jmc's classics
Today is February 29 Leap Day which comes around only once in four years. It comes around to facilitate the earth orbiting the sun.
It is the Birthday of Goachino Rossini who was born in 1792. And is famous for his Opera Barber of Seville and the Willian Tell overture Which was used in the Lone Ranger.
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Today is the birthday of Enrico Caruso and February 13 was the birthday of Feodore Challiapin. Both born 1873. Caruso died in 1921 and Challiapin died in 1938. Both were among the first opera singers to make recordings. The opera singers of those days would not make it today. However there was a mystic about them that it not with the modern opera singers.
Today is the anniversary of the premier of The revised edition of Brahms Piano Trio #1 In B (Opus#8) which took place in 1890 with Brahms at the piano. The original edition was written in 1854. One year later the work premiered in New York. He wrote two others (Opus # 36 and 101) pus there is another one attributed to Brahms.
Many composers revise their works. Anton Bruckner wrote several versions on some of his symphonies. Both composers were famous for revising his works. The revised version of the First Piano Trio is sometimes called his fourth piano trio. I like the First Piano Trio. It lasts around 40 minutes it has three movements: Allegro con brio, Scherzo, Adagio and Allegro. Its first movement lasts about 16 minutes which takes up almost half of the work. the other three are about seven to nine minutes. I enjoy this piece. There are many excellent versions of this trio. The version that I have features, Myra Hess on piano, Stern on violin and Pablo Casals on cello. All three were excellent musicians. This is on the Sony Label. It is coupled with Brahms First String Sextet (Opus#18). This recording is rom 1952 and not digital. I like this recording. I find it odd that in this work one single movement takes up almost half of the work. I have seen very few pieces of music similar to this. Most compositions the movements are equal in length. From 1849 until WWl there was a large wave of immigration from Germany to America. Do to political revolutions in Germany many Germans left and moved to America, Canada and Latin America. Wagner almost moved to America
For $1 million Wagner almost moved to America and gave up performance rights to his opera Parsifal. The money did not materialize. Taylor Swift stole the show at last night's Grammy's. They did not get to the Classical awards until almost the end. I was not as impressed with any of the winners or nominations. It would take a long time to list all the winners. Go to grammy.com for the complete list.
All the hype about the Grammys is given to popular music and not to Classical Music or other genres of music. |
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