Monday, December 17, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Nikolai Rimski-Korssakoff - His Music and Life
His leisure time at sea, Rimski-Korssakoff made use of composing his first symphony; by the way: this work has been played for the first time under the conductor Mily Balakirew in 1865.
1871, Rimski-Korssakoff became Professor for Instrumentation and Compositions at the St. Petersburg College of Music. His strict self-training and contra dot studies brought him into an extraordinary position among all other Russian composers. Almost all Russian composers belonging to the younger generation passed through his musical instructions.
His operas went for Russian legends and fairy tales: "Sadko" (1898, very known "The Song of the Indian Merchant"), "The Night in May" (1880); por"Tsar Sultan" (1900, very known "The Flight of the Bumble Bee").
Brilliant orchestral works have been "Scheherazade". "Cappricio Espagnol" or "Russian Easter".
His biography has been published in German language already in 1928.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Serge Prokofieff - His Music and Life (II)
After the Russian revolution 1917-1918, Prokoieff pulled out to live abroad in Japan, U.S.A., and Upper Bavaria/Germany.His opera "Love to Three Oranges" (1919) also flopped; only the opera march remained as hit up to now.
The children's opera "Peter and the Wolf" is classical music equipment. I grew up with this antique record (by the way, the first in my classical music collection), when I started playing piano at the age of 4 sometime in 1957.
Prokofieff composed fantastic ballet works: "Romeo and Juliet" (1935), "Cinderella" (1941-1944 during World War II), or "The Stony Flower" (1949).
During my stay in Russia in 1981, Prokofieff's ballet works became main parts of Moscow's theatres. Prokoieff's last work (opus 125) has been "The Concerto for violin cello and orchestra", which has been dedicated to Msistlaw Rostropowitsch, a great violin cello virtuoso from the Moscow College of Music.
Serge Prokofieff - His Music and Life
Born in Sonzowka-Jekaterinoslaw/Russia on April 23, 1891, Serge Prokofieff passed away on March 5, 1953. His father was an estate trustee; his mother taught him effusive music classes.
At the age of 9, Prokofieff couldn't read or write, but being able to compose, he started with his first opera. His teachers have been all very well-known: Reinhold Gliere (1875-1956), Anatol Liadow (1855-1914), and Nikolai Rimsky-Korssakof (1844-1908).
The "Piano Sonata f-minor" from 1909 became his Opus 1. In 1913, Prokofieff played his "Second Piano Concerto in g-minor" for the honorable dedication of Serge Diaghilew (1872-1929).
At the end of his studies in 1914, he won the "Rubinstein Trophy".
Prokofieff's ballet "Ala and Lolly" became a flop; some pieces from this ballet, known as "Skythetic Suite" became a scandal in 1916. Prokofieff's ironical hemisphere, especially remarkable in his piano pieces "Sarcasm" (1912, opus 17) widened certain uneasiness among music lovers.
His "Symphony classic d-major" (1916/1917) became a continuous success.
(To be continued!)
Friday, November 2, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Franz Liszt - His Music and Life
Liszt's father, an estate-trustee of Prince Esterhazy, resigned from his job, because his son as a six years old lad showed a surprising music-talent. At the age of 9, Franz Liszt gave concerts in a sensational performance. Art-sensible Hungarian noblemen donated a scholarship for six years.
Liszt and his parents moved to Vienna in 1821, where he got Carl Czerny (Vienna 1791-1857) and Antonio Salieri (Italy, Austria 1750-1825) as wonderful teachers. In Vienna, he was allowed to play something for the great Ludwig van Beethoven. In 1823, Liszt made his first concert tour to Paris. Luigi Cerhubini (1760-1842) rejected Liszt as student of the Conservatoire de Paris, because he didn't like child prodigies.
Liszt learned a lot from Niccolo Paganini and Frederic Chopin. The meaningful piano work started in 1826 with "24 Grandes Etudes pur le piano" followed by the "3 Nocturnes Dreams of Love" (1850). No. 3 became a well known orchestral version up tonow.
The 19 "Hungarian Rhapsodies" didn't get their original extraction from Hungarian melodies or folk dances, as Liszt erroneously thought about. His "Piano Concertos No. 1 in e-flat major" (1855) and "a-major" (1857) are music treasures and are regularly included in my playlist of my radio show.
