March 28, 2011

This week we celebrate three composers: Haydn, Busoni and , and Rachmaninov.The great classical composer and "father of the Symphony," Franz Joseph Haydn, who was born on March 31, 1732, doesn't need our introduction. The first piece in our playlist is a piano Sonata in A Major Hob. XVI:30, performed by Catherine Gordeladze. It was composed in 1767. At that time Haydn was the Kapellmeister (Music Director) in Esterháza, an enormous palace of the Esterházy family, one of the wealthiest families in the Austrian Empire. Haydn worked in Esterházy's employ for thirty years and produced a large number of compositions, including all the pieces that we hear in this playlist. We follow with the String Quartet op. 20, No. 4, performed here by Aeolus Quartet. It dates from 1772. We conclude the Haydn playlist with another piano sonata, in A-flat Major, Hob XVI: 46. As the sonata in A Major, it is performed by Ms. Gordeladze. To listen, click here.

Italian composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni was born on April 1, 1866. These days he is best remembered for his transcriptions of the music of Bach, but he was an original composer in his own right. A brilliant pianist, he was also renowned as a teacher. Among his pupils were Egon Petri, Alexander Brailowsky, and Elena Gnesina, who started a music school in Moscow, which later became the famous Gnesin Music Academy. Here is Busoni's piano piece, Red Indian Diary. It's performed by Mauro Bertoli.

April 1 is also the birthday of Sergei Rachmaninov, who was born in 1873. Here is his probably most famous work, Piano Concerto No. 3 in d minor. It is performed by Eteri Andjaparidze, with the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra led by the orchestra's founder, the conductor Djansug Kakhidze.

March 21, 2011

Johann Sebastian Bach. Today is the 326^th anniversary of Bach's birth. So much has been written about the great composer, from the magisterial work by Philipp Spitta in the 1870s to more personal accounts by Albert Schweitzer and on, that we'll confine ourselves to a bare outline. Bach was born in Eisenach to a family of musicians. After graduating from the famous St. Michael's School in Lüneberg, he took up his first post in 1703 as a court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar. He then accepted a position of organist on Arnstadt. It was also during his time at Arnstadt that Bach made his famous journeys to Lübeck, 250 miles away, to hear the great organ master Dietrich Buxtehude. In 1708 Bach accepted the post of court organist and concertmaster at the ducal court in Weimar. Among the many compositions for keyboard and orchestra that came from Bach's Weimar period, quite possibly the most important are the preludes and fugues that ultimately would make up the Well-Tempered Clavier. From 1717 to 1723 Bach served as the Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold of Köthen. Bach's most prestigious post came in 1723 when he accepted the position of Cantor of Thomasschule in Leipzig. He stayed in Leipzig till his death in 1750. It was during that period that Bach composed some of his greatest music, from cantatas to Mass in B minor to St. John and St. Mathew Passions to the incomplete but still magnificent The Art of Fugue.

We have a large number of works by Bach in our library and we hope that listeners will celebrate his birthday by browsing through some of them. For our playlist we selected several pieces written or arranged for different instruments. We start with the famous transcription of a chorale Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme from the eponymous cantata, made by Feruccio Busoni. It's played by the pianist Heidi Louise Williams. Then the cellist Fanny Nemeth-Weiss plays Suite for solo cello no. 3 in C Major. We'll then hear Adagio from Violin Sonata No.1 in G minor, which is performed by the violinist Ilya Dobrovitsky. We'll conclude with Concerto No. 1 in d minor for Keyboard and Strings, BWV 1052 (Allegro) 2602. It's performed here by the pianist Eteri Andjaparidze and the string players of the Round Top festival orchestra. To listen, click here.

March 14, 2011

Anna Serova. The Russian-Italian violist, Anna Serova is a unique figure on the international scene. She widely performs both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Several works were dedicated to her in recent years by some of the most important contemporary composers, such as the Italian opera composer Azio Corghi's dramatic cantata "Fero Dolore" and the operatic tragedy "Giocasta." In the latter she plays and acts on stage in the role of Destiny.

Anna studied with Vladimir Stopicev at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, with Bruno Giuranna at the Academy of Cremona and with Yuri Bashmet at the Academy of Chigiana in Sienna. Since then she has had a very successful career as a concert musician both in Italy and abroad.  Critics note the warm, shining beauty of her sound. She has collaborated with artists like Ivry Gitils, Bruno Giuranna, Salvatore Accardo, Rocco Filippini, Filippo Faes, and Toby Hoffman. As a soloist she has performed with many orchestras, such as Moscow State Symphony, Siberian Symphony, Krasnoyarsk Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico, Belgrade Philharmonic, and others. In 2002 she issued a CD of music from the twentieth century repertoire (on it she plays on the famous " Stauffer 1615" viola by Niccolò Amati); in 2004 she also recorded a CD of 18th century music. Her latest CD, "Schumann's Fairy Tales," was awarded 5 stars by the critics of Musica magazine.

