August 20, 2012.  Claude Debussy.  This week we celebrate a major event: the 150^th anniversary of one of the greatest composers of the late 19th – early-20^th century, Claude-Achille Debussy.  He was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a wealthy suburb of Paris (his family was not).  He started his musical studies at the age of eight, in Nice, where his mother, then pregnant again, fled during the Prussian occupation of Paris in 1870.  At the age of ten he entered the Paris conservatory and studied there for 11 years.  In 1884 he won the Prix de Rome and moved to the French Academy in Rome for a four-year residence.  He didn’t like it there, neither his companions nor the food.  He submitted several pieces, one of which was a symphonic cantata La damoiselle élue.  A pretty but rather straightforward piece with just a hint of the kind of harmonies that Debussy was to develop later, it was still labeled by the Academy as “bizarre.”  In 1888 he visited Bayreuth to see Wagner’s Parsifal and Die Meistersinger and, deeply impressed, made a return a year later for Tristan und Isolde. 1889.  As different as Wagner and Debussy are, it’s not surprising that the shimmering sonorities of Wagner’s orchestra affected the young Debussy.  He later disavowed both the influence and Wagner’s music in general.  Still, it seems that Wagner’s influence is discernable, and not only on Debussy’s only opera, Pelléas et Mélisande.

By about 1890, Debussy had fully developed his own musical language.  One of the first compositions to clearly manifest the new style was Suite bergamasque for piano (you can listen to it here, in the performance by the young Chinese pianist Xiang Zou).  During that period Debussy was spending a lot of time in Stéphane Mallarmé symbolist salon.  Four years later, influenced by a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, Debussy wrote a symphonic poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.  The poem was later made into a famous ballet, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky.  His only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande premiered in 1902.  We had to borrow from YouTube to bring you an excerpt.  It is here; Pierre Boulez conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Donald McIntyre is Golaud, George Shirley – a Pelléas, Elisabeth Söderström is Mélisande.   One of Debussy’s most popular compositions, three symphonic "sketches" titled La mer was written in 1903.   A large number of piano compositions followed: Estampes, also in 1903, Children's Corner Suite in 1908, the first book of Préludes in1910 (the second book was written in 1913 and differs in style rather considerably).  Debussy’s works were becoming more angular, with a larger number of unresolved dissonances, such as in this Etude No.11 "Pour les arpèges composes," (1915) performed here by the pianist Jiyeon Shin.  And then in 1917 he wrote the violin sonata, which had much simpler harmonics (it is performed here by the Japanese violinist Mari Lee with Ieva Jokubaviciute on the piano).  We don’t know if there was a general shift in Debussy’s compositional style: he wanted to write six sonatas but completed just three, for violin, for cello, and for flute, viola and harp (you can find all of them in our library).  He died of cancer on March 25, 1918, while Paris was being heavily bombarded by the Germans.  He was buried at the Père Lachaise with no public ceremony.  The following year Debussy was re-interred at Passy, a small pretty cemetery behind the Trocadéro, in the 16^th arrondissement.

 August 13, 2012.  More mid-August birthdays.  This week is full of anniversaries, even if most of them are of minor composers.  Still, we think they should be noted.  Sorabji (Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji), born on August 14, 1892, was an English composer of Parsi descent.  He was quite controversial in his time and still is – among the people who’ve actually heard his music: some of  Sorabji’s pieces are of extreme length.  His piano sonata no. 5 runs for about five hours, and that’s not even his longest composition.  Some critics think of him as one of the most interesting composers of the 20^th century, while others, like The Guardian’s Andrew Clements, feel that Sorabji’s talent never matched his musical ambition.    We have a piece by Sorabji, Pastiche on Habanera, but it is not very representative, so here is the first movement of his piano sonata no. 1 played by Marc-André Hamelin (courtesy of YouTube).  If Hamelin though it worth studying and performing, that probably means that the sonata is not musically insignificant.

