March 3, 2014.  Chopin, Smetana, Vivaldi.  Just like last week, we’re running a bit late.  We missed the birthday of Frédéric Chopin, who was born on March 1, 1810 (although that’s not definite – he may have been born on February 22nd of that year) and Bedřich Smetana, born March 2^nd of 1824.  Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, a small village about 20 miles west of Warsaw.  He started composing at the age of 15 (his opus 1 was a piano Rondo in C minor).  Two years later he wrote Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni  (op. 2), the first and one of the very few pieces for piano and orchestra.  Robert Schumann heard it in Leipzig four years later, and declared Chopin a genius.  Chopin lived in Poland till September of 1831, when he left for Paris, as so many of his compatriots did after Russia repressed the Polish uprising of 1830-31.   He hoped to return to Poland once the regime there had changed, but it never happened: Chopin was to live in France for the rest of his short life.  In Paris he stayed close to the Polish émigré society (his French was never very good).  Very soon he became famous both as a pianist and composer, met all the celebrities of the day and acquired a large number of well-paying students.  One of the first compositions Chopin wrote in Paris was his opus 17 consisting of Four Mazurkas.  Mazurka is a simple Polish folk dance, which in time was accepted on a ballroom floor, and Chopin’s exquisite piano pieces are just reminiscences of the originals.  Here they are, performed by the great Arthur Rubinstein, no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, and probably the most popular in the set, no. 4.  Rubinstein recorded these Mazurkas three times, in the 1930, 1950s and in 1965-66.  These are the latest recordings.

Bedřich Smetana, the first truly great Czech composer, was born in Litomyšl, a beautiful town of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings.  By 1854-55 he was living in Prague and composing mostly for the piano.  Then a series of personal tragedies befell him: in July of 1854 his second daughter died of tuberculosis.  A year later his eldest daughter died of scarlet fever.  Around that time he fourth daughter was born but she also died when she was just one year old.  To make things worse, around the same time his wife was diagnosed with tuberculosis, of which she would die three years later.  During that terrible period Smetana composed just a few pieces, one of them – a beautiful Piano Trio in G minor.  He considered it a tribute to his eldest daughter Bedřiška.  Here it is, performed by Carlota Amado, piano, Iason Keramidis, violin, and Vasily Bystroff, cello.

Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice on March 4th, 1678.  One of the most influential pieces in Vivaldi’s output was his L'Estro Armonico, op. 3, a collection of 12 concertos for one, two or four violins.  The designation of "opus 3" is somewhat misleading: L'Estro Armonico was composed in 1711, and by then Vivaldi had composed dozens of concertos.  L'Estro Armonico became very popular all over Europe, so much so that Johann Sebastian Bach reworked no less than six of these concertos: he arranged nos. 3, 9, and 12 for solo keyboard, 8 and 11 were turned into the organ concertos, and concerto number 10, originally for four violins was made into a concerto for four harpsichords, BWV 1065.  Here is Vivladi’s original concerto, L'Estro Armonico, Op. 3, no. 10 in B minor for four violins, cello and strings.  It is performed by the violinist Viktoria Mullova with the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini conducting.

February 24, 2014.  Handel and Rossini.   George Frideric Handel‘s birthday was yesterday (he was born on February 23rd, 1685).  Since last week we wrote mostly about Corelli, we’ll mark Handel’s birthday a day late.  There is a connection between Handel and Corelli.  After spending his childhood in Halle, at the age of 21 Handel moved to Italy.  There he was feted by the same patrons who some years earlier supported Corelli: cardinals Ottoboni and Pamphilii.   And then of course there was a famous encounter years later in London.  Corelli was known to have a quirk: he refused to play any note higher than high D on the E string.  He felt that that was as high as music should go.  None of his violin pieces, and there are a few, have any notes higher than D.  Everybody knew this, including Handel.  During one concert Corelli was supposed to play on sight a violin sonata by Handel.  Just to spite his competitor, Handel inserted a high E in the score.  Corelli played the sonata beautifully up to that point, saw the note, stopped and walked off the stage.  A rather sad story of a rigid old master and an unkind, if supremely talented, challenger.

Handel is rightly famous for his operas, oratorios, and organ concertos and concerti grossi.  He also wrote a number of keyboard suites.  The keyboard suite no. 7 in G minor, in six parts, was composed around 1720.  Handel had just recently founded an opera company, Royal Academy of Music; it was funded by a group of English aristocrats, and Handel assumed the position of Master of the Orchestra.  He would write several masterpieces for the opera company, for example, Giulio Cesare and Ottone.  Extremely productive, he also found time to write this grand keyboard piece (here).  The pianist is the 24-year-old Andrei Gavrilov.  In 1979 he accompanied Sviatoslav Richter to Tours, France, where Richter had established a music festival.  There each of them performed several of Handel’s keyboard suites, turning score pages while the other played (just to remind you: Gavrilov had won the Tchaikovsky Competition five years earlier but was otherwise relatively unknown.  Richter, world-famous, was 40 years his senior).

