jmc's classics
Today is the 100th anniversary of the Birth of Leonard Benrnstein one of the most iconic conductors and composers in American history.
One of his most famous works is West Side Story which would be a modern version of Romeo and Juliet. it is based on a book by Arthur Laurents. It is set in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in the 1950s. It involves two rival gangs one white and the other Puerto Rican. It will take too long to go over the synopsis. I have not seen it in its entirety but I have heard songs from it. There was a film based on it in 1961 which won the Academy Award for Best Picture It stared Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn. I have not seen this movie as of now. In my opinion this is Bernstein's greatest achievement in his role as a composer. He wrote several symphonies and other musicals. The other famous work which he is remembered for is the overture to Candide. Which is another musical which he wrote. I am not as familiar with this work. it is featured on the local program Donnybrook which is aired on the local Public Television station on Thursday nights. West Side story takes place in New York City where Bernstein spent most of his adult life. He did not conduct opera but he wrote other musicals and operas. I am not in to Shakespeare. I did like the Movie Shakespeare in Love staring Gweneth Paltrow. It also won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I also liked the episode of Gilligan's Island where the Castaways staged a production of Hamlet Shakespeare's other famous work. There are a lot of parallels between West Side Story and Romeo And Juliet. I could go on and on but I am not as familiar with weither story.
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.This week marks the beginning of the break of what was then called the Soviet Union. There were a lot of good classical musicians that came out of the Soviet Union ( aka USSR) such as violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974), celloist Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007),Pianist Vladimir Horowitz (1905-1989) and composers Demetri Shostakovich (1906-1976) and Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) to name a few. These were the most famous. The USSR was not Russia. Stalin not Russian. He was from Georgia (the country not the state) Stalin was one of the most brutal dictators in history. He starved 8-10 million Ukrainians in the early 1930's. He was also an Anti-Semite. If he had lived longer or his health held out, he would have probably tried to exterminate the Soviet Jews. He even persecuted his own people the Georgians. Georgian people are an interesting group of people. They along with the Armenians were the first nations to make Christianity their official religion. Khachaturian was Armenian.
The Soviet Union like all other Communist countries and Nazi Germany repressed artisans and forced them to comply with the government. If not they would be in trouble. It is known what happened in Germany with Furtwangler etc. in the 1930's in Nazi Germany and what happened to Jews and composers etc. of Jewish heritage- many of their works were banned. Such as Mendelssohon who was of Jewish heritage and Mahler who was Jewish. On the Westwood One overnight program Our American Dreams recently they were talking about Rostropovich and Horowitz and their returns to their home countries. Rostropovich was striped of his Soviet Citizenship for befriending Alexander Solzhenitzyn one of the leading dissidents in the USSR. He fled to the West. Horowitz left in 1925 on a student visa and never returned. He is the son-in-law of conductor Arturo Toscanini(1867-1957) who I have written about. I don't think that we is related to either David Horowitz or Wynona Ryder whos real name is Wynona Horowitz. Solzhenitsyn(1918-2018) was a Nobel Prize winning writer in the USSR who criticized Soviet society. His son Stepan is a famous conductor. Rostropovich also defended Nobel Prize physicist Andrey Sakharov (1921-1989). In 1968 when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslavakia Rostropovich was playing in London and in solidarity with the people of Czechosavakia he played Dvorak's Cello Concerto! Horowitz returned to the USSR in 1986 to play. By that time the situation in the soviet Union had improved and restrictions began to ease. Many of the people born in the west since then do not know or understand about how hard it was under Communism or under the Nazis. I have heard news reports that a lot of young people do not know about the Holocaust. This is shocking to me! Some people complain about Vladimir Putin but anything is better than the old Soviet system. In America you can say what ever you want without government restrictions. There are many documentaries etc. on life in the old Soviet Union. I would recommend watching at least one of them. Also, Check out this program on Westwood One. I would suggest that you go to their web page ouramericannetwork.org or check out their podcasts. I sometimes listen to this program when I am up that late. As a habit I sometimes sleep with the radio on. Since the fall of what was the Soviet union there have been a lot of recorded material released in the west that previously had not been heard. The Soviet union did place emphasis on the arts. Stalin was a fan of Tchiakovsky. Stalin had a large collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Georgian folk music. There were also a strong opera scene in the Soviet Union. There have been some famous Russian operatic bassos. The most famous was Feodore Challiapin (1873-1938) Who was active before the Revolution and lived out his life in Paris. Many Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Rimsky-Korsikov wrot operas. The Soviet and Communist govenrmnts have fallen. this has demonstrated that Communism and other totalitarian governments do not work. I hope that the people in the west will learn form what happened. I do not listen to NPR very much except sometimes in the morning on my way to work while driving. Most of their news stories are more slanted to the left. they do have some interesting stories.
I have an internet radio. I have checked out Vermont Public Radio. They do have some good classical music programing which I have had a chance to listen to. I have only been in New England once and only to Boston not to Vermont. I like listening to VPR for music and some of the other internet stations especially for 50's or 60's music. I do prefer local stations a lot of the time. I would suggest checking out VPR . Their web address is digitalvpr.net Rick Wakeman keyboardest of the British group Yes recorded a guitar version of the third movement of Brahms Fourth Symphony. He also recorded The Lord's Prayer. Yes is a British bock band. They have had Top 49 hits. They are still played on the radio. They were active from around 1968-1981.
Many singers and vocal groups have recorded The Lord's Prayer which is in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:9-13. Jesus uses it as the way to pray. There are many musical versions of The Lord's Prayer. Even Barbra Streisand who is Jewish has recorded it. On the local news station KMOX who is the flagship station for the Baseball Cardinals, it is played just before 6:00 am. Brahms' Fourth Symphony (Opus#98) was his last symphony it is in the E Minor Key. The third movement is the scherzo and the shortest. It is titled Allegro giocoso-Poco meno presto. it is very fast passed. Presto means fast. I have heard the Wakeman version on the electric guitar. the version that I have of it is with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. The first movement Allegro non troppo sounds similar to the first movement of Alexander Scriabin's (1872-1915) Piano concerto in F Sharp(Opus#20). This movement is also titled Allegro. I like the second movement of this concerto. The two composers had little in common. The First movement is written in the sonata form like many first movements of symphonies. I have only found about this version recently while listening to Vermont Public Radio and the announcer spoke of it after playing Brahms Fourth in its entirety. It lasts about 45 minutes. This shows that classical music can transcend other genres of music. |
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