A totally different composer, the delightful Jacques Ibert, was born on August 15, 1890.  He studied at the Paris conservatory, and took private composition and instrumentation lessons with André Gedalge; his fellow students were Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud, both influential members of Les Six. Ibert, though friendly with both, never joined the group.  Ibert wrote operas, a ballet, several concertos, and a good deal of instrumental music.  His songs are among the best in his output.  Here’s Chanson à Dulcinée, from Chanson de Don Quichotte.  It’s performed by the bass Liam Moran; Renate Rohlfing is on the piano.

Two other French composers were also born this week: Gabriel Pierné and Benjamin Godard, Pierné was born on August 16, 1863, Godard on August 18, 1849.  Like Ibert, Godard studied at the Paris Conservatory, and like him, also won the prestigious Prix de Rome.  He wrote operas, ballets and instrumental music, but not much of it is performed these days.  But here is the first movement of his Sonata op.36 for violin and piano, and it sounds very nice.  It’s played by the French violinist Elsa Grether; Eliane Reyes is on the piano.  Benjamin Godard also studied at the Paris conservatory, and wrote an enormous number of compositions during his rather brief life (he died at the age of 45).  There are recordings of his music on the market, but they’re few and far between.  Here is a charming little morsel, Abandon.  It’s performed by Albert Markov, violin, his son Alexander Markov, violin, with Dmitry Cogan on the piano.

And finally, from a totally different era, Antonio Salieri. He was born on August 18, 1750 in Legnano, Italy but spent most of his productive years in Vienna.  Some day we’ll dedicate a whole piece to Salieri, but right now you can listen to part of his 26 Variations on the theme of La Folia.  It’s performed by the London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert, conductor (here, courtesy of YouTube).

August 6, 2012.  Mid-August birthdays: Reynaldo Hahn, Alexander Glazunov, Maurice Greene.  These days Reynaldo Hahn is probably better known as Marcel Proust’s lover and friend rather than a composer, but in the 1890s his songs were very popular.  Hahn was born in Venezuela on August 9, 1874, his family moved to Paris when he was three.  He started composing when he was eight.  At the age of ten he entered the Paris Conservatory where he studied with Massenet, Gounod, and Saint-Saëns.  He was accepted into the popular salons of Paris when he was still in his late teens.  It was in one of these salons that in 1894 he met Marcel Proust, then just an aspiring writer.  Even though their affair was brief, they remind very good friends till Proust’s death in 1922.  Here is a song Si mes vers avaient des ailes (If my verses had wings) on a poem by Victor Hugo by the 14 year-old Hahn, which immediately became very popular.  It’s sung by the soprano Rebecca Wascoe, Jeffrey Peterson is on the piano.

Like Hahn, Glazunov was more popular during his own lifetime than   he is today.  Glazunov’s life spanned several eras: imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and exile in France.  Glazunov was born on August 10, 1865 into a wealthy family in Saint Petersburg.  He began composing very early, was noticed by Balakirev, who in turn introduced his work to Rimsky-Korsakov.  Rimsky took Glazunov under his wing, tutoring him in composition and in 1882 even premiering his 1^st symphony (Glazunov composed eight symphonies altogether).   In 1898 he wrote a still-popular ballet Raymonda, and in 1904 – a violin concerto (which Jascha Heifetz played throughout his career).  In 1905 Glazunov was appointed the director of the Saint Petersburg conservatory.  He stayed in this position through the 1917 October Revolution and then another eleven years.  Dmitry Shostakovich was one of his students.  In the later years he became an alcoholic, and apparently even taught lessons while drunk.  Nonetheless, his prestige was such that he stayed in charge of the Conservatory.  But in 1928 Glazunov went on a tour of the United States and Europe and never returned.  He eventually settled in Paris and died in France in 1936.  Glazunov wrote five concertos: two for the piano, one for the cello and at the end of his life a concert for the saxophone, but the one that’s being played on a more or less regular basis is his violin concerto.  You can listen to it here, performed by Dmitri Berlinsky with the Jupiter Symphony Orchestra, Jens Nygaard conducting.

