On this Day: May 2015
May 1 Welcome to the fifth month of the year. Births: 1582 – Marco da Gagliano, Italian composer (d. 1643) 1901 – Heinz Eric Roemheld, American composer (d. 1985) 1913 – Walter Susskind, Czech-English conductor (d. 1980) 1927 – Gary Bertini, Israeli conductor and composer (d. 2005) 1939 – Victor Davies, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor 1945 – Peter Kiesewetter, German composer (d. 2012) 1955 – Martin O’Donnell, American composer 1957 – Kow Otani, Japanese pianist and composer Deaths: 1731 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German violinist and composer (b. 1677) That seems like a confusing mix of famous composers’ names. 1904 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer (b. 1841) 1978 – Aram Khachaturian, Georgian-Armenian composer (b. 1903) 2010 – Rob McConnell, … Continue reading On this Day: May 2015
Mahler Symphony No. 4
performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, Barbara Hendricks, soprano (my hands-down absolute favorite recording of this piece; she’s stunning. Took my breath away the first time I heard her after having listened to many other recordings, but the … Continue reading Mahler Symphony No. 4
Concert Review: 4.27 男高音湯發凱獨唱會
Tenor vocal recital In case you didn’t know, Austrians are intense people… In my write-ups on concerts, I do my best to address the concert and not the pieces themselves, but that’s hard to do in some ways, especially when you’re not super familiar with said pieces. In any case, last year, I went to see Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder performed by our very fine National Symphony Orchestra. As you dedicated readers will know, it demands some serious forces, and one of those is a tenor. The tenor’s performance (both musically and… acting-ly? dramatically?) was excellent, and I actually ended up making … Continue reading Concert Review: 4.27 男高音湯發凱獨唱會
Mahler: Thus Far
We’ve taken the Mahler symphonies quite out of order so far. But Thursday’s piece is a big one. A big place filled by his smallest symphony. Let’s talk about that. In many of my other endeavors with other composers, I’ve … Continue reading Mahler: Thus Far
Concert Review: 簡韻玲鋼琴獨奏會
or my piano teacher’s graduation recital at 師大 I missed her other recital, and felt terrible about it, but was glad I was able to attend this one. If you go check out the About Me section, I talk in there about my final decision to go get piano lessons like I’d always wanted, so I did. I was cohost of a radio show for a local news channel at the time, and happened to mention to the host in passing that I’m looking for a piano teacher. Turns out his cousin and her whole family are music people. He … Continue reading Concert Review: 簡韻玲鋼琴獨奏會
Schubert Symphony no. 4 in Cm, D. 417, ‘Tragic,
performed by the ASMF under Sir Neville Marriner, or below by the Vienna Philharmonic under Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Muskverein Mini-German part 3 I’ve never really cared much for nicknames or monikers for pieces… They are often not chosen by the composer, sometimes not even approved of, and sometimes not even coined until long after the composer is gone.At least in the instance of Schubert’s Tragische, the name was of his own devising. My other gripe with names like this is that I don’t always (in fact, rarely do I) agree with them. ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Titan’ come to mind. ‘From … Continue reading Schubert Symphony no. 4 in Cm, D. 417, ‘Tragic,
Concert Review: 2015師大音樂系交響樂團公演: Phenomenon
The 2015 NTNUSO Concert: Phenomenon So, this is one of those concerts you go to for fun. I had the same feelings about a concert last month with the Taipei Symphony, and was blown away. The last concert we reviewed (last week) was the Taipei Symphony’s performance of Mahler 3 under Maestro Eliahu Inbal. This concert was the day after that. I was invited a few days ahead of time to go with a friend at the university who had tickets. I didn’t know anything on the program, but it was a nice opportunity to go, so I certainly didn’t … Continue reading Concert Review: 2015師大音樂系交響樂團公演: Phenomenon
Schubert Symphony no. 3 in D major, D. 200
performed, as always, by Neville Marriner and the ASMF, or below by Marriss Jansons and the Concertgebouw (apologies for the anime image, but it’s a nice performance) Mini-German: Part 2(I know he’s Austrian) Now for a slight change of pace. Sort of. While this work came a decade after last week’s Beethoven piece, it is… at least to my ears, not as far ahead of its time. That’s no criticism at all. Let me explain.For one, Eroica was just kind of a phenomenal thing. Beethoven was already into his thirties when this piece was written. Schubert was about half that … Continue reading Schubert Symphony no. 3 in D major, D. 200
Concert Review: Mahler 3
