Gioacchino Antonio Rossini - his music and his life

Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 — November 13, 1868) was an Italian musical composer who wrote more than 30 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), and 'Guillaume Tell' William Tell (the overture of which is popularly known for being the theme song for The Lone Ranger).

Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro, a small town on the Adriatic coast of Italy. His father Giuseppe was town trumpeter and inspector of slaughterhouses, his mother Anna a singer and baker's daughter. Rossini's parents began his musical training early, and by the age of six he was playing the triangle in his father's band.

Rossini's father was sympathetic to the French, and welcomed Napoleon's troops when they arrived in Northern Italy. This became a problem when in 1796, the Austrians restored the old regime. Rossini's father was sent to prison, and his wife took Gioacchino to Bologna, earning her living as lead singer at various theaters of the Romagna region, where she was ultimately joined by her husband. During this time, Gioacchino was frequently left in the care of his aging grandmother, who was unable to effectively control the boy.

Gioacchino remained at Bologna in the care of a pork butcher, while his father played the horn in the bands of the theaters at which his mother sang. The boy had three years instruction in the harpsichord from Prinetti of Novara, but Prinetti played the scale with two fingers only, combined his profession of a musician with the business of selling liquor, and fell asleep while he stood, so that he was a fit subject for ridicule by his critical pupil.

Gioacchino was taken from Prinetti and apprenticed to a smith. In Angelo Tesei he found a congenial master, and learned to sight-read, to play accompaniments on the pianoforte, and to sing well enough to take solo parts in the church when he was ten years of age. At thirteen he appeared at the theatre of the Commune in Paër’s Camilla — his only public appearance as a singer (1805). He was also a capable horn player in the footsteps of his father.

In 1807 the young Rossini was admitted to the counterpoint class of Padre P. S. Mattei, and soon after to that of Cavedagni for the cello at the Conservatorio of Bologna. He learned to play the cello with ease, but the pedantic severity of Mattei's views on counterpoint only served to drive the young composer's views toward a freer school of composition. His insight into orchestral resources is generally ascribed not to the teaching strict compositional rules he learned from Mattei, but to knowledge gained independently while scoring the quartets and symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. At Bologna he was known as 'il Tedeschino' on account of his devotion to Mozart.

Through the friendly interposition of the Marquis Cavalli, his first opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, was produced at Venice when he was a youth of eighteen. But two years before this he had already received the prize at the Conservatorio of Bologna for his cantata Il piantô d'armonia per la morte d’Orfeo. Between 1810 and 1813, at Bologna, Rome, Venice and Milan, Rossini produced operas of varying success. All memory of these works is eclipsed by the enormous success of his opera Tancredi.

The libretto was an arrangement of Voltaire’s tragedy by A. Rossi. Traces of Paër and Paisiello were undeniably present in fragments of the music. But any critical feeling on the part of the public was drowned by appreciation of such melodies as 'Mi rivedrai, ti rivèdrô' and 'Di tanti palpiti,' the former of which became so popular that the Italians would sing it in crowds at the law courts until called upon by the judge to desist.

Rossini continued to write operas for Venice and Milan during the next few years, but their reception was tame and in some cases unsatisfactory after the success of Tancredi. In 1815 he retired to his home at Bologna, where Barbaja, the impresario of the Naples theatre, concluded an agreement with him by which he was to take the musical direction of the Teatro San Carlo and the Teatro Del Fondo at Naples, composing for each of them one opera a year. His payment was to be 200 ducats per month; he was also to receive a share of Barbaja's other business, popular gaming-tables, amounting to about 1000 ducats per annum.

Some older composers in Naples, notably Zingarelli and Paisiello, were inclined to intrigue against the success of the youthful composer; but all hostility was made futile by the enthusiasm which greeted the court performance of his Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra, in which Isabella Colbran, who subsequently became the composer’s wife, took a leading part. The libretto of this opera by Schmidt was in many of its incidents an anticipation of those presented to the world a few years later in Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth. The opera was the first in which Rossini wrote the ornaments of the airs instead of leaving them to the fancy of the singers, and also the first in which the recitativo secco was replaced by a recitative accompanied by a string quartet.

In Il Barbiere di Siviglia, produced in the beginning of the next year in Rome, the libretto, a version of Beaumarchais'Barbier de Seville by Sterbini, was the same as that already used by Giovanni Paisiello in his own Barbiere, an opera which had enjoyed European popularity for more than a quarter of a century. Paisiello’s admirers were extremely indignant when the opera was produced, but the opera was so successful that the fame of Paisiello's opera was transferred to his, to which the title of Il Barbiere di Siviglia passed as an inalienable heritage.

Between 1815 and 1823 Rossini produced twenty operas. Of these Otello formed the climax to his reform of serious opera, and offers a suggestive contrast with the treatment of the same subject at a similar point of artistic development by the composer Giuseppe Verdi. In Rossini’s time the tragic close was so distasteful to the public of Rome that it was necessary to invent a happy conclusion to Otello.

Gioacchino A. Rossini

Conditions of stage production in 1817 are illustrated by Rossini’s acceptance of the subject of Cinderella for alibretto only on the condition that the supernatural element should be omitted. The opera La Cenerentola was as successful as Barbiere. The absence of a similar precaution in the construction of his Mosè in Egitto led to disaster in the scene depicting the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, when the defects in stage contrivance always raised a laugh, so that the composer was at length compelled to introduce the chorus 'Dal tuo stellato Soglio' to divert attention from the dividing waves.

