Handel and Corelli, 2020

This Week in Classical Music: February 17, 2020. Handel and Corelli. This week we celebrate the 335^th birthday anniversary of George Frideric Handel, who was born in Halle on February 23^rd of 1685. We’ve written about this great composer many times: here, for example is the entry from last year. In our library you can find samples from several of his operas (he composed almost 50 of them), such as Rinaldo, Xerxes, Ariodante, or Jiulio Cesare. Not all of them are equal, but Rodelinda is one of the most beautiful. It was written in 1725 and premiered at the King’s Theatre in Haymarket, London. The famous soprano Francesca Cuzzoni sung the role of Rodelinda, Queen of Lombardy. Senesino, Handel’s favorite castrato singer, was Bertarido, the defeated King of Lombardy. Another Handel’s favorite, the baritone Giuseppe Maria Boschi sung the role of the duke of Turin. According to Charles Burney, the 18^th century musicologist and historian, during the premier of Rodelinda Cuzzoni “wore a brown silk dress trimmed with silver, with the vulgarity and indecorum of which all the old ladies were much scandalized, the young adopted it as a fashion, so universally, that it seemed a national uniform for youth and beauty." (The contemporary caricature features Cuzzoni at the center and Senesino at the left). Senesino, Cuzzoni, Berenstadt Burney thought very highly of the opera and wrote that Rodelinda "contains such a number of capital and pleasing airs, as entitles it to one of the first places among Handel's dramatic productions." Here’s the aria Io t'abbraccio (I embrace you) from Act II of the opera. Rodelinda is sung by the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena; Bertarido is David Daniels, a counter tenor.

When Handel was twenty, he moved to Italy and lived there for the next five years, mostly in Rome. There he met Arcangelo Corelli, thirty-two years older (Corelli was born on February 17^th of 1653) and already famous. Still, a rivalry of sorts developed. Corelli was not just a composer, he was renowned as a violinist. As a matter of taste, Corelli played and composed for the violin mostly in the middle register of the instruments. Handel also played the violin (and the keyboard). His overture to the oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth (with the aria Lascia la spina, which Handel later reworked into the famous Lascia ch’io pianga in Rinaldo), had a high note, which Corelli refused to play. Handel did, and thus offended Corelli terribly. But in reality, Handel liked Corelli’s music and fashioned his Concerti Grossi op. 6 after Corelli’s own op. 6 Concerti. Here’s Corelli’s Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No. 8 (Christmas Concerto). It’s performed by I Musici.

Two very interesting pianists were also born this week: Benno Moiseiwitsch on February 22^nd of 1890 and Nikita Magaloff on February 21^st of 1912. We’ll celebrate Moiseiwitsch’s birthday next week together with Chopin’s.

Praetorius, Price, Godowsky, 2020

This Week in Classical Music: February 10, 2020. Praetorius, Price, Godowsky. A couple of weeks ago we celebrated a relatively unknown German Renaissance composer, Johann Hermann Schein (for those who missed that week’s entry, here’s his sacred madrigal Da Jakob vollendet hatte from the collection Israelis Brünnlein, “The Fountains of Israel.” We think it’s Michael Praetorius absolutely first rate). Michael Praetorius was 15 years older than Schein: he was born on February 15^th of 1571. Those 15 years make a big difference: Praetorius was probably the first German composer of significance, as at that time the music centers were concentrated in Italy; not long after, it was not just Schein, but also Heinrich Schütz that wrote fine music in Germany, and development was moving toward the Baroque. Praetorius lived much of his adult life in Dresden, at the court of Johann Georg I, Elector of Saxony. There he met a number of Italian musicians and through them encountered the polychoral music of Giovanni Gabrieli, which impressed him very much. Here’s an example, Vom Himmel Hoch, from the collection of choral music, Polyhymnia Caduceatrix et Panegyrica, published in 1619. Musica Fiata and La Capella Ducale are conducted by their founder, Roland Wilson.