Marice Green lived in a very different epoch.  He was born on August 12,1696.  As David Schrader writes in one of his program notes, “the youngest son of a well-to-do family of considerable lineage, Greene was likely trained under Jeremiah Clarke at St. Paul's Cathedral. When his voice broke, he was apprenticed to Richard Brind, the organist of St. Paul's since Clarke's death in 1707. While Greene is best known nowadays for his sacred music, he also contributed much to the secular music of London – he befriended Handel for a time, but something had caused a falling out between the two men so that Handel, according to Sir Charles Burney, the music historian, never mentioned his name without some injurious epithet.”   Here’s David Schrader and Baroque Band playing Green’s Overture No. 1 in D Major.

July 30, 2012.  Summer is upon us, and with it, all kinds of festivals and special programs.  One of them is the Steans Institute, Ravinia Festival’s music conservatory.  The Steans brings young talented musicians from all over the world to study and perform.  This year’s program for piano and string has just finished, and the vocal program will follow (the Steans has an interesting jazz program as well).  The Piano and Strings program featured master classes with such musicians as Menahem Pressler (piano), Gary Hoffman (cello), Ida Kavafian (violin), and the pianist and conductor Christoph Eschenbach.  Also on the faculty were the pianists Leon Fleisher, Gilbert Kalish and John O’Conor; Ralph Kirshbaum and Lawrence Lesser taught the cello.

The students gave twelve concerts, and those were programmed to present both solo and chamber playing.  All kind of music could be heard, from J.S. Bach to György Kurtág.  And as is the tradition at the Steans, some teachers participated in music making alongside the students.  We hope to bring to you this year’s concerts in the near future. 

While we’re waiting for the audio files to be processed, we can offer you some recordings from the previous seasons.  We start with last season.  The English pianist Sam Armstrong plays Capriccio in b minor, from Eight piano pieces, Op. 76 by Johannes Brahms (here).  We’ll follow with recording from 2008, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio No. 5 in D Major "Ghost" for violin, cello and piano Op. 70, No. 1 (here).  It’s performed by Sean Lee, violin, the cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, and David Kaplan, piano.  Narek went on to win the prestigious Tchaikovsky competition in 2011.  We’ll follow with Antonin Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, from the 2007 season.  It’s performed by the violinists Tessa Lark (the 2012 Naumburg winner) and Yoon-Jung Yang, Yiyin Li, viola, Sébastien Gingras, cello, and Helen Huang, piano (here).   And finally,, you can listen to Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20 (also from the 2007 season, here).  The performers are: Robin Scott, violin, Tessa Lark, violin, David McCarroll, violin, Miriam Fried, violin (she was teaching that year at the Steans), Yoonji Kang, viola, Yura Lee, viola, Blaise Déjardin, cello, Michael Nicolas, cello.  Enjoy!

July 23, 2012.  Enrique Granados was born on July 27, 1867 in a Catalan town of Lleida (or Lerida, as it’s known in Spanish).  As a young man he studied piano in Barcelona with Joan Baptista Pujol, one of the most important Catalan pianists and teachers of that time (Isaac Albéniz was also Pujol’s student).  When Granados was twenty he went to study music in Paris; in  Spain in the late 19^th century, one had to go to Paris to make  a name in classical music.  Alas, he was rejected by the Paris Conservatory.  Instead, Granados began his studies with Charles de Bériot, a Conservatory professor, among whose students were Maurice Ravel and Ricardo Viñes.  Viñes, who like Granados hailed from Lleida and also studied with Pujol, became famous as an interpreter of the music of Ravel, Granados, Albeniz, and other contemporary composers.

