jmc's classics
Today is the birthday of Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen (1840-1911). He is overshadowed by his younger contemporary Edvard Greig (1843-1907). He was also a violinist and conductor. he lived out his life in Denmark. Today he is remembered for his Romance for Violin and Orchestra (Opus#26) He also wrote an excellent Violin concerto (Opus#6) a Cello Concerto (Opus#7), two symphonies (Opuses 4 and 15) one each String quartet, String Quintet and String Octet (Opuses 1, 5 and 3). He wrote three Norwegian Rhapsodies and several miniatures for orchestra. He wrote several vocal pieces and one ballet. It was said that everything that Grieg was not that Svendsen was. Greig wrote a lot of solo piano music and vocal music. He was called the "Norwegian Chopin" Both Chopin and Greig were friends.
I enjoy his music. Especially his violin concerto and the opening of the first movement. His Romance for violin is his most famous piece. He wrote two symphonies. Both of which are in five movements instead of the standard four movements. Legend has it that he wrote a third symphony but his wife destroyed the manuscript for it. This is only a rumor. He was married twice. His younger son Eyvind Svendsen (1896-1946) was a famous actor. He studied at the Leipzig conservatory and was one of its star pupils. His three early chamber works brought him great fame. These were not considered to be student works. He did not write too much after 1883. Much of his career was spent as a conductor. From 1883 until 2908, he was the conductor of the Royal Danish National Orchestra. I do not know if there are any recordings of him conducting. in those days recordings were in their infancy. There are numerous recordings available of his music. There were several versions of the symphonies. The one that I have is of Mariss Jansons conducting the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra on the EMI label. I am not sure if this is still available. It has been off and on for the last few years. I have a CD of the String Quartet and Octet which features the Kontra Quartet plus Lars Bjornkjear, Per Lund Madsen, Bjarne Boei Rasmussen and lars Johanson for the Octet This is on the BIS label. These are both good recordings. The Kontra Quartet is a Danish based string quartet founded by Hingarian-Danish violinst Anton Kontra. They recorded on the Bis label. I hope that Svendsen's music comes back in to favor soon.
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I spoke two months ago of the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). This group collects and protects the wrights of composers etc. They collect the royalty fees for members. It is one of several performance rights organizations in America. It was founded in 1914 to protect copywritten music of its performers. Among the were Victor Herbert and Irving Berlin. At that time recorded music was still new. Radio was just starting up. It would be a few more years until commercial radio stations would begin to form.
With the beginning of radio, income increased for the ASCAP. Radio broadcasted live music and later the performers wanted to be paid. To play music on the radio or television costs money. You have to pay to use copywritten material for commercial purposes. that includes use in commercials or in movie soundtracks or on television shows etc. Radio is a big business. The ASCAP has a reciprocal agreement with the Performing rights society of Great Britain for playing music over there. They have agreements all over the world. I am not familiar with copywrite laws. Both Mic Jagger and George Harrison have been sued for copywrite of songs that they sang. With Classical music we are dealing with material that is decades or even centuries old. The website for ASCAP is ascap.com. go to their web page to find out more about them. Some of these early members had the insight to make prophets on their music. This is a not for prophet organization. The current president is American singer songwriter Paul Williams. Today is the anniversary of the death of Sibelius in 1957 at al most 92. it is also the anniversary of the death of Spanish composer and violinist Pablo De Sarasate (1844-1908) He was born the same year as Nicolai Rimsky-Korsikoff and Charles Marie Widor.
