This Week in Classical Music: August 8, 2022.  Seven composers.  Yes, that many, all interesting, none of them great, at least in our opinion, and three of them French.  Cécile Chaminade, one of the few women composers of the 19^th century, and André Jolivet were born on August 8^th and both in Paris, Chaminade in 1857, Jolivet in 1905.  Reynaldo Hahn, a songwriter and Proust’s friend,was born on August 9^th of 1874 in Caracas but spent his adult life in France.  You can read about all three here. 

The Russian composer Alexander Glazunov was born on August 10^th of 1865.  He wrote a wonderful Violin concerto and a very popular ballet, Raymonda.  He also wrote eight complete symphonies (he never finished his ninth), two piano concertos and much more.  Outside of Russia very little of this music is performed or broadcast.  But Glazonov was very important as a public cultural figure and a supporter of classical music in Russia and the early Soviet Union.  He became the Director of the St-Petersburg’s Conservatory in 1905 and served in that position until 1928, one of the few administrators who wasn’t fired after the revolution of 1917, most likely because Glazunov was friends with Anatoly Lunacharsky, Soviet Union’s first minister of education and culture.  In 1928 Glazunov was invited to Vienna to a composer’s competition, organized to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Schubert’s death.  He was allowed to go (again thanks to Lunacharsky) and decided not to return to Russia.  He eventually settled in Paris and died in 1936.  Here’s a typical Glazunov’s piece, a symphonic poem Sten’ka Razin, which extensively uses the theme from the Song of the Volga Boatmen (actually, barge haulers, who pulled barges by a rope).  In Russian this song is called Эй, ухнем, usually and inaccurately translated as Yo, heave-ho!.  The song was made famously by the great Russian bass Feodor Shalyapin.  The American bass Paul Robeson also had it in his repertoire and in 1941 Glenn Miller arranged the song for his orchestra – it became a hit.  Here is Chaliapin’s recording with an unnamed orchestra from 1923 – the quality isn’t high, but Chaliapin’s voice comes through.

Heinrich Ignaz Biber, an Austrian-Bohemian composer, was born on August 12th of 1644.  Read about him (and more on Jolivet)  here.  On the same day but 52 years later, in 1696, the English composer Maurice Greene was born in London.  He’s the author of some of the most popular pieces of English church music, the anthems Hearken Unto Me, Ye Holy Children (here) and Lord, let me know mine end (here).

We have to admit that sometimes we do not understand the music of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, our seventh composer, especially his longer works.  Sorabji, whose father was a Parsi from Bombay, was born on August 14^th of 1892.  We last wrote an entry about him nine years ago (here) and were reticent to come back to the topic.  That said, his Piano Sonata no. 1, from 1919, is quite accessible, lasts only 22 minutes and has a reasonably developed form.  Here it is, brilliantly performed by Marc-André Hamelin in a 1990 recording.

This Week in Classical Music: August 8, 2022.  Seven composers.  Yes, that many, all interesting, none of them great, at least in our opinion, and three of them French.  Cécile Chaminade, one of the few women composers of the 19^th century, and André Jolivet were born on August 8^th and both in Paris, Chaminade in 1857, Jolivet in 1905.  Reynaldo Hahn, a songwriter and Proust’s friend,was born on August 9^th of 1874 in Caracas but spent his adult life in France.  You can read about all three here. 

The Russian composer Alexander Glazunov was born on August 10^th of 1865.  He wrote a wonderful Violin concerto and a very popular ballet, Raymonda.  He also wrote eight complete symphonies (he never finished his ninth), two piano concertos and much more.  Outside of Russia very little of this music is performed or broadcast.  But Glazonov was very important as a public cultural figure and a supporter of classical music in Russia and the early Soviet Union.  He became the Director of the St-Petersburg’s Conservatory in 1905 and served in that position until 1928, one of the few administrators who wasn’t fired after the revolution of 1917, most likely because Glazunov was friends with Anatoly Lunacharsky, Soviet Union’s first minister of education and culture.  In 1928 Glazunov was invited to Vienna to a composer’s competition, organized to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Schubert’s death.  He was allowed to go (again thanks to Lunacharsky) and decided not to return to Russia.  He eventually settled in Paris and died in 1936.  Here’s a typical Glazunov’s piece, a symphonic poem Sten’ka Razin, which extensively uses the theme from the Song of the Volga Boatmen (actually, barge haulers, who pulled barges by a rope).  In Russian this song is called Эй, ухнем, usually and inaccurately translated as Yo, heave-ho!.  The song was made famously by the great Russian bass Feodor Shalyapin.  The American bass Paul Robeson also had it in his repertoire and in 1941 Glenn Miller arranged the song for his orchestra – it became a hit.  Here is Chaliapin’s recording with an unnamed orchestra from 1923 – the quality isn’t high, but Chaliapin’s voice comes through.

