jmc's classics
J G Wentworth is a finance company. They had a commercial depicting a Wagner Opera with singers singing about J G Wentworth. I have just seen this on You Tube. It is somewhat funny. I can tell that their voices were probably dubbed. I am not much in to Wagner's operas. I like his Siegfried Idyll which is an short piece for orchestra. He wrote two early symphonies and some other music. The commercial ends with a man dressed as a conductor and he says: "It's your money use it when you need it". There are several versions of this commercial.
I don't like commercials unless they are funny or have some good music in them. Most look stupid. and are not funny. I don't like political commercials. Everybody has decided on who they are going to vote for already. Most of them look stupid although there are a few good ones. I don't know much about J G Wentworth. It was founded in 1991 and is based in the Philadelphia area. The evidently do advanced payments on annuities etc. Check out their web sitejgwentworth.com to find out more about them. There are a lot of finance companies out there. Many of them have commercials. some good, some not good. There are several versions of this commercial. One of them is on a mass transit bus and they are singing. The conductor is the bus driver and he says the same phrase. This is also a good commercial. I have not seen these commercials for a few years. This goes to show that Classical music is still relevant today. In my opinion, there are a lot of commercial mascots that need to be retired. I hope that J G Wentworth brings back this commercial.
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Today is the anniversary of the premier of Brahms' fourth Symphony (Opus #98) in 1885. it is one of my favorite works of his. I especially like the third movement. It is his last symphony. The first mention of it was in 1884 around the time that he completed his Third Symphony. The premier took place in Meiningen Germany with the Meiningen court Orchestra with the composer conducting. Earlier he had given a private performance of the work. He composed the work secretly in the Alps where he usually worked.
This work is rich in allusions. it makes references to some of Beethoven's works. There is a theory that the work was inspired by the play Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare. This symphony looks in to the future. Brahms first two symphonies followed Beethoven's model. They ended in the affirmative. The Thirds has a quiet ending. I am not as familiar with Brahms three other symphonies. They are all monumental in nature. All are part of the standard repertoire and are played by major symphony orchestras. It is rather Tragic in character and there are many theories on why this is so. Brahms had studied history and had studied and was familiar with Bach and Handel. he was familiar with their composing techniques and their works. It is in the Standard four movements: Allegro mon troppo, Andante moderato, Allegro giocoso and Allegro energico. It lasts about 40 minutes There are many good recordings of this work. The one that I have is of Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It is coupled with the Academic Festival and Tragic Overtures on the Sony Label. Ironically I don't think that this sounds tragic. October 14 is the anniversary of the premier of Dvorak's Violin Concerto (Opus#53) in 1883. It is one of my favorite works of his along with his String Serenade (Opus#22) and Sixth Symphony(Opus#60). All three works date from the 1870's. The Violin Concerto was written shortly before the Sixth Symphony. it was commissioned in 1879 by violinist Joseph Joachim(1831-1907.
It was four years later before the premier. Originally when it was finished Joachim was not satisfied with it. instead it was premiered by By Frantisek Ondricek (1857-1922) who was a Czech violinist and composer. He also gave the premieres in London and Vienna. Joachim was also a violinist and composer he was friends with Johanes Brahms. He was one of the preeminent violinists of his day and he was also a composer. Dvorak had originally intended to dedicate it to Joachim. The concerto is in the standard Three movements: Allegro ma non troppo, Adagio non troppo and the finale Allegro giocoso. It lasts about a half hour. There are Many excellent recordings of this work. The one that I have is Itzhak Perlman with the London Philharmonic conducted by Daniel Barnboim on the EMI label. it is coupled with Dvorak's Romance for Violin and Orchestra (Opus#11). This is not as famous as some other violin concertos or Dvorak's Ninth Symphony or Cello Concerto but it is an excellent work. Yoyo Ma' s Birthday was recently. Today he is one of the most predominant classical musicians. I have numerous recordings of his. He was born in Paris to Chinese parents and Grew up in New York.
Ma has recorded over 90 albums and has been awarded 19 Grammys to date. he Studied at the Julliard School and also at Harvard and Columbia. I wish that he would record the cello concertos of Johan Svendsen and Charles Marie Widor. I love these works and unfortunately there are only one or two recordings each of these works. He can be considered to be the successor to Pablo Casals (1876-1973) and Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007). They were both were great cellists. Unfortunately most of Casals' recordings were made before the advent of better recording technology. In fact, Ma had played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra which was conducted by Casals. At age three he played the violin, viola, piano and drums and eventually settled on the Cello. He has appeared on the Johnny Carson Show and Sesame Street. He has met several US Presidents of both parties. He is also a United Nations Messenger of Peace. He has collaborated with many pop artists including Bobby McFerrin, James Taylor and Miley Cyrus to name a few. I wonder if he will collaborate with Brittany Spears or Taylor Swift. Many of the important Classical artists have done Classical crossover albums. He has done chamber music with Emmanuel Ax with whom he is good friends. He has played both Chamber music and as a soloist with many of the world's great Orchestras. I can't keep track of how many CDs that I have of him, I can't remember how many CDs that I have but he is a good and versatle cellist. It is still hot in early October. I like to see the color of the leaves change. This is the October Fest season and on some of the cable channels they are playing German music. Germany and Austria are the birthplaces of many great composer. I like it cold around Christmas We may want the hot weather back in a few months.
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