He was a violin virtuoso he is remembered as a composer of violin repretoire. His most famous work is Zigeunerweisn for violin and orchestra. It is based on Gypsey melodies. He wrote about 50 other compositions. There are a few recordings of him playing the violin. Unfortunately, they are very primitive compared to today's standards. I have heard a recording of him playing Zigeunereisn on YouTube with piano instead of orchestra. It does sound good for that time period. The copy of Zigeunerweisen that I have is of Leila Josefowicz with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Mariner on the Philips Label. It features several other violin pieces played by Josefowicz. I would recommend this recording. This piece is about eight minutes. it starts out slow and ends very fast. Many composers of that day dedicated works for Sarasate such as Camille Saint Saens' Third Violin Concerto, Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, Henryk Wieniawski's Second Violin Concerto and Edouard Lalo's Symphony Espagnole. He had his first concert at age eight. He eventually caught the attention of Queen Isabella ll of Spain. He toured Europe plus north and South America. George Bernard Shaw said of him that "there are many composers that compose music for the violin but there are few composers that compose violin music and that he (Sarasate) is one of them". Leila Josefowicz is a Canadian born violinist of Polish heriatge. She has made other recordings with Mariner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. one of them is a recording of the Vioilin concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius which I also have a copy of. Sibelius was also a violinist. He wrote works for violin as well as for most of the other genres of classical music. It is September 11. on this day a lot of what is referred to as "patriotic music" is played. Some of the pieces are the Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America, My country Tis of thee and " I'm Proud to be an American" by Country Music star Lee Greenwood. Another is the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber (1910-1981).
It is considered one of the saddest pieces of Classical Music. It is taken from the second movement of his String Quartet (Opus#11) it premiered in 1936 and the Adagio in its current form in 1938 with Arturo Toscanini conducting. There have been various other arrangements of this piece. It was played on the news at the announcement of the Death of President Roosevelt and that of President Kennedy. It lasts about eight minutes. It has been used in movies including The Elephant Man. It was played at the final night of The Proms in 2001 at Royal Albert Hall in London to commemorate the September 11 attacks. Samuel Barber was an American composer. This is his most famous piece. He also wrote operas and other orchestra music. He was a native of the Philadelphia area. he was a nephew of American contralto Louise Homer(1871-1947). An adagio is a slow piece of music. It has a slow tempo or beat There are many other famous adagios. The most famous is that of Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751). This is his Adagio for Strings. This piece also has organ in the piece. Everyone who is old enough remembers what they were doing on that day. I do. I remember the entire day and week. We must not forger 9-11! September fourth is the birthday of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). Next year is going to be his 200th birthday. I hope that there will be commemorations of that event. He is mainly known for his symphonies. He wrote eight completed symphonies plus one unfinished symphony and two early symphonies. He also wrote one each String quartet, string quintet and one each short piece for sting quartet and quintet. I personally like his Third and Seventh Symphonies and his short piece for string quintet.
Bedrich Smeetna (1824-1884) was born the same year. He was a Czech composer. It is said that if Antonin Dvorak had not existed, Smetena would have been more famous. He is remembered for his tone poem The Moldau which is par of a six part cycle called Ma Vlast, Which means in English "My Fatherland". Like Dvorak his music is nationalistic in nature. At that time the Czech Republic was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire. I am not as familiar with his works. Antonin Dvorak's birthday is September Eighth. He is more famous than the two previous mentioned composers. Like Smetena, his music is also nationalistic in nature. Like Smetena he wrote operas. Most of the Czech operas from Dvorak and Smetena are not as famous as the Italian, French and German operas. Bruckner was Austrian and a lot of his music is nationalistic in nature. Especially in his symphonies. He was a devout Catholic and wrote a large number of religious music. He did not write any operas. There are a lot of anecdotes about Bruckner. It would take too long for me to write about them! a lot of his music to some people might seem boring. Personally I don't think it is boring. Like Gustave Mahler, his symphonies are long usually lasting over one hour. That may be too long for some people. In some of his symphonies, he wrote several versions and updates others. However they are all good and to some people his music might sound crude. His music could take some getting used to. If you listen to it much you can appreciate it. Mahler's music in my opinion is very similar to Bruckner in that you have to get used to it. I hope that in the coming few years there is a revival of both Bruckner and Smetena and that their music will be appreciated. |
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