Liszt's more or less 40 orchestral works came into being within 10 years, such as "Tasso" (1854), "Les Preludes" (1854), "Faustus Symphony" (1857) or "Dance of Death" (1858), a para-phrase on "Dies Irae" for piano and orchestra.
All in all Franz Liszt composed 673 musical works and became valid as founder of the General German Music Association in 1861.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - His Music and Life
Born on January 4, 1710 in Ancona/Italy, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi passed away in Pozzuoli/Italy on March 16, 1736.
He became pupil of Francesco Durante (1648-1755) in Naples. Pergolesi's intermezzi did impress much. Only the intermezzo "La Serva Padrona" (1736) became his most famous work. This comic opera ("The maid as mistress") has been performed up to today. It became the oldest and alive as well as vivid opera.
Still six concertinos can be found on rare available records. Pergolesi's instrumental music pleases us especially because of its "Singing Allegros" - by the way, it impressed also and especially Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
Pergolesi's last work has been a "Stabat Mater", a sequence of catholic liturgy. It became one of the best church music works from Naples. Pergolesi's talent to change simple folksongs into artistic musical objects let became his works fresh, mellowness, graceful and spicy.
At the very young age of only 26, Pergolesi died in a monastery in Naples without knowing anything about his later success.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Giacomo Meyerbeer - His Music and Life
Giacomo Meyerbeer was born on September 5, 1791 in Berlin and passed away on May 2, 1864 in Paris. His real name was Jakob Liebermann Beer. "Meyer" has been added to his family name to take possession of a big inheritance. Meyerbeer, a rich banker's son, was a really music genius. Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) and Karl-Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832) have been his well-known teachers. Meyerbeers first opera (when he celebrated his 22nd birthday!) became a flop
. He tried to survive as a pianist. Fox six years, he wasn't able to compose ven a single piece. Only after moving to Paris and adopting the French opera-style, Meyerbeer held the field. His operas consisted of emotive and sometimes histrionic terms together with big choirs and acts: "Robert, the devil" (1831), "The Hugenots" (1836), "The Prophet" (1849) and "The African" (1838). Meyerbeer seems to be forgotten up tp now because many attempts to restore his compistions have been without success. it's really a great pitey. But, you can enjoy his music in one of my radioshows...
. He tried to survive as a pianist. Fox six years, he wasn't able to compose ven a single piece. Only after moving to Paris and adopting the French opera-style, Meyerbeer held the field. His operas consisted of emotive and sometimes histrionic terms together with big choirs and acts: "Robert, the devil" (1831), "The Hugenots" (1836), "The Prophet" (1849) and "The African" (1838). Meyerbeer seems to be forgotten up tp now because many attempts to restore his compistions have been without success. it's really a great pitey. But, you can enjoy his music in one of my radioshows...
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Franz Lehar - His Music and Life
Born: April 30, 1870 Komarom Hungary
Died: October 24, 1948 (aged 78) Bad Ischl Austria
Notable Works: “The Merry Widow”
Franz Lehár, (born April 30, 1870, Komárom, Hung., Austria-Hungary—died Oct. 24, 1948, Bad Ischl, Austria), Hungarian composer of operettas who achieved worldwide success with Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow).
He studied at the Prague Conservatory. Encouraged by Antonín Dvořák to follow a musical career, Lehár traveled in Austria as a bandmaster from 1890. In 1896 he produced his operetta Kukuschka. In The Merry Widow (1905), with libretto by Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, Lehár created a new style of Viennese operetta, introducing waltz tunes and imitations of the Parisian cancan dances as well as a certain satirical element. Its success was such that two years later it was played at Buenos Aires at five theatres simultaneously. Many other operettas by Lehár followed and became well known in England and the United States under their English titles. Among them were The Man with Three Wives (1908), The Count of Luxembourg (1909), Gypsy Love (1910), and The Land of Smiles (1923). Several of his works were filmed, including The Merry Widow and The Land of Smiles. He wrote a single grand opera, Giuditta (1934), which was less successful.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Johannes Brahms - Part II - Teil II
Beethoven's genius stood i8n front of Brahms' eyes as a brilliant but also frightening ideal. "I will never compose a symphony!", the young Brahms lamented still as a mature man to his friends. "You have no idea what someone like me feel always listening to the giant marching along and behind me!" This father fugure especially oppressed the young Brahms, for whom a performance of the "Ninth" in 1854 became a key experience - following this, Brahms transformed his own symphony into the d-minor Piano Concerto, which was not a success when premiered in 1859.
