jmc's classics
The Canadian string quartet known as The St. Lawrence String Quartet has decided to disband after the 2023-24 season. They were founded in 1989 and a few years ago went on a one year hiatus after the death of their founder violinist Goeff Nuttall in 2022. They were based in Canada. They performed works by Haydn, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. They had also received commissions from Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams (the composer not the president), Mark Applebaum and R. Murray Schafer. I am not familiar with these composers. They had gained international success and acclaim. Another string quartet that has disbanded was the Cleveland Quartet which was based in Cleveland. The Canadian Brass is a Brass ensemble. However, some of their members were American -not Canadian!
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An article in the BBC Classical magazine listed the greatest French composers. It lists Faure and Saint Saens among others. I am disappointed that it did not list Charles Marie Widor (1844-1937). Widor was mainly know for his organ works. he also wrote two symphonies plus a violin concerto and a cello concerto and some other orchestral music. I like the cello concerto.
It mentioned Camille Saint- Saens (1835-1921) and Gabriel Faure (185-1924), both of whose works I am fond of. Others were Vincent D'Indy (1851-1931),Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992) and some others who I am not familiar with. One Living composer that they did mention is Pascal Dusapin (1955-) who is still around and who I have never heard of. Another composer that was mention was Georges Onslow (1784-1853) "The French Beethoven". He wrote mostly chamber music. he did write four symphonies. All four of them are on the CPO label with the Hanover Radio Philharmonic conducted by Johannes Gorotzki: the Second and Fourth which I have plus the First and Third which I don't have. Onslow's father was actually English and fled England du to a scandal. He is obscure now. And I also have to mention Alberic Magnard (1865-1914) "The French Buckner" I have some of his CDs he was killed in WWl. I am not as familiar with his music. I do like Bruckner's music. The most important composer left out is Edouard Lalo (1823-1892). He is of Spanish decent. His most famous works his Symphonie Espagnole which is actually a five movement violin concerto plus his Cello Concerto. This magazine does have some interesting articles. It is worth reading. With these lists it is just opinions and everyone is entitled to their opinions. I have seen some Facebook links to a video of Edouard De Reszke singing the Don Juan Serenade from 1903.
Edouard De Reszke (1853-1917) was a famous Polish basso, his brother Jean (1850-1925) was a tenor. Edouard made three commercial recordings. The other two are of Verdi's Enfalici from Ernani, and The Porter Song From Frederick von Flotow's opera Martha. The only recordings of Jean are some of the Mapleson Cylinders which were some live recordings mad at the beginning of the 20th century. He was played by the British actor Allen Napier in the 1951 movie The Great Caruso. The movie Stared Mario Lanza in the title Role. Napier also played in the Batman TV series in the 1960's. I liked these recordings. In fact I liked the aria from Martha so much that I purchased a CD of that opera. Unfortunately, it is not popular any more. This opera was featured in the 1943 film version of Phantom of the Opera with Nelson Eddy and Claud Rains. I liked this movie also. Don Juan was a mythical Spanish character from the 1500's. The opera Don Giovani by Mozart was based on this character. There have been other plays and musicals based on the legend of Don Juan. The opera singers of that era do not stack up today. If many of them were around today they probably would not make it. On many recordings from that era there was a vocal introduction of who was singing. On this recording De Reszke introduced himself as singing. I have heard that Pavarotti had a lot of strange habits. One of them is that he hid food around Metropolitan Opera that he could eat between breaks. Also when Pavarotti went to China, he had an entire restaurant packed up and taken on tour with him.
The local classical station is sponsoring the Beet Beethoven run on April 21. I am not in to running. This is a fundraiser.
The eclipse is coming up. I am tryin to find music that has to do with the eclipse. I am not finding much in the way of Classical Music.
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler and "Dancing in the Moonlight" are two. The first song mentioned it the only one that has the word "eclipse" in the title. There are a lot of songs about the moon. It is Ester for most Christians today except in the Orthodox Church. There are about
2,000,000,000-250,000,000 Orthodox Christians right now. As I have mentioned, earlier there is a lot of good music for Lent and Easter. There are some pieces of music that I think go good together. Some of them are:
Schubert's Fifth Symphony and Dvorak's String Serenade, Schubert's Ninth Symphony and Dvorak's Violin Concerto, Sibelius' Second Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, Brahms' Fourth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's String Serenade Brahms' Clarinet Quintet and Richard Strauss' Violin Concerto Today is the birthday of British composer Andrew Lloyde Weber in 1948. He is famous for his musicals including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and Phantom of the Opera. He has also written film scores, a song cycle and a setting for the requiem mass. He wrote 18 other musicals as of now. He is the brother of cellist Julian Lloyd Weber.
Concerning Phantom of the Opera, I have not yet seen it. However I like the 1943 movie version with Nelson Eddy and Claud Rains much better. It is not as graphic and more appealing to me. The story line is different. There seems to be a lot of newer operas being written in the past few years. The Metropolitan Opera and several other opera companies are staging newer operas now.
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