Anna Serova is currently a Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Biella "L. Perosi" International Academy.

In our playlist, you can hear her play Robert Schumann's Maerchenbilder for viola and piano, and Capriccio in C minor "Hommage à Paganini" for Viola Solo by Henri Vieuxtemps. To listen, click here.

March 7, 2011

Maurice Ravel. One of the greatest composers of the 20^th century, Maurice Ravel was born on this day in 1875. He was expelled from the Paris Conservatory not once but twice; fortunately that didn't discourage him (his teacher, Gabriel Fauré, was a very supportive help). He composed for the piano – Gaspard de la nuit, Le Tombeau de Couperin, Miroirs, Ma Mère l'Oye, Pavane pour une infante défunte are among the most popular pieces, and also orchestrated many of them. He wrote two Piano concertos (one of the them, for the left hand, was composed for his friend Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right hand during the first World War). His chamber music (violin sonatas, the string quartet) is played the world over. He also wrote wonderful songs. And of course, he's famous for being one of the most interesting orchestral composers of that century.

We'll hear three large compositions: the Second suite from the ballet Daphnis and Chloé, performed by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Hajime Teri Murai; the rhapsody Tzigane, played by Andrew Kohji Taylor (Judith Gordon on the piano); and Le Tombeau de Couperin played by the pianist Alon Goldstein. To listen, click here.

Karen Hakobyan is a talented Armenian pianist and composer. He studied with Arkady Aronov at Mannes College of Music, and successfully competed in a number of piano competitions (in 2010 he won the Bronze Medal in the International Piano Competition in Cincinatti). He has played with the Armenian Philharmonic and National Chamber Orchestras, the Salt Lake Symphony, the New American Symphony and the World Festival Orchestra. He also participated in a number of festivals, including the Lille International Piano Festival in France and was featured at the "Keys to the Future" Contemporary Music Concert Series in 2009 and 2010 in New York City. Here is Karen's performance of Rachmaninov's Etude Tableaux Op. 33 No. 5.

Karen is the winner of the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Competition. He has composed numerous orchestral works, and also music for chamber groups and solo pieces for violin and piano. His compositions have been performed in Europe and the United States. You can listen to Karen's Symphony No. 2 Op. 6 here. It is performed by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

On March 1, 2011 an Evening of Music by Karen Hakobyan will take place in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall where Karen and a group of young musician will perform his music. The performers will include: Karen Hakobyan and Gabriel Escudero, piano; Guillaume Molko, Stani Dimitrova, and Clara Lyon, violin; Christine Carter, clarinet; Emi Ferguson, flute; Kim Mai Nguyen, viola, Amber Docters Van Leeuwen, cello; and Katharine Dain, soprano.

February 28, 2011

Chopin and Vivaldi. March 1^st is generally regarded as the birthday of the great Polish composer, although records are not clear and some believe that he was born on February 22, 1810. A son of a poor Frenchman from Lorraine, Chopin himself settled in France in 1831 after learning that the Polish uprising against the Russian empire has been crushed. He lived in France the remaining 18 years of his short life. A professed Polish patriot, he was affected by the music of the country of his birth (he wrote 58 mazurkas and 18 polonaises), but though he traveled all around Europe as a concert pianist, he never set foot in Poland again. The world celebrated Frederic Chopin's 200^th anniversary last year, and we joined with an extensive playlist. This year we'll present just four pieces: Ballade no. 1, performed by Gabriele Baldocci, then two etudes no. 11, the first one from opus 10, played by Daniel del Pino, another from opus 25, performed by Irina Klyuev. We'll conclude with the finale of the Cello sonata op. 65. The cellist is Camille Thomas, she's accompanied by Beatrice Berrut. To listen, click here.

Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in Venice. One of the most important composers in the history of classical music (consider his influence on Johann Sebastian Bach) he's often regarded as the composer of the Four Seasons. In reality, the list of his compositions is enormous. He wrote almost 50 operas and 500 concertos for such instruments as violin, flute, cello, bassoon, oboe, and many others. Here is his Concerto for strings in C Major, RV 114. It's performed by Baroque Band, with David Shrader on the harpsichord.