jmc's classics
today is the Birthday of Enrico Caruso one of the early Great tenors. the predecessor to Pavarotti , Lanza Etc. On February 14 it is the birthday of Russian basso Feodore (Theodore) Challiapin. both born in 1873 the same year as Russian composer Sergie Rachmaninoff.
Caruso was one of the first opera singers to make a fortune in recordings. In 1999 some of his recordings were re-recording with a modern orchestra. He recording techniques of 100 years ago were very primitive compared to what we have now. I do not think that the opera singers of that day stack up to the ones of today. Their voices sound different. Many of them had heavy accents in their voices. Most of them in my opinion would not make it today if they were around. Everybody has heard of the Three Tenors. They have excellent voices. Placido Domingo is now singing as a baritone. Pavarotti appeared on children's TV shows. Carraras wanted to be a soccer player. The last two were Spanish. Pavarotti was Italian. Italy has produced many excellent tenors. So has Sweden. Of the Tenors from the Past Jussi Bjorling in my opinion had the best voice. Caruso sang mostly Italian and French roles. He had done some of Wagner's operas early in his career but did not record them many of Wagner's roles are very demanding on opera singers. It would take too long to explain. In the TV show MASH There was a scene where Winchester played one of his records. Winchester was also supposed to be a classical music lover. Challiapin and Caruso were friends. They did not make any recordings together. Challiapin married and Italian Ballerina and had children with her as well as his mistress. one of his sones Feodore Challiapin Jrr. (1907-1992) was a famous actor.
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David Robertson is stepping down as conductor of the SLSO. As mentioned Stephane Deneve will replace him. Robertson will then help to train new conductors.
I did not watch the Grammys nothing surprised me. I am not much in to these awards shows. usually the movies that win Oscars are ones that nobody watches.
Bruno mars won several awards in the pop and rock sections. I don't know that much about Bruno Mars. I have heard his name. The album that scored big is Demetri Shostakovich's Symphony #5 coupled with Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings which won in both the Best Orchestral performance and Best engineered categories. The Best Contemporary Classical winner was Jennifer Higdon's Viola Concerto with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Nashville does have a symphony orchestra. The city that is the Mecca of country Music. Best buy is going to stop selling CDs. In the past some of their stores had a good classical department. Music downloads and YouTube have put CDs in to being obsolete.
Blockbuster had their own Cd store chain for a few years in the 1990's but they sold them to another company who has closed most of their stores. They were more expensive. Blockbuster video stores went down hill. all that they had was mostly current titles. There is probably something in the works to replace music downloads. I remnember when CDs came out in 1983/ People are starting to buy LPs again. I attended the January 28 concert of the SLSO. I know it is strange to talk about concerts in reverse order but I have been under the weather.
The Most famous work on the bill was Mendelssohn's Violin concerto in E (Opus#64). There were two other works on the concert Peter Ruzica's Elegie: Remembrance for Orchestra which dates from 2016 and John Adams's Harmonielehre which dates from 1985. The last two composers are still alive at the present time. Julian Rachlin was the violin soloist. he is a native of Lithuania but grew up in Austria. He studied with Pinchas Zukerman and was considered a child prodigy. he is also a conductor. Mendelssohn was the most faomous of the composers. His concerto is one of the more popular violin concertos. He wrote another violin concerto earlier in his career which is not as popular This concerto is in D. The E Minor concerto dates from 1844. His most famous work it the Christmas Carol "Hark the Herald". he wrote five symphonies and a several "songs without words" I don't know much about the Concerto in D. It was written for violin and string orchestra. The two other pieces are contemporary which is somewhat strange for two contemporary pieces to be included in with one much older piece. The concert was enjoyable. I don't know how orchesas group pieces together it can baffle your mind sometimes I volunteered at the Coffee concert today. It was a program of all French Music conducted by the Music Director designate Stephane Deneve. He is from France and I have spoken of him before. The program consisted of Maurice Ravel's Mother oose Suite (Ma mere l'oye), Valses Nobles et Sentimentales and la Valse, Plus Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos and Guillame Connesson's Flammenschrift. The Piano soloists were played by the sisters Christian and Michelle Naughton.
Ravel (1875-1913) is the most famous of the three composers. His most famous work is the iconic Bolero which was used in the movie "10". I never saw that movie but I remember my parents had a copy of it on 78RPM. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) wrote a concerto for Two Pianos it was commissioned by the heiress to the Singer Sewing machine company. Max Bruch also wrote a Concerto for two Pianos. Poulenc wrote a concerto for Organ Strings and Timpani and a Piano Concerto. His other famous work is his Gloria in G for Soprano and chorus. He was also a pianist. Guillame Connesson was born in 1970 and is still living. he is a Frenchmand and is the only composer of that group who is still living. He is one of the more famous contemporary French composers of this time. |
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