jmc's classics
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.
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