol's St. John's Eve. Less than two years later, he spoke of a commission for incidental music to a play called The Witches by his old army buddy Baron Georgy Mengden. The music for both these projects, if he ever wrote any of it at all, is lost. Parts of the Bald Mountain music appeared in his unfinished opera Salammbô of 1864.
Something concrete finally surfaced on June 23, 1867 (St. John's Eve), when Moussorgsky completed an orchestral fantasy titled St. John's Night on Bare Mountain. ``I wrote it quickly,'' he said, ``straight away in full score without preliminary drafts, in twelve days. It seethed within me, and I worked day and night, hardly knowing what was happening within me. And now I see in my sinful prank an independent Russian product, free from German profundity and routine.''
Based on the legend of the witches' sabbath on St. John's Eve at Mt. Triglav near Kiev, the music, said Moussorgsky, is ``a very graphic depiction of a Witches' Sabbath provided by the testimony of a woman on trial, who was accused of being a witch and had confessed love pranks with Satan himself to the court. The poor lunatic was burnt. All this occurred in the Sixteenth Century. From this description I stored up the construction of the Sabbath.''
Accordingly, Moussorgsky prefaced the score with the program: ``Subterranean din of unearthly voices. Appearance of the Spirits of Darkness, followed by that of the god Tchernobog. Glorification of the Black God, the Black Mass. Witches' Revels. At the height of the orgies, there is heard from afar the bell of a little church in the village. The spirits of Darkness disperse. Daybreak.''
St. John's Night on Bare Mountain was never performed during Moussorgsky's lifetime. In 1871 he added a chorus to form ``The Sacrifice of the Black Goat on the Bald Mountain,'' a portion of the opera-ballet Mlada, a collaboration with Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. It, too, was never performed.
In 1877 the same music was reworked as an intermezzo titled ``Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad'' from the comic opera Sorochintsy Fair. It was this version that Rimsky-Korsakov arranged and titled Night on Bald Mountain for a St. Petersburg performance on October 27, 1886. Moussorgsky's original 1867 version wasn't published until 1968.
It was also Rimsky-Korsakov who compounded the confusion by insisting that the Bald Mountain music originated as a piece for piano and orchestra, along the lines of Liszt's Totentanz. As Moussorgsky's biographer, M.D. Calvocoressi, puts it, ``there is good reason to believe that it never existed outside Rimsky-Korsakov's notoriously faulty memory.''
There was yet another version of the Bald Mountain music. In 1878, on a concert tour of the Ukraine, Crimea and towns along the Don and the Volga, Moussorgsky played piano transcriptions of his orchestral music, including ``a musical picture from a new comic opera, Sorochintsy Fair.'' It was the very same Bald Mountain music.
Rimsky Korsakov's orchestration of the work calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, a bell in D, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, harp and strings.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Opus 19
I. Andantino
II. Scherzo: Vivacissimo
III. Moderato; Allegro moderato
Early in 1915 Prokofiev sketched an opening melody for a one-movement violin concertino. ``I often regretted,'' he later recalled, ``that other work prevented me from returning to the pensive opening'' of the piece.
His chance came two years later, when he spent the summer at a country house near Petrograd reading Kant and Schopenhauer and turning his early sketch into a full three-movement violin concerto. A pianist, Prokofiev sought advice in writing for the violin from the Polish violinist Paul Kochanski, who was scheduled to play the premiere the following November. But World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution intervened, and the planned performance was postponed.
Indeed, the first performance didn't take place until October 18, 1923 in Paris. By then Prokofiev had left Russia, toured the United States and made his way to Paris, where Serge Koussevitzky offered to conduct the work. Several soloists, including Bronislaw Huberman, had refused to play it, so the concertmaster Marcel Darrieux was engaged. He ``did quite well with it,'' according to the composer.
Modernists criticized the work for not being complex enough. Georges Auric accused it of ``Mendelssohnism.'' A year later Joseph Szigeti took up the Concerto, playing it all over Europe, and its entry into the standard repertory was assured.