In 1821, three years after the production of this work, Rossini married singer Isabella Colbran. In 1822 he directed his Cenerentola in Vienna, where Zelmira was also performed. After this he returned to Bologna; but an invitation from Prince Metternich to come to Verona and 'assist in the general re-establishment of harmony' was too tempting to be refused, and he arrived at the Congress in time for its opening on October 20, 1822. Here he made friends withChateaubriand and Madame de Lieven.

In 1823, at the suggestion of the manager of the King’s Theatre, London, he came to England, being much fêted on his way through Paris. In England he was given a generous welcome, which included an introduction to King George IV and the receipt of £7000 after a residence of five months. In 1824 he became musical director of the Théatre Italien in Paris at a salary of £800 per annum, and when the agreement came to an end he was rewarded with the offices of chief composer to the king and inspector-general of singing in France, to which was attached the same income.

The production of his Guillaume Tell in 1829 brought his career as a writer of opera to a close. The libretto was byEtienne Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, but their version was revised by Armand Marrast. The music is remarkable for its freedom from the conventions discovered and utilized by Rossini in his earlier works, and marks a transitional stage in the history of opera.

In 1829 he returned to Bologna. His mother had died in 1827, and he was anxious to be with his father. Arrangements for his subsequent return to Paris on a new agreement were upset by the abdication of Charles X and the July Revolution of 1830. Rossini, who had been considering the subject of Faust for a new opera, returned, however, to Paris in the November of that year.

Six movements of his Stabat Mater were written in 1832 and the rest in 1839, the year of his father's death. The success of the work bears comparison with his achievements in opera; but his comparative silence during the period from 1832 to his death in 1868 makes his biography appear almost like the narrative of two lives — the life of swift triumph, and the long life of seclusion, of which biographers give us pictures in stories of the composer's cynical wit, his speculations in fish culture, his mask of humility and indifference.

His first wife died in 1845, and political disturbances in the Romagna area compelled him to leave Bologna in 1847, the year of his second marriage with Olympe Pelissier, who had sat to Vernet for his picture of 'Judith and Holofernes.' After living for a time in Florence he settled in Paris in 1855, where his house was a centre of artistic society. He died at his country house at Passy on November 13, 1868 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France.

He was a foreign associate of the Institute, grand officer of the Legion of Honour, and the recipient of innumerable orders.

In his compositions Rossini plagiarized even more freely from himself than from other musicians, and few of his operas are without such admixtures frankly introduced in the form of arias or overtures.

A characteristic mannerism in his musical writing earned for him the nickname of 'Monsieur Crescendo.'

Rossini is also well known for some personal qualities, which gave origin to several anecdotes. For example, he was supposed to have composed his best known opera, 'Barbiere', in a very short time, because as usual he was late in respecting the delivery date. Some say he did it in seven days; others, like Lodovico Settimo Silvestri, suggest in fourteen. Whatever the precise length, it was in any case very little time for such masterpieces. He worked in his bedroom, wearing his dressing-gown. A friend pointed out that it was undoubtedly funny that he had composed the 'Barber' without shaving himself for such a long time. Rossini promptly replied that if he had to get shaved, he would have had to get out of his house, and he therefore would never had completed his opera.

Another story of Rossini composing in the comfort of his bed: One day an impresario went visiting him and found him writing music in his bed. Rossini, without even looking at him, begged him to collect a sheet that had fallen from the bed to the floor. When the impresario picked it, Rossini gave him the other sheet he was writing and asked him: 'Which one do you think is the better?' 'But... they are completely alike...' said the embarrassed impresario. 'Well... you know... it was easier for me to write another one than to get off the bed and search and pick the first one and then come back to bed...'

Rossini himself was very happy to describe his virtues: here is what he told about his way of composing overtures:

Wait until the evening before opening night. Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity, whether it be the presence of a copyist waiting for your work or the prodding of an impresario tearing his hair. In my time, all the impresarios of Italy were bald at 30. . . .

I wrote the overture of Otello in a small room of the Palazzo Barbaja, where the baldest and rudest of directors had shut me in.

I wrote the overture of the Gazza Ladra the day before the opening night under the roof of the Scala Theatre, where I had been imprisoned by the director and secured by four stagehands.

For the Barbiere, I did better: I did not even compose an overture, I just took one already destined for an opera called Elisabetta. Public was very pleased.

His music is associated with the names of the greatest singers in lyrical drama, such as Tamburini, Mario, Rubini, Delle Sedie, Albani, Grisi, Patti and Christina Nilsson. Marietta Alboni was one of his pupils.