as performed by the Taipei Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Eliahu Inbal on April 6, 2015. Again… There are some concerts that you’re so excited about you lose sleep over, concerts that make you feel like your ticket in is the golden ticket for Willy Wonka’s Whatever it Was (if you’re into that sort of thing), and when you file into the concert hall (of hopefully well-behaved, polite, respectful patrons), you feel a cozy sense of togetherness, of privilege, of camaraderie in the knowledge that you are preparing to experience something that only these few thousand (ish?) people on earth in … Continue reading Concert Review: Mahler 3
Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in Eb, op. 55, Eroica
(I recently wrote about this piece in what I can only describe as a far more informed, mature way than I did here. Please go have a read of that article.) performed by Nicolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of … Continue reading Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in Eb, op. 55, Eroica
Mini German: A four-part series
For the next few weeks, we’ll be taking the chance to visit a few symphonies that didn’t get inclusion into our rather large German(ic) Symphony series at the end of last year. Obviously not everything could be included in that, and there was a rather specific train of thought I was working on for it, so some really good candidates were excluded. We’ll be adding to that a bit with a slightly smaller (by half) and not so narrative-like series starting this week.I’m excited about this one. The first and last in the series are really some of my absolute … Continue reading Mini German: A four-part series
Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto
performed by Martin Frost and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra So here we are in our final installment of a brief but surprisingly enjoyable miniseries on the clarinet. What’s left? Well, we haven’t had a concerto yet, and this week’s piece brings us solidly into the modern era, with a piece written within the lifetimes of some people still around today. Copland’s clarinet concerto was written shortly after his third symphony. I feel like this shouldn’t be the piece we use to first represent Copland on the blog, as he has lots of other stuff worth talking about, but in the … Continue reading Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto
On this Day: April 2015
So these whole-month on-this-day posts might be a little bit unwieldy, but it’s the way I’ve decided to handle them. I update my comments about some of the composers or whatever little peanut-gallery commentary I might have that I didn’t have last year when we were doing these weekly, but after a full year of monthly posts, I won’t be reposting them again. I’ll just look to update them if there’s anything new in subsequent years. Open the full article and do a search for any keywords if you’re really looking for something. Here we go.
April 1
April 1
Births:
1629 – Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, French organist and composer (d. 1691)
1721 – Pieter Hellendaal, Dutch-English organist, violinist, and composer (d. 1799)
1866 – Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1924) (Wrote the first [and only?] piano concerto to incorporate a chorus)
1871 – F. Melius Christiansen, Norwegian-American violinist and conductor (d. 1955)
1873 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1943) He has lots of other stuff we need to get around to.
1917 – Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist and composer (d. 1950)
1921 – William Bergsma, American composer (d. 1994)
1965 – Robert Steadman, English composer
Deaths:
1528 – Francisco de Peñalosa, Spanish composer (b. 1470)
1917 – Scott Joplin, American pianist and composer (b. 1868) (I know, not really classical… but it’s Scott Joplin)
2013 – David Burge, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1930)
Busoni and Rachmaninoff on the same day. They both have big, heavy piano concerti to their names.
April 2
1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna. We covered that piece here.
none.
Deaths:
2013 – Robert Ward, American composer (b. 1917)
April 3
1869- Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s piano concerto premieres in Copenhagen. We covered that piece here.
Births:
1639 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (d. 1682)
1682 – Valentin Rathgeber, German organist and composer (d. 1750)
1889 – Grigoraş Dinicu, Romanian violinist and composer (d. 1949)
1895 – Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American composer (d. 1968)
Deaths:
1868 – Franz Berwald, Swedish composer and surgeon (b. 1796)- Composer and surgeon? Accomplished.
1897 – Johannes Brahms, German pianist and composer (b. 1833)
1950 – Kurt Weill, German-American composer (b. 1900)
1962 – Manolis Kalomiris, Greek composer (b. 1883)
1972 – Ferde Grofé, American pianist and composer (b. 1882)
April 4
Births:
1676 – Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, Italian composer (d. 1760)
1752 – Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, Italian composer (d. 1837)
1875 – Pierre Monteux, French conductor (d. 1964)
1905 – Eugène Bozza, French composer and conductor (d. 1991)
Deaths:
None. Good day for music!