Plagued with self-doubts, he conceited and rejected symphony ideas: 14 years have been between the first sketches for the first c-minor symphony and its final completion.
The Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, opus 102, displayed Brahms at the peak of his creativity. Clara Schumann and many other critics didn't agree with the idea of bringing the cello and the violin together as solo instruments. Today we know, that all critics erred.
String sextets, serenades, incredible oratories - what a wonderful classical treasure of a great classical composer, who died because of an ignored hepatitis.
Plagued with self-doubts, he conceited and rejected symphony ideas: 14 years have been between the first sketches for the first c-minor symphony and its final completion.
The Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, opus 102, displayed Brahms at the peak of his creativity. Clara Schumann and many other critics didn't agree with the idea of bringing the cello and the violin together as solo instruments. Today we know, that all critics erred.
String sextets, serenades, incredible oratories - what a wonderful classical treasure of a great classical composer, who died because of an ignored hepatitis.
Johannes Brahms - His Music and Life
Brahms became a contra-bass-player and respected horn player. As a young boy Brahms earned his livings by performing in different sailor saloons and dives.
After wretched and puny school years he did try to build up a higher education through self-confidence and self-study. Brahms surprisingly drew people's attention to his impressing piano playing, especially when he accompanied the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remeny on virtuoso touring.
In 1858, Brahms became Musical Director in Detmold/Germany. In 1863, Brahms has been in charge of the Vienna Academy of Music. As freelance artist Brahms lived a carefree life. Schubert had been forced to it, Beethoven succeeded in doing at the beginning.
The Piano was Brahms' source of composing work. He could fulfill a sonata's gigantic measurements and extents. Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms have been the "Children of Romanticism", but only Brahms has lacked the pathos of theatrical language and expressionism. But, Brahms' compositions have become a world power - equal to Beethoven and Wagner.
This space doesn't allow mentioning the whole life's work of an incredible German classical composer named Johannes Brahms.
More in my next post about him.
(To be continued!)
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Maurice Ravel - His Music and Life
Ravel joined the Conservatoire de Paris for an unbelievable period of 16 years. His professors were the well-known Andre Gedalge (1856-1926) and Gabriel Faure (1845-1924).
Nothing fascinated Maurice Ravel more than translating piano music into the language of the virtuoso orchestra. The time was ripe, for by 1900, Rimsky-Korsakov and Richard Strauss had brought a new opulence to symphonic scoring. Ravel was a born transcriber who prided himself on the precision of his orchestral craft as he stretched the instruments to the limits what they could do.
Like Claude Debussy ("Claire de Lune"), Ravel was trained primarily as a pianist, and most of what he wrote originated at the keyboard. But everything was fair game for his brilliant metarphormoses, not only his own piano works which were given dual lives.
Paradoxically, though he was a master of the orchestra, only three of Ravel's own symphonic works were originally scored for orchestra, beginning with the wonderful Rapsodie Espagnol from 1907, when he was akready 32 and quite famous in Europe.
Once you have heard the pizzicato strings in the role of guitars and a colorfully large orchestra glinting with percussion from Alborada del gracioso, is it hard to believe that this wonderful show piece was initially conceived to the keyboard.
Ravel's "Bolero" from 1928 is also an outstanding representative of Spanish sensuality in the form of classical music.
Ravel remained unmarried. He loved exotic cats and Japanese ornamental plants. Even experiencing a luxury life the agonizing feelings of loneliness let become Ravel mentally deranged.
“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.”
