Day 12: Variations on a Rococo theme, Tchaikovsky

Day 12: Variations on a Rococo theme, Tchaikovsky

As I haven’t got a copy of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Variations (for cello), written for his brother, Julian, and made popular by the South Bank Show, I thought I’d listen to Tchaikovsky’s Rococo variations, which are also for cello. Now, I’ve already told you that my favourite composer is Saint-Saens, but I didn’t mention that one of my favourite instruments is the cello!

Ofra Harnoy and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras do a wonderful job with this piece (another CD from Abergavenny Music!). This was a lovely piece of music, but it wasn’t as obvious to me that this was a set of variations as I remember the Lloyd Webber to be, or as I know Beethoven or Mozart variations to be. After the theme is played there are 8 variations, which are played without a break. This was 18 minutes of lovely playing and helped to keep me relaxed.

 

Day 3: Facade

Day 3: 22 April 2012, Facade Suite

The Facade Suite by William Walton, a musical accompaniment to poems by Edith Sitwell, is quite simply a masterpiece! I think I first heard extracts from it when it was played as the title music to a television programme aired in the early-70s called "Face the music". This has to have been the best quiz show on earth! The inimitable Joseph Cooper playing his dummy keyboards, Robin Ray sitting there looking, well, quite frankly, gorgeous, Joyce Grenfell being sooo Joyce Grenfell, and various other guests including the newsreader Richard Baker and David Attenborough!

Anyway, back to the music. I didn't realise at the time that the theme tune was taken from Facade, but I think it was another one of those pieces I studied for A level music. The piece is made up of musical accompaniments - the ensemble being a flute/piccolo, a clarinet/bass clarinet, a trumpet, a cello and alto-sax - to poems written by Edith Sitwell. At the time it was premiered, as you can imagine, there were a variety of reactions!

The influences in the music seem to come from all over the musical sphere, but there's a fairly recognisable jazz-type element to it. All in all it's a really fun piece to listen to. My only word of advice if you are going to listen to this piece is, if possible to make sure you will like the narrators! I loved my original vinyl copy, but was less happy with the version I picked up in Abergavenny Music - absolutely not their fault, they are a fab little music shop - but despite uhming and ahing about buying it, as I had a feeling I wouldn't be keen on the narrators, I still did!