This Week in Classical Music: January 8, 2024. Catching up. Last week we simply wished you a happy New Year, so this week we’ll try to make up for it and cover the first two weeks of the year. January 5th should be officially named Piano Day, as on this day three great pianists were born: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, in 1920, Alfred Brendel, in 1930, and Maurizio Pollini, in 1942. Pollini still performs, but we stopped attending his concerts some years ago: he’s now just a shadow of his great self. This doesn’t diminish his prodigious talent that he brilliantly displayed for decades with virtuosity and incisive repertoire, which, unique to a pianist of his stature, included the music of many modern composers. (In comparison, the repertoire of his compatriot, the perfectionist Michelangeli, was very narrow).
Two prominent Soviet cellists were born during these two weeks, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, on January 6th of 1908, and Daniil Shafran, on January 13th of 1923. Knushevitsky is not well known outside of Russia but in his day, he was considered one of the very best (in the rank-obsessed Soviet Union, he was the third best cellist, after Rostropovich and Shafran; had he not drunk, he might have been number one). In 1940, Knushevitsky, David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin organized a very successful trio; they performed worldwide to great acclaim. Knushevitsky and Oistrakh also played together in one of the incarnations of the Beethoven quartet. Knushevitsky died at the age of 55 from a heart attack, alcoholism probably contributing to his early death. Here’s the famous second movement from Schubert’s Piano Trio no. 2, which Stanley Kubrick used so effectively in his Barry Lindon. It’s performed by David Oistrakh, violin, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, cello, and Lev Oborin, piano. The recording was made in 1947. You can also find the complete Triohere. And here, from 1950, is Sviatoslav Knushevitsky’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. Alexander Gauk leads the Great Radio Orchestra. As for Shafran, you can read more about him in one of our earlier entries.
Another Russia-born string player has an anniversary this week: Nathan Milstein, one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. Odessa, where Milstein was born on January 13th of 1904, was back then part of the Russian empire. Now, spelled Odesa, it is in free Ukraine, being bombed by Russia almost daily. Speaking of Russia, Aleksander Scriabin was born on January 6th of 1872 in Moscow. His early piano pieces were charming imitations of Chopin’s but later he developed a musical language all his own, with a very fluid tonality, if not quite atonal. His grandiosity, both personal and musical, and his attempts to synthesize music and color didn’t age well (especially in his orchestral output), but his piano music is still played very often and is of the highest quality.
Among other anniversaries: Francis Poulenc’s 125th was celebrated on January 7th (he was born in 1899). Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, who died tragically young, aged 26, from tuberculosis, but left us a tremendous Stabat Mater and a brilliant intermezzo La serva padrona (Sonya Yoncheva is great as Serpina in this production), was born in a small town of Jesi, Italy, on January 4th of 1710.
Catching up, January 2024
This Week in Classical Music: January 8, 2024. Catching up. Last week we simply wished you a happy New Year, so this week we’ll try to make up for it and cover the first two weeks of the year. January 5th should be officially named Piano Day, as on this day three great pianists were born: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, in 1920, Alfred Brendel, in 1930, and Maurizio Pollini, in 1942. Pollini still performs, but we stopped attending his concerts some years ago: he’s now just a shadow of his great self. This doesn’t diminish his prodigious talent that he brilliantly
displayed for decades with virtuosity and incisive repertoire, which, unique to a pianist of his stature, included the music of many modern composers. (In comparison, the repertoire of his compatriot, the perfectionist Michelangeli, was very narrow).
Two prominent Soviet cellists were born during these two weeks, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, on January 6th of 1908, and Daniil Shafran, on January 13th of 1923. Knushevitsky is not well known outside of Russia but in his day, he was considered one of the very best (in the rank-obsessed Soviet Union, he was the third best cellist, after Rostropovich and Shafran; had he not drunk, he might have been number one). In 1940, Knushevitsky, David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin organized a very successful trio; they performed worldwide to great acclaim. Knushevitsky and Oistrakh also played together in one of the incarnations of the Beethoven quartet. Knushevitsky died at the age of 55 from a heart attack, alcoholism probably contributing to his early death. Here’s the famous second movement from Schubert’s Piano Trio no. 2, which Stanley Kubrick used so effectively in his Barry Lindon. It’s performed by David Oistrakh, violin, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, cello, and Lev Oborin, piano. The recording was made in 1947. You can also find the complete Triohere. And here, from 1950, is Sviatoslav Knushevitsky’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. Alexander Gauk leads the Great Radio Orchestra. As for Shafran, you can read more about him in one of our earlier entries.
Another Russia-born string player has an anniversary this week: Nathan Milstein, one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. Odessa, where Milstein was born on January 13th of 1904, was back then part of the Russian empire. Now, spelled Odesa, it is in free Ukraine, being bombed by Russia almost daily. Speaking of Russia, Aleksander Scriabin was born on January 6th of 1872 in Moscow. His early piano pieces were charming imitations of Chopin’s but later he developed a musical language all his own, with a very fluid tonality, if not quite atonal. His grandiosity, both personal and musical, and his attempts to synthesize music and color didn’t age well (especially in his orchestral output), but his piano music is still played very often and is of the highest quality.
Among other anniversaries: Francis Poulenc’s 125th was celebrated on January 7th (he was born in 1899). Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, who died tragically young, aged 26, from tuberculosis, but left us a tremendous Stabat Mater and a brilliant intermezzo La serva padrona (Sonya Yoncheva is great as Serpina in this production), was born in a small town of Jesi, Italy, on January 4th of 1710.