jmc's classics
I was at the march 6th Coffee Concert. It featured Artur Honegger's pacific 231, John Adams' "Short Ride in a Fast Machine", Guillaume Connesson's "A kind of Trane", Albert Roussel's 3rd Symphony and Ravel's Bolero. Stephane Deneve was the conductor. Timothy McAllister was the Saxophone soloist on A kind of a Trane. The theme of this was trains and fast machines.
I have spoken of Bolero before. It was featured in the Movie "10" I remember this piece from my childhood. I had Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra version on 78 rpm when I was younger. Honegger (1892-1955) was Swiss but lived in Paris. He is remembered for this piece and his music for a short film called Rugby. he wrote five symphonies the most famous are his second for trumpet and orchestra and his third "Liturgic" which was written in memory of his father. I have a copy of both works with Igor Stravinsky's Concerto in D for String Orchestra with Herbert Von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Pacific 231 is about a train. He was fascinated with trains and technology. It dates from 1924 and lasts about seven minutes The numbers refer to axels on the train engine. John Adams was born in 1947 and has written various genres of music. His most famous piece was the opera "The Chairmen Dances" which is about Nixon and Mao . Short Ride is about an Italian speed car. The Italians were known for their sports cars. It dates from 1986 and was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It involves the traditional instruments of the orchestra plus xylophone, Woodblock, triangle and tambourine. It lasts about four minutes. Connesson was born in 1970 in France. A Kind of Trane is a saxophone concerto and is in memory of John Coltrane (1926-1967). Coltrane was an African-American jazz musician. This piece has some jazz elements in it. This piece has both French and American elements in it. Roussel (1869-1937) was French. This is his best known piece He fled the city chaos and went to the country which inspired him to write this work. It was written for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930 and was a hit at once. Roussel considered it one of his best works. He is not as well known as Ravel or Debussy he is still an important figure in French music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Overall I Enjoyed the concert. It seemed to have a theme of trains and technology. It featured some contemporary composers this time. When you think of Classical Music you don't think fo contemporary composers.
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