jmc's classics
Today is the anniversary of the premiere of Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra (opus#33). It consists of 10 short pieces for solo cello and orchestra lasting about two minutes each. It is the closest that Tchaikovsky came to writing a full blown cello concerto. He wrote several other short It was pieces for solo cello and orchestra which I will get to later. The premier was in Moscow in 1877 with Nicolai Rubenstein conducting and William Fitzenhagen on the cello.
Rococo was a movement in the arts and architecture from approximately 1730-1760 from the end of the baroque period to the start of the classical period. It combined asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding and pastel colors to create the illusion of motion and drama. This movement was popular in France, Italy and parts of Germany. It spread to England and Russia. The art had an happy feel to it. Many of the German princes wanted to have a nice palace and church. This type of art was common in churches and palaces built at that time. In Music J.S. Bach and his sons as well as Couperin, Mozart, and others wrote in the Rococo style. It had a lot of Baroque influence in it. Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations does not have as much Rococo influence as is originally thought. It has 10 movements in it. He used Mozart as a role model for writing this piece. It is more of a theme of the Rococo style than Rococo in origin. Tchaikovsky used the help of German cellist and professor William Fitzenhagen in writing this piece. This piece has 10 movements: the first is the introduction and the finale. The eight movements in between is a variation on a different theme. Fitzenhagen assisted Tchaikovsky with writing the solo cello parts. The themes are: moderato semplice, tempo del tema, tempo del tema, andante sostenuto, andante grazioso, allegro moderato and andante. It typically lasts about 20 minutes. I have three copies. Two of which I purchased because of other works. The first two are on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The first is with the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich with Herbert Von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. The second is with cellist Mischa Maisky and the Orphreus Chamber Orchestra. This orchestra does not use a conductor. It also includes Lynsky's Aria (from his opera Eugene Onegin) for cello and orchestra, The Nocturn for Cello and Orchestra based on a solo piece from Six Morceaux (Opus#19) , his Andante cantabile for Cello and orchestra from his String Quartet #1 (Opus #11). The next work on it is Souvenir de Florence for string sextet (Opus#70). I purchased it for the Nocturn but I fell in love with the Andante cantabile. The next on I purchased recently. for Johan Svendsen's Cello Concerto (Opus#7). It is on Dang Cord label. It is a Danish label which I know very little about. It contains Svendsen's concerto plus five other cello concertos by composers who I have not heard of. It of of the cellist Erling Blondal Bengtsson. The conductor is Pierre Monteux. The variations is on one track instead of the 10 individual tracks. As I have mentioned, I like Svendsen's music. I like his Cello Concerto. There are only one or two CDs available of this work. I love the Andante cantabile. It lasts about 12 minutes. It was used in an episode of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater entitled "The Murder Museum". With CDs of classical music it is easy sometimes to double or triple up on a work. I am glad I found this piece.
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Today is the anniversary of the premier of the opera "Martha" By Fredrick von Flotow(1812-1883). The premier took place in 1847 in Vienna Austria. Flotow is a "one hit wonders" of classical music and opera. He wrote other operas. The only one that is rerly performed was "Alessandro Stradella" which I have wrote about. The CPO label has issued a CD off Flotow's two Piano Concertos. I know that
Flotow wrote other works. It was a recording from 1903 of Edouard De Reszke singing the Porter Song that got me hooked on this opera. I then purchased a CD of this opera. There are only a few CDs available of this opera. There are individual areas from Martha and Alesandro Stradella available. Other famous opera singers have recorded arias from this opera. In the 1943 version of Phantom of the Opera Nelson Eddy it opens with the Porter song. The other areas that are famous are "Ach so fromm" for tenors and the "Last rose of Summer" for sopranos. This opera has not been performed at the Met since 1960. I hope that it is revised soon along with Alesandro Stradella. The overture to Martha is one of the most appreciate works of Fredrick von Flotow. This is a comic opera in the Bel Canto tradition. "Bel Canto" is Italian for beautiful singing. I am not that in to serious operas. I like the comic operas much better. Bel Canto operas were popular in the 1800's. They were more of comic operas and not of a tragic or serious matter. There are many theories about why this opera fell in to obscurity. It is sometime referred to a "singer's opera" which means that the chorus has a bigger part. Flotow like Leoncavallo with I Pagliacci and Mascagni with Calveria Rusticanna are the biggest one hit wonders of opera. The Version that I have is that of Johannes Schuler with the Berlin Staatskapelle on the Berlin Classics label. It is from 1944. It is a good recording. I don't know much about any of his other works. I know that the two piano concertos exist. I doubt that there are any other recordings of them. The CPO label is a German label and they have released a lot of recordings of some of the obscure composers. I like their CDs. I applaud them for their work! Radio Stations are starting to play Christmas music. Soon it will be Ad Nauseam until December 25 at midnight. Especially with Mariah Carrey's song. I like the older Christmas carols much better. You don't hear it much after Christmas. It is the Christmas Season until January Sixth whichseventh is Epiphany Day. In Russia, Ukraine and other Orthodox countries, Christmas is celebrated on January
The 2024 Grammy nominations are out. I am not familiar with any of the Classical nominations. Females dominate the popular nominations. The awards will be on February 4, 2024. Taylor swift got nominations.
I write mainly about classical music. I do like some of Taylor Swift's Music. She is becoming too big. We do not need to make idols of these people. She may be bigger than the Beatles. I have never seen such a phenomenon before.
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. 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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