July 1, 2019. Gluck and more. We should’ve written about Gustav Mahler as his birthday falls on next Sunday, July 7th: we are good internationalists and start our week on Monday, so it would be still this week for us; however, we’ll do it in our next entry. In the meantime, we’ll remember Christoph Willibald Gluck, who was born on July 2nd of 1714 in Erasbach, a small town in Upper Palatinate, now in Bavaria. Here’s what we wrote about Gluck on his 203rd birthday anniversary; we ended our entry with Gluck settling in Vienna in 1751: “The most productive, but also the most disappointing period of his life was still ahead of him.” Gluck’s early years in Vienna were quite promising: he became the Kapellmeister to Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen.He also taught music to Maria Antonia Habsburg, the younger daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and, as Marie Antoinette, the future queen of France. Gluck was also composing; some of his operas were performed at the Prince’s palace theater for the Emperor’s family.In 1761 Prince Joseph disbanded his orchestra and Gluck’s permanent employment was gone.This was the period during which Gluck was thinking about changing the opera. He wanted it to develop more naturally, without convoluted plots of the Italian opera seria.He didn’t like repetitions, so numerous in the baroque opera, its “da capo” arias, in which the third part duplicates the first.He wanted to get rid of the improvisations, the staple of the famous castrati. Overall, to think of it, what Gluck wanted to accomplish around 1760 was very much what Richard Wagner would do a century later.Gluck didn’t just muse about these things, he put them in writing (together with his librettist, Ranieri de' Calzabigi) in the published dedication and the preface to his opera Alceste. In that he also reminds us of Wagner who wrote extensively about the opera.
In 1762 Gluck composed what would become his most famous opera, Orfeo ed Euridice. It followed some of his own “reform” principles: a straightforward libretto, rather than cockamamie plots of the opera seria; fewer repetition in music and text, no long “melismas,” when a syllable is stretched over several notes (Handel and many other baroque composers were fond of them). Orfeo ed Euridice was premiered in Vienna’s Burgtheater on October 5th of 1762. Gaetano Guadagni, a famous castrato, sung the title role. Between 1762 and 1770 Gluck wrote eight operas.Somewhat disenchanted with the Italians, Gluck turned to the French, studying the works of Lully and Rameau (Rameau had died recently, in 1764). A French diplomat suggested to him a libretto based on Racine’s tragedy Iphigénie en Aulide. Gluck got interested; he also wanted it to be staged in Paris. When he sent the score to the Académie Royale de Musique (now, the Paris Opera), the directors rejected it. Gluck turned to his former pupil, now the Dauphine of France, wife of the heir to the French throne, Marie Antoinette. Soon after (it was the end of 1773), Gluck was on his was to Paris to start the rehearsals of his newest creation.
We’ll mention several important musicians born this week and will write about them separately: Vladimir Ashkenazy, the pianist and conductor, was born on July 6th of 1937 in Moscow. He won (together with John Ogdon) the 1962 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, and, being married to an Islandic woman, left the Soviet Union in 1963. Ashkenazy has a broad piano repertoire, from Bach and Shostakovich to Beethoven (all sonatas), complete piano works of Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Schumann; all piano concertos by Beethoven and Brahms, and more. He’s also a prominent conductor.
János Starker was born on July 5th of 1924 was one of the most interesting cellists of the 20th century. Starker died six years ago, on April 28th of 2013. Carlos Kleiber, the son of Erich Kleiber, was born on July 3rd of 1930; he was regarded by many as one of the greatest modern conductors.
Gluck and more, 2019
July 1, 2019. Gluck and more. We should’ve written about Gustav Mahler as his birthday falls on next Sunday, July 7th: we are good internationalists and start our week on Monday, so it would
be still this week for us; however, we’ll do it in our next entry. In the meantime, we’ll remember Christoph Willibald Gluck, who was born on July 2nd of 1714 in Erasbach, a small town in Upper Palatinate, now in Bavaria. Here’s what we wrote about Gluck on his 203rd birthday anniversary; we ended our entry with Gluck settling in Vienna in 1751: “The most productive, but also the most disappointing period of his life was still ahead of him.” Gluck’s early years in Vienna were quite promising: he became the Kapellmeister to Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen. He also taught music to Maria Antonia Habsburg, the younger daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and, as Marie Antoinette, the future queen of France. Gluck was also composing; some of his operas were performed at the Prince’s palace theater for the Emperor’s family. In 1761 Prince Joseph disbanded his orchestra and Gluck’s permanent employment was gone. This was the period during which Gluck was thinking about changing the opera. He wanted it to develop more naturally, without convoluted plots of the Italian opera seria. He didn’t like repetitions, so numerous in the baroque opera, its “da capo” arias, in which the third part duplicates the first. He wanted to get rid of the improvisations, the staple of the famous castrati. Overall, to think of it, what Gluck wanted to accomplish around 1760 was very much what Richard Wagner would do a century later. Gluck didn’t just muse about these things, he put them in writing (together with his librettist, Ranieri de' Calzabigi) in the published dedication and the preface to his opera Alceste. In that he also reminds us of Wagner who wrote extensively about the opera.
In 1762 Gluck composed what would become his most famous opera, Orfeo ed Euridice. It followed some of his own “reform” principles: a straightforward libretto, rather than cockamamie plots of the opera seria; fewer repetition in music and text, no long “melismas,” when a syllable is stretched over several notes (Handel and many other baroque composers were fond of them). Orfeo ed Euridice was premiered in Vienna’s Burgtheater on October 5th of 1762. Gaetano Guadagni, a famous castrato, sung the title role. Between 1762 and 1770 Gluck wrote eight operas. Somewhat disenchanted with the Italians, Gluck turned to the French, studying the works of Lully and Rameau (Rameau had died recently, in 1764). A French diplomat suggested to him a libretto based on Racine’s tragedy Iphigénie en Aulide. Gluck got interested; he also wanted it to be staged in Paris. When he sent the score to the Académie Royale de Musique (now, the Paris Opera), the directors rejected it. Gluck turned to his former pupil, now the Dauphine of France, wife of the heir to the French throne, Marie Antoinette. Soon after (it was the end of 1773), Gluck was on his was to Paris to start the rehearsals of his newest creation.
We’ll mention several important musicians born this week and will write about them separately: Vladimir Ashkenazy, the pianist and conductor, was born on July 6th of 1937 in Moscow. He won (together with John Ogdon) the 1962 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, and, being married to an Islandic woman, left the Soviet Union in 1963. Ashkenazy has a broad piano repertoire, from Bach and Shostakovich to Beethoven (all sonatas), complete piano works of Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Schumann; all piano concertos by Beethoven and Brahms, and more. He’s also a prominent conductor.
János Starker was born on July 5th of 1924 was one of the most interesting cellists of the 20th century. Starker died six years ago, on April 28th of 2013. Carlos Kleiber, the son of Erich Kleiber, was born on July 3rd of 1930; he was regarded by many as one of the greatest modern conductors.