The history of classical music, however, is full of fabulously gifted individuals with slightly more earthy ambitions. Love stories of classical composers are frequently retold within a romanticized narrative of sugarcoated fairy tales. To be sure, happily-ever-after stories do on rare occasions take place, but it is much more likely that classical romances lead to some rather unhappy endings. Johannes Brahms had an overriding fear of commitment, Claude Debussy drove his wife into an attempt at suicide, Francis Poulenc severely struggled with his sexual identity, and Percy Grainger was heavily into whips and bondage. And that’s only the beginning! The love life of classical composers will sometimes make you weep, or alternately shout out with joy or anguish. You might even cringe with embarrassment as we try to go beyond the usual headlines and niceties to discover the psychological makeup and the societal and cultural pressures driving these relationships. Classical composer’s love stories are not for the faint hearted; they are heightened reflections of humanity at its best and worst. Accompanying these stories of love and lust with the compositions they inspired, we are able to see composers and their relationships in a completely new light.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Jean Sibelius - His Music and Life
.jpg)
Many of his in-laws and forefathers were well-known doctors, artists and clergy members. Sibelius began to study law at first. But unsatisfied, he changed his mind soon and shifted courses to music.
In 1890, his real composition works started. The first decade had been the most fruitful and successful period of Sibelius' whole career and life.
Finland's history and its wonderful ferry tales and legends had been inexhaustible source for symphonies and incredible orchestral suites such as "En Saga" (1892, revised in 1901), "Karelia" (1893), "Four Legends for Orchestra" (1895) and "Finlandia" (1900). Sibelius took most of his musical ideas from his native land Finland with Finnish longing and melancholy.
One might ask, whether Sibelius' "Violin Concert" was the composer's carefully planed revenge on the deities of this instrument.
In his childhood, Sibelius had first played the piano, but after a few years he switched to the violin. He later confessed: "The violin took me over completely. From then on for the next ten years or so my profoundest wish, the loftiest aspiration of my ambitions, was to become a great violin virtuoso." But Sibelius never quit managed to reach these goals.
As I mentioned earlier: Sibelius took most of his musical ideas from his native land Finland. In this respect, the music that he wrote in 1906 for Hjalmar Procope's play "Belshazar's Feast" represents a rare excursion for the composer into the exotic and the oriental.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Peter I.Tschaikowsky - His Life and Music
Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky has been born on May 7, 1840 in Wotkinsk and passed away in Saint Petersburg / Russia. His father was technical director in Saint Petersburg. Tschaikowsky ignored his musical talent for a long time and got shattered when his beloved mother died so early because of cholera.
Tschaikowsky studied law and was employed in different public offices. But all those tasks had been unsuitable for him. At the age of 23, he started to study music. The overture "Romeo and Juliet" from 1869 made him popular. But the continuing popularity didn't ease his melancholy and depressions. Tschaikowsky lived mostly in the province of Saint Petersburg as well as in France and Italy.
Tschaikowsky was terrible shy and afraid of his popularity. Main works have been his six symphonies as well as his incredible and unique "Piano Concerto in b-flat major" from 1875 and the "Violin Concerto in d-major" from 1878. Wonderful music treasures are also his "1812 Overture" (1880), the "Italian Capriccio" (1880) and the "String Serenade in c-major".
Tschaikowsky has been a fantastic ballet maestro - unbelievable and seldom reachable by other composers during that period. Up to now "Swan Lake", "Nutcracker" or "The Sleeping Beauty" have been unforgettable.
Tschaikowsky also composed nine operas, but only two are still known: "Eugene Onegin" (1877) and "Pique Dame" (1890)..
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Niccolo Paganini - His Life and Music
In 1798, the father escaped because of the begotten mother. It's difficult to decide, while reading different encyclopedias and a published biography of Paganini, which are reality and legend regarding his life.
The decline of the tradition of instrumental music in Italy during the 19th century, the first signs of which had appeared late in the previous century, resulted from a number of related and complex events: the dispersion of Italy's leading composers throughout Europe, the gradual and unrelenting decline of Italian orchestras and, most importantly, the evolution and spread of the operatic style.
Whereas instrumental music on German Romanticism assumed a completely autonomous and dominant position, Italian composers felt more and more captive to the wiles of opera, gradually abandoning thematic elaboration and a classical sense of form for a dramatic stage style.
