January 10, 2011

In the wake of the New Year celebrations we failed to mention several significant birthdays. We'll correct our slip in this week's entry.

Mili Balakirev, born on January 2, 1827, may be better known for organizing The Five than his own compositions, but there's one clear exception: his Oriental Fantasy Islamey. Here it's played by the pianist Sonya Bach

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's birthday falls on January 4. Last year we celebrated the 200th anniversary of his birth. Mostly the composer of operas, he also wrote sacred music (we recently featured his Stabat Mater). Here is Sinfonia (overture) to his opera Lo frate'nnamuratof. It is performed by the Chicago-based period instruments ensemble Baroque Band.

The German composer Max Bruch was born on January 6, 1838. One of his most popular works is probably Violin Concerto no. 1 in g minor (the other one being the setting of Kol Nidrei; since the Nazis wrongly assumed that Bruch was Jewish, they banned his compositions from being performed in Germany). Here is a recording of the concerto made by the violinist Dmitri Berlinsky, with Jupiter Symphony, the late Jens Nygaard conducting.

The first week of January is rich with other musical birthdays as well: Medtner, Scriabin, and Poulenc were all born in early January. We'll celebrate their birthdays at a later date.

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