April 5
Births:
1784 – Louis Spohr, German violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1859) Pretty prolific yet not terribly well-known composer. Ten symphonies (I think), a clarinet concerto come to mind. I believe he is one of the few composers (along with Berlioz) who probably composed directly to a score without using a piano, or at least it has been suggested before.
1908 – Herbert von Karajan, Austrian conductor (d. 1989)
Deaths:
1617 – Alonso Lobo, Spanish composer (b. 1555)
1967 – Mischa Elman, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1891)
April 6
1962 – Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks from the podium during a New York Philharmonic concert featuring Glenn Gould performing Brahms‘ First Piano Concerto – teehee. Although I am not a fan of his humming and such, Mr. Gould does do a fantastic job with some of the pieces he performs as long as he doesn’t intentionally deviate from the score.
Births:
1660 – Johann Kuhnau, German organist and composer (d. 1722)
1672 – André Cardinal Destouches, French composer (d. 1749)
1708 – Georg Reutter II, Austrian composer (d. 1772)
1815 – Robert Volkmann, German composer (d. 1883)
1929 – André Previn, German-American pianist, composer, and conductor
Deaths:
1971 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1882)
April 7
1724 – Premiere performance of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s St John Passion BWV 245 at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig.
1805- The premiere of Beethoven’s third symphony is given in Vienna‘s Theater an der Wien on 7 April 1805 with the composer conducting.
Births:
1713 – Nicola Sala, Italian composer and theorist (d. 1801)
1763 – Domenico Dragonetti, Italian bassist and composer (d. 1846) What a cool last name.
1899 – Robert Casadesus, French pianist and composer (d. 1972)
1970 – Leif Ove Andsnes, Norwegian pianist
Deaths:
1858 – Anton Diabelli, Austrian composer (b. 1781)
April 8
Births:
1533 – Claudio Merulo, Italian organist and composer (d. 1604)
1692 – Giuseppe Tartini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1770)
1885 – Dimitrios Levidis, Greek-French composer (d. 1951)
1889 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
1921 – Jan Novák, Czech composer (d. 1984)
Deaths:
1848 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
1870 – Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer (b. 1802)
1920 – Charles Griffes, American pianist and composer (b. 1884)
April 9
Births:
1627 – Johann Kaspar Kerll, German organist and composer (d. 1693)
1717 – Georg Matthias Monn, Austrian organist, composer, and educator (d. 1750)
1794 – Theobald Boehm, German flute player and composer (d. 1881)
1846 – Paolo Tosti, Italian-English composer and educator (d. 1916)
1906 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian-American conductor and composer (d. 1988) I have this guy’s recording of some of Stravinsky’s works with the Detroit Symphony, and they’re fantastic
1932 – Armin Jordan, Swiss conductor (d. 2006)
Deaths:
1982 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1896)
April 10
Births:
1707 – Michel Corrette, French organist, composer, and author (d. 1795)
1864 – Eugen d’Albert, Scottish-German pianist and composer (d. 1932)
Deaths:
1545 – Costanzo Festa, Italian composer (b. 1485)
1640 – Agostino Agazzari, Italian composer (b. 1578)
April 11
1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach‘s St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig
Births:
1683 – Jean-Joseph Mouret, French composer (d. 1738)
1715 – John Alcock, English organist and composer (d. 1806)
1819 – Charles Hallé, German-English pianist and conductor (d. 1895)
1916 – Alberto Ginastera, Argentinian composer (d. 1983)
Deaths:
2010 – Julia Tsenova, Bulgarian pianist and composer (b. 1948)
April 12
Births:
1716 – Felice Giardini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1796)
1722 – Pietro Nardini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1793)
1801 – Joseph Lanner, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1843) Rebranded the waltz
1888 – Heinrich Neuhaus, Ukrainian-Russian pianist (d. 1964) Possibly the most German sounding Ukrainian-Russian name ever
Deaths:
1788 – Carlo Antonio Campioni, French composer (b. 1719)
April 13
1742 – George Frideric Handel‘s oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland. (Dublin… of all places…)
Births: Nope
Deaths:
1826 – Franz Danzi, German cellist, composer, and conductor (b. 1763)
1944 – Cécile Chaminade, French pianist and composer (b. 1857)
1959 – Eduard van Beinum, Dutch conductor (b. 1901)
1984 – Ralph Kirkpatrick, American harp player and musicologist (b. 1911)
2013 – Stephen Dodgson, English composer (b. 1924)
2013 – Dean Drummond, American composer and conductor (b. 1949)
2013 – Adolph Herseth, American trumpet player (b. 1921)- principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1948 until 2001, and served as principal trumpet emeritus from 2001 until his retirement in 2004
2013 – William Steck, American violinist (b. 1934)
April 14
1912 – The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th). This isn’t at all musically related, but it did happen today.