Works of Gioacchino Rossini

Opera

• La Cambiale di Matrimonio - 1810
• L'equivoco stravagante - 1811
• Demetrio e Polibio - 1812
• L'inganno felice - 1812
• Ciro in Babilonia (or La caduta di Baldassare) - 1812
• La scala di seta - 1812
• La pietra del paragone - 1812
• L'occasione fa il ladro (or Il cambio della valigia) - 1812
• Il Signor Bruschino (or Il figlio per azzardo) - 1813
• Tancredi - 1813
• L'Italiana in Algeri - 1813
• Aureliano in Palmira - 1813
• Il turco in Italia - 1814
• Sigismondo - 1814
• Elisabetta regina d'Inghilterra - 1815
• Torvaldo e Dorliska - 1815
• Almaviva (or L'inutile precauzione or Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)) - 1816
• La gazzetta (or Il matrimonio per concorso) - 1816
• Otello (or Il moro di Venezia) - 1816
• La Cenerentola (Cinderella, or La bontà in trionfo) - 1817
• La gazza ladra - 1817
• Armida - 1817
• Adelaide di Borgogna or Ottone, re d'Italia - 1817
• Mosè in Egitto - 1818
• Adina or Il califfo di Bagdad - 1818
• Ricciardo e Zoraide - 1818
• Ermione - 1819
• Eduardo e Cristina - 1819
• La donna del lago - 1819
• Bianca e Falliero (or Il consiglio dei tre) - 1819
• Maometto secondo - 1820
• Matilde Shabran (Matilde di Shabran, or Bellezza e Cuor di Ferro) - 1821
• Zelmira - 1822
• Semiramide - 1823
• Il viaggio a Reims (or L'albergo del giglio d'oro) - 1825
• Le Siège de Corinthe - 1826
• Moïse et Pharaon (or Le passage de la Mer Rouge) - 1827 (a revision of Mosè in Egitto)
• Le Comte Ory - 1828
• Guillaume Tell (William Tell) - 1829

Other works

• Il pianto d'armonia per la morte d’Orfeo
• Stabat Mater

The Best of Gioacchino Rossini

Carl Orff - His Music and His Life

Biographical details 1895 Born on 10 July in Munich 1898 Birth of his sister Maria (Mia) 1900 First piano tuition and first recording of compositions on a slate 1905 Music composed for his own puppet theatre 1912-14 Studies at the Academy of Music in Munich 1914 Further studies with Hermann Zilcher 1916 Musical director of Munich Chamber Theatre 1917 Military service, trapped on the Eastern front 1918 Musical director in Mannheim and Darmstadt 1919 Study of old masters of the 16th and 17th century; private circle of students in Munich 1920-27 Married to Alice Solscher 1920 Studies with Heinrich Kaminski 1921 Birth of daughter Godela  (Carl Orff 1921 with his daughter Godela) 1924 Foundation of Günther School in Munich 1925 First performance of new arrangement of ›L'Orfeo‹ by Monteverdi 1926 Begins cooperation with Gunild Keetman 1930 Performance of ›Entrata‹ originally by William Byrd 1931 First editions of Schulwerk 1932 Arrangement and adaptation of the St Lukas Passion attributed to Bach 1932-33 Musical director of Munich Bach Society 1936 Music for ›Olympic Festival‹: “Einzug und Reigen” 1937 First performance of ›Carmina Burana‹ 1939-53 Married to Gertrud Willert 1939 First performance of ›Der Mond‹ and first performance of ›Ein Sommernachtstraum‹ (3rd version) 1943 First performance of ›Die Kluge‹ und ›Catulli Carmina‹ 1944 Günther school closed down by the Nazis   1947 Receives music prize from the city of Munich; first performance of ›Bernauerin‹ 1948 First school radio broadcasts ›Orff Schulwerk. Musik für Kinder‹ 1949 First performance of ›Antigonae‹ 1950-54 Schott Music publishes ›Orff Schulwerk. Musik für Kinder‹ 1950-60 Director of master class for composition at the Music College in Munich 1953 First performance of ›Trionfo di Afrodite‹ 1954-59 Married to Luise Rinser 1956 Member of the fraternity ›pour le mérite‹ for arts and sciences 1959 First performance of ›Oedipus der Tyrann‹; honorary professor of the University of Tübingen 1960 Married Liselotte Schmitz 1962, 1963 und 1966 Gives lectures on ›Schulwerk‹ abroad 1968 First performance of ›Prometheus‹ 1972 Honorary professor of the University of Munich, awarded Great Cross of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany 1973 First performance of ›De temporum fine comoedia‹ 1975-81 Work on the documentation ›Carl Orff und sein Werk‹ in eight volumes 1982 Died on 29 March in Munich, buried in the Chapel of sorrow in the monastery church of Andechs

Carl Orff - O Fortuna ~ Carmina Burana

Baroque Christmas Concert-1991 (Freiburg Cathedral) - Part 2

27 Amazing Musical Moments From 2014

This has been a stellar year for classical music – and we've collected some of our favourite moments in this gallery of the year.

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(C) 2014 by ClassicsFM London.

Andre Rieu Plays Live at Wembley Arena

The King of The Waltz made a triumphant return to London to bring his show to Wembley Arena.

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André Rieu live at Wembley Arena

Andre Rieu takes the applause during his festive show at Wembley Arena. 

(C) 2014 ClassicFM London.

Cole Porter - His Music and His Life

Cole Porter was born June 9, 1891, at Peru, Indiana, the son of pharmacist Samuel Fenwick Porter and Kate Cole. Cole was raised on a 750-acre fruit ranch. Kate Cole married Samuel Porter in 1884 and had two children, Louis and Rachel, who both died in infancy. Porter's grandfather, J.G. Cole, was a multi-millionaire who made his fortune in the coal and western timber business. His mother introduced him to the violin and the piano. Cole started riding horses at age six and began to studying piano at eight at Indiana's Marion Conservatory. By age ten, he had begun to compose songs, and his first song was entitled "Song of the Birds".