Granados returned to Barcelona in 1889, after just two years in Paris.  He played concerts and composed: his opera Maria del Carmen was well received.  In 1911 he wrote and premiered what was to become his most popular composition, the piano suite Goyescas.  It’s comprised of two "books," each containing three pieces.  Book 1: Los Requiebros (The Complimets); Coloquio en la Reja (Conversation at the Grille); El Fandango del Candil (The Oil Lamp Fandango).  Book 2: Quejas o la Maja y el Ruiseñor (Complaints or the Maiden and the Nightingale); El Amor y la Muerte: Balada (Love and Death: a Ballad); and Epílogo: Serenata del Espectro (Epilogue: Specter's Serenade).  Even though the suite was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, there are no direct links between individual pieces and specific paintings.  Goyescas became very successful, and Granados wrote an opera on the same subject.

In 1915, in the midst of the Great War, Granados, accompanied by his wife, went to New York where his opera Goyescas had a successful premier..  Granados also played a number of concerts, both piano recitals and accompanying his friend, the great cellist Pablo Casals.  On their way back Europe, Granados and his wife traveled to England first, and then took a ferry, the Sussex, for Dieppe, France.  As they were crossing the Channel, the Sussex was attacked by a German submarine and a torpedo broke the ship in two.  The story goes that Granados made it to the lifeboat but without his wife.  When he saw her flailing in the water, he jumped in and attempted to save her.  They both drowned.

We’ll hear three excerpts from Goyescas.  First, the Chinese pianist Jie Chen plays Los Requiebros, from Book I (here).  Then the South Korean pianist Yoonjung Han plays El amor y la muerte, from the second book (here).   Finally, the Spanish pianist Gabriel Escudero plays Quejas, o la Maja y el Ruiseñor, also from the second book (here).

July 16, 2012.  From recent uploads: three pianists.   Sofya Melikyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1978. There she started piano studies at the age of five.  In 1994 Ms. Melikyan moved to Spain and continued her musical education in the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, as a student of Joaquin Soriano.  She graduated in 1999 with the Highest Honor Prize. Subsequently she studied with Galina Egiazarova in Madrid and Brigitte Engerer in Paris (who unfortunately died on June 29th of this year of cancer, at the age of 59).  In 2003 she completed the post-graduate program at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and later studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Solomon Mikowsky.  Ms. Melikyan has been awarded First Prizes at the Marisa Montiel International Piano Competition in Linares, and the Ibiza International Piano Competition. She has also received top and special prizes at the 15th Jose Iturbi and Maria Canals International Competitions in Spain.  An avid chamber musician, Ms. Melikyan is a member of the New York-based Sima Piano Trio, an ensemble that is quickly becoming one of the leading young trios of its generation.  Here is Sofya’s performance of Robert Schumann’s Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), Op. 82.

Alexander Osminin is a young Russian pianist.  He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory where he was a student in the class of Eliso Virsaladze.  He continued his postgraduate studies with Ms. Virsaladze.  Alexander played many recitals in Russia and in Europe.  The highlight of his recent tour was the concert in Salle Cortot in Paris.  He played several concerts in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the New Russia orchestra of Yuri Bashmet, performing concertos by Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, and Ravel.  Alexander was successful in several international piano competitions: Concorso Pianistico Europeo "Luciano Gante" (First prize), Sviatoslav Richter International Piano Competition, and several other.  Here he is playing Chopin’s Etude Op. 10, No. 5 in G-flat Major, and here – Romance in F-sharp Major, Op. 28, No. 2 by Robert Schumann.

English pianist Sam Armstrong has performed across Europe, Asia and North America as a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral soloist.  He played in the Royal Festival and Wigmore Halls in London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and made his New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in January 2009, as winner of the Nadia Reisenberg Recital Award. His performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio, French Television, Radio Suisse-Romande and WQXR New York.  Sam has been a top prizewinner in several competitions including the Beethoven Society of Europe Competition in London (2003) and the Porto International Piano Competition in Portugal (2004).  Sam recently completed his studies at Mannes College of Music in New York where for four years he was the only student of renowned pianist Richard Goode. Upon graduation he was awarded the Newton Swift Piano Award. He previously studied in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music, and he also worked with John O’Conor in Dublin. Here is Sam’s performance of Alban Berg’s Piano sonata op. 1.