Heinrich Ignaz Biber, an Austrian-Bohemian composer, was born on August 12th of 1644.  Read about him (and more on Jolivet)  here.  On the same day but 52 years later, in 1696, the English composer Maurice Greene was born in London.  He’s the author of some of the most popular pieces of English church music, the anthems Hearken Unto Me, Ye Holy Children (here) and Lord, let me know mine end (here).

We have to admit that sometimes we do not understand the music of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, our seventh composer, especially his longer works.  Sorabji, whose father was a Parsi from Bombay, was born on August 14^th of 1892.  We last wrote an entry about him nine years ago (here) and were reticent to come back to the topic.  That said, his Piano Sonata no. 1, from 1919, is quite accessible, lasts only 22 minutes and has a reasonably developed form.  Here it is, brilliantly performed by Marc-André Hamelin in a 1990 recording.

This Week in Classical Music: August 1, 2022.  Hans Rott, Leonel Power. Today is the birthday of the Austrian composer Hans Rott; he was born in Braunhirschengrund, a suburb of Vienna, in 1858.  A composer of obvious talent who lived a short and tragic life, he in a way anticipated Mahler.  Both Bruckner and Mahler recognized him as a major talent.  We wrote an entry about Rott, you can read it here.  It seems that we’re not the only ones fascinated by Rott: his Symphony no. 1, the only one he completed, and some of his other works are being recorded on a regular basis.  In the past two years a two-volume CD set was issued by the Capriccio label; it  features the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, one of the two major Cologne orchestras, under the direction of Christopher Ward and contains practically all of Rott’s symphonic music. 

This week is also a putative anniversary of Guillaume Dufay, who, according to some research was born on August 5^th of 1397.  We’ve written about this very important composer on a number of occasions (for example, here about his extensive travels around Europe).  We’ve also written about his contemporary, another Franco-Flemish composer, Gilles Binchois (Dufay and Binchois were born about 25 miles from each other, the former in Beersel, the latter in Mons, both in modern day Belgium).  Antoine Busnois ,who was a generation younger, is usually considered the third of the most consequential Franco-Flemish composers of the mid-15^th century.  The Franco-Flemish school was one of the two dominant music schools of the time, the other being developed in England (notice the absence of the Italians).  Two English composers overshadowed the rest in the flourishing music scene: John Dunstaple and Leonel Power.  Up till now we were amiss in not addressing Power’s life and music.  Power was older than either Dunstaple or Dufay: he was born sometime between 1370 and 1385.  There are few records of his life.  Power’s name is first mentioned on a list of clerks of the household chapel of Thomas, Duke of Clarence: he’s listed as an instructor of the choristers (Thomas was a brother of Henry V, the great warrior-king of England immortalized by Shakespeare).  In 1423 Power was mentioned as being admitted to the fraternity of Christ Church, Canterbury (the Canterbury cathedral).  In 1439 Power became master of the choir at the cathedral.  Not much else is known about his life.  He died at Canterbury on June 5^th of 1445.  About 40 pieces of music are attributed to Power, many of them represented in the Old Hall Manuscript, a unique document compiled in the first half of the 15^th century.  We know of about eight of his masses, although two of them could have been written by Dunstaple: the styles of the two composers were similar, what the French called Contenance angloise, or English manner.   Power was one of the first composers to create a unified mass cycle.  To demonstrate Power’s music, here are two mass sections: Gloria and Credo.  Both are performed by the Hilliard Ensemble.

