October 4, 2010

The Baroque Band is a period-instrument orchestra based in Chicago. It was founded in 2007 by the British violinist and conductor Garry Clarke. Garry moved to the US in 2004; while in the UK, he performed with The Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and other ensembles. He has also worked with Christopher Hogwood, John Elliot Gardener, Sir Charles Mackaras and many other eminent conductors.

Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein hailed the Baroque Band as one of the top ten Chicago ensembles. He wrote: “The goal of Garry Clarke is to make the group a nexus of “authentic” pre-classical performance in the Midwest. An ambitious undertaking, but Clarke and friends are off to an auspicious start.”

We’re in the process of providing access to some of the live recordings made by the Baroque Band in the past three seasons. To whet your appetite, here are two recordings: Henry Purcell’s Suite from Dido and Aeneas (there’s much more to this music than the famous When I’m laid in earth aria), with the wonderful mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane and David Schrader at the harpsichord; and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Suite from Les Indes Galantes. We’ll have more from the Baroque Band later; in the mean time you can listen here.

September 27, 2010

September Birthdays. We’d like to commemorate several composers who had their birthdays in September. Jean-Philippe Rameau was born on the 25^th of the month in 1683. He followed (and surpassed) Jean-Baptiste Lully in developing the French "Classique" style of music. Rameau composed operas, instrumental music, and music for the harpsichord. You can hear Chicago’s Baroque Band period-instrument orchestra perform his Les Indes Galantes opera suite here.

The great Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich was also born on the 25^th, in 1906. Here is his Violin Concerto No. 1, performed by Albert Markov and the Moscow State Orchestra. The concerto was written in 1947-48 during a period in which Shostakovich fell under heavy criticism from the Soviet press. The first performance of the concerto had to wait till 1955, after Stalin’s death.

One of the giants of modernism, Arnold Schoenberg was born on September 13, 1874. You can hear the short Piano Piece No. 3 played by Irina Klyuev.

And finally, the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was born on the 11^th of the month in 1935. His Speigel Im Spiegel is performed by Janus Trio (click here). This music was written in 1978, while Pärt still lived in Estonia (he emigrated in 1980, moved to Vienna, then Berlin, but later returned to Estonia and now lives in Tallinn).

September 20, 2010

The pianist Catherine Gordeladze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and now lives in Germany. She has earned critical acclaim as a recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician. Her recent debut at the Landestheater Coburg, where she performed Schumann's Piano concerto in a minor under the baton of Nicolás Pasquet, earned her praise from The Coburger Tagesblatt: “Technically she was superior at all times, thoroughly enjoying the beauty of the piano part…” Her performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was also highly praised by The Frankfurter Rundschau.

Ms. Gordeladze started playing piano at the age of 6 and made her debut with a symphony orchestra at the age of 11 playing Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with the Georgia Philharmonic. She studied at the Tbilisi State Conservatory with Professor Nodar Gabunia. She continued her studies in Germany, where she attended several music institutions. She worked with Vladimer Krainev, Paul Badura-Skoda, Rudolf Kehrer, but was especially influenced by Alexis Weissenberg. Ms. Gordeladze won several top prizes in international competitions, among them the 3rd prize at the VI European Chopin Piano Competition in Darmstadt, and the 1st prize in the IV International Music festival in Dietzenbach (Germany).

Ms. Gordeladze’s latest project is Haydn’s sonatas. We’ll hear three of those: in D Major (Hob. XVI:37), in A-flat Major (Hob XVI: 46), and probably the most popular of Haydn’s sonatas, in E-flat Major, Hob XVI: 52. To listen, click here.

September 13, 2010

The pianist Elena Melnikova was born in 1982 in Novosibirsk, Russia. She received her first piano lessons at the age of five. In 1989, she was accepted at the special music school for gifted students in Novosibirsk, where she studied with Meri Lebenzon. In 1994 Elena was awarded the second prize at the Vladimir Krainev competition in Kharkov and the first prize at the Citta di Marsala international piano competition. She also received the first prize at the 1995 International Tchaikovsky competition for young musicians in Sendai, Japan. In 1999 Elena entered the State University of Music and Drama in Hanover, where she became a student of Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. In 2001 she won the first ZF Musik Award in Friedrichshafen. Elena has a successful solo career; she has been performing in Italy, France, Japan, Germany, Russia, and Austria. She’s also a passionate chamber music player.

We have created a three-piece playlist of Elena’s recordings that allows listeners to appreciate the different aspects of her talent. First, you can hear Bach’s Chaconne from violin Partita No. 2 in d minor in Busoni’s transcription. Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana follows. The selection concludes with her crisp, fresh interpretation of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 8 ("Pathetique"). To listen, click here.

September 6, 2010

The great Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was born on September 8, 1841 near Prague in what was then the Austrian Empire. A musical nationalist, Dvořák broadly used Czech folk idioms in his compositions (while in the United States, he also actively promoted Native American and African American music). Dvořák wrote nine symphonies (New World Symphony being the most popular), operas, and chamber music. He also wrote three concertos; the Cello Concerto is his masterpiece.

We’ll hear Humoresque, performed by Brett Deubner (Viola); Slavonic Dance in A-Flat Major, played by the piano duo Joseph Tong and Waka Hasegawa; and String Quintet Op. 97, performed by Pacifica Quartet and Michael Tree (Viola). To listen, click here.

A note: a very mediocre composer, whose renown owes more to chance and the genius of other than any accomplishments of his own, was also born this week. Anton Diabelli was trying to promote his publishing business when he submitted a little waltz to several well-known composers to be used as a theme for variations. He expected them to write just one, which is exactly what Schubert, Czerny, Hummel, and Moscheles, among others, did. Beethoven, on the other hand, created 33, and the set became know as the Diabelli Variations. They are now considered one of his greatest piano compositions. You can hear them in Beth Levin’s interpretation here.

August 30, 2010

Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata. Richard Strauss was 23 years old when he wrote this sonata. This was his third (he had already composed a piano sonata and one for the cello) and last one: even though he composed for another 60 years, he would never return to this genre again. The Violin sonata is a romantic piece very much in the tradition of Schumann and Mendelssohn. While not considered a masterpiece, this composition is graceful, balanced, and full of wonderful melodic lines and youthful energy.

We have three performances of this sonata. The most recent one is by the violinist Korbinian Altenberger (he’s accompanied by Jiayi Shi). Mr. Altenberger was born in Munich, Germany, studied at the Musikhochschule Köln and then at the New England Conservatory as a student of Donald Weilerstein. Later he studied with Midori at the University of Southern California. Mr. Altenberger received first prize at the Jacob Stainer Violin Competition in 2005, and second prize at the prestigious Montreal International Musical Competition in 2010. You can listen to his performance here.

The second performance is by the young American violinist Tessa Lark. Ms. Lark also studied at the New England Conservatory (with Miriam Fried). She has won several competitions: first place at the Johansen International Strings Competition in Washington, D.C., in 2006, and another first place at the Irving Klein International String Competition in San Francisco in 2008. You can listen to her performance of the sonata here. Ms. Lark is accompanied by Ron Regev.

Finally, we have two masters who need no introduction: Ilya Kaler and Eteri Andjaparidze. You can enjoy their interpretation here.