Day 34: Beethoven overtures (Fidelio and Leonore 2)

Day 34: Beethoven overtures (Fidelio and Leonore 2)

This is music from my childhood! As well as going to the NewTheatre in Cardiff to see D’Oyly Carte, we were also regulars at the WNO seasons, and I distinctly remember seeing Fidelio. This led me to investigate Beethoven’s other overtures, only to discover that he wrote 3 overtures for his opera Fidelio, each called Leonore (numbers 1, 2 and 3) (after the character in the opera called Leonore, who disguises herself as Fidelio), before settling on the Fidelio Overture.

The overture, Fidelio, is a fairly light work which introduces the opera, but seems not to contain any thematic relationship to the plot. Leonora 2, however, follows the course of the plot with the trumpet signalling the announcement of the sudden change towards a happy ending.

The Fidelio Overture was performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tamas Pal, while Leonore 2 was performed by the Dresden Phil, conducted by Herbert Kegel.

   

Day 33: Strauss, Waltzes and Polkas

Day 33: Strauss, Waltzes and Polkas

I remember as a small child watching a programme all about the Strauss family, and this selection of waltzes and polkas reminded me so much, that I had to go and look up the programme. It was apparently aired in 1972, and its cast included Jane Seymour and Tony Anholt!

Anyway, back to the music! My CD consisted of music by Johann Strauss Senior, the father of two of the other composers on the disc, Johann Strauss Junior, and Joseph Strauss. For me, renditions of music like the Blue Danube Waltz, the Radetzky March and Sport Polka, just bring to mind pictures of Viennese ballrooms, with ladies and gents all dolled up and looking elegant, dancing wildly to this fantastic music.

This was a New Year’s Day Concert from 1990, recorded live with Zubin Mehta conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

Day 32: Schubert – a selection of Lieder

Day 32: Schubert – a selection of Lieder.

Picture will follow. 

The selection I listened to was very short! Gretchen Am Spinrade (aka Margaret at the Spinning Wheel) and Die Junge Nonne (aka the Young Nun)! The former was a piece I learned and performed as an audition piece when I joined the Loughborough Amateur Operatic Society way back in the early ‘80s (still going strong – LAOS, not my singing!): Curiously, my daughter is now going out with the grandson of the chap I had to sing for! I’m not sure where my love of Schubert songs came from; it was possibly from my A level studies, or maybe from university, as one of our courses was vocal music.

The performer here was mezzo-soprano Tamara Takacs, with Jeno Jando at the piano, and was recorded at the Reformed Church in Budapest. Surprisingly good voice actually; like a lot of people, I imagine, I can just here Kathleen Ferrier singing these.

Day 31: The Very Best of English Song!

Day 31: The Very Best of English Song!

Picture coming soon!

The selection I listened to included:

Tom Bowling; Home Sweet Home; Come into the Garden, Maud; The Foggy Foggy Dew; The Plough Boy and Popular Song.

You’ll know the first two as these are regularly played at the Last Night of the Proms (and I’ve heard a few of those lately, courtesy of Hathern Band). The third, Come into the Garden, Maud, was a piece I first heard when I was in my early teens. It haunted me for years and years, and it wasn’t until I was about 40 that I finally found a copy of the sheet music, and was then able to track down a recording of it. I don’t know why, but the closest I kept coming to was In a Monastery Garden – but I’ve no idea why! Absolutely fantastic piece, and one I can actually play on the piano (as long as I miss out the octave stretches!) Robert Tear is the singer on all the above.

Popular Song is taken from Walton’s Façade Suite and is beautifully performed on this recording by Michael Flanders, as in Flanders andSwann fame.

Fabulous stuff!

Day 30: Schutz, St Matthew Passion

Day 30: Schutz, St Matthew Passion

Photo to follow shortly

Not sure how I came by this CD; I actually don’t like the music very much, but I’m not sure why not. At one time I was quite partial to a bit of early choral music, (and retro stuff like the Rachmaninov Vespers) but these days, I regret to say, I find it rather lugubrious and morose. Perhaps I’ve been listening to too much twentieth century stuff lately!

Heinrich Schutz was around between 1585 and 1672, and he was more or less a contemporary of Monteverdi. The Passion is for unaccompanied voices because in the Dresden Court Chapel where Schutz’s music was performed it was forbidden to play musical instruments during holy week. In order to make his music understood, Schutz developed a very expressive kind of sprechgesang, and a Passion recitative style. Apparently Schutz’s Passions disappeared from the repertoire until they were discovered and re-published in 1885.