This Week in Classical Music: July 25, 2022.  Dohnányi, Conductor and Composer.  Ernst von Dohnányi (Ernő Dohnányi in Hungarian), was born on July 27^th of 1877 in Pozsony, now Bratislava, Kingdom of Hungary, then part of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Ernst von Dohnányi is the German version of his name and how he used to sign his compositions.  Dohnányi studied the piano and composition at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music (and convinced his friend, Béla Bartók, to join him there).  In 1898, one year after he graduated, the conductor Hans Richter took Dohnányi to London where he played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4 to great acclaim.  He was also composing (Brahms liked his Op. 1, a Piano Quintet), and by 1900 the young Dohnányi was acknowledged as the greatest Hungarian pianist-composer since Liszt.  He became friends with the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, 46 years his elder; Joachim invited Dohnányi to Berlin, to teach at the Hochschule für Musik.  In 1915 Dohnányi returned to Budapest where he embarked on a very ambitious program of reshaping the musical life of Hungary, first as the Director of the Budapest Academy, and then in the position of Music Director of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra.  He promoted the music of Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Leo Weiner and other Hungarian composers, and also played extensively, for example, performing all of the piano works of Beethoven, and taught at the Academy.  Among his students were Annie Fischer, Georg Solti, Georges Cziffra and many other musicians who later made big careers.  In 1934 Dohnányi was again appointed Director of the Academy of Music while keeping his position at the Philharmonic Orchestra. 

These were difficult times in Hungary, which was ruled by Miklós Horthy, an autocrat and semi-fascist.  Hungary was anti-Semitic under Horthy, but became murderous once Germany occupied it and replaced Horthy with a “real” fascist, Ferenc Szálasi.  564,000 Jews out of the 825,000 pre-war population perished during the Holocaust.  (This history is vividly depicted in a poignant 1999 film Sunshine made by the renowned Hungarian director István Szabó; we highly recommend it).  Dohnányi was an anti-Nazi and tried to help Jewish musicians.  In 1941, with anti-Semitism gaining steam, he quit the Academy of Music rather than following the demands of anti-Jewish legislation.  At the Philharmonic Orchestra he kept all his Jewish musicians till after Germany occupied Hungary in March of 1944 and his position became untenable.  He also helped several Jewish musicians to escape Hungary.  In November of 1944 Dohnányi moved to Austria, then under the Nazi regime and part of Germany, and that lead to the unfair and unfounded criticism that somehow Dohnányi was pro-Nazi, which haunted him for years.  Despite the support and testimonials from his Jewish friends, these rumors made Dohnányi‘s life in Europe difficult and were the reason that Dohnányi emigrated to the US.  He settled in Tallahassee and taught at Florida State University.  He continued to compose and conduct, and died in New York in February of 1960 while making a recording of Beethoven’s piano sonatas.

As composer, Dohnányi was rather conservative, following the Romantic traditions of the 19^th century.  Still, his chamber music is of very high quality.  Here for example, is his Serenade in C Major for String Trio, Op. 10, from 1902.  It’s performed by the Spectrum Concerts Berlin.  And here’s is his Konzertstück op.12.  János Starker is the soloist, with the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Walter Süsskind in this 1956 recording.  As conductor Dohnányi was famous for his interpretation of the music of Béla Bartók, which shows how open-minded Dohnányi was, as the music of his friend was different from his own in every possible way.

This Week in Classical Music: July 18, 2022. Instrumentalists and Singers.  We’ll skip several anniversaries, such as Francesco Cilea’s, his opera Adriana Lecouvreur notwithstanding, even though the title soprano role has been sung by such luminaries as Magda Olivero, Renata Tebaldi, Leyla Gencer, Montserrat Caballé, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, Joan Sutherland and Angela Gheorghiu.  We’ll also skip Ernest Bloch, a Swiss-Jewish-American composer mostly famous for his Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque, a large-scale work for cello and orchestra. And we’ll also leave out Adolphe Adam who wrote music for such popular ballets as Giselle and Le corsaire.  All three of them were born this week, on July 23^rd of 1866, July 24^th of 1880 and July 24^th of 1803 respectively.  Instead, we’ll acknowledge several interpreters: the pianists, violinist, and singers.

First, the pianists. Leon Fleisher was born on July 23^rd of 1928.  Fleisher lived a long life (he died two years ago) but his phenomenal career was cut short in 1964 by problems in his right hand.  He continued playing arepertoire for the left hand while trying to find a cure.  In 2004, 40 years after being diagnosed with focal dystonia, he regained some use of his right hand, but not on the level of his early years.  For almost 60 years Fleisher taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music; among his students were André Watts, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, and Louis Lortie.   Here’s the famous recording of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto Fleisher made in 1962.  George Szell conducts the Cleveland Orchestra.

The Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires (pronounced “piresh” in Portuguese) was also born on July 23^rd, in 1944.  She’s an unusual musician in that she clearly tries to avoid the demands of a virtuoso concert pianist’s life: hundreds of concerts, media presentations and such.  Her career is punctuated by pauses, as when she stopped playing in public from 1978 to 1982.  Pires’s repertoire is broad, but she seems to be especially close to the music of Mozart and Chopin.  Here is Maria João Pires playing Chopin’s Nocturne no.20 In C Sharp Minor, Op. Post.  And here she plays Mozart’s Piano Sonata no.11 In A Major K.331.  “Crystalline technique” seems to be a very appropriate description of her playing.  And integrity.

