Joseph Lanner - Hoffnungsstrahlen (Waltz)

Joseph Joachim - His Music and His Life

Joseph Joachim was born June 28, 1831 in Kittsee nearby Pressburg (Slovak capital Bratislava) and attracted publicity as child prodigy at the age of 7.

The friendship with Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) supported Joachim's inspiration. In 1844, Joachim toured London. In 1849, he became Concert Master in Weimar, Germany, where he also met the genius Franz Liszt.

In 1866, Joachim became Director of the new "Hochschule fuer Musik" (University of Music) in Berlin. Among the more than  400 students have been Henri Petri, Jenoe Hubay and Karl Klinger - all blessed and popular composers and music creators.

The "Joachim String Quartet" was among the most popular quartets during that time. Joachim's violin play has been described as "blooming sound with godly stylistic purity".

Joachim composed three violin concertos, the "Hungarian Tunes" and overtures for classical poetries such as "Hamlet" or "Demetrius". His cadenzas of violin compositions by Mozart, Viotti or Beethoven are still performed nowadays.

Joseph Joachim passed away in Berlin on August 15, 1907.

Niccolo Isouard - His Music and His Life

Niccolo Isouard was born December 6, 1775 on the Island of Malta. Billet de Loterie

Who do I like to feature this almost unknown composer? It's very easy to explain: Niccolo Isouard has been one of the history writers of the so-called "Opera Comique". His challenger Francois Adrien Boildieu inspired Isouard to compose more than 50 operas. Nevertheless, critics described them as "fear winged his steps". Well, I am in another opinion.

1802, "Michel Ange" came out; 1810 premiered "Cendrillon", "Aschenbroedel" ("Cinderella") and "Le Billet de Loterie" ("The Lottery Ticket").

Niccolo Isouard passed away in France on March 23, 1818.

Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy - His Music and His Life

The German Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy was born in Hamburg on February 3,1809. His grandfather Moses Mendelsohn (1729-1786) was a great German philosopher. Felix's father, the banker Abraham Mendelsohn, added his brother-in-law's family name, Bartholdy. A very rich family clan made a many-sided and all-round music education possible, including studies with Ludwig Berger, an art historian and director, and Karl-Friedrich Zelter, a musician and composer.

In 1818, Mendelsohn-Bartholdy, at the age of 9, performed already as a great piano virtuoso. In 1820, he premiered his first two youth operas "Soldier's Love" and "The Two Educationalists". After meeting the great Luigi Cherubini in 1826, Mendelsohn-Bartholdy composed the overture to Shakespeare's "One Summer Night's Dream", which became his real highlight. The other compositions of this stage play have been finished 15 years later.

In 1827, the one and only opera "Camacho's Wedding came out - and flopped.

Mendelsohn-Bartholdy loved traveling. We can notice it very well while listening i.e. the "Hebrides Overture" (Scotland) or the "Italian Symphony". During that time, his "Songs without Words" came into being: Piano pieces, sometimes arranged for violine and viola, which was the ideal house music for people in the 19th century.

Chamber music compositions ("Fine Art Quartets") and two incredible piano concerts in g-minor and d-minor, the "Scottish Symphony", the "Reformation Symphony" and the dramatic tuneful violin concert in e-minor are brilliant achievements of one of the most outstanding German classical composers.

Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy passed away in Leipzig on November 4, 1847.

Hochzeitsmarsch Wedding March (Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy) Ein Sommerna...

Ludwig Spohr - His Music and His Life

The German Ludwig Spohr was born in Braunschweig on April 5, 1784. Many times, Spohr appeared with the French version of hirst name as Louis.

Spohr's parents were great musicians: his father, a doctor, played the flute while his mother enjoyed the piano play and sung. Spohr studied violine play and joined the Duchess Band Braunschwweig already at the age of 15.

During a period of 20 years, he was fulfilled with anthusiasm while residing in Leipzig. He loved travelling with his wife, who was a blessed harpist. After 25 years in Kassel, Spohr became General Music Director.

Among more or less 150 compositions, we can find ten operas. Very much impressing had been "Faust" (1816) and "Jessonda" (1823) - typical romantic operas. Fire and chivalrous emotions together with lyrical tenderness and conventialism characterized Spohr's compositions.

Nevertheless, Spohr remainded powwerless and feeble. He wasn't able to reach composers like Mozart, Wagner or Brahms. His symphonies are forgotten: only the 4th "Sounds Solemnity" can be listened from time to time in concert houses or classic music radio stations.

Spohr passed away in Kassel on October 22, 1859.

Ludwig Spohr (1784 - 1859) - Fantaisie Op. 35

Engelbert Humperdinck - His Music and His Life

German composer Engelbert Humperdinck was born on September 1, 1854 bin Siegburg/Rheinland. He has - of course! - nothing to do with the identical pop singer. Humperdinck received innumerable awards from the Collee of Music Cologne and the Mozart Award from the Munich Academy of Tone Arts.