He attended Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1905, an elite private school from which he graduated in 1909 as class valedictorian. That summer he toured Europe as a graduation present from his grandfather. That fall, he entered Yale University and lived in a single room at Garland's Lodging House at 242 York Street in New Haven, CT, and became a member of the Freshman Glee Club. In 1910, he published his first song, "Bridget McGuire". While at Yale, he wrote football fight songs including the "Yale Bulldog Song" and "Bingo Eli Yale," which was introduced at a Yale dining hall dinner concert. Classmates include poet Archibald Macleish, Bill Crocker of San Francisco banking family and actor Monty Woolley. Dean Acheson, later to be U.S. Secretary of State, lived in the same dorm with Porter and was a good friend of Porter. In his senior year he was president of the University Glee club and a football cheerleader.

Porter graduated from Yale in 1913 with a BA degree. He attended Harvard Law school from 1913 to 1914 and the Harvard School of Music from 1915 to 1916. In 1917 he went to France and distributed foodstuffs to war-ravaged villages. In April 1918 he joined the 32nd Field Artillery Regiment and worked with the Bureau of the Military Attache of the US. During this time he met the woman who would become his wife, Linda Lee Thomas, a wealthy Kentucky divorcée, at a breakfast reception at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. He did not, as is often rumored, join the French Foreign Legion at this time, nor receive a commission in the French army and see combat as an officer.

In 1919 he rented an apartment in Paris, enrolled in a school specializing in music composition and studied with Vincent D'indy. On December 18, 1919, married Linda Lee Thomas, honeymooning in the south of France. This was a "professional" marriage, as Cole was, in fact, gay. Linda had been previously married to a newspaper publisher and was described as a beautiful woman who was one of the most celebrated hostesses in Europe. The Porters made their home on the Rue Monsieur in Paris, where their parties were renowned as long and brilliant. They hired the Monte Carlo Ballet for one of their affairs; once, on a whim, they transported all of their guests to the French Riviera.

In 1923 they moved to Venice, Italy, where they lived in the Rezzonico Palace, the former home of poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. They built an extravagant floating night club that would accommodate up to 100 guests. They conducted elaborate games including treasure hunts through the canals and arranged spectacular balls.

Porter's first play on Broadway featured a former ballet dancer, actor Clifton Webb. He collaborated with E. Ray Goetz, the brother-in-law of Irving Berlin, on several Broadway plays, as Goetz was an established producer and lyricist.

His ballad "Love For Sale" was introduced on December 8, 1930, in a revue that starred Jimmy Durante and was introduced by Kathryn Crawford. Walter Winchell, the newspaper columnist and radio personality, promoted the song, which was later banned by many radio stations because of its content. In 1934, his hit "Anything Goes" appeared on Broadway. During the show's hectic rehearsal Porter once asked the stage doorman what he thought the show should be called. The doorman responded that nothing seemed to go right, with so many things being taken out and then put back in, that "Anything Goes" might be a good title. Porter liked it, and kept it. In 1936, while preparing for "Red, Hot and Blue" with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman was hired to do stenographic work to help Porter in rewriting scripts of the show. He later said she was the best stenographers he ever had.

Porter wrote such classic songs as "Let's Do It" in 1928, "You Do Something To Me" in 1929, "Love For Sale" in 1930, "What Is This Thing Called Love?" in 1929, "Night and Day" in 1932, "I Get A Kick Out Of You" in 1934, "Begin the Beguine" in 1935, "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in 1938, "Don't Fence Me In" in 1944, "I Love Paris" in 1953, "I've Got You Under My Skin", In the Still of The Night", "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To", "True Love", "Just One Of Those Things", "Anything Goes", "From This Moment On", "You're The Top", "Easy to Love" and many, many more.