Enough! The recording was of Wurttemberg Chamber Choir conducted by Dieter Kurz.

Day 29: Haydn Military Symphony

Day 29: Haydn Military Symphony

Picture to follow shortly.

After listening to Stravinsky, would it be awfully rude of me to say how much I enjoyed listening to something simple, straightforward and tuneful?! Haydn would probably not appreciate this comment, but I did find his Military Symphony (no.100) nice and undemanding.

Haydn composed a series of symphonies known as the London symphonies, of which there were twelve, this being the eighth. The symphony was made up of the normal four movements and used the normal classical line-up of instruments (two each of flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, standard percussion and strings.

The name Military Symphony seems to have come from the idea that the second movement contains trumpet fanfares and percussion that is reminiscent of the sound of war. Despite this, (meaning the reminder of war) the whole piece is a great piece of musical composition.

The rendition I was listening to was performed by the Philharmonia Classica, and was conducted by Andreas von Aubel.

Day 28: Stravinsky, Rite of Spring

Day 28: Stravinsky, Rite of Spring

Picture to follow!

Ah, now, this is more like it!! Reminds me of my university days, and the music lectures! Such a lot of the stuff we listened to was from the early twentieth century, that this almost typical! I think one of the things that stands out for me is the use of the woodwind section, which is much more prominent than in earlier music. Apparently, Stravinsky takes these wind instruments to the extremes of their registers in order to achieve the sound he wants.

The word cacophony keeps coming to mind, but I think what I actually mean is dissonance! This is quite a feature of this piece, and others of the time. Rite of Spring (aka Le Sacre du Printemps) was written to accompany a ballet that was choreographed by Nijinsky and produced by Diaghilev – quite a roll call of names, there. I must admit I’ve never seen the ballet and always think of it as a standalone piece. Great fun!

This recording was made by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteux.

Day 27: Mozart Trio in E flat

Day 27: Mozart Trio in E flat

Picture to follow!

Now this is something that doesn’t appear very often in my CD collection, I’ve noticed: Chamber music. This on appears to have been on the cover of the BBC Music Magazine, so there must have been something that appealed to me, as I don’t ever remember buying said magazine!

This particular trio was written for clarinet, viola and piano, and is in three movements: Andante – Minuet & Trio – Rondo. This was apparently unusual, as a first movement would normally be faster. This movement is also unusual in that the second theme is quite clearly developed from the first theme and thus gives the movement the sound of being almost monothematic. Also, the second movement is unusual in that the trio is almost twice the length of the minuet. It’s as if Mozart wants this to be the emotional core of the whole work. In accordance with convention, the key of the rondo is E flat, the same as the opening movement, but, unusually for Mozart, it is a 7 part rondo.

The recording I listened to was of a live performance at the Californian SummerFest La Jolla, 1999.

Day 26: Nielsen Symphony no.3

Day 26: Nielsen Symphony no.3

Carl Nielsen was a Danish composer who was born in 1865, just a year after Richard Strauss. He was quite a prolific composer, writing 6 symphonies, various concertos [ok, concerti if one must be pedantic!], many orchestral and ensemble works, a couple of operas, and lots of hymns.

His early influences were composers like Grieg and Brahms, although as his career progressed his music became more modern in outlook.

The third symphony is called Sinfonia Espansiva, and was described by Nielsen himself in a programme note:

“The symphony expresses – namely in the first movement - a strong tension which in the second movement  … has been completely eradicated by idyllic calm. Towards the end of this movement two human voices sing on the vowel a, as though to bring about a sort of flegmatically paradisal mood.”

“The third movement is something that cannot really be characterised in that both good and evil make themselves felt without a real outcome. The finale … is straightforward: a hymn to work and the healthy enjoyment of daily life. Not a pathetic celebration of life but a sort of general joy in being able to participate in the work of daily living and to see activity and capability unfold all around us.”

My recording was of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Myng-Whun Chung.

Day 25: Fauré Requiem

Day 25: Fauré Requiem

I had so forgotten how sublimely peaceful this piece of music is! In fact, it started so quietly (and continued in that vein for most of the requiem) that I had to turn the volume on the CD player up! Either I’m getting deafer as I get older (always seem to have had a problem with my hearing) or I’ve been listening to too much loud music lately (could be that Hathern band, you know!)

Listening to this now, I can remember the first time I sang it, way back in the early 80s with the Charnwood Choral Society. Only done it a couple of times since then, with the Leicester Philharmonic Choir and the Nottingham Choral Trust, but I found I hadn’t even forgotten the words!