During the Bayreuth Festival in 1882, Humperdinck became the assistant of Richard Wagner. Humperdinck's career went on as Professor of Composition in Barcelona (1885-1887) and 1890 in Frankfurt/Germany. In 1900, Humperdinck took over the master director form of the Berlin Academy of Arts.

Humperdinck's compositions started with chorus ballads, simple songs, a humorous orchestral work and a tonal, fine sounding string quartet.

His first opera "Hansel and Gretel" (1893) showed very well that the new generation lacks very much Richard Wagner's pathos. "Hansel and Gretel" became an utterly impossible folksong melodic "Christmas"-opera with the lyrics of Humperdinck's sister Adelheid Wette.

The melodramatic opera "The King's Children" (1897) premiered 1910 in New York, but -admittedly - became never home and familiar. "The Marriage with Reluctance" (1905) flopped because of naive awkwardness and ornate orchestral composition.

The keenness Engelbert Humperdinck passed away in Neustrelitz on September 27, 1921.

"Hansel und Gretel" - "The Overture" by Engelbert Humperdinck

Classical Music at the Sochi 2014 Opening Ceremony

8th February 2014, 00:29

The Winter Olympics opened with a celebration of classical music and ballet, with a performance from star opera singer Anna Netrebko. 

Tchaikovsky made an appearance at the very start in a Russian ABC video, detailing key figures and events in Russian history for each of the 33 letters in the Cyrillic alphabet, alongside Nabukov, Chekov, Russian Space travel and the Periodic Table. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake also featured later on in the ceremony.

Borodin's Polovtsian dances from his opera Prince Igor opened the games as Liza Temnikova flew through a winter dreamscape, representing the diversity of Russia, accompanied by chanting and choral singing. Music by Russian masters Khachaturian and Stravinsky also featured during the two-hour, £31billion spectacular, with the famous Firebird Suite being played as the Olympic cauldron was lit.

The Russian national anthem was performed by Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir, with the Olympic Anthem performed by opera star Anna Netrebko with a choral accompaniment. The musicians were conducted by esteemed conductor Valery Gergiev.

(C) ClassicFM 2014

Nocturne by Alexander Scriabin

Alexander N. Skriabin - His Music and His Life

The Russian Alexander Nikolajewitsch Skriabin was born in Moscow on January 10, 1872 and got his education at the Cadets Corps in Moscow. At the Moscow Conversatory, Skriabin studied piano play and composition together with Sergey Tanejeff (1856-1915) and Anton St. Arenski (1861-1906).

Skriabin toured whole Europe as dazzling and fascinating virtuoso with nervous brilliancy. In his compositions Skriabin tried to link and united himself with Frederic Chopin and Richard Wagner, while he criticized Peter Tschaikowsk's music as "disagreeable"!

Skriabin's composition dreams contented of "selected art", an art with its own regularity; an "art-for-art-standpoint",which has been very unbelievable and unique. A new complete art of work was his first symphony composed within five years from 1895 - 1900.

In 1908 follwed "Le Poeme de l'Extase"; in 1911 "Promoetheus". More and more ecstasy and satanic traits became parts in Skriabin's compositions. Sometimes his exaltations appeared shocking and dis-pleasing. Some dances and sonatas can be found on some very rare records.

Alexander Skriabin passed away in Moscow on April 14, 1915.

"Rustle of Spring" by Christian Sinding

The Norwegian Christian Sinding was born in Kongsberg on January 11, 1856. He became a pupil of L.M. Lindeman, the great Norwegian folksong collector. Through him Sinding came in touch while the whole Skandinavian folk art.

For continuing studies Sinding moved to Leipzig, where he met Carl Reinicke (1824-1910), one of his very important teachers.

Sinding composed a lot of chamber music, some symphonies and concertos. During his really long life (he passed away in Oslo at age 85 on Decdember 3, 1941), Sinding created more than 200 songs and innnumerable piano pieces, like the most well-known "Rustle of Spring" with grandiose and pompous elements.

Posted by Klaus Döring at 11:5

The Ten Most Annoying Musicians Habits

By ClassicFM

Musicians, musos, music geeks, nerds and aficionados… you've got a lot to answer for. Here's a compendium of the most annoying habits in the classical music world. 

1. Constantly saying singers on TV are flat

"Ooh, somebody put the crystal champagne flutes away, quick! My delicate musical ears can't handle it!"


(via Arcadey.net)

2. Air-conducting at concerts

The orchestra. They can't see you. Stop it.


(via Law Street)

3. Reading along with the score at concerts

What are you going to do if the tuba makes a mistake or the triangle misses an entry? Get them to do it again? Would you take your annotated copy of Othello along to The Globe?! Stop this madness now!