Aram Khachaturian - His Music and His Life

Armenian Russian classical composer An outstanding representative of the Russian school of composition, Khachaturian was a unique artist for whom folklore was the inspiration for his music. His ballets, symphonies, and other works are permeated by the intonations and rhythms of folk songs and dances of the East. They brought a fresh voice to the Russian music of the twentieth century. Born: June 6, 1903; Tbilisi, Georgia, Russian Empire (now in Georgia) Died: May 1, 1978; Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union (now in Russia)  Also known as: Aram Ilich Khachaturian (full name) Principal works ballets (music): Schast’ye, Op. 43, 1939 (Happiness; scenario by Gevorg Ovanesian; choreography by Ilya Arbatov); Gayan?, Op. 50, 1942 (scenario by Konstantin Derzhavin); Gayan? Suite No. 1, Op. 53, 1943; Gayan? Suite No. 3, Op. 55, 1943; Gayan? Suite No. 2, Op. 54, 1945; Spartak, Op. 82, 1956 (Spartacus; scenario by Nikolai Volkov; choreography by Yuri Grigorovitch); Gayan?, Op. 89, 1957 (scenario by Boris Pletnev). cello work: Sonata-fantaziya, Op. 104, 1974 (Sonata-Fantasy in C Major). chamber works: Elegy in G Minor, Op. 4, 1925 (for cello and piano); Pesnya stranstvuyushchego ashuga, Op. 2, 1925 (The Roaming Ashug’s Song; for cello and piano); Dance No. 1, 1926 (for violin and piano); The Dream, Op. 3, 1926 (for cello and piano); Pantomime, Op. 13, 1927 (for oboe and piano); Allegretto, Op. 18, 1929 (for violin and piano); String Quartet, Op. 23, 1931; Mass Dance, Op. 25, 1932 (for bayan); Sonata, Op. 29, 1932 (for violin and piano); Trio, Op. 30, 1933 (for clarinet, violin, and piano). choral works: Mer Hayrenik, Op. 60, 1944 (Our Fatherland; national anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic; lyrics by Armenac Sarkisyan under the pseudonym A. Sarmen); Oda radosti, Op. 88, 1956 (Ode to Joy; for female soloist, chorus, violins, harps, and orchestra; lyrics by S. Smirnov); Ballada o Rodine, Op. 97, 1961 (Ballad of the Motherland; for soloist and symphony orchestra; lyrics by Ashot Garnakerian). orchestral works: Baghdasar akhpar, 1927 (Uncle Baghdasar; incidental music for Hakob Paronian’s play); Arevelian atamnabuzh, Op. 17, 1928 (The Eastern Dentist; incidental music for Paronian’s play); Khatabala, Op. 15, 1928 (incidental music for Gabriel Sundukian’s play); Dance Suite, Op. 32, 1933 (Tantseval’naya syuita); Macbeth, Op. 33, 1933 (incidental music for William Shakespeare’s play); Symphony No. 1, Op. 35, 1935; Piano Concerto in D-flat Major, 1936; Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 46, 1940; The Widow of Valencia, Op. 45, 1940 (incidental music for Lope de Vega’s play); Masquerada, Op. 48, 1941 (incidental music for Mikhail Lermontov’s play); Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 56, 1943 (Simfoniya s kolokolom; The Bell Symphony); Russkaya fantaziya, Op. 59, 1945 (The Russian Fantasy); Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 65, 1946; Symphony No. 3, Op. 67, 1947 (Symphony-Poem); Oda pamyati Lenina, Op. 71, 1948 (Ode in Memory of Vladimir Ilich Lenin); Stalingradskaya bitva, Op. 74, 1949 (The Battle of Stalingrad ); Macbeth, Op. 84, 1955 (incidental music for Shakespeare’s play); Spartacus Suite No. 1, Op. 82a, 1955; Spartacus Suite No. 2, Op. 82b, 1955; Spartacus Suite No. 3, Op. 82c, 1955; King Lear, Op. 92, 1958 (incidental music for Shakespeare’s play); Privetstvennaya uvertyura, 1958 ( Salutatory Overture); Suite from Lermontov, Op. 94, 1959; Concerto-Rhapsody in B-Flat, Op. 96, 1962 (for violin and orchestra); Concerto-Rhapsody, Op. 99, 1963 (for cello and orchestra); Concerto-Rhapsody in D-flat Major, Op. 102, 1968 (for piano and orchestra). piano works: Poem, Op. 1, 1925; Andantino, Op. 5, 1926; Waltz-Caprice in C-sharp Minor, Op. 8, 1926; Waltz-?tude, Op. 6, 1926; Poem in Csharp Minor, Op. 12, 1927; Toccata in E-flat Minor, Op. 24, 1932; Dance No. 3, Op. 31, 1933; March No. 3, Op. 34, 1934; Khoreograficheskiy val’s, Op. 58, 1944 (Choreographic Waltz); Children’s Album Book I, Op. 62, 1947; Waltz from Masquerade, 1952; Sonatina in C Major, Op. 93, 1958; Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 95, 1961; Children’s Album Book II, Op. 100, 1965; Seven Recitatives and Fugues, Op. 101, 1966. The Life Aram Ilich Khachaturian (ah-RAHM IHL-yihch kah-chah-TOO-rih-ahn) was born on June 6, 1903, in Kodjori, a suburb of Tbilisi. He grew up in an environment filled with folk music, his first musical impressions formed by the artistry of Ashugs, folk poets and singers of the Caucasus who fused all the best stylistic traits of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Persia. His first encounter with classical music, at the age of sixteen, was an opera, Abesalom and Eteri (1918) by Georgian composer Zakharia Paliashvili. At that same time, he began to play the trumpet by ear in an amateur band. In 1921 Khachaturian moved to Moscow to attend the university as a biology major.Hesoon realized his uncontrollable attraction to music and left the university to enroll in the Gnesin Institute of Music, studying cello with Andrei Borisyak and composition with Mikhail Gnesin. In 1929-1934 he studied composition with Nikolai Myaskowski at the Moscow Conservatory, acquiring the best of Russian and Western European traditions. During his graduate studies (1934-1936) his tendency toward a virtuosic style was evidenced in concerti for piano (1936) and violin (1940) with bright harmonic “colors,” emphatic rhythms, and expressive melodies. At the same time, he began an active performing career and became a member of the Composers’ Union. The 1940’s were associated with a great Soviet patriotism, as demonstrated in The Bell Symphony, a tragic piece depicting terrible times. He also composed a cello concerto, the Gayan? ballets, and Our Fatherland, considered the national anthem of the Armenian Republic. In 1950 Kachaturian became a professor at both the Moscow Conservatory and the Gnesin Institute and began his conducting career. In 1951 he was awarded the title of National Artist of the U.S.S.R. During a trip to Rome, Khachaturian conceived an idea that led him to compose the ballet Spartacus, for which received the Lenin Prize in 1959. He received many honorary titles thereafter. In the 1970’s, as Khachaturian’s health began to decline, he often spoke about wishing to be buried in Yerevan, in his Armenian homeland. After his death on May 1, 1978, his wish was fulfilled. The Music Khachaturian was first to use Asian themes in large, symphonic forms, thus enriching Western music. His music is marked by modern images and means of expression based on the folk motifs of the peoples of the Caucasus. Early Works. Khachaturian’s first compositional attempts were combined with great challenges: his lack of training in music theory and his age (he entered the conservatory at twenty-six). However, his hard work and purposefulness prevailed. His early works include a toccata for piano, a clarinet trio, and an orchestral dance suite, in which Eastern colors merge with academic strictness of form. His Symphony No. 1, a graduation project, won a gold medal. Violin Concerto in D Minor. The Violin Concerto in D Minor marked the composer’s artistic credo: brightness of musical images, an emphasis on folklore sources, a distinct foundation in dance, and a lack of dramatically emphasized conflicts. Thiswork, filled with musical materials resembling Armenian folk songs and dances, depicts scenes from people’s lives and poetic sketches of Armenian nature. Dancelike, ecstatic outer movements surround a lyrical second movement. The concerto premiered on November 16, 1940, conducted by its dedicatee, David Oistrakh. Gayan?. Composed in 1942, this ballet was the first Armenian work in the genre. It features three main elements: dance, drama (bordering on tragedy), and lyricism. The main characters are farmers and Red Army soldiers. Their happiness, resulting from the nation’s prosperity, is boundless. Through difficult struggle against evil and unfairness, Gayan? finally finds her happiness. She exposes the perpetrators (among them her husband) who set fire to a collective farm’s warehouse, an act that almost costs her her life. The ballet concludes with a national celebration. In Gayan? Khachaturian used the best numbers from his first ballet, Happiness. Perhaps Gayan? is most famous for the fiery “Saber Dance” of the fourth act. Arranged for various instrumental ensembles, this piece would become a standard in concert programs. In 1943 Khachaturian received the State Prize for Gayan?. Spartacus. Inspired by ancient Rome, Khachaturian composed this ballet, in which he shows the conflict between the opposing forces of Spartacus and the gladiators, and the aristocratic world of the Roman patriarchs. This opposition is heard in the prologue as Thracians pull the victor-commander’s chariot. Heavily, with somber solemnity, sounds the march of the victors. This is Rome, a powerful, imperious, and brutal empire. Opposing it is Spartacus’s heroic theme, conveying strength, nobility, and, at the same time,worry and sorrow. Premiering in 1956, Spartacus became one of the most prominentworks of the Soviet ballet. Later Khachaturian created three suites using this ballet’s most important fragments. Musical Legacy The stylistic individuality of Khachaturian’s works lies in the inseparability of what is his own music and what is borrowed. Since even the authentic folk melodies are altered, it is nearly impossible to detect where traditional motifs end and the composer’s work begins. Most of Khachaturian’s works are saturated with centuries-old motifs of Armenian culture. The traditions of folk music were sustained and developed by many national composers, such as Armenian Soghomon Soghomonian (Komitas) and Georgian Paliashvili, but Khachaturian was the first of the trans-Caucasian composers to weave these motifs into large, symphonic forms and, by enriching these classical forms with ethnic music, elevate the latter in the classic

