This Week in Classical Music: December 16, 2019.Beethoven plus Uchida, Huberman, and Reiner.Next year we’ll be celebrating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary – he was born in Bonn on this day in 1770.We’ll have many occasions to celebrate this event in 2020, but right now we’ll focus on three interpretations of Beethoven’s work, by a pianist, a violinist, and by a conductor, all three of whom were born this week.
The marvelous Japanese pianist living in Britain, Mitzuko Uchida is known as a superb Mozartean, but she’s equally good in Beethoven.Dame Uchida, a citizen of the UK, was born near Tokyo on December 20th of 1948.Her father was a diplomat, and the family moved to Austria when Mitzuko was 12.She studied at the Vienna Academy of Music; among her teachers were Wilhelm Kempff and Maria Curcio.In 1982 she played all of the Mozart sonatas in London and Tokyo (later she repeated the program in New York).Mitzuko Uchida is also an acclaimed interpreter of Schubert, Chopin, Debussy and Schoenberg, especially his Piano Concerto.We’ll hear how Mitzuko Uchida plays Beethoven’s Sonata no. 28, Op. 101.The sonata was written in 1816; it’s the first of Beethoven’s five late sonatas, and while not as famous as the following ones, from Hammerklavier no. 29, to the three sequential opuses, 109, 110, and 111 (sonatas no. 30, 31 and 32), we think it’s very much on the same breathtaking level.Mitzuko Uchida recorded all five late sonatas; this particular recording was made in 2007.
Bronisław Huberman was a Polish-Jewish violinist, one of the most renowned musicians in the inter-war period.Huberman was born in Częstochowa, Poland, on December 19th of 1882.He studied in Berlin and Paris and became famous by the age of 12 after touring the major capitals of Europe.Huberman and Arthur Rubinstein were best friends since they were boys, when Huberman was ten and Rubinstein was six.When the Nazis came to power, Huberman helped the prosecuted Jewish musicians move to Palestine and create what was then called the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, now the Israel Philharmonic (Huberman, who lived mostly in Vienna, moved to Switzerland after the Anschluss).Huberman made numerous recordings at the "Berliner Rundfunk" but those were destroyed during WWII.Fortunately, he also recorded in London and the US.Here’s Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, “Kreutzer.” The sonata, op. 47, was written in 1803.Huberman is accompanied by the pianist Ignaz Freidman, another famous Polish-Jewish musician.The recording was made in London in 1930.
And finally, the conductor.Fritz Reiner, one of the most important conductors of the 20th century (and another famous Jewish musician from Eastern Europe), was born in Budapest on December 19th of 1888. In 1914 he was hired as one of two principal Kapellmeisters at the Hofoper in Dresden.He stayed there till 1921 and worked closely with Richard Strauss.Reiner moved to the US in 1922.He worked with the Cincinnati and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, and then, from 1953 till his death in 1963, was the music director of the Chicago Symphony, making it, in the words of Igor Stravinsky, ”the most precise and flexible orchestra in the world.”While a consummate musician, Reiner often behaved as an ill-tempered disciplinarian.Here’s Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony in Beethoven’s First Symphony, op. 21, written around 1795.The recording was made in 1961.
Beethoven plus Uchida, Huberman, and Reiner, 2019
This Week in Classical Music: December 16, 2019. Beethoven plus Uchida, Huberman, and Reiner. Next year we’ll be celebrating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary – he was born in Bonn on this day in 1770. We’ll have many occasions to celebrate this event in 2020, but right now we’ll focus on three interpretations of Beethoven’s work, by a pianist, a violinist, and by a conductor, all
three of whom were born this week.
The marvelous Japanese pianist living in Britain, Mitzuko Uchida is known as a superb Mozartean, but she’s equally good in Beethoven. Dame Uchida, a citizen of the UK, was born near Tokyo on December 20th of 1948. Her father was a diplomat, and the family moved to Austria when Mitzuko was 12. She studied at the Vienna Academy of Music; among her teachers were Wilhelm Kempff and Maria Curcio. In 1982 she played all of the Mozart sonatas in London and Tokyo (later she repeated the program in New York). Mitzuko Uchida is also an acclaimed interpreter of Schubert, Chopin, Debussy and Schoenberg, especially his Piano Concerto. We’ll hear how Mitzuko Uchida plays Beethoven’s Sonata no. 28, Op. 101. The sonata was written in 1816; it’s the first of Beethoven’s five late sonatas, and while not as famous as the following ones, from Hammerklavier no. 29, to the three sequential opuses, 109, 110, and 111 (sonatas no. 30, 31 and 32), we think it’s very much on the same breathtaking level. Mitzuko Uchida recorded all five late sonatas; this particular recording was made in 2007.
Bronisław Huberman was a Polish-Jewish violinist, one of the most renowned musicians in the inter-war period. Huberman was born in Częstochowa, Poland, on December 19th of 1882. He studied in Berlin and Paris and became famous by the age of 12 after touring the major capitals of Europe. Huberman and Arthur Rubinstein were best friends since they were boys, when Huberman was ten and Rubinstein was six. When the Nazis came to power, Huberman helped the prosecuted Jewish musicians move to Palestine and create what was then called the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, now the Israel Philharmonic (Huberman, who lived mostly in Vienna, moved to Switzerland after the Anschluss). Huberman made numerous recordings at the "Berliner Rundfunk" but those were destroyed during WWII. Fortunately, he also recorded in London and the US. Here’s Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9, “Kreutzer.” The sonata, op. 47, was written in 1803. Huberman is accompanied by the pianist Ignaz Freidman, another famous Polish-Jewish musician. The recording was made in London in 1930.
And finally, the conductor. Fritz Reiner, one of the most important conductors of the 20th century (and another famous Jewish musician from Eastern Europe), was born in Budapest on December 19th of 1888. In 1914 he was hired as one of two principal Kapellmeisters at the Hofoper in Dresden. He stayed there till 1921 and worked closely with Richard Strauss. Reiner moved to the US in 1922. He worked with the Cincinnati and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, and then, from 1953 till his death in 1963, was the music director of the Chicago Symphony, making it, in the words of Igor Stravinsky, ”the most precise and flexible orchestra in the world.” While a consummate musician, Reiner often behaved as an ill-tempered disciplinarian. Here’s Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony in Beethoven’s First Symphony, op. 21, written around 1795. The recording was made in 1961.