Also, nothing else musically happened, so it’s nice to have something. We work with what we’ve got here at FFT
Births:
1913 – Jean Fournet, French conductor (d. 2008)
1951 – Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist
1957 – Mikhail Pletnev, Russian pianist, conductor, and composer (he actually lives in Thailand….)
1975 – Avner Dorman, Israeli-American composer (Went to Juilliard, studied with Corigliano)
Deaths:
1759 – George Frideric Handel, German-English composer (b. 1685)
1843 – Joseph Lanner, Austrian composer (b. 1801)
April 15
1738 – Serse, an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel receives its premiere performance in London, England.
"The Truth about Orchestral Players"
I’m sure tons of other people have seen and read this article already, but I figured even that post states it doesn’t know the source, so… that means it’s public domain, right? Also, if you haven’t read it, do that … Continue reading "The Truth about Orchestral Players"
Schumann’s Drei Fantasiestücke, op. 73, for clarinet and piano
performed by two separate teams:the clarinet and piano duo here or a truly splendid performance by Capucon and Argerich (cello, not clarinet) Welcome to part two of our three (and a half?) part clarinet series. Today’s piece was originally written for clarinet and piano, but it seems that it is more often performed on cello. That isn’t against the composer’s wish, though, as he’d directed that the clarinet part could be played either on violin or cello as well.Schumann is a composer I’m not terribly familiar with, as evidenced by my poor attention to his symphonies I wrote about a … Continue reading Schumann’s Drei Fantasiestücke, op. 73, for clarinet and piano
Concert Review: Taipei Symphony and Karen Gomyo
Bear with me here. This concert (or the general experience of the evening) was far more outstandingly outstanding than I’d prepared for. There are some concerts you look forward to and know will be once-in-a-lifetime chances, like being able to hear Gurre Lieder live last year (quite a production), or The Philharmonia last month, and some you go to just because it’s a nice chance to hear a piece live again, with no real concern for the performer or real anticipation for the program…? Think of it this way. There are different kinds of dinner plans: I may make plans far … Continue reading Concert Review: Taipei Symphony and Karen Gomyo
Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581
performed by Sabine Meyer and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields string quartet So… The first few listens of this piece were almost as boring as the first time I listened to Mozart’s clarinet concerto, which I am … Continue reading Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581
What does your taste say about you?
…. if anything Music, in whatever form, is just one of those things. It is, for most humans, an enjoyable, even integral, part of life. It is very rare that I meet someone who doesn’t have an opinion about, taste … Continue reading What does your taste say about you?
Grainger: Molly on the Shore
performed by the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra (or below by the North Texas Wind Symphony) This is the second piece of the great and interesting Percy Aldridge Grainger that we’ll be discussing, the first of which was his Children’s March. We played this one in school as well, and it’s just so much fun. I know Grainger was Australian, but this is perhaps the reason I think of him as so Irish, because this piece is the first of his that I had any familiarity with, and it’s a setting of two Irish reels. As usual, Wikipedia … Continue reading Grainger: Molly on the Shore
Miniseries: The Clarinet
I have a coworker. I have more than one coworker, but one coworker in particular.She’s a music major, a clarinetist. We talk (well, I talk) about music stuff: what I’ve been listening to lately, what I’ve been impressed or perplexed by, etc. as well as some recent efforts in composition. I keep her up to date on what I’m reading about, writing about, and listening to and ask for her input or thoughts on certain things. One day the question came up (or something) about why I haven’t done any clarinet pieces. The most of anything I’ve really featured has … Continue reading Miniseries: The Clarinet
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C, op. 15
performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Eugen Jochum, Maurizio Pollini, piano or below, an excellent and entertaining performance with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic from the piano (I’m writing on Substack now, where I feature pieces on hypothetical concert … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C, op. 15
Fugue for Thought 