The 16 Worst Classical Christmas Album Covers

Ho-ho-no! It's time for a look at the very worst in festive album artwork from the classical music world, from Roberto Alagna's hair to Arthur Fiedler's moustache and a cameo from Jeremy Beadle. Brace yourselves...

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Roberto Alagna - The Christmas Album

Looks like Michael Bolton's hair and his mum's gloves were on the Christmas list this year. Season's greetings, Roberto! 

Classical Music Facts & Photos

13 reasons to be thankful you have classical music in your life

The best Christmas presents for the music geek in your life

12 pictures to prove Jonas Kaufmann is the best-looking man in classical music

Bach: 15 facts about the great composer

(C) 2014 by ClassicFM London

Christoph Willibald Gluck - His Music and His Life

Christoph Willibald Gluck was a famous opera composer of the classical period. Read on to know more about Christoph Willibald Gluck’s profile, childhood, life and timeline in this biography.

Born on

02 July 1714 AD 

Zodiac Sign

Died on

15 November 1787 AD

A prolific opera composer of the classical period, Christoph Gluck was credited for bringing in concrete reforms to the opera's dramaturgical practices. His opera compositions were spread over various operatic genres. Born to a Bohemian (Czech) father in 1714, Gluck learned music at a tender age of three. After completing his studies in Prague, he moved to Milan to gain practical knowledge of all the instruments. His passion for music took him around the world such as London, Prague, Vienna, and Venice. He was also awarded the 'Order of the Golden Spur' in 1756 by Pope Benedict XIV. His musical legacy includes around 35 complete operas and numerous other compositions. He was also widely credited for his countless ballets and instrumental works. His disciples ardently followed his styles of music throughout the Revolutionary and the Napoleonic period. The composer died in 1787 after he suffered a stroke. Read on to know more about this great opera composer and his life. 