The nature of the 19th century concerto is inseparable from the idea of virtuosity. The new audiences and institutions that promoted popular concerts contributed to the transformation of the musician into an actor. It is within the framework that one must consider the violin concertos by Niccolo Paganini, the violin virtuoso who mesmerized such as Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
Paganini elevated the dying tradition of improvisation to a transcendental level with his dazzling performances,a and, he gave rise to a star worship comparable to that which vocalists enjoyed, colored, however, by a "demonic" aspect unique to instrumental music. In fact, Paganini's concertos for violin show strong ties to operatic tradition in the form of numerous Rossini-like cadenzas - something in common to most Italian instrumental music of that time.
The "Concerto or Violin in d-major", composed in 1817-18 (an earlier concerto was dated 1815), gives wonderful expression to the musical charm of this epoch. From a convential and rather superficial point of view, it anticipates the 19th century tradition. The central "Adagio espressivo" transforms operatic elements of an aria to a moving and personal romance, modest, yet dignified.
The "Concerto for Violin No. 4 in d-minor", composed in 1829-30 and first performed in Frankfurt/Main on the 16th April 1830 (and revived by Gallini in Paris in 1954!), displays a pronounced balance between melody and virtuosity.
Pagaini's play, many times, was described as "devil's play". He composed many pieces for the g-string, maybe, because during many performances his violin strings have been cut because of this "devil's play"... .
His sonatas and compositions for guitars have been forgotten since long, even wonderful to be listening. I am glad, I still have some pieces in my music library... .
Monday, August 27, 2012
Edvard Grieg - His Life and Music
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born on June 15, 1843 and passed away on September 4, 1907 in Bergen/Norway. His mother became his first music teacher. The Norwegian violinist O. Bull advised him to study music in Leipzig/Germany. Nevertheless Grieg couldn't develop a good relationship to German classical music.
He was more impressed with Danish music, especially when he moved to Copenhagen at the age of 20.
Grieg loved Norwegian folksongs and took plenty themes and variations into his compositions. With the "Holberg Suite", composed in 1884, Grieg made his contribution with which Scandinavians commemorated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig Holberg, the Norwegian writer, who with his 32 brilliant comedies had earned the name of a "Moliere of the North". For the commemorative address delivered on December 3 in Bergen, his birthplace, and the unveiling of a statue on the market place, Grieg composed an (unpublished) cantata for male chorus and conducted this "in furs and furlined boots, with a cap of the same", so Grieg.
Subsequently he wrote a "Suite in the olden style" for piano, and, in the following year, arranged it for string orchestra (with multiple division of the single instrument parts). With this "wigged piece", as Grieg described it. he took on the light-hearted pre-classical style of the French rococo, combined old dances types with a Scandinavian accent, so to speak, and thereby created a conscious anachronism of special charm.
The "Peer Gynt Suites" made Grieg wellknown all over the world. I really love them too. Many piano virtuosos have appreciated his piano concerto a-minor opus 16 up tp now. Grieg succeeded in squaring the musical circle. He took the elements of Norwegian music with its minor dominant, pentatonic scale or falling lead-note, as well as its dance rhythms, and would thereby really be counted merely among the little-valued "dialect artists". But over and above his Scandinavian accent grieg showed a mastery of refined orchestral timbres and so became one of the forerunners of impressionism.
Of his 144 songs in all, 124 are on texts by Scandinavian poets; the others are composed by German poems. To a great extent, his wife, Nina Hagerup, who, as a trained singer, propagated her husband's art with impressive creative power, inspired Grieg very much.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Anton Vivaldi - His Life and His Music
Antonio Vivaldi was born 1678 in Venice (the exact date is unknown) and passed away on July 28, 1741 in Vienna/Austria. He was an Italian composer and violinist and became a violinist pupil of the great Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690).
In 1703, Vivaldi was ordained as priest and has been nick-named as the "red haired priest" (Il prete rosso). 1716, he became principal of the music school for girls in Venice. He loved to travel extensively and became one of the first composers of his time. He was one of the first composers, using clarinets and composed fantastic chamber music, secular cantatas, church music, oratorio, and operas.