Biographer Israel Nestyev writes of the ``unusual sequence'' of the Concerto's three movements, ``the first and third are predominantly tender and melodic, while the second...is a fast, grotesque, and mocking scherzo....Unexpectedly for Prokofiev's music, a tenderly melodious, lyrical theme predominates in the first movement (and is restated in the finale). It is almost impossible to find in any of Prokofiev's early works a melody so simple and clear, so soulful and warm.''
In the second movement, says Nestyev, ``the whole gamut of scherzo-like moods and images'' is presented. ```Perpetuum mobile' and sparkling, sometimes mischievous humour predominate....In the third movement serene lyricism once again prevails....Just as in the beginning, the violin sings in a full voice of the beautiful and lofty feelings of man.''
The score calls for solo violin, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, tuba, timpani, side drum, tambourine, harp and strings.
Wednesday March 17, 2010
Colorado Music Festival Chamber Orchestra
Michael Christie, conductor
Antonín Dvořák: String Serenade in E major, Op.22 30:26
Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta 17:00 (7/20/08)
Also, Charley anticipates the Colorado Music Festival winter series this weekend.
Wolfgang Mozart: " Allegro" (4th movement) from String Quintet in C minor, K.406
Colorado Music Festival Chamber Players (Jessica Guideri, Dominique Corbeil, violins; Matthew Dane, Ethan Hecht, violas; Judith Glyde, cello) (2/24/08) 24:20
Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904): Serenade for Strings in E major, Opus 22
I. Moderato
II. Tempo di Valse
III. Scherzo: Vivace
IV. Larghetto
V. Finale: Allegro vivace
Dvorák's Serenade for Strings was composed in just twelve days, between May 3 and 14, 1875. A planned performance by Hans Richter and the Vienna Philharmonic the following fall never materialized. The first performance took place in Prague on December 10, 1876. Adolf Cech conducted the combined string sections of the Czech and German Theater Orchestras. A Viennese performance had to wait until 1884.
Biographer John Clapham writes: ``Both the light-hearted Scherzo and the Finale start canonically, and the Trio of the Waltz and the Larghetto are both enriched when their melodic themes are repeated canonically. The first movement is simple and child-like, but the subdivision of violas and cellos gives it richness and the expressive interjections of the violins during the main theme are telling. The Waltz and Trio have decided charm, and are linked together by a rhythmic motif....When the melody of the beautiful Larghetto is compared with the Trio theme in the second movement they are found to be two versions of the same basic musical thought.''
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967): Dances of Galánta
For seven years, Kodály's father was railway station master at Galánta, a small town on the main line between Budapest and Vienna. During the summer of 1933, his son memorialized the town in his Dances of Galánta. Zoltán wrote the piece for the eightieth anniversary of the Philharmonic Society of Budapest, which gave the first performance on October 23, 1934 under Ernö Dohnányi's direction.
Kodály based his material on several sources. There were his memories of ``the most beautiful seven years of my childhood'' and the gypsy bands he heard in Galánta. Also, he consulted a collection of Hungarian dances published in Vienna around 1800, which included a number of pieces ``after several gypsies from Galánta,'' including the old Magyar recruiting dances, the verbunkos music.
In the spring of 1935 the Galánta and Marosszék dances were combined to form a ballet, titled A Rebel's Tale, first produced at the Budapest Opera. Despite adverse reviews--``plot and music are at cross purposes''--the ballet made the rounds of various German theaters in the late 1930s.
The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion and strings.
Michael Christie, conductor
Antonín Dvořák: String Serenade in E major, Op.22 30:26
Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta 17:00 (7/20/08)
Also, Charley anticipates the Colorado Music Festival winter series this weekend.
Wolfgang Mozart: " Allegro" (4th movement) from String Quintet in C minor, K.406
Colorado Music Festival Chamber Players (Jessica Guideri, Dominique Corbeil, violins; Matthew Dane, Ethan Hecht, violas; Judith Glyde, cello) (2/24/08) 24:20
Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904): Serenade for Strings in E major, Opus 22
I. Moderato
II. Tempo di Valse
III. Scherzo: Vivace
IV. Larghetto
V. Finale: Allegro vivace
Dvorák's Serenade for Strings was composed in just twelve days, between May 3 and 14, 1875. A planned performance by Hans Richter and the Vienna Philharmonic the following fall never materialized. The first performance took place in Prague on December 10, 1876. Adolf Cech conducted the combined string sections of the Czech and German Theater Orchestras. A Viennese performance had to wait until 1884.