          4. Harmonising at random
 
You know when you just can't resist going a third above the melody and seeing how it sounds? It's annoying. It may as well sound like this:

5. Tapping

This is a percussionist speciality. Specific to them is the need to incessantly tap things in their vicinity in complex rhythmic patterns completely incomprehensible to the layman.


6. Obsessing over the quality of audio hi-fi equipment

Do you absolutely have to be able to hear the timpani player blowing his nose as the orchestra race into the Dies Irae? Just buy an iPod dock like everyone else. Don't be like this guy: "Look at the speakers… look at the beauty!"

7. Excessively emotional facial expressions

We get it. A lot of the time, this is totally justified. We're just a little concerned that the wind is going to change and you'll be stuck like that.



8. Viola jokes

It seems like good fun, but it's basically bullying. Please, next time you see a viola player, give them a hug. (Is it too much to start a #hugaviolist campaign?)


  

(via Sound and Fury)

9. Abbreviating

'Tchaik', 'Rach' and 'Shost' are the musician equivalents of office jargon. How much time do you actually save by neglecting those extra syllables?





10. Being obsessively protective of musical body parts

"You say you just want to shake my hand, but that's my bowing hand! How do I know you won't crush every single bone in my lower arm?!"

Eleven Amazing Pieces of Classical Music That aren't in the Hall of Fame

Don't get us wrong, we love the Hall of Fame. But we just can't understand why these pieces aren't in there too. Here are 11 amazing works of genius that you won't believe are absent from our top 300 pieces of classical music. 

Beethoven - Symphony No. 8

So plenty of Beethoven's other symphonies make it into the Hall of Fame every year. The biggies like No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 are stalwarts, so why does this equally barnstorming symphony miss out? That gorgeous tick-tocking second movement, the breathless finale… we can't believe this one isn't on the list.

Verdi - Otello

Oh don't worry everyone, he's only one of the greatest opera composers of all time completely at the top of his game. No biggie. Otello is easily one of Verdi's best operas thanks in part to that timeless story, but you just can't ignore the quality of the arias. Here's Bryn Terfel to show you why:

Chopin - Minute Waltz

Seriously, we have no idea why this one isn't in the Hall of Fame. Chopin has made it in on a number of occasions with different pieces, but no-one's plumped for this gem of structuring and melody. It's only little, why not give it a go this year?

Berlioz - Grand Messe Des Morts

There's no shortage of Requiems in the Hall of Fame (thanks to Mozart, Fauré, Brahms and Verdi), but one of the other big-hitters in the genre has been rather unjustly left out. Berlioz's mass for the dead is every bit as epic, beautiful and emotionally exhausting as its rivals, as you can see.

Rossini - Barber of Seville

The overture from the Barber of Seville is one of the catchiest pieces of music in the whole classical world. And in the whole non-classical world too. Just wait til you get to two minutes in. You will not be able to not sing along.

Mahler - Symphony No. 9

Oh sure, vote for the Symphony of a Thousand and the Resurrection, just completely ignore one of the great No. 9s of musical history… Confirming that all the best composers only manage 9 symphonies in total (Mahler died before completely finishing his 10th), this particularly dramatic opus is surely worth a spot in the Hall of Fame alongside his others. Here's Leonard Bernstein smashing it to bits:

Bach - St. John Passion

Bach's St. Matthew Passion made it into the Hall of Fame last year, but what about its older brother? If anything, it's a little more ramshackle and emotional than the St. Matthew Passion, but that only adds to the charm.

Prokofiev - Peter & The Wolf

Surely one of the most popular pieces ever written, Peter & The Wolf seems to be the victim of being taken for granted. Perhaps it's seen as that piece we always remember from childhood and learning about the orchestra rather than the grown-up symphonic masterpiece it most definitely is.

Williams - E.T.

He's the most famous film composer ever, but one of his greatest themes doesn't feature in our Hall of Fame. Star Wars, Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter and Schindler's List all made it, but the little alien fella with the huge sweeping orchestral theme didn't. Come on people, there's no excuse.

Shostakovich - Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad)

It's by no means a crowd-pleaser for everyone, but the effect that Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony has had on culture is massive. Originally conceived as a retort to and protest against Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, it's come to represent marginalisation and repression everywhere. So many musical ideas about terror and invasion are jammed next to each other in a thrilling mass - there's no reason this piece shouldn't be doing better in the Hall of Fame.

Britten - Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra

Another piece we remember fondly from childhood, but perhaps forget about later in life. A breathless tour of the whole orchestra set to a fantastic Purcell tune, this is exemplary stuff from Britten. Surprisingly, his only entry in the Hall of Fame is the superbly depressing opera Peter Grimes - we think it's time another Britten masterpiece made it in.

(C) by ClassicFM