Of course, having said the requiem was quiet and peaceful throughout, the Dies Irae in Libera Me, does have some rather rousing passages, but this is quickly followed by In Paradisum, which starts with some high sopranos accompanied by gentle semi-quaver arpeggios. Apparently, the Libera Me was written separately from the rest of the work, and was intended as a stand-alone piece.

When I originally got to know the Fauré, I loved it – and I still do. Now, however, having sung a few more choral works, I can see similarities between this and the Rutter Requiem (which is another all-time favourite), almost as if the Rutter is an extension of the Fauré. I suppose that’s just musical development for you, and unless you’re a music critic or sitting listening critically to a selection of music, or studying music one probably doesn’t give it a moment’s thought. Anyway, I’m probably wrong, but this is just my opinion.

The recording that I listened to was the Royal PhilharmonicOrchestra with the London Symphony Chorus conducted by Richard Hickox. The soloists were Aled Jones and Stephen Roberts.

Day 24: Weber Clarinet Concerto no.1

Day 24: Weber Clarinet Concerto no.1

Oh wow! This really takes me back! To my teens!! I have memories of playing this for one of my clarinet exams; but how much beautifully does Emma Johnson play it than I?! This CD was obviously bought for the familiarity of something I could play, and for the performer who had just won the BBC Young Musician of the Year * competition! Can’t remember the exact year, but it was probably 1984.

Carl Maria von Weber ** (1786-1826) was a contemporary of Beethoven (1770-1827), although to me his music is slightly more reminiscent of the style of Mozart, and he was taught at one time by Haydn’s younger brother, Michael. The concerto is fairly typical of the Classical period, following the traditional concerto form – three movements, fast-slow-fast – and is scored for instruments typical of the time. Although I’ve said it is Mozart in style, apparently, new styles of writing appear in the first movement, although the final movement is more conventional (according to the CD insert).

As I’ve said, my recording is of Emma Johnson, and she is accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Schwarz.

* Sorry to quote wikipedia at you, but this really is the best link to the competition that I can find on the internet.

** Now, the librarian in me would like your opinion about this website, please; it's not one I've come across before and I haven't had a chance to evaluate it yet. Thanks.

Day 23: Selection from Great Hymns of the Welsh Choirs

Day 23: Selection from Great Hymns of the Welsh Choirs

I’m currently reading Jasper Rees’s Bred of Heaven, a story of how a man (Jasper Rees) tries to re-discover his Welsh roots, and in the process, spends a lot of time in Wales doing things that the Welsh are famous for – like sheep farming, coal mining, mountain climbing and singing in a Welshmale voice choir, so what better way to accompany this reading with a little bit of Welsh male voice singing (not while I was actually reading, of course, as I can’t do both of those things at once!)

Anyway, the CD isn’t the best of the Welsh ones I’ve got, but it is the only one I have that is devoted to hymns, and there are some lovely hymns included: Cwm Rhondda*, How Great Thou Art, Rise Up Shepherd and Foller, to name but a few.

The performances were done by a variety of Welsh male voice choirs, including: Caerphilly, Morriston Orpheus, and Pontarddulais.

There are no notes on the CD insert, no comments on the list of pieces to indicate who wrote them, but hey, who needs all that anyway. Rousing music that speaks for itself!


*played far too fast on this webpage!

Day 22: Handel Watermusic

Day 22: Handel Watermusic

I didn’t have time to listen to the whole of the Watermuisc, so I concentrated on the Suite in F major! The movements included are based on dances - Air, Minuet, Bouree and Hornpipe. Played by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, conduced by Nicholas McGegan, this was a real blast from the past and not something I would normally chose to listen to.

So much of it was familiar! I remember doing a simplified version of the Bouree with the school orchestra when I was about 13, and I’m sure I must have done some of other movements when I used to play the violin! All in all, it’s an excellent example of the music of the time. Apparently, it is thought the suites were composed to accompany what were known as water parties, on the Thames.

According to the CD insert:

“The three discrete Suites of the Watermusick present an abundance of festive panoply, an amalgam of extroverted instrumentation, unambiguous tunefulness, and vigorous rhythms.” – George Gelles

Day 21: Saint-Saens Piano Concerto no.2

Day 21: Saint-Saens Piano Concerto no.2

Huh! What did I say? Something by Saint-Saens to listen to each week!! So true!