Biographer John Clapham writes: ``Both the light-hearted Scherzo and the Finale start canonically, and the Trio of the Waltz and the Larghetto are both enriched when their melodic themes are repeated canonically. The first movement is simple and child-like, but the subdivision of violas and cellos gives it richness and the expressive interjections of the violins during the main theme are telling. The Waltz and Trio have decided charm, and are linked together by a rhythmic motif....When the melody of the beautiful Larghetto is compared with the Trio theme in the second movement they are found to be two versions of the same basic musical thought.''
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967): Dances of Galánta
For seven years, Kodály's father was railway station master at Galánta, a small town on the main line between Budapest and Vienna. During the summer of 1933, his son memorialized the town in his Dances of Galánta. Zoltán wrote the piece for the eightieth anniversary of the Philharmonic Society of Budapest, which gave the first performance on October 23, 1934 under Ernö Dohnányi's direction.
Kodály based his material on several sources. There were his memories of ``the most beautiful seven years of my childhood'' and the gypsy bands he heard in Galánta. Also, he consulted a collection of Hungarian dances published in Vienna around 1800, which included a number of pieces ``after several gypsies from Galánta,'' including the old Magyar recruiting dances, the verbunkos music.
In the spring of 1935 the Galánta and Marosszék dances were combined to form a ballet, titled A Rebel's Tale, first produced at the Budapest Opera. Despite adverse reviews--``plot and music are at cross purposes''--the ballet made the rounds of various German theaters in the late 1930s.
The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, percussion and strings.
Tuesday March 16, 2010
Friends of Chamber Music
Emerson String Quartet
Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 (Death and the Maiden) 38:33
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr.Mozart): Fugue in E major BWV 854 from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I 3:28 (10/22/08)
Also, Charley anticipates Arnaldo Cohen's piano recital for the Friends of Chamber Music tomorrow.
And, Charley talks with Margaret Higginson and John Lindsey, both contestants in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild's annual competition.
Giacomo Puccini: "Un bel di" from Act II of Madama Butterfly
Margaret Higginson, soprano; Hyun Kim, piano 4:13
Giacomo Puccini: "Addio fiorito asil" from Act III of Madama Butterfly
John Lindsey, tenor; Hyun Kim, piano 1:53
KVOD Performance Studio 3/2/10 MS
Emerson String Quartet
Franz Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 (Death and the Maiden) 38:33
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr.Mozart): Fugue in E major BWV 854 from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I 3:28 (10/22/08)
Also, Charley anticipates Arnaldo Cohen's piano recital for the Friends of Chamber Music tomorrow.
And, Charley talks with Margaret Higginson and John Lindsey, both contestants in the Denver Lyric Opera Guild's annual competition.
Giacomo Puccini: "Un bel di" from Act II of Madama Butterfly
Margaret Higginson, soprano; Hyun Kim, piano 4:13
Giacomo Puccini: "Addio fiorito asil" from Act III of Madama Butterfly
John Lindsey, tenor; Hyun Kim, piano 1:53
KVOD Performance Studio 3/2/10 MS
Monday March 15, 2010
Charley talks with Boulder Philharmonic music director Michael Butterman about Angela Cheng's appearance Wednesday.
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Butterman, conductor; Bonnie Draina, soprano; Adriana Zabala, mezzo soprano
Wolfgang Mozart: La clemenza di Tito Overture, K.621 5:09
Wolfgang Mozart: Duet, "Ah perdona al primo affetto" from La Clemenza di Tito, K.621 3:24 (Draina, Zabala)
Wolfgang Mozart: Aria, "Non so piu" from Act I of The Marriage of Figaro, K.492 3:12 (Zabala)
Wolfgang Mozart: Aria, ``Voi, che sapete'' from Act II of The Marriage of Figaro, K.492 3:27 (Zabala)
Wolfgang Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, K.385 (Haffner) 20:17 (11/1/08)
Also, Charley talks with Colorado Ballet's artistic director Gil Boggs about their triple-bill opening Friday. Charley also anticipates pianist Alejandro Cremaschi's recital tomorrow at CU Boulder.