Despite tremendous output, he was by no means a conventional composer, and much of instrumental works show a lively and fertile imagination. As with Bach, Vivaldi's music was unfashionable and unpopular or many years; however, since the 1950s, there has been enormous revival of interest in Vivaldi's music especially in Europe, and later followed also in the USA. Especially his cincerts, among which four works for violin, collectively known as "The Four Seasons", have become particularly popular.
Appreciating Vivaldi's originality and diversity is to get beyond the form, and to listen to his fresh and melodic writings. Vivaldi invented a a structure for his conciertos that served him very we. No two pieces are exactly the same, and the combination of structural discipline and melody freedom is the hallmark of musical greatness from any period.
Vivaldi composed 49 operas, 22 pieces only for the town of Venice. Johann Sebastian Bach admired Vivaldi so much, that he rearranged some compositions of Vivaldi and felt very much inspired for more wonderful compositions.
Vivaldi died in Vienna in totally poverty.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Johann Strauss - His Life and Music
Johann Strauss, Jr., was born on October 25, 1825 in Vienna and passed away also there on June 3, 1899. He was the eldest son of Johann Strauss and is deservedly known as the "King of Waltz". His father didn't want his ten children to choose music at their career. Johann Strauss, Jr. worked as a bank clerk, but learned violin play secretly and studied composing.
In 1844, Strauss engaged to direct summer concerts in Petropaulovsky Park in Saint Petersburg in Russia for ten years. As a conductor o Austrian court bals from 1863-1872, he composed nearly 400 waltzes, which have come to epitomize Viennese gaiety and sentiment. Some of his well-known waltzes are "The Blue Danube", "Roses from the South", the great "Emperor Waltz" or "Tales from the Vienna Woods". It's beloved, wherever music is played, as well as Strauss' polkas and other dances.
Very late Strauss came in contact with the operetta, but a certain dramatic lyric mostly lacked. Only his third operetta "The Bat" (1874) became a world success.
Strauss was friend and admirer of Richard Wagner, who like Johannes Brahms and other composers including Arnold Schoenberg, were what we should now call "fans" of Strauss, recognizing a supreme master of a genre who composes with style, elegance and taste.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Bela Bartok
Bela Bartok was born on March 25, 1881 in Southern Hungary and passed away on September 26, 1945 as migrant in New York. His father had been a very enthusiastic music fan and cellist. Bartok's mother ha been an elementary school teacher and took care of him and educated him alone, because his father passed away already in 1889.
Bartok couldn't develop close ties to his home country. National pride could never grow up. Political confusions between Hungary, the CSSR, Romania and the former Yugoslavia during that time let Bartok become a permanent refugee.
At the age of 9 he started composing. With 10 he was introduced to the world public. From 1899-1903, Bartok studied at the Hungarian Music Academy Budapest. Bartok had been mostly two personalities in one: the simple folk song research scientist and on the other hand the great classical composer, who also loved to travel as a gifted virtuoso, who played his own compositions.
In 1907, Bartok has been appointed as music professor at the Hungarian Music Academy Budapest. When he met the composer Claude Debussy ("Claire de Lune"), Bartok met also the impressionism with its strange Fareast elements. Serious and momentous occurrences in Bartok's life reflected in his music. Best examples are his three piano concertos from 1926, 1930, and 1945. From hammering and pounding rhythms Bartok changed into a choral type "Adagio religioso" in his third piano concerto - already while being deadly sick and terrible lonely.
His world known instrumental works are Music for Strings, Drums and Celesta (1936), Divertimento for Strings (1939), and the Concerto for Orchestra (1943). The two Rhapsodies for Violin and Orchestra (1928) grip more.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - His Music and His Life
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (his complete name was Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus; Theophilus became Amadeus later) was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg/Austria and passed away on December 5, 1791 in Vienna.
At the age of four, Mozart showed already an unbelievable musical talent. He "drew notes' and played the violin without have ever learned it. His first compositions have been printed, when he became only six years old: sonatas for violin and piano. Up to his 22nd birthday Mozart has been on tour most of the time. The monstrous and outrageous strains resulted in terrible unhealthy conditions. Up to now, it's more or less impossible or very difficult to assess Mozart's life and personality.
His music let us experience mostly the bright and cheerful grace of rococo. The German Romanticism poet E.T.A. Hoffmann subscribed Mozart during that time as "demonic and theatrical contemporary".