Early Life & Childhood 
 

Christoph Gluck was born on July 2, 1714 to Alexander Johannes and Maria Walburga in Erasbach, Germany. A few years after his birth, the family moved to Bohemia in 1717. At a very young age, Gluck was introduced to music by way of the church choir. It is also speculated that he studied logic and mathematics in 1731 at the University of Prague, but failed to receive his degree for the same. And up until 1737, there are no records that talk about his whereabouts, as the accounts are very vague and ambiguous.
 
Musical Career
 

Gluck moved to Milan to study and gain practical knowledge of all the instruments under the guidance of G. B. Sammartini in 1737. He moved Sammartini with his sacred music and symphonies. Gluck was also taken aback by the vibrant operas and formed an association with opera houses, such as the Teatro Regio Ducal. In 1741, Gluck’s first opera ‘Artaserse’ was performed here. Gluck was also given the opportunity to perform the same opera for the open of the Milanese Carnival in 1742. Due to its raving success, he continued to compose operas for each of the next four Carnivals in Milan. He was later offered the post of house composer at London's King's Theatre in 1745. But due to the ‘Jacobite Rebellion’, the theatre was closed for a year. After four years, Gluck’s operas, ‘La caduta de'giganti’ and ‘Artamene’ were performed.
 
The next year Gluck was bestowed with two great opportunities. The first was a commission to compose an opera for Dresden, performed by Pietro Mingotti's troupe. This was for the royal wedding between the Bavaria and Saxony families. The success of his work brought him to the attention of the Viennese court and he was selected to compose ‘Metastasio's Semiramide riconosciuta’ to celebrate Maria Theresa's birthday. He then continued to tour with Mingotti's troupe. After he left the troupe he joined another group in Prague. The second opportunity arose when he was asked to compose an opera for the Prague Carnival in 1750, called the ‘Ezio’. Then, in 1752, he was asked to perform ‘Metastasio's La clemenza di Tito’ for the ‘nameday celebrations’ of King Charles VII of Naples. He composed the famous aria ‘Se mai senti spirarti sul volto’ and was praised for the same by various musicians. When Gluck finally settled in Vienna, he became the ‘Kapellmeister’ in 1754. Christoph was bestowed with the honor of ‘Knight of the Golden Spur’ by Pope Benedict XIV. After he received this honor, Gluck started using the title "Ritter von Gluck" or "Chevalier de Gluck." He began to write ‘opéra comiques’ and with the collaboration of Gasparo Angiolini (choreographer), Gluck produced his revolutionary ballet, ‘Don Juan’. In 1774, Gluck’s influence in Paris started a huge controversy, where the town was divided into "Gluckists" and "Piccinnists” after the famous Italian composer, Niccolò Piccinni. After a period of brief turmoil, Antonio Salieri, Gluck’s protégé, collaborated with him on ‘Les Danaïdes’, which premiered on April 26, 1784.
 
Important Compositions
 

Gluck’s music style was criticized by a lot by people who still preferred traditional Italian compositions. Due to influences from various teachers and important musicians, his operas symbolized the beginning of modern, musical dramas that marked the end for ‘opera seria’ styles. Most of Gluck’s compositions were influenced by Italian sacred music. Apart from his major compositions, Gluck composed a few arias, solo motets, and chorals. He also composed 9 symphonies, 6 trio sonatas and 2 trio sonatas.
 
Personal Life
 

When Gluck lived in Prague, he married the 18 year old daughter of a rich Viennese merchant on September 15, 1750. She was Maria Anna Bergin.
 
Death

While rehearsing for ‘Echo et Narcisse’, Gluck suffered his first stroke after which he moved to Vienna. During his last years, he lost interest in composing for opera houses, despite countless offers. His health continued to deteriorate and he suffered three more strokes. On November 15, 1787, Gluck suffered another fatal stroke and passed away a few days later. He was interred at the ‘Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof’ before being moved to a tomb in the Vienna Zentralfriedhof as the former cemetery was converted into a park in 1923. 

Chopin's Heart Exhumed in Secret Ceremony at Warsaw Church

Scientists, politicians and the Archbishop of Warsaw have exhumed the preserved heart of Frederic Chopin in a midnight ceremony. 

The official inspection of the Romantic composer's heart was organised following warnings that the organ might have started to deteriorate.

When Chopin died in 1849 his body was buried in Paris but his heart was taken to Warsaw, as requested by the composer on his deathbed. The heart was sealed in what is believed to have been a jar of cognac and smuggled into the Polish city before being interred in a pillar at the Holy Cross Church (pictured above ).

A team of experts, including scientists, officials and the Archbishop of Warsaw, went to the church just before midnight on 14 April this year to remove the heart for an inspection.

The 13 people present at the exhumation were sworn to secrecy and details of the unusual gathering were only released in September.

Tadeusz Dobosz, a forensic scientist present at the inspection, said: “The spirit of this night was very sublime.”