Alberto Ginastera: Three Pieces
Alejandro Cremaschi, piano
University of Colorado at Boulder Faculty Recital
In addition, Charley talks with Kathy Brantigan about the Denver Brass Bagpipe concerts this weekend.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, K.621
During the summer of 1791, even as he worked furiously on The Magic Flute and the Requiem, Mozart received a new commission. Domenico Guardasoni, acting on instructions from a band of Bohemian noblemen, asked Mozart to write a serious opera for the celebration of Leopold II's coronation as King of Bohemia. The fee was twice the normal rate; Mozart was in no position to refuse.
The libretto for La Clemenza di Tito, by Metastasio as revised by Caterino Mazzola, concerns love and intrigue in Rome around 80 A.D. Mozart wrote the opera in 18 days, partly in Vienna that summer, partly in carriages and inns on the way to Prague and partly in Prague, just before the first performance on September 6, 1791.
In his book on Mozart's operas, Charles Osborne writes: ``Composed at the last moment, the Overture nevertheless does not make use of any themes from the opera: instead it establishes a mood which, though formal, is also festive. Its contrapuntal development section links it in mood with The Magic Flute Overture which must have been composed only a week or two later.''
The Overture is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, as well as timpani and strings.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Aria, ``Voi, che sapete'' from Act II of The Marriage of Figaro, K.492
Mozart began The Marriage of Figaro sometime during October of 1785. The librettist was Lorenzo da Ponte, who would later provide the texts for Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. They chose the sequel to The Barber of Seville of Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, or the Madcap Day.
The first performance of The Marriage of Figaro began at seven on the evening of May 1, 1786 at the Court Theater in Vienna. Count Zinzendorf's appraisal that the ``the opera bored me'' was a minority view. The opera was a huge success.
In the second act, Figaro, the Count's valet, is conspiring with the Countess and her maid Susanna, Figaro's betrothed, to humiliate the Count for his womanizing. Part of the plan involves dressing the young page Cherubino as Susanna for a tryst with the Count. As the ladies prepare his costume, they demand that he sing his little song of love, with Susanna accompanying on guitar.
Voi, che sapete che cosa è amor,
donne vedete, s'io l'ho nel cor.
Quello ch'io provo, vi ridirò,
e per me nuovo, capir nol so.
Sento un affetto pien di desir,
ch'ora è diletto, ch'ora è martir.
Gelo, e poi sento l'alma avvampar,
e in un momento torno a gelar.
Ricerco un bene fuori di me,
non so ch'il tiene, non so cos'è.
Sospiro e gemo senza voler,
palpito e tremo senza saper;
non trovo pace notte, né dì,
ma pur mi piace languir così.
(You who know what love is,
ladies, see whether it's in my heart.
What I experience I'll describe for you;
it's new to me, I don't understand it.
I feel an emotion full of desire,
that is now pleasure, and now suffering.
I freeze, then I feel my soul burning up,
and in a moment I'm freezing again.
I seek a blessing outside myself,
from whom I know not or what it is.
I sigh and moan without meaning to,
palpitate and tremble without knowing it.
I find no peace night or day,
and yet I enjoy languishing so.)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Symphony No. 35 in D major, K.385 (Haffner)
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Andante
III. Menuetto
IV. Presto
During the summer of 1782, while hard at work on The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart received an urgent request from his father to provide some music for the festivities surrounding Siegmund Haffner's elevation to the nobility. The Haffners were old Salzburg friends of the Mozarts. Six years before Wolfgang had written the Haffner Serenade for the wedding of Siegmund's sister Elisabeth.
On July 20, 1782, Mozart wrote to his father: ``Well, I am up to the eyes in work....And now you ask me to write a new symphony? How on earth can I do so?....Well, I must just spend the night over it, for that is the only way; and to you, dearest father, I sacrifice it. You may rely on having something from me by every post. I shall work as fast as possible and, as far as haste permits, I shall turn out good work.''