Gioachino Rossini was also born this week, on February 29^th, 1792 in Pesaro.  His mother was a singer and his father – a horn player (Rossini himself would eventually learn to play the horn).  When he was eight, he was brought to Bologna where he received his initial musical education.  He later went to the Conservatory of Bologna to study cello.  There he fell in love with the music of Mozart.  He wrote his first opera, La cambiale di matrimonio (The Marriage Contract) at the age of 18.  His most famous opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), was written in 1816 when Rossini was only 24.  Later in his life Rossini claimed that he wrote Il Barbiere in 12 days.  The researchers think that it actually took him two or three weeks, still an astonishing feat.  The first performance took place in the Teatro Argentina in Rome and was not successful: fans of  Giovanni Paisiello's opera on the same subject practically sabotaged the premier.  The second performance was successful, and the opera has never left the world stage since then.  Right now, for example, it is being performed at the Lyric Opera in Chicago, with the young American baritone Nathan Gunn as Figaro.  Probably the most famous aria of the opera, which is filled with tunes that have became familiar to millions, is the very first one, sung as Figaro enters the stage.  Called Largo al Factotum (Make way to the factotum, a servant responsible for many tasks), it is not only technically difficult, but is being performed while the singer’s voice is not completely warmed up.  Here’s the great Tito Gobbi in a 1957 recording.

February 17, 2014.  Corelli.  Arcangelo Corelli was born on this day, February 17^th, in 1653 in a small town of Fusignano, not far from Ravenna.  We’ve written about Corelli a number of times, for example here and here.  Corelli might not have been a towering figure in the history of music, but judging by the number of students he had, who became major composers, by the influence he exerted, and the number of references to him by composers of following generations, from Rameau to Rachmaninov, he occupied a very important place in the history of music of the 17^th century.  By the time Corelli was born, the Baroque style had been in development for about 50 years.  Claudio Monteverdi, born in 1567, was one of the first composers to transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque (his early madrigals, like this Lamento d'Arianna in the performance by Concerto Italiano, exquisite as they are and fresh of new ideas, are still looking back to the older era, whereas his opera L'incoronazione di Poppea is clearly a baroque composition).  Girolamo Frescobaldi and German Heinrich Schütz, both followed a similar path.  On the other hand, Jean-Baptiste Lully, 20 years older than Corelli, was already a pure Baroque composer.  Our knowledge of Corelli’s childhood is rather vague.  He probably studied music in Faenza.  In 1666 he went to Bologna where he studied the violin and composition.  By 1675 he was already in Rome, known as “Arcangelo Bolognese” and one of the leading violinists in town.  He found several patrons, among them Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, Queen Christina of Sweden and, in particular, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni.  (All three were extraordinary figures and patrons of art.  Benedetto Pamphili, for example, a scion of the Pamphili family, whose forbearers included the Pope Innocent X and several cardinals, built the famous Galleria Doria Pamphilj, wrote libretti for Alessandro Scarlatti’s operas, and extended patronage to many composer, including George Frideric Handel.  Cardinal Ottoboni, a nephew of a pope, who resided in the enormous Renaissance Palazzo della Cancelleria, just off Campo de' Fiori, supported not only Corelli, but also the abovementioned Scarlatti and, later, Antonio Vivaldi.  And, just like Benedetto Pamphili, he wrote libretti.  Art wasn’t his only pleasure: according to Montesquieu, Ottoboni had numerous mistresses, whose portraits in the guise of saints graced the walls of his rooms, and with whom he had more than 60 children).

During his lifetime, Corelli was probably more famous as a violinist and teacher than composer (many of his students became famous violinists with their own pupils; modern violinists still like to trace their roots to him).  These days he’s noted as composer, mostly for his Trio Sonatas and Concerti Grossi.  Corelli didn’t invent Concerto Grosso, in which a group of soloists (“concertino”) are juxtaposed with the rest of the orchestra (“tutti”), but he certainly developed it much further and wrote some great music in this genre.  His Op. 6 consists of twelve Concerti Grossi, the first eight designated as Concerti da chiesa (Church concertos, sometimes called Church sonatas) and the last four as Concerti da camera (or Chamber concertos).   We’ll hear Concerto Grosso no. 4 op. 6 in a very energetic performance by Fabio Biondi’s ensemble Europa Galante.

Luigi Boccherini was also born this week, on February 19^th, 1743.  Here’s his String Quintet in C major, Op. 25, no. 4.  A virtuoso cellist, Boccherini wrote his quintets for two cellos and one viola, instead of the customary instrumentation with one cello and two violas.  The performance is also by Europa Galante.  George Frideric Handel’s birthday falls on Sunday February 23.  We’ll write about him next week.

