jmc's classics
I attended the SLSO concert on November 23. St. Louis Post-Dispatch classical music Sarah Bryan Miller wrote a review of the concert. It can be checked out on her Facebook Page. The concert featured Paul Hindemith's Concert Music for Strings and Brass (Opus #50), Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #1 (Opus#10) and Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition which was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. Marcello Lehningher was the conductor and Simon Trpceski was the soloist.
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) was a German composer. He fled Nazi Germany in the 1930's because his wife was part Jewish. he moved to Switzerland than to America. His most famous work is symphonic Metamorphasis on a theme by Carl Maria Von Weber. Hindemith complained that 80% of his music was bad. Von Weber (1786-1826) was a German composer who was related to Mozart. The Concert Music piece is divided in to two parts and lasts about 17 minutes. I am not as familiar with his piece. I have a copy of his concerto for French horn coupled with Richard Strauss' two concertos. With Hindemith conducting the Philharmonia and Denis Brian as the soloist on the EMI label. I have a copy of the Concert Music with Herbert Blomstedt conducting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra on the London label. Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a Russian-Ukranian composer. his best known works are Peter and the Wolf (Opus #67) which I remember from my childhood and his Symphony #1 "Classical (Opus #25). He left the Soviet Union for a while after the revolution but eventually returned. He had been involved with the Christian Science religion. After the Russian Revolution, many Russians fled Russia. Mussorgski (1839-1881) was ARussina who wrote mostly opera. Pictures at an exhibition was a piano piece. Ravel orchestrated it along with many others. It is one of the most played classical pieces. It is based on paintings by artist Victor Hartmann. Marcello Lehningher is a Brazilian of German ancestry. Many Germans, Irish, and other non Spanish or Portuguese immigrated to Brazil, Argentina and other Latin American countrues. Trpcesi (1979- ) ios from Macedonia which was part of the former Yougoslavia. Overall I enjoyed the concert. THe music was interesting.
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The coffee Concerts are back. I was at the November 15 concert. It featured Aaron Jay Kernis' Venit Illuminato which as a world premier and was commissioned by the SLSO, Bartok's Second Violin Concerto and Brahms' Fourth Symphony which I have wrote about. Stephane Deneve was the conductor and Gil Shaham was the soloist on the Bartok work.
Kernis (1960-) is an American contemporary. He is a native of the Philadelphia area and has studied at Yale University and the Manhattan School of Music. He has a wide range of influence in music including Irish Folk Music, 1920's music and Disco which has influenced him. This was a world premier and I do not have any recordings of it. Bella Bartok(1881-1945) was a Hungarian and is considered to be the most important Hungarian composer after Liszt. He was interested in Hungarian Folk Music and was one of the pioneers in the study of ethnic folk music. Bartok recorded some of the folk singing in the early 20th century. He was actually born in present day Romania. Hungry was at that time part of the Austria-Hungry Empire so was parts of Romania. Today Romania has a sizeable Hungarian minority. He wrote two Violin concertos. He also wrote three piano concertos. The Second violin Concerto is from 1939. It is in the standard three movement structure for concertos. The movements are: Allegro non troppo, Theme and Variations and Rondo: Allegro molto. I have a copy of the Bartok work with Isaac Stern as the soloist and Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic. Stern did a good interpretation of Bartok. Today Bartok is remembered for his six string quartets and his Concerto for Orchestra. I don't understand what that is. American composer Roger Sessions (1896-1989) also wrote a concerto for orchestra. Shaham was born in Champaign Il but grew up in Israel. He is considered one of the finest violinists around. I have some of his CDs his sister Is pianist Orli Shaham who is married to David Robertson the former conductor of the SLSO. Christmas music is now being played on the radio. They should play it after Christmas instead of stopping it at midnight on December 25.
Wind quintet is the most common form of wind music. There are also other forms of wind ensemble. Dvorak wrote a wind ensemble (Opus#22) along with a string serenade (Opus#44) Richard Strauss wrote various wind ensembles. Many moderns such as Carlos Chaves and Carl Nielsen have written wind quintets.
Georges Onslow (1754-1853) wrote a wind quintet. Onslow is sometimes refereed to as the "French Beethoven". Typically, the quintet consists of one each flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet and French Horn. The French Horn is actually a brass instrument and related to the trumpet and tuba. An English Horn can be substitute for the French Horn in a quintet. The English Horn is actually a form of oboe. Dvorak's Wind serenade also calls for a Bass Violin in it. Brahms wrote a trio for French Horn, piano and violin(opus#40), a clarinet quintet(Opus#1150 and a trio for clarinet, Cello and piano(Opus#114), Mozart and Weber also wrote clarinet quintets. The string quartet and quintet seems to be more popular than the wind ensemble. The instruments in a wind quintet have different timbers and sounds to them. That includes the French Horn. During the 18th century, there were various quintets, quartets and trios for various string instruments and instruments. Mozart wrote various types of combinations for wind and string instruments. Rachel Barton-Pine is an American violinist. A native of Chicago was born in 1974. She is one of the few classical artists who plays both classical and metal. She is a fan of such groups as Led Zeppelin, Metallica, AC-DC etc. I am not in to that genre of music. She is also a fan of Jazz music. She has also taught violin and has appeared with many orchestras. I do not have any of her CDs as of now.
In 1995 she was seriously injured in a train accident in Chicago when the door closed on her and she tried to save her violin. She sued Metra (the Chicago train line) and won. Fortunately, she survived. She has created the Rachel Burton-Pine Foundation which is to promote the appreciation and study of classical music. It is also promoting black composers. rachelburtonpine.com This is the link to her personal site and has a link to the foundation. Among the more famous black composers was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor(1875-1912) Born to a British mother and a father from Sierra Leone. He is sometimes referred to as the "Black Mahler". I am not familiar with either Mahler or Coleidge-Taylor. I hope that this foundation succeeds. She is a unique artist. I am not in to heavy metal but I do like jazz and big bands etc. I hope that she does some jazz recordings in the future. Jazz music has a lot of classical influence in it. |
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