This has been an interesting one! Managed to watch quite a lot of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, so I’ve actually heard quite a lot of music. I wasn’t sure which of the 5 Saint-Saens piano concertos to listen to (it’s a boxed set of containing all 5), so I asked Shrimp to chose for me. The odd thing here is that he chose no.2, which just happens to be the one played by the 2010 winner of that same competition, Lara Melda!

I absolutely love all the concertos – but then I am a Saint-Saens fan! According to the CD insert, no.2 is the most popular of the concertos, and, rather astonishingly, was composed in about 3 weeks in 1868! The premiere was conducted by Anton Rubinstein, with Saint-Saens himself at the piano. Unlike traditional concertos, the movements are slow-quick-quick, and begins with a Bach-style toccata solo, the middle movement shows the influence of Mendelssohn, and the finale is a run-away tarantella, showing the influence of Offenbach!

Strangely, I’ve been wondering lately whatever happened to a book I ordered; this is strange because I had completely forgotten about it until yesterday and was about to chase it when lo and behold it arrived today! Anyway, it’s Saint-Saens: his life and art, by Watson Lyle, published in 1923. Ironically, it has come from a public library in the States, via Betterworldbooks!

Anyway, as you can imagine, Lyle has quite a lot to say about all of Saint-Saens’ work. Here’s a snippet about the 2^nd piano concerto:

“The second movement, Allegro Scherzando, is airily graceful in character […] It is in six-eight throughout, and the colour impression of ethereal elusiveness is created at the outset by the scoring of the strings, pizzicato, while tympani denote the rhythm. At bar 5 the pianoforte enters with a theme of elfin capriciousness, a veritable Danse de Puck…” !

Well, if only we used rich, descriptive language like that today!

He goes on to say:

“The rhythm […] is so compelling that I have heard audiences, even of the best-regulated brands, tapping their feet pp. in sympathy with the musicians!”

Tut tut!

To sum up, if you haven’t heard this piece, do go listen, it’s really worth it! 

Day 20: Gilbert & Sullivan, Mikado

Day 20: Gilbert & Sullivan, Mikado

Ok, I know, in your book Gilbert and Sullivan doesn’t count as real music – but I love it! I remember when I was a child we used to go to the New Theatre in Cardiff every season that D’Oyly Carte were there and saw at least two productions each time! I have some very fond and vivid memories of those events!

The CD I listened to was actually a compilation CD, that included excerpts from some of the other operas as well as from the Mikado. This was the Pro Arte Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent, and was sung by some famous singers, my favourite of which was Sir Geraint Evans, playing Koko. When we saw those wonderful performances at Cardiff, I admit that John Reed was my absolute favourite: He was a master of the comic part. John Reed died early in 2010 and prompted an article on this blog.

Anyway, I’ve seen the Mikado so many times that I am virtually word-perfect (but I’ve never sung it on stage), so it was a treat to sing along to A Wand’ring Minstrel, Here’s a how-de-do, The flowers that bloom in the Spring, and Tit Willow! 

Day 19: Weill, Threepenny Opera

Day 19: Weill, Threepenny Opera

While I was at university I studied music as part of my course. Each year we studied a different aspect, and I remember the year we did vocal music, from Monteverdi’s Orfeo up to the present day, which of course included the Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill.

I think this was written in about 1928, and I do know it was to a libretto by Bertolt Brecht, although I really can’t remember what it was all about, except it was inspired by John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera! It does seem to be quite typical of some music of the time in that it uses rather more unusual instruments, like saxophones, and definitely has a jazz feel to it.

One of the most famous songs from the opera is Mackie Messer, otherwise known as Mack the Knife (sung by the character MacHeath?), which has been made popular by a variety of artists, including Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Robbie Williams. I must admit, I do prefer the gutteral, gruff tones of the more traditional renditions of this song, rather than the more pretty versions of late.

The recording I listened to had Ute Lemper playing the part of Polly. In the original performances the part of Jenny was sung by Weill’s wife, Lotte Lenya (apparently she has also sung the part of Jenny too). What I didn't realise, however, was that she pursued an acting career, and played Rosa Klebb in he James Bond, From Russia with Love!

Day 18: Bach, Italian Concerto

Day 18: Bach, Italian Concerto

Although this is called a concerto, it’s actually a piece for unaccompanied harpsichord, although it is in 3 movements – fast-slow-fast – as would be a concerto of the time. Now, according to the CD sleeve, what makes this more of a concerto is that it uses a two-manual harpsichord, which apparently means that the two different manuals have different tone qualities, so the one can sound rather like an orchestral tutti, and the other like the soloists! My words, so they probably don’t make much sense!