February 10, 2014.  Tomás Luis de Victoria.  Only minor composers were born this week.  Fernando Sor, the Spanish guitarist and composer, was christened on February 14, 1778 (and probably born a day earlier) in Barcelona.  Here is one of his best-known compositions, Variations on a Theme by Mozart, performed by the guitarist Rafael Serrallet.  Alexander Dargomyzhsky, born on February 14, 1813, was a Russian composer mostly known for his operas Rusalka (The Mermaid) and The Stone Guest, both based on Alexander Pushkin’s works: the former – on an incomplete poem, and the latter – on a “little tragedy” in blank verse.  Dargomyzhsky was an important link between Glinka and the “Mighty Five.”

We’ll turn instead to a composer of genius, the Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria.  He was born around 1548 in a small town of Sanchidrián, not far from the walled city of Ávila.  When Victoria was 10, he was sent to the Cathedral of Avila.  There, he was a chorister, but also learned to play the organ.  In 1567 he was accepted at Gollegium Germanicum, a Jesuit seminary in Rome (Ignatius Loyola was one of the founders).  The seminary was created for the German-speaking students, but also accepted young men from other countries.  It is quite possible that around that time Victoria took music lessons from Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the most famous composer of the time.  Victoria also became an organist at the Spanish church in Rome, Santa Maria de Monserrat.  In 1571 he succeeded Palestrina as the chapel master of the Pontifical Roman Seminary (Palestrina received the prestigious position at the St-Peter Cathedral).   The following year in 1572, Victoria published his first book of motets.  Three years later he was made the choir master of his alma mater, Collegium Germanicum, which by then had moved to the magnificent Palazzo di Sant’Apollinare.  In this position he not only taught music and managed the choir at the college, but also supervised all music-making in the church of St. Apollinare, which was adjacent to the college and were the choir performed during services.   Victoria raised the choir to such a level that people from all over Rome flocked to the St. Apollinare to listen to it.  In 1575 Victoria, a deeply religious man, was ordained a priest.  He retired from Collegium Germanicum in 1578, and for the following seven years worked as a chaplain in one of the churches of Rome, actively composing.  Several anthologies of his works were published in Rome during these years and his fame as a composer spread across Italy.

In 1587 Victoria returned to Spain after King Philip II granted him a position of chaplain to his sister, Empress Maria.  Maria, daughter of Emperor Charles V, who had served as regent of Spain during the absence of Philip II, by then retired to the Monastery of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid.  Victoria served to Empress Maria for the following 17 years, until her death in 1603.  He only took one break, in 1593, when he went back to Rome and stayed there for two years.  In 1594, while in Rome, he attended the funeral of Palestrina.  Upon Empress Maria’s death Victoria wrote a Requiem Mass, one of his finest compositions.  Here is the motet Versa est in luctum (My harp is turned to mourning) from the Mass.  It’s performed by the Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill conducting.   After the Empress’s death Victoria stayed in Las Descalzas Reales as a mere organist, even though his fame had spread all over Spain and several important cathedrals, Seville’s among them, wanted to hire him.  He continued composing and published several more books of music.  Tomás Luis de Victoria died in the convent of Las Descalzas Reales on August 20^th of 1611.  Here is another famous composition by Victoria, motet O magnum mysteriumfrom the eponymous mass.  It’s performed by the Oxford Camerata, Jeremy Summerly conducting.

February 3, 2014.  Mendelssohn and Palestrina.  Two great composers were born today, Felix Mendelssohn and Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina: Mendelssohn in 1809, Palestrina – in 1525.  Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg into a family of a wealthy banker, Abraham Mendelssohn.  Felix’s grandfather was Moses Mendelssohn, the famous German Jewish philosopher and the founder of the Jewish enlightenment movement.  His mother Lea came from the prominent Itzig family; her grandfather Daniel Itzig was the “court Jew” of King Frederick the Great of Prussia – a banker who lent money to the King and to a large extent managed his finances.  Felix had three siblings, the musically gifted older sister Fanny, and two younger brothers.  The Mendelssohns were not religious (Felix wasn’t even circumcised, which was highly unusual for a Jewish family) and when he was seven, all children were baptized: while proud of their ancestry, the prevailing notion in the Mendelssohn family was that Jews should assimilate with the German people.  In 1811 the family moved to Berlin. 

