June 6, 2011

The great German Romantic composer, Robert Schumann was born on June 8, 1810 in Zwickau, Saxony.  Schumann's music was immediately accepted as central to the classical canon and has stayed popular ever since, although these days it may not be played as often as in the mid-20th century, when pieces like Carnival, Symphonic Studies, and Fantasy in C seemed practically obligatory in piano recitals.  A large portion of Schumann's music was written for piano solo – his first composition for an instrument other than piano didn't come till 1840, ten years since Variations on the name "Abegg" Op. 1 (it was Liederkreis, Op. 24, a song cycle on nine poems by Heinrich Heine). Schumann's first symphony came the following year, and a set of quartets – a year later.

Schumann's music needs no introduction, so we'll just present pieces from the different periods of his career. We'll start at the beginning: Variations on the name "Abegg," Op. 1.  It's played by the brilliant Taiwanese pianist Jung Lin.  Next is the piece that followed, Papillons Op. 2, performed by the pianist Tanya Gabrielian.  Ms. Gabrielian was born in the US but currently lives in London.  Following these two early pieces we'll play a much later work, Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 (1849).  It was originally written for the horn and piano, but these days it's usually heard in the arrangements for the viola or cello.  You'll hear it performed by the Milan-based Duo Lopez Cafiero, the cellist Martina Lopez and the pianist Clelia Cafiero.  Schumann wrote a large number of vocal works, as a lied composer he's on par with Schubert.  We'll hear one of his most famous songs, Widmung, Op. 25, No. 1, the opening piece from the cycle Myrthen, his wedding present to Clara Wieck.  It is sung by the soprano Hyunah Yu, with Alon Goldstein on the piano.  We'll finish with one of his last compositions, Märchenerzählungen (Fairy tales), Op. 132, a trio for the clarinet, viola, and piano.  It was written in 1853, three years before Schumann's death, when he was already deeply ill (the following year he would voluntarily enter a mental hospital). The performers are Trio di Colore.  To listen, click here.

May 30, 2011

Recent anniversaries.  We missed several of them in the last couple of weeks and would like to catch up.  Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré were both born on May 12, Massenet in 1842 and Fauré three years later.  (Doesn't Fauré sound much more contemporary? Massenet is so firmly planted in the 19th century French Romanticism, while Fauré influenced so much of the 20th century music).  Here is Meditation from Massenet's opera Tais; it's performed by the flutist Katherine DeJongh with Yoko Yamada-Selvaggio on the piano.  As for Faure, we selected his famous song, Après un rève, in a viola arrangement.  It's performed (on the 1615 Amati "La Stauffer" viola) by Anna Serova, who is accompanied by Jenny Borgatti, piano.  Click here to listen.

The wonderfully eccentric French composer Erik Satie was born on May 17, 1866.  A friend of Debussy and Ravel, and later of the Dada artists, he's mostly famous for his brief pieces for piano, Gymnopédies and Gnossiene.  Here's his Gnossiene No. 2, played by the pianist Tania Stavreva.

While some of Satie's pieces barely run a minute, some of the operas of Richard Wagner, who was born on May 22, 1813, run longer than 5 hours (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, depending on the conductor, takes about five and a half hours to perform).  Although we love Wagner, our selection might be considered blasphemous by the Wagnerian purists: it's Ride of the Walküre, from the opera Die Walküre played by The Fauxharmonic Orchestra, Paul Henry Smith conducting.  From Wikipedia: "The Fauxharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra made up of digital orchestral instruments, some including the Vienna Symphonic Library conducted by Paul Henry Smith using a Wii remote controller instead of a baton and a Wii balance board instead of a podium, both of which are programmed to modify the sounds in real time in response to the acoustics of the hall and the demands of the music."  We think this performance is a lot of fun; listen to it here.

The French composer Jean Françaix was born on May 23, 1912.  Françaix once said that his goal of is to "give pleasure."  That he certainly does.  Here is his charming Tema con variazioni.   It's performed by the clarinetist István Kohán and  Noémi Kanizsár is on the piano.

And last but not least of the recent anniversaries, Isaac Albéniz was born on May 29, 1860.  His Cordoba, Op. 232, No. 4 is played by the Russian pianist Dmitry Paperno. To listen, click here.

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