Mozart had been always open-minded to all earthly pleasures, but he kept on writing to his father about his permanent thoughts how to face the death in a proper way. Mozart smiled always, but mostly with tears in his eyes... .
Mozart belongs to the great Vienna Classics with out doubts. A whole human life would never be enough to explain what Mozart achieved within his short life of 35 years only. More than 600 music works have been noted. Some of them are:
The children opera "Bastian and Bastienne" (17680, "Haffner Serenade and Symphony' (1782), the operas "Figaro's Marriage" (1786), "Don Giovanni" (1787), "Cosi Fan Tutte" (1790) as well as "The Magic Flute" (1791) or "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (A little Nightmusic).
Mozart belongs to the great Vienna Classics with out doubts. A whole human life would never be enough to explain what Mozart achieved within his short life of 35 years only. More than 600 music works have been noted. Some of them are:
The children opera "Bastian and Bastienne" (17680, "Haffner Serenade and Symphony' (1782), the operas "Figaro's Marriage" (1786), "Don Giovanni" (1787), "Cosi Fan Tutte" (1790) as well as "The Magic Flute" (1791) or "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (A little Nightmusic).
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Friedrich Smetana -His Music and His Life
Friedrich Smetana was born on March 2, 1824 in Leitomischl, Austria and passed away on May 12, 1884 in Prague/CSSR. Smetana was the son of a Bohemian brewer. In Smetana's fatherland once could hear music from any corner. Nevertheless,only at the age of 18, Smetana decided to become a musician. He studied piano lessons at the Prague College of Music. In 1848, he opened his own private music school together with the generous supporter, the German classical composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886).
In 1856, Smetana moved to Goteborg/Sweden, where be became Head of the Philharmonic Association. This has been the first time Smetana started composition experiments, i.e. "Richard III." (1858).
But Smetana moved back to his native land and became a music-critic, columnist and conductor at the national State Opera Prague.
His first opera in 1863 ("The Brandenburgs in Bohemia") became a flop. his second opera "The Bartered Bride"" (1866) was one of Smetana's masterpieces. This opera shows the whole illustrated broadsheet of Bohemian country life together with a deceitful life from the Bohemian folk dance, the Polka, and the musical fury.
Smetana's following operas, i.e. "Libussa" (1872), or "The Kiss" (1876) have been only mediocrity and can be found seldom on stage nowadays.
In 1874, first signs of Smetana's deafness have been reported - mentally illness followed like a lingering fever. Almost unbelievable, that Smetana was able to compose during the following five years his outstanding master piece; a six-symphonies cycle, also known as "classical sound poetry", entitled "Mein Vaterland" (My fatherland). The probably most well known part "The Moldavian River' (Die Moldau) came into being in 1874.
(Stage set for the 1882 production of Smetana's opera "The Bartered Bride").
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Jacques Offenbach - his music and his life
Jacques Offenbach was born on June 20, 1819 in Cologne, Germany and passed away on October 5, 1880 in Paris, France.
As a son of a Jewish synagogue ore-singer, Offenbach moved to Paris early during his childhood. He left Paris very seldom. He studied to play violin cello in the Paristian College of Music (Conservatoire de Paris). He played this instrument in the Orchestra of Comical Opera (Orchestre de Opera Comique).
In 1849, Offenbach became bandmaster and conductor of the French Theatre and in 1855 he opened his own theatre.
Offenbach composed more than 100 plays: French chansons, musicals, and chanting operettas. His most successful music works among plenty other have been:
"The Island Tulipatan", "The Engagement Under the Lantern", "Orpheus in Underworld", "The Beautiful Helena" (1864), "Parisian Life" (1866) or "La Perichole" (1868).
Offenbach mocked the so-called socially acceptable life of the second emperor-empire during that time. This happened without insulting elements, because his stinging and cutting remarks have always been become mild through charming, cheerfulness and amusement. His compositions, timeless up to now, contain bold, pert and saucy melodic surprises with wit, satire, mockery and high spirits.