The team took hundreds of photographs, carried out an inspection of the composer’s heart and added hot wax to the jar’s seal to prevent further evaporation of the original preservative liquid. The Archbishop said prayers over the heart before it was returned to its resting place in the pillar.

Chopin experts have long been keen to carry out tests on the composer’s heart to try and find out whether he died of tuberculosis, as is generally believed. But the Polish church and government have been reluctant to give permission. This inspection was only sanctioned after a scientist warned that the alcohol containing the organ might have evaporated after all these years.
None of the photos taken at the exhumation have been released, however. “We don’t want this to be a media sensation with photos of the heart in the newspapers,” explained Artur Szklener, director of the Frederic Chopin Institute. But a reporter for Associated Press was shown the photos which they described as showing the organ: "an enlarged white lump submerged in an amber-coloured fluid in a crystal jar”.

Some experts have been critical of the lack of transparency surrounding the exhumation. Steven Lagerberg, who has written a book on the composer, told Associated Press he wished genetic tests had been carried out on the heart. “The mystery of this man's illness lingers on — how he could survive for so long with such a chronic illness and how he could write pieces of such extraordinary beauty,” Lagerberg said. “It's an intellectual puzzle, it's a medical mystery and it's an issue of great scientific curiosity.”

But the culture minister present on 14 April, Bogdan Zdrojewski said: “We in Poland often say that Chopin died longing for his homeland. Additional information which could possibly be gained about his death would not be enough of a reason to disturb Chopin's heart.”

Curious scientists will now have to wait until the next inspection - due in 50 years' time. 

(C) 2014 by ClassicFM London.

Georg Friedrich Händel - His Music and His Life

Born February. 23, 1685 in Halle, Germany. Died April 14, 1759 in London, United Kingdom. 

 

The king of opera, Handel’s exceptional disposition for music was evident from a very early age. A barber-surgeon and chamberlain for the Duke of Saxe, Handel’s father was opposed to the solid musical tuition the young musician received in Halle from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, (1663-1712). Handel consolidated his reputation from city to city, from the harpsichord to the organ and through his encounters with Telemann and Buxtehude before settling in Hamburg.

After composing two operas, the young composer decided to leave for Italy to perfect his style and meet Domenico Scarlatti, Corelli and Pasquini. The composer had his operas performed in Florence, Rome and Venice. A great traveller, Handel went to Hanover and London where his opera Rinaldo was a triumph. He took English nationality in 1726 and composed for the British numerous Italian operas, which were very in vogue. A victim of plots and conspiracies, Handel skilfully managed to remain venerated by the British public who made him rich and renowned. Berlioz noted, “The heavy wigged head of this barrel of pork and bear named Handel”. 

Although Handel composed over forty operas, sometimes conventional with mediocre librettos, his genius was particularly evident in his oratorios and keyboard pieces. His sense of the melodic line was unequalled and thanks to the company of the great singers and castratos of the time, Handel wrote eminently vocal music with natural curves and refined, elegant eloquence. His pieces for keyboard displayed this same art with a sharp sense of counterpoint. A clever man, Handel ingeniously drew from German, Italian and English styles. He is no doubt the first great European composer.

Werner Egk - His Music and His Life

Werner Egk, a prominent German composer, died of heart disease Sunday in Inning, West Germany, his family said. He was 82 years old. 

Mr. Egk's music, cast in a personal, essentially conservative fusion of 20th-century influences, Stravinsky chief among them, was full of translucent textures, lively rhythms and a mordant sense of irony. He was chiefly a composer for the theater, principally opera and ballet, but his catalogue includes orchestral and chamber works, as well. 

Among his better-known operas were ''Die Zaubergeige,'' ''Peer Gynt,'' ''Der Revisor'' and ''Die Verlobung in San Domingo.'' ''Der Revisor,'' based on Gogol, was given its American premiere under the title ''The Inspector General'' by the New York City Opera in 1960, with the composer conducting. Ross Parmenter, writing in The New York Times, admired its ''wry cleverness'' and ''meticulous craftsmanship,' but dismissed it as ''thin gruel.'' 

Donal Henahan, reviewing ''Die Verlobung in San Domingo'' in 1974, thought Mr. Egk ''a skilled workman in the genre'' and felt that the St. Paul Opera production ''lighted considerable dramatic fire.'

Mr. Egk was born in Auchsesheim on May 17, 1901. His original last name was Mayer. Some said his adopted acronym stood for ''ein grosser Komponist'' or even ''ein genialer Komponist'' - ''a great composer,'' or ''a great genius of a composer.'' But he always explained the name as a tribute to his wife, Elisabeth Karl, with the g added ''for euphony.'' 

The composer studied music in Munich, where his teachers included Carl Orff. Mr. Egk participated in avant-garde festivals before 1933, but afterward he played an active role in German musical life during the Nazi period. He was commissioned to write a piece for the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936, conducted at the Berlin State Opera between 1938 and 1941, and served as head of the German Union of Composers from 1941 to 1945. He was permitted to return to public life after a de-Nazification trial in 1947. 

In 1948, a ballet on the ''Faust'' theme, ''Abraxas,'' with a text based on Heinrich Heine, was banned by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture as obscene. Mr. Egk served as director of the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik from 1950 to 1953, and in 1968 he became president of the German Music Council.