January 16, 2012

The first two weeks of January. With all the celebrations, religious and secular (two sets of Christmases and New Years, one in the Gregorian calendar, and one in the Julian), we missed several noted birthdays.  Mily Balakirev, a Russian composer and the leader of The Five (or The Might Handful – somehow the Russian term escapes a good translation) was born on January 2, 1837.  Although not the greatest Russian composer of that time, he still wrote several wonderful pieces, the “Oriental Fantasy” Islamey being probably one of the most popular (and devilishly difficult).  Here it is in performance by Sandro Russo.  (By the way, one of the members of The Five, Cesar Cui, a Russian composer of French descent – his father entered Russia with Napoleon’s army – was also born around this time, on January 18, 1835).

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born on January 4, 1710.  His life was tragically short – he died at the age of 26 from tuberculosis, but in the few years that he was actively composing, he wrote a number of opera buffa, some of which are popular to this day, and several sacred works. Probably the best know of them is Stabat Mater, which we’re fortunate to have in the performance by Baroque Band, a period instruments ensemble based in Chicago.  You can listen to it here.

Another Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin, was born on January 6, 1872.  Scriabin was tremendously popular during his lifetime but fell into relative obscurity in the recent decades.  Lately it seems that he has grow in popularity, both on the concert stage and in recordings.  Scriabin’s preoccupation with color (he even created a color keyboard, with each key associated with a specific hue) is well known.  Recently Eteri Andjaparidze performed a full program of Scriabin in the Baryshnikov center, accompanied by Jennifer Tipton’s intricate, colorful lighting design to create an unusual experience of sound and sight.  In the absence of color we will hear Beatrice Berrut play Scriabin’s Piano Sonata no. 3 in f-sharp minor op.23 (click here).

And finally the French composer Francis Poulenc was born on January 7, 1899.  Poulenc, a member of The Six, wrote music for piano (solo and a concerto), wonderful chamber music, especially for wind instruments, liturgical music and operas, but he’s probably best known for his songs.  In this field his lyrical talent was incomparable.  Here’s the song with an unusual title Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant (My dead body is soft as a glove).  It comes from Poulenc’s cycle Fiançailles pour rire, based on the poems of Louise de Vilmorin.  It’s sung by the baritone Michael Kelly (Jonathan Ware is on the piano).

« first ‹ previous … 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 … next › last »