By the end of July Mozart reported: ``You see that my intentions are good--only what one cannot do one cannot! I am really unable to scribble off inferior stuff.''
The completed work was actually a six-movement serenade, consisting of the four movements of the Haffner Symphony, plus the March, K.408 No. 2 and a second minuet which has since been lost. This was the version performed for the Haffner wedding in Salzburg in 1782.
On March 23, 1783, the Haffner music was performed as a four-movement symphony at a concert in Vienna attended by the Emperor. In the interim between the two performances, Mozart seems to have suffered a memory lapse. ``My new Haffner Symphony,'' he wrote to his father, ``has positively amazed me, for I had forgotten every single note of it. It must surely produce a good effect.''
And it did. After the concert, Mozart again wrote to his father: ``I need not tell you very much about the success of my concert, for no doubt you have already heard of it. Suffice it to say that the theater could not have been more crowded and that every box was full. But what pleased me most of all was that His Majesty the Emperor was present and, goodness!--how delighted he was and how he applauded me!''
Because of its origins as a serenade, Alfred Einstein regards K.385 as ``a somewhat amphibious work. Not that the first movement, with all its pomp of trumpets and drums, lacks seriousness. The lordly principal motive, which is first stated in unison, is made the basis of rich contrapuntal weaving and contrast.'' Describing the second movement as ``graceful and innocent,'' Einstein points to the Minuet as the ``outstanding movement,'' which expresses ``strength, festivity, and masculinity in the main section, and the most delicate grace in the Trio.'' The last movement is a masterly synthesis of sonata and rondo forms. Mozart advised that the first movement should be ``played with great fire'' and the last, ``as fast as possible.''
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael Butterman, conductor; Bonnie Draina, soprano; Adriana Zabala, mezzo soprano
Wolfgang Mozart: La clemenza di Tito Overture, K.621 5:09
Wolfgang Mozart: Duet, "Ah perdona al primo affetto" from La Clemenza di Tito, K.621 3:24 (Draina, Zabala)
Wolfgang Mozart: Aria, "Non so piu" from Act I of The Marriage of Figaro, K.492 3:12 (Zabala)
Wolfgang Mozart: Aria, ``Voi, che sapete'' from Act II of The Marriage of Figaro, K.492 3:27 (Zabala)
Wolfgang Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, K.385 (Haffner) 20:17 (11/1/08)
Also, Charley talks with Colorado Ballet's artistic director Gil Boggs about their triple-bill opening Friday. Charley also anticipates pianist Alejandro Cremaschi's recital tomorrow at CU Boulder.
Alberto Ginastera: Three Pieces
Alejandro Cremaschi, piano
University of Colorado at Boulder Faculty Recital
In addition, Charley talks with Kathy Brantigan about the Denver Brass Bagpipe concerts this weekend.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, K.621
During the summer of 1791, even as he worked furiously on The Magic Flute and the Requiem, Mozart received a new commission. Domenico Guardasoni, acting on instructions from a band of Bohemian noblemen, asked Mozart to write a serious opera for the celebration of Leopold II's coronation as King of Bohemia. The fee was twice the normal rate; Mozart was in no position to refuse.
The libretto for La Clemenza di Tito, by Metastasio as revised by Caterino Mazzola, concerns love and intrigue in Rome around 80 A.D. Mozart wrote the opera in 18 days, partly in Vienna that summer, partly in carriages and inns on the way to Prague and partly in Prague, just before the first performance on September 6, 1791.
In his book on Mozart's operas, Charles Osborne writes: ``Composed at the last moment, the Overture nevertheless does not make use of any themes from the opera: instead it establishes a mood which, though formal, is also festive. Its contrapuntal development section links it in mood with The Magic Flute Overture which must have been composed only a week or two later.''
The Overture is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, as well as timpani and strings.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Aria, ``Voi, che sapete'' from Act II of The Marriage of Figaro, K.492
Mozart began The Marriage of Figaro sometime during October of 1785. The librettist was Lorenzo da Ponte, who would later provide the texts for Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte. They chose the sequel to The Barber of Seville of Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, or the Madcap Day.