Felix was the greatest child prodigy since Mozart.  His first piano lessons were with his mother; later he studied piano with several teachers in Berlin, and later in Paris.  In 1819, when he was 10, he and Fanny started taking composition and counterpoint lessons from a noted composer, Carl Friedrich Zelter, a friend of Goethe.  When he was 12, Felix was taken to Weimar and played for Goethe the music of Bach and Mozart.  He even dedicated his Quartet in B minor Op. 3, written in 1824, to Goethe.  At the age of 11, in 1820, Felix wrote his first opera, Die Soldatenliebschaft (The soldier’s love affair).  Three more operas followed in the next two years.  His first published works were piano quartets – Op. 1, in C minor, written in 1822, Op. 2, in F minor, written one year later, and the already mentioned Op. 3, in B minor.  Here is the thirteen-year-old Mendelssohn’s Piano Quartet op. 1, no. 1, performed by The Schubert Ensemble of London.  It’s a youthful but charming piece.  The symphonies, the famous violin concerto, oratorios, the exquisite piano pieces – all that was still to come.   The picture above, by the German painter Carl Joseph Begas, was made the year before Op. 1 had been written.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s birthday is tentative, as is so often the case with the 16^th century composers.  As Grove’s says, he was born “between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526.”  Palestrina, a Roman, is considered one of, if not the greatest Renaissance polyphonist.   He followed in the steps of the Franco-Flemish composers, such as Guillaume Dufay, Josquin des Prez, and Adrian Willaert.  The genius of Palestrina deserves much more space than we have here, so we’ll just present two pieces, a brief Nunc dimittis (“now you dismiss…” also called Song of Simeon, a canticle which is usually sung at the end of a religious service), performed by the Tallis Scholars, and the great motet Stabat Mater, very much admired by Richard Wagner.  The Choir of King's College is directed by Sir David Willcocks (here).

January 31, 2014.  Schubert.  Today is the 127^th birthday of Franz Schubert, who was born in 1797 in a suburb of Vienna.  To celebrate this event, we publish an article on one of Schubert’s last composition, the song cycle Schwanengesang (“Swan Song”).

1828, Schubert’s final year in his all-too-brief life, saw the creation of some his richest and most profound compositions—the Mass in E-flat major, the colossal String Quintet in C, the last three piano sonatas, and the ethereal and haunting song cycle, Schwanengesang. Schubert’s health was significantly waning in his last years, and to some extent he must have been aware that his time on earth was possibly drawing to an end. Yet, he remained optimistic, scheduling lessons with the famed counterpoint teacher Simon Sechter to further his knowledge of harmony. But his sickness took its toll, and Schubert died on November 19, leaving behind a vast wealth of musical treasures that would slowly be uncovered throughout the remainder of the 19^th century.

The fourteen songs of Schwanengesang are among the last of Schubert’s compositions. Unlike his previous cycles, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, Schwanengesang is not based on the poetry of a single poet, but instead three: Ludwig Rellstab (Nos. 1-7), Heinrich Heine (Nos. 8-13) and Johann Gabriel Seidl (No. 14). However, Schubert’s intentions for the cycle remain unclear. All but the last song were copied out in the composer’s hand on consecutive manuscript pages and in the traditional performance order, which is an indication that Schubert may have regarded them all as a single coherent work. However, in early October, Schubert offered the Heine songs to the Leipzig publisher Probst, a contrary move that at least shows he either thought those songs separable from the preceding ones based on the poetry of Rellstab, or was willing to divide the work for purposes of publication.

Since Schubert’s ultimate intentions for these songs will never be known, or quite possibly was never fully decided upon by the composer himself, the task of organizing the cycle for publication was left up to Tobias Haslinger, who published Schwanengesang, as well as Winterreise, not long after Schubert’s death.  Haslinger respected Schubert’s order as presented in the manuscript, but appended the lone Siedl song, Die Taubenpost, believed to be Schubert’s last completed work.

Whatever may have been Schubert’s intentions for the ordering and structure of Schwanengesang, Haslinger’s edition makes a compelling case for its current representation as a complete cycle of fourteen songs. The Rellstab songs, which make up the first half of the cycle, are overall lighter in nature, touching only briefly on darker, forlorn subjects. The first of these songs (Liebesbotschaft) opens the cycle in G major. From there, the following six pass through a fairly logical progression of keys to the last song (Abschied), which closes the first half in E-flat major, a choice of key that would have pleased any Romantic. The six Heine songs that make up the bulk of the second half, however, deal with far gloomier moods and plunge deeper into the dreary recesses of the human heart. Der Atlas opens the second half in G minor, a shadow of the cheery G major that began the cycle. From thence, each song begins in a key related to the last—the sole exception being the tragic and haunting Der Doppelgänger in B minor following the serene C major of Am Meer. Though quite different in tone, Die Taubenpost provides at least a proper structural close, even if its sudden cheerful mood seems out of place following the immense weight of the Heine songs. In G major, it echoes the confident love of Liebesbotschaft, bringing the cycle, in terms of key and theme, to an adequate close.

You can hear the songs by clicking on their titles.  Dozens of wonderful singers recorded Schwanengesang.  This one is a classic, with the great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and his partner, the British pianist Gerald Moore.  These recordings were made in the 1950s.  The complete cycle would be heard here.