April 25, 2011

Sergei Prokofiev. April 27 marks the 120^th birthday anniversary of the great Russian composer. He was born in Sosnovka, an isolated rural estate in what is now Ukraine but in 1891 was part of the Russian Empire. By the age of five Sergei started taking piano lessons with his mother, a gifted pianist herself (she was from a family of serfs of counts Sheremetev, an old Russian nobility. The Sheremetevs, patrons of arts and music, provided education to the children of their indentured peasants). It was also his mother who asked Sergei Taneyev, the director of Moscow conservatory, to arrange for private lessons for her son. His tutor was Reinhold Glière, himself a budding composer. While studying with Glière, the 11-year old Prokofiev attempted to write a symphony. At the age of 13, on a trip to Petersburg, Prokofiev met with Alexander Glazunov, who was so impressed (Prokofiev by then had composed two operas) that he urged Sergei to apply to the Petersburg Conservatory. Prokofiev was accepted and became one of the youngest students in the Conservatory's history. While there, he wrote two piano concertos and Sarcasms, among other pieces (he played the First concerto to win a competition among the five best students of the Piano department; the score of the Second concerto was lost and Prokofiev rewrote it in 1923). In 1914 Prokofiev traveled to London where he met with Diagilev. He started a ballet Chout (Сказка про шута, or the Tale of the Buffoon). In 1917 he composed The Gambler and his first symphony, Classical. But by then, the Russian revolution was on the horizon and with it, the end of the first Russian period of Prokofiev's life.

In our playlist we have three pieces. The first one, Suggestion Diabolique, Op.4, No.4 was composed in 1910-12. It's played by the pianist Tania Stavreva. The Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94 bis, 1943, based on the flute sonata, was transcribed for the great violinist David Oistrach. It's performed by Brendan Conway, with Anna Balakerskaia on the piano. Finally, Natasha Paremski plays Piano Sonata No. 7 in F-flat Major, Op. 83. To listen, click here.

April 18, 2011

The violinist Christoph Seybold was born in 1978 in Heilbronn, Germany. Described by reviewers as a "dazzling artist with a distinctive masculine violin sound" he has performed both as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, North and South America, Israel and Japan. Starting violin lessons at age 4, he continued at 11 in the Pre-College Program at the Freiburger Musikhochschule. Later he majored in violin performance at the Music Universities in Cologne and Hanover, where his teachers included Zakhar Bron and Jens Ellermann. He received additional musical input from musicians such as Pinchas Zuckerman, Shlomo Mintz and Ida Haendel .

His performances have recently taken him to major concert venues in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich, and Bremen. He performed with many orchestras, Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, the Philharmonie der Nationen , Württemberg Chamber orchestra, the Bratislava Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Polish Chamber Orchestra among them. Other concerts took him to the stages of the Celibidache Festival, the Gran Canaria Music Festival, and the Chautauqua Music Festival.

Mr. Seybold has recorded for several German broadcasting companies including the ZDF, WDR, NDR Deutschland Radio Kultur. His CD recording released in 2010 for the label Genuin Classics contains works by Beethoven, Bach, Grieg and Waxman. It was enthusiastically received by both audiences and critics.

We'll hear the first movement, Allegro assai, of Beethoven's Violin Sonata no. 8 (our library has the complete Sonata); the second movement, Improvisation: Andante cantabile, from Sonata for Violin in E-flat Major, Op. 18 by Richard Strauss, and Franz Waxman's Carmen Fantasy. Christoph plays a 1725 Antonio Stradivari, that was given to him on loan through Machold Rare Violins. He's accompanies by Milana Chernyavska. To listen, click here.

April 11, 2011

Virtuoso Natasha Korsakova, of Russian-Greek decent, is one of the most popular violinists of her generation. The German Süddeutsche Zeitung describes her ability to play the violin as a "sinfully beautiful listening experience". The young violinist, who speaks five languages, is currently a coveted guest for national as well as international orchestras, music festivals and concert events.

Natasha Korsakova was born into a music family in Moscow and began playing the violin at the age of 5. She is a descendant of the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Her first teacher was her grandfather Boris Korsakov. Natasha then studied with her father, the well-known Russian violin virtuoso Andrej Korsakov. Her mother is the pianist Yolanta Miroshnikova-Caprarica. After the early death of her father, Natasha Korsakova studied with Ulf Klausenitzer in Nuremberg and then later with Saschko Gawriloff in Cologne.

She has appeared in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls such as the Auditorium di Milano, Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Upon invitation from Mrs. Irina Shostakovitch, Natasha Korsakova appeared in Paris as part of a festival concert honoring Dmitri Shostakovitch.

Natasha Korsakova has co-operated with a number of renowned conductors, including Mstislav Rostropovich. As an enthusiastic chamber musician, Natasha Korsakova plays together with musicians such as Uto Ughi, Kira Ratner, José Gallardo Giovanni Angeleri, and Simone Soldati.

In 1996, she was the first musician to receive the "Russian Muse" award in the Great Hall of Moscows Conservatory.  In 1998, she became "Artist of the Year" in Chile.

We'll hear several pieces Natasha recorded on her CD "Natasha Korsakova plays Gershwin and more." The playlist starts with the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Legend, followed by Romance by Antonin Dvořák. We'll then hear the first movement of Daniel Shnyder's Concerto Mozart in China. And we'll conclude with Porgy and Bess Fantasia, arranged by Igor Frolov. The North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Charles Olivier-Munro. To listen, click here.

April 3, 2011

The Swiss pianist Felix Buchmann was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1958. At the age of eleven he made his first public performance with an orchestra (he played Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 20 in d minor with Hofer Symphoniker, a German orchestra). He went on to perform Mozart's Concerto no. 21 in C Major and Beethoven's first Piano Concerto. At the age of 14 he started playing public piano recitals. Among other pieces, his repertory included Beethoven's Waldstein sonata and Chopin's Fantasy in F-minor op. 49. At the age of 19 Mr. Buchmann entered the Basel Conservatory, where he studied with Peter Efler and received the Teacher's diploma. He then moved to Bern, where he continued his studies with the remarkable Swiss pianist Michael Studer, and acquired the Performer's diploma. Mr. Buchmann also attended master classes with Bernhard Ebert of Musikhochschule Hannover and was advised by Hubert Harry of the Lucerne Conservatory.

In our playlist we'll hear three performances by Felix Buchmann. First, Piano Sonata No 24 in F-sharp Major by Beethoven; then Robert Schumann's Romance in F-sharp Major, Op. 28, No. 2 and finally, the second movement (Adagio) of the Piano Concerto no. 2 by Beethoven. This live recording was made with the Orchestra of Gelterkinden, which was conducted by Meinrad Koch. To listen, lick here.

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.