In his last composition Offenbach showed himself as being a "terribly romantic person". His opera "Hoffmann's Tales" (Hoffmanns Erzaehlungen) belong to his most successful and known compositions. Singe songs, as for example "The Barcarole' are timeless classic oldies up to today. Offenbach unfortunately didn't live to see and hear this opera's first night performance anymore.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Heinrich Marschner
Heinrich Marschner, was born in Zittau/Saxony on August 16, 1795 and passed away in Hanover on December 14, 1861.
He studied law in Leipzig and Vienna - then music. In Vienna he met Ludwig van Beethoven. Being a privat music instructor in Pressburg, he composed his first operas.
1822, Marschner moved to Dresden and became orchestra-master. Two operas made him famous: "Der Vampyr" (1828) and "Der Templer und die Juedin" (1829) - following Scott's "Ivanhoe".
1831, Marschner became Royal Orchestra Master in Hanover. His master piece "Hans Heiling" has been publised in 1833.
Marschner's operas are deeply romantic with nightly horror-elements and demonic gestures, while his chamber music compositions didn't carry through.
He studied law in Leipzig and Vienna - then music. In Vienna he met Ludwig van Beethoven. Being a privat music instructor in Pressburg, he composed his first operas.
1822, Marschner moved to Dresden and became orchestra-master. Two operas made him famous: "Der Vampyr" (1828) and "Der Templer und die Juedin" (1829) - following Scott's "Ivanhoe".
1831, Marschner became Royal Orchestra Master in Hanover. His master piece "Hans Heiling" has been publised in 1833.
Marschner's operas are deeply romantic with nightly horror-elements and demonic gestures, while his chamber music compositions didn't carry through.
Gino Marinuzzi
Gino Marinuzzi was born on March 24, 1882 in Palermo/Italy and passed away on August 17, 1945 in Milan/Italy.
Gino Maruzzi has been a band master and conductor in Catania, Mantua, Palermo and Milan and later in Madrid/Spain, at the Opera Comique in Paris and the Milan Scala as well as in Rome, Chicago, Turin and with a travelling opera society even in South America.
Maruzzi remains as one of the best Italian opera conductors. His three operas and symphony poetries, i.e. "Suite Siciliana" (1910) unfortunately failed.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Frederic Chopin - His Music and His Life
y
Frederic Chopin was born on March 1, 1810 in Warsaw, Poland and passed away on October 17, 1849 in Paris, France.Chopin's father was French, his mother Polish. At the age of eight, the child prodigy already performed on stage. At the age of 19, Chopin started his first successful tour to Vienna, Austria.
His first composition has been published and printed in 1825. During that time, a successful virtuoso career could be only begin in Paris, a reason why Chopin moved there in 1830 after stop overs in Vienna and Munich.
Saying good-bye to his native land made Chopin become rather melancholy. He took a small amount of Polish native soil with him - but he was never able to return to his home country. Only his heart was buried in Poland - following Chopin's last will.
Most artists in Paris, such as Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Heinrich Heine or Giacomo Meyerbeer received Chopin willingly, joyfully and with open arms. Also in Germany, Chopin received innumerable "fanatic fans". Unfortunately, signs of the fatal tuberculosis appeared.
In 1838, Chopin travelled to the Spanish Mediterranean island Mallorca, but the mild climate couldn't cure him any more. In 1848, Chopin travelled to England. There, the climate became his death-dagger. The last part o his funeral ceremony was the performance of Mozart's "Requiem".
Chopin composed only for piano, except 17 Polish Traditionals. Already Beethoven and Schubert have composed difficult piano works. But Chopin's compositions exceeded the technical capabilities of many virtuosos since that time. Every piece shows its own characteristics in shape and rhythm.
Chopin's compositions characterized his daily moods: sweet dreams, sounds of colorful and impressionistic strings, and lively and vivaacious outbursts of passions. His two piano concerts f-minor from 1829 and e-minor from 1830 are classical music treasures.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Hello World! Welcome to my new blog about Classical Music
You like to get to know more about classical composers and their work from the whole world?
Sie moechten mehr ueber klassische Komponisten und ihre musikalischen Werke erfahren?
Then this is the right blog for you. Check it out.
Dann ist dies die richtige Stelle fuer Sie. Bis bald!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)