Today is also the birthday of the great American soprano Leontyne Price: she just turned 93! Price was born in Laurel, a small town in the state of Mississippi. She studied at the Juilliard and in late 1950’s sung in Europe to great acclaim, In 1960s she became the first African American soloist at the Metropolitan opera – the phenomenal Marian Anderson sang only one role at the Met, that of Ulrica in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Mschera, a shame and a great loss to all opera lovers. Leontyne Price’s repertoire was very broad, but it was in Verdi that she was at her best – and internationally famous. Aida, Leonora in Il trovatore, Leonora in La forza del destino, Amelia in Un ballo in Maschera – few sopranos could rival Price in these roles. Here’s Pace, Mio dio, from Verdi’s La Forza del Destino in a 1984 live Metropolitan recording. James Levine conducts the Met orchestra.

One of the greatest pianists of the early 20^th century, Leopold Godowsky was born 150 years ago, on February 13^th of 1870. Of Jewish descent, he was born in Žasliai, a village halfway between Vilnius and Kanunas in what is now Lithuania but in 1870 was part of Russia’s Poland. Godowsky was one of the very rare self-taught pianists: he studied briefly in Berlin and that was the extent of his formal musical education. In 1884 he made his American debut in Boston; in the following years he toured across the country. From 1887 to 1890 he lived in Paris: a protégé of Camille Saint-Saëns, he played in all the fashionable salons. After a series of extraordinarily successful Berlin concerts in December of 1900 he moved to the city and lived there and in Vienna till the outbreak of WWI, when he moved back to the US. Godowsky was also a composer, writing a number of original works and paraphrases for the piano (those of the Schubert songs are famous). He made several recordings in the late 1920s but suffered a stroke in 1930. Godowsky died in New York on November 21^st of 1938.

Palestrina, Peter Serkin 2020

This Week in Classical Music: February 3, 2020. Palestrina, Peter Serkin. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina might have been born on this day in 1525, although it could be any day between February 3^rd of 1525 and February 2^nd of 1526: he died on February 2^nd of 1594 and the eulogist mentioned that he was 68, and according to other sources, he died one day short of his 69^th birthday. One of the greatest composers of the late Renaissance, he was recognized as such during his lifetime: in 1575, the agent of the Duke of Ferrara, who, we can assume, was very knowledgeable in these things as the Duke’s court was Italy’s musical center, had written of Palestrina that he was “now considered the very first musician in the world.” Palestrina’s output was enormous: 104 masses are extant, about 300 motets and many other pieces of music. In addition to the church music, he wrote 140 madrigals, some set to pieces of secular poetry. Here’s an example, a madrigal Chiare fresche e dolci acque (Clear, sweet fresh water/where she, the only one who seemed/woman to me, rested her beautiful limbs – a sonnet by Petrarch). Pro Musica Antiqua, Milan, is directed by Giovanni Vianini.

While we’re not sure about Palestrina’s exact birthdate, we can be fairly certain that Felix Mendelssohn was born on this day in 1809. It took almost three centuries for music to evolve from the polyphony of Palestrina to the romanticism of Mendelssohn, but just three quarters of a century to propel it to the twelve-tone technique of Alban Berg. Berg was born in Vienna on February 9th of 1885. Also on February 9^th, in 1937, a wonderful German soprano was born, Hildegard Behrens. She was great in the Wagnerian repertoire. Here’s the last aria of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Mild und leise wie er lächelt (Mildly and gently, how he smiles). In this 1986 recording Hildegard Behrens sings Isolde; the Munich Radio Orchestra is conducted by Peter Schneider.

Some sad news: Peter Serkin died on February 1^st from pancreatic cancer at the age of 72. Peter was born on July 24^th, 1947 in New York, his father was the renowned pianist Rudolf Serkin, his grandfather – the violinist Adolf Busch. Despite, or maybe because of this, Peter was never comfortable with the classical music establishment. He started performing in public at the age of 12. In 1965, at age 18, he recorded Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which were very well received (he made three other recordings of the Variations, the last one in 1994). Then, at the age of 21, he stopped playing music altogether and didn’t touch the piano for the next three years. He said that he decided to resume playing after listening to a radio broadcast of Bach’s music. Peter Serkin was exceptionally good in the modern repertoire. He played Olivier Messiaen Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant Jesus, an extremely complex 20-part suite lasting about two and a half hours, from memory. His recording of this piece is considered one of the very best. Peter was still playing concerts in 2019. His death is a great loss.