May 20, 2019.Wagner, Alicia de Larrocha.Richard Wagner was born on May 22nd of 1813.For some years we’ve been following Wagner’s life thru his operas; two years ago we arrived at 1848, the year Wagner started working on the monumental Der Ring des Nibelungen.It is hard to imagine, but during the years leading up to the Revolution of 1848 Wagner was involved in left-wing politics.He was living in Dresden and active among the local socilaists; he knew Mikhail Bakunin, the famous anarchist, and read Ludwig Feuerbach, a philosopher important in Marxist thought.Wagner participated in the May 1848 uprising and had to flee Germany to avoid arrest.He settled in Zurich, lonely and poor, existing mostly on small funds provided by his friends.While he did finish Lohengrin, very little music was composed in the next several years.What Wagner was writing were articles: some on the art of opera, but also the dreadful Judaism in Music, the first of his many antisemitic pieces.An influential Opera and Drama expounded the concept of music drama and “total work of art,” which he subsequently used in Der Ring.Wagner wrote librettos to all of his operas; first he would create a rough sketch, then a draft in prose, for the Ring he would also versify it in alliterative form, the style of old German legends.Sometime around 1848 Wagner started working on a libretto about the mythical German hero, Siegfried, which he planned to call Siegfried's Death.
He read many ancient German and Norse sagas (he had some knowledge of Old Norse and Middle German) and commentaries written by the Grimm brothers.Eventually he decided to expand the project to two or three operas; but ultimately it became four: Siegfried's Death turned into the last opera in the tetralogy, Götterdämmerung, or Twilight of the Gods.The preceding three librettos were finished and named in 1852; they were Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), which serves as the prologue; Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), and Siegfried.The librettos were written in reverse chronological order, Das Rheingold coming in last.The music, on the other hand, was composed more or less in the order the operas are presented: even though some music for Die Walküre was composed earlier, Das Rheingold was the first one to be finished, in January of 1854 (Die Walküre was completed two years later).It was premiered in Munich in September of 1869 against the wishes of Wagner, who preferred to stage the complete tetralogy (Götterdämmerung was finished only in 1874).The Bayreuth premier took place in August of 1876, in the newly built theater, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.We have a sample of the Prelude to Act I (here); about two and a half hours later, in the final scene, Wotan leads the gods into his newly built castle-fortress, Valhalla (Zubin Mehta conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in this 1983 recording).
The great Spanish pianist, Alicia de Larrocha was born on May 23rd of 1923 in Barcelona.She gave her first performance at the age of five and played a Mozart concerto with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra at 11.Alicia de Larrocha studied with Frank Marshall, a pupil of Granados, and later became the director of the Marshall Music Academy.She was an incomparable performer of the music of Spanish composers, especially Albéniz and Granados.She was short in stature (4’9”) and had small hands but played all the “big” concertos (her hands had good stretch).In the second half of her career she played Mozart more often.Here is Mozart’s Piano Sonata, K.570 in B-flat major.
Wagner, Alicia de Larrocha 2019
May 20, 2019. Wagner, Alicia de Larrocha. Richard Wagner was born on May 22nd of 1813. For some years we’ve been following Wagner’s life thru his operas; two years ago we arrived at 1848, the year Wagner started working on the monumental Der Ring des Nibelungen. It is
hard to imagine, but during the years leading up to the Revolution of 1848 Wagner was involved in left-wing politics. He was living in Dresden and active among the local socilaists; he knew Mikhail Bakunin, the famous anarchist, and read Ludwig Feuerbach, a philosopher important in Marxist thought. Wagner participated in the May 1848 uprising and had to flee Germany to avoid arrest. He settled in Zurich, lonely and poor, existing mostly on small funds provided by his friends. While he did finish Lohengrin, very little music was composed in the next several years. What Wagner was writing were articles: some on the art of opera, but also the dreadful Judaism in Music, the first of his many antisemitic pieces. An influential Opera and Drama expounded the concept of music drama and “total work of art,” which he subsequently used in Der Ring. Wagner wrote librettos to all of his operas; first he would create a rough sketch, then a draft in prose, for the Ring he would also versify it in alliterative form, the style of old German legends. Sometime around 1848 Wagner started working on a libretto about the mythical German hero, Siegfried, which he planned to call Siegfried's Death.
He read many ancient German and Norse sagas (he had some knowledge of Old Norse and Middle German) and commentaries written by the Grimm brothers. Eventually he decided to expand the project to two or three operas; but ultimately it became four: Siegfried's Death turned into the last opera in the tetralogy, Götterdämmerung, or Twilight of the Gods. The preceding three librettos were finished and named in 1852; they were Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), which serves as the prologue; Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), and Siegfried. The librettos were written in reverse chronological order, Das Rheingold coming in last. The music, on the other hand, was composed more or less in the order the operas are presented: even though some music for Die Walküre was composed earlier, Das Rheingold was the first one to be finished, in January of 1854 (Die Walküre was completed two years later). It was premiered in Munich in September of 1869 against the wishes of Wagner, who preferred to stage the complete tetralogy (Götterdämmerung was finished only in 1874). The Bayreuth premier took place in August of 1876, in the newly built theater, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. We have a sample of the Prelude to Act I (here); about two and a half hours later, in the final scene, Wotan leads the gods into his newly built castle-fortress, Valhalla (Zubin Mehta conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in this 1983 recording).
The great Spanish pianist, Alicia de Larrocha was born on May 23rd of 1923 in Barcelona. She gave her first performance at the age of five and played a Mozart concerto with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra at 11. Alicia de Larrocha studied with Frank Marshall, a pupil of Granados, and later became the director of the Marshall Music Academy. She was an incomparable performer of the music of Spanish composers, especially Albéniz and Granados. She was short in stature (4’9”) and had small hands but played all the “big” concertos (her hands had good stretch). In the second half of her career she played Mozart more often. Here is Mozart’s Piano Sonata, K.570 in B-flat major.