The violinists.  Isaac Stern was born on July 21^st of 1920.  Two years ago we celebrated his 100^th birthday, you can read it here.  Ruggiero Ricci was two years older than Stern: he was born on July 24^th of 1918 in San Francisco, a son of Italian immigrants.  A child prodigy, he played a concert in San Francisco at the age of 10 and at Carnegie Hall at 11.  He was the first violinist to record all 24 caprices of Paganini.  Even though he had a special affinity for Paganini (in 1971 he premiered the newly discovered Fourth Violin concerto by the composer) he also played a lot of contemporary music, premiering violin concertos by Ginastera, Gottfried von Einem and several other composers.  ’s Paganini’s Le Streghe, arranged by Fritz Kreisler.  Louis Persinger, who was Ricchi’s teacher when he was eight and then much later, when Ricci was already an acknowledged virtuoso, is on the piano.

We’ll have to come back to the singers another time, but will name them in this post:Pauline Viardot, the famous French mezzo born in Paris to Spanish parents, a lover of many celebrated French writers (and of a Russian, Ivan Turgenev) and also the sister of the diva soprano Maria Malibran, was born on July 18^th of 1821.  Susan Graham, the wonderful America mezzo, born on July 23^rd of 1960.  And of course, the great Giuseppe Di Stefano, born on July 24^th 101 years ago.

This Week in Classical Music: July 11, 2022. Birtwistle and Bergonzi.  One of the best-known British modern classical composers, Harrison Birtwistle, was born on July 15^th of 1934 not far from Manchester (Birtwistle died less than three months ago at the age of 87).  His music was thoroughly modern, sometimes evocative of Stravinsky and Messiaen, other times more formal, following Boulez and Stockhausen.  In any event, it was very different from the music of the preceding generations of British composers, from Frederick Delius and Ralph Vaughan Williams to Benjamin Britten, although, like Britten, Birtwistle had written a number of operas (seven, to be exact). 

The Triumph of Time is one of Harrison Birtwistle’s better known orchestral compositions.  It was written in 1971-72.  The title came from a complex (and quite macabre) 1574 woodcut by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, which Birtwistle stumbled upon while working on the composition.  You can see it here in good resolution.  In the woodcut the Time, a muscular middle-aged man, is in a carriage drawn by horses representing Sun and Moon.  He’s followed by Death.  Part of Bruegel’s inscription at the bottom of the carving says: “All that Time cannot grasp is left for Death,” but Time itself is devouring a child.  Birtwistle’s work is far from being literal or macabre, but it is funerial in its overall tone.  Birtwistle said of the piece that it’s "a processional in which nothing changes.”  Whether it changes or not (and it does), the piece is fascinating and anything but dull, one reason being Birtwistle’s virtuosic use of multiple percussion.  You can listen to The Triumph of Time here; it’s performed live by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Peter Eötvös.

Carlo Bergonzi, born on July 13^th of 1924, was one of the greatest tenors of the mid-20^th century and would’ve been even more famous had he not been a contemporary of Franco Corelli, Giuseppe di Stefano and Mario Del Monaco.  What a time it was, when all of them were at the top of their careers in the 1960s!  Add to the four Italians - a Spaniard, Alfredo Kraus, and compare these magnificent singers with the tenors of today…

Bergonzi started as a baritone (as, by the way, did Placido Domingo) and made his debut in a baritone role as Rossini’s Figaro in 1948.  For the following three years he sung many challenging baritone roles, including Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Lescaut in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, and Rigoletto.  Then in 1951 he realized that his voice is naturally better suited for tenor roles and, after retraining and studying the tenor repertory he made a second debut, this time as a tenor in the title role of Andrea Chénier.  He made his La Scala debut in 1953 and went on to sing at the famed opera theater for the next 20 years.  He first sang in the US in 1955, in Chicago, and a year later debuted at the Met, where he regularly appeared for the next 30 years, till 1988.

Bergonzi sang in more than 40 roles, Verdi’s operas constituting the core of his repertory.  Here is the famous Celeste Aida from Act I of Verdi’s Aida in Bergonzi’s superb rendition.  Nello Santi conducts the New Philharmonia Orchestra.