The first performance of The Marriage of Figaro began at seven on the evening of May 1, 1786 at the Court Theater in Vienna. Count Zinzendorf's appraisal that the ``the opera bored me'' was a minority view. The opera was a huge success.
In the second act, Figaro, the Count's valet, is conspiring with the Countess and her maid Susanna, Figaro's betrothed, to humiliate the Count for his womanizing. Part of the plan involves dressing the young page Cherubino as Susanna for a tryst with the Count. As the ladies prepare his costume, they demand that he sing his little song of love, with Susanna accompanying on guitar.
Voi, che sapete che cosa è amor,
donne vedete, s'io l'ho nel cor.
Quello ch'io provo, vi ridirò,
e per me nuovo, capir nol so.
Sento un affetto pien di desir,
ch'ora è diletto, ch'ora è martir.
Gelo, e poi sento l'alma avvampar,
e in un momento torno a gelar.
Ricerco un bene fuori di me,
non so ch'il tiene, non so cos'è.
Sospiro e gemo senza voler,
palpito e tremo senza saper;
non trovo pace notte, né dì,
ma pur mi piace languir così.
(You who know what love is,
ladies, see whether it's in my heart.
What I experience I'll describe for you;
it's new to me, I don't understand it.
I feel an emotion full of desire,
that is now pleasure, and now suffering.
I freeze, then I feel my soul burning up,
and in a moment I'm freezing again.
I seek a blessing outside myself,
from whom I know not or what it is.
I sigh and moan without meaning to,
palpitate and tremble without knowing it.
I find no peace night or day,
and yet I enjoy languishing so.)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Symphony No. 35 in D major, K.385 (Haffner)
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Andante
III. Menuetto
IV. Presto
During the summer of 1782, while hard at work on The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart received an urgent request from his father to provide some music for the festivities surrounding Siegmund Haffner's elevation to the nobility. The Haffners were old Salzburg friends of the Mozarts. Six years before Wolfgang had written the Haffner Serenade for the wedding of Siegmund's sister Elisabeth.
On July 20, 1782, Mozart wrote to his father: ``Well, I am up to the eyes in work....And now you ask me to write a new symphony? How on earth can I do so?....Well, I must just spend the night over it, for that is the only way; and to you, dearest father, I sacrifice it. You may rely on having something from me by every post. I shall work as fast as possible and, as far as haste permits, I shall turn out good work.''
By the end of July Mozart reported: ``You see that my intentions are good--only what one cannot do one cannot! I am really unable to scribble off inferior stuff.''
The completed work was actually a six-movement serenade, consisting of the four movements of the Haffner Symphony, plus the March, K.408 No. 2 and a second minuet which has since been lost. This was the version performed for the Haffner wedding in Salzburg in 1782.
On March 23, 1783, the Haffner music was performed as a four-movement symphony at a concert in Vienna attended by the Emperor. In the interim between the two performances, Mozart seems to have suffered a memory lapse. ``My new Haffner Symphony,'' he wrote to his father, ``has positively amazed me, for I had forgotten every single note of it. It must surely produce a good effect.''
And it did. After the concert, Mozart again wrote to his father: ``I need not tell you very much about the success of my concert, for no doubt you have already heard of it. Suffice it to say that the theater could not have been more crowded and that every box was full. But what pleased me most of all was that His Majesty the Emperor was present and, goodness!--how delighted he was and how he applauded me!''
Because of its origins as a serenade, Alfred Einstein regards K.385 as ``a somewhat amphibious work. Not that the first movement, with all its pomp of trumpets and drums, lacks seriousness. The lordly principal motive, which is first stated in unison, is made the basis of rich contrapuntal weaving and contrast.'' Describing the second movement as ``graceful and innocent,'' Einstein points to the Minuet as the ``outstanding movement,'' which expresses ``strength, festivity, and masculinity in the main section, and the most delicate grace in the Trio.'' The last movement is a masterly synthesis of sonata and rondo forms. Mozart advised that the first movement should be ``played with great fire'' and the last, ``as fast as possible.''
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