This was a piece we studied for O level – around about the time that J.S.Bach was composing! Though I am not a very good pianist, I did have a go at this on the piano, and managed to play the first movement, albeit at about half the speed it is supposed to go! In reality, the first movements goes at breakneck speed! This is beautifully played on my CD which has Wanda Landowska playing the harpsichord; she was originally from Warsaw, but she taught in Berlin and later settled in Paris. She made some very early recordings of Bach harpsichord works, including the Goldberg Variations. The only other thing I know about her is that someone took an X-ray of her hands and hung it as a work of art.

Day 17: Dukas, Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Day 17: Dukas, Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Dukas was a French romantic composer who struggled to make a living being a composer; for some reason his music took a long while to become popular, so I think he was a music critic. I don’t think there’s a lot of his music around as he was regularly unsatisfied with it and destroyed a lot of it.

Luckily for us though, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was rather successful at its first performance in 1897, and is really his most popular work! It’s another tone poem, this time based on a work of the same name by Goethe. The music tells the story of the apprentice who is left alone while the magician goes off somewhere, and thinking he can do more magic than he really can, he tries out some spells and gets completely overwhelmed by things. Thankfully, the magician comes back and make everything right again! As you can imagine, the music is light and bouncy, tuneful and full of vigour; it seems to move along at a terrific pace, and at only about 10 minutes it’s all over far too quickly for my liking!

As you might have guessed, this is yet another of my favourite pieces, not because I studied it for any exams, but I did have the good fortune to play it with the South Gwent Youth Orchestra many years ago, and was totally enthralled by the bassoon part. I believe this music was used to accompany Disney’s film, Fantasia, but as I’ve never seen it, I am only reporting what I’ve heard!

The version I listened to was performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, conducted by Charles Dutoit.

Day 16: Prokofiev Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet

Day 16: Prokofiev Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet

Well, I can tell you this journey is certainly one of musical education for me, or at least putting straight a few misunderstandings I’ve been harbouring all these years! Forgive me, I’m talking about Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky wrote an overture to Romeo and Juliet – yes? Now, because he wrote music for lots of ballets (here I’m thinking the Nutcracker and Swan Lake) in my naivety, never having bothered to check, I assumed that this was an overture to a ballet, but no, it’s actually a standalone fantasy piece!

So, I’m glad I cleared that up, because, actually, I may well have known that someone had composed some music to accompany a ballet called Romeo and Juliet, especially as I know the music quite well (and I can assure you it was well before the Apprentice ever came to our television screens!) but it has taken me until today to realise that this was actually Prokofiev!

So, on my little CD of ballet music, I have quite a nice little collection of snippets from famous ballets. I had a spare ten minutes today so I listened to some of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet; Montagues and Capulets, Death of Tybalt and Dance of the Maids with Lilies, to be exact.

The first of these starts off with such dissonant chords, presumably to draw your attention to the war waging between the two families. Then, comes the stately theme with which we are all so familiar! You can almost see the two families parading around and trying to outdo each other! The next excerpt is light and, well, flowery, whilst the final one is rather more morose. If you close your eyes whilst listening, you can just imagine how the ballet would look!

Performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Efrem Kurtz* Altogether a good listen!

Sorry to link to an obituary, but it was rather a good summation of his life and career.

PS Yes, I know Berlioz is also associated with Romeo and Juliet, through his choral symphony of the same name!

Day 15: Howells’s Sonata for oboe and piano

Day 15: Howells’s Sonata for oboe and piano

Howells! Now there’s a good Welsh name for you! Only he wasn’t! Or at least, he was born in Lydney in Gloucestershire, so I guess that makes him English! His name may well make several appearances in this diary of music I am listening to as I do seem to have quite a few of his works in my collection, although I really don’t remember listening to any of them before!!!

I think Howells is more usually remembered for his choral works, but I chose to listen to the oboe sonata, although I must admit the oboe isn't one of my favourite instruments, generally to me it tends to sound a bit “waily”. The sonata itself seems to be in four movements and lasts about 20 minutes. It’s quite a roller coaster of a ride with lots of sparky, jumpy rhythms and what to me seem like disjointed tunes.

Ah, now I’ve just opened the sleeve in the CD and it says here: “the piece … was to wait forty-two years for its premiere, given by Sarah Francis and Peter Dickinson at the Cheltenham Festival on 9 July 1984.” That’s a long time! Strangely, the recording I listened to was also of Sarah Francis and Peter Dickinson.

However, if you’ve never listened to much oboe music before I’m not sure this is the easiest introduction to it!