Mach 24, 2014.Bartók and d’Indy.Béla Bartók, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, was born on March 25th of 1881.Last year we celebrated him with one of his last compositions, the Concerto For Orchestra, which he wrote in the US in 1943 and revised the year of his death, 1945.The last years of Bartók’s life were difficult: his health was failing, he couldn’t adjust to the life in a foreign country, and his family was in financial dire straits.Today we’ll turn to a much brighter period in his life, from the late 1920s to the late ‘30s, when his art had reached its maturity and he produced a number of masterpieces.Much of Bartók’s music is intimately related to his activities as an ethnomusicologist.Together with Zoltan Kodály he collected a vast number of authentic folk melodies, not just Hungarian, but also Romanian, Slovakian, and Bulgarian.He even went to Algeria and Turkey to study the folk music of those countries.Bartók assimilated many of the tunes and tempos of old melodies into his own music, producing highly original and sophisticated pieces.During this period he wrote several String quartets, two Piano concertos, a composition for chorus and orchestra called Cantata Profana, a number of vocal, violin and orchestral pieces based directly on folk tunes, and one of his best-known compositions, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.It’s scored for an unusual set of instruments: the percussions include a xylophone, different drums, and a tam-tam.There’s also a piano, which is used more or less as a percussion instrument.And of course, such a prominent use of celesta, which looks like an upright piano but produces the sound when the hammers strike pieces of metal, is a rarity (it’s probably best known from the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, and Mahler used it broadly in his symphony, no. 6).You can hearMusic in the performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra.The conductor is a fellow Hungarian, Eugene Ormandy (Ormandy, famous for his long and productive tenure in Philadelphia, was born in Budapest in 1899 and moved to the US in 1931).
The French composer Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris on March 27, 1851.The d’Indys were an aristocratic family from Ardèche, and carried the title of counts.Vincent started piano lessons at an early age (his grandmother was his first teacher).Later he studied at the Paris Conservatory with Cesar Franck.He was critical of the teaching methods at the Conservatory, and in 1894 became one of the founders of a private music school called Schola Cantorum de Paris.The Schola became a very important French musical institution.Among his students there were Isaac Albéniz, Joseph Canteloube, Erik Satie, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and many other prominent musicians.Later in the 20th century Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud taught at the school.Influenced by Wagner, Berlioz and his teacher, Franck, d’Indy was a very conservative composer.He lived to 1931, but none of developments in modern music, not even Impressionism, ever affected he work (he did conduct a number of works by Debussy, though).In addition to composing and teaching, d’Indy did much to revive some of the forgotten works of Palestrina, Monteverdi and the forgotten operas of Vivaldi.One of his more popular compositions is the poem Symphony on a French Mountain Air for piano and symphony orchestra.You can listen to it here, in the 1958 performance by the same Philadelphia orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy.The piano soloist is Robert Casadesus, a major French pianist of the 20th century, and one of the greatest interpreters of the music of Ravel and Debussy.
Bartók and d’Indy, 2014
Mach 24, 2014. Bartók and d’Indy. Béla Bartók, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, was born on March 25th of 1881. Last year we celebrated him with one of his last compositions, the Concerto For Orchestra, which he wrote in the US in 1943 and revised the year of his death, 1945. The last years of Bartók’s life were difficult: his
health was failing, he couldn’t adjust to the life in a foreign country, and his family was in financial dire straits. Today we’ll turn to a much brighter period in his life, from the late 1920s to the late ‘30s, when his art had reached its maturity and he produced a number of masterpieces. Much of Bartók’s music is intimately related to his activities as an ethnomusicologist. Together with Zoltan Kodály he collected a vast number of authentic folk melodies, not just Hungarian, but also Romanian, Slovakian, and Bulgarian. He even went to Algeria and Turkey to study the folk music of those countries. Bartók assimilated many of the tunes and tempos of old melodies into his own music, producing highly original and sophisticated pieces. During this period he wrote several String quartets, two Piano concertos, a composition for chorus and orchestra called Cantata Profana, a number of vocal, violin and orchestral pieces based directly on folk tunes, and one of his best-known compositions, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. It’s scored for an unusual set of instruments: the percussions include a xylophone, different drums, and a tam-tam. There’s also a piano, which is used more or less as a percussion instrument. And of course, such a prominent use of celesta, which looks like an upright piano but produces the sound when the hammers strike pieces of metal, is a rarity (it’s probably best known from the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, and Mahler used it broadly in his symphony, no. 6). You can hear Music in the performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The conductor is a fellow Hungarian, Eugene Ormandy (Ormandy, famous for his long and productive tenure in Philadelphia, was born in Budapest in 1899 and moved to the US in 1931).
The French composer Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris on March 27, 1851. The d’Indys were an aristocratic family from Ardèche, and carried the title of counts. Vincent started piano lessons at an early age (his grandmother was his first teacher). Later he studied at the Paris Conservatory with Cesar Franck. He was critical of the teaching methods at the Conservatory, and in 1894 became one of the founders of a private music school called Schola Cantorum de Paris. The Schola became a very important French musical institution. Among his students there were Isaac Albéniz, Joseph Canteloube, Erik Satie, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and many other prominent musicians. Later in the 20th century Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud taught at the school. Influenced by Wagner, Berlioz and his teacher, Franck, d’Indy was a very conservative composer. He lived to 1931, but none of developments in modern music, not even Impressionism, ever affected he work (he did conduct a number of works by Debussy, though). In addition to composing and teaching, d’Indy did much to revive some of the forgotten works of Palestrina, Monteverdi and the forgotten operas of Vivaldi. One of his more popular compositions is the poem Symphony on a French Mountain Air for piano and symphony orchestra. You can listen to it here, in the 1958 performance by the same Philadelphia orchestra under the baton of Eugene Ormandy. The piano soloist is Robert Casadesus, a major French pianist of the 20th century, and one of the greatest interpreters of the music of Ravel and Debussy.