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Friday, August 23, 2024

Composers Like Chopin: Ten Composers to Check Out

By Emily E.Hogstad, Interlude

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin © ClassicFM

That said, Chopin’s music doesn’t have a monopoly on those adjectives.

Today, we’re looking at ten works by ten composers who, just like Chopin, understood the piano’s expressive power…while forging their own creative identities, too.

If you’re looking for music like Chopin’s, here are ten suggestions for your playlist:

John Field (1782-1837)

Pianist and composer John Field was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1782.

He studied with Muzio Clementi in London and toured Europe with him, finally settling in St. Petersburg in 1802.

John Field, 1820

John Field, 1820

In his late twenties, he began experimenting musically. He started writing short pieces for solo piano featuring an arpeggiated accompaniment in the left hand and a highly chromatic melody in the right hand. These pieces would usually be poetic and melancholy in nature. He called them “Nocturnes.” And so a new genre of piano music was born, that Chopin would later perfect.

You can hear Field’s influence in Chopin’s nocturnes.

Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831) 

Maria Szymanowska was born Marianna Agata Wołowska in Warsaw in 1789.

Maria Szymanowska

Maria Szymanowska

In 1810, she married a man named Józef Szymanowski, a wealthy landowner, and she also made her public debut as a pianist.

Many women musicians of this era gave up their careers once they got married, but not Szymanowska. Ultimately, she split from her husband and began touring Europe, spending a great deal of time in St. Petersburg. (And in case you’re wondering, yes, she did cross paths with Field!) She died there in 1831 during a cholera epidemic.

Musicologist Sławomir Dobrzański writes, “Szymanowska’s musical style is parallel to the compositional starting point of Frédéric Chopin; many of her compositions had an obvious impact on Chopin’s mature musical language.”

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)

Glinka was born in Russia in 1804. He attended a school in St. Petersburg for children of the nobility and took three lessons from John Field while there.

Portrait of Mikhail Glinka, 1840

Portrait of Mikhail Glinka, 1840

When he became an adult, he joined the Foreign Office, but by night, he kept pursuing music. He ultimately developed a great passion for expressing Russian nationalism in music, and encouraging a specifically Russian school of music.

Most of his best-known music dates from after that revelation. However, the music from his young dilettante days – like this Nocturne from 1828 – feels similar in some ways to Chopin’s and certainly reveals Field’s influence.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) 

Liszt and Chopin met at the latter’s first Parisian concert in 1832. They moved in the same aristocratic Parisian circles and their lives shared important themes, chief among them their devotion to their respective homelands (Hungary and Poland).

Franz Liszt, 1847

Franz Liszt, 1847

They respected each other a great deal, and Liszt was deeply saddened by Chopin’s early death in 1849. Liszt went so far as to write a biography in memory of his friend.

It is believed that Liszt’s third Consolation in D-flat major is modeled after Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 27, No. 2. This piece by Liszt was published in 1850, the year after Chopin’s death.  

Clara Schumann (1819-1896) 

Clara Wieck, who became known as Clara Schumann after her marriage to composer Robert Schumann, began championing the works of Chopin when she was a child prodigy touring across Europe.

Robert and Clara Schumann

Robert and Clara Schumann

In 1832, the same year that Liszt and Chopin met, a young Clara Wieck heard Chopin in concert. She never forgot the experience.

Clara Wieck Schumann was always excited to play any new music that Chopin would write. She continued playing Chopin for decades after his death at important and prestigious venues, helping to ensure that he would stay in the repertoire. She ultimately emerged as one of the greatest pianists of her generation, and she brought Chopin’s music with her on that journey.

When Chopin came to visit her in 1836, she played this Chopinesque nocturne for him, as well as a variety of other pieces. He was delighted.

Thomas Tellefsen (1823-1874) 

Pianist and composer Thomas Tellefsen was born in Trondheim, Norway, in 1823.

As a young man, it became his dream to study with Chopin, and so he left his native Norway for Paris.

Thomas Tellefsen

Thomas Tellefsen

Unfortunately for Tellefsen, however, not just anyone could study with Chopin; he was in high demand as a teacher.

Luckily, in 1844, Chopin’s partner, authoress George Sand, put in a good word for Tellefsen, and Chopin accepted him as a student. Chopin was impressed by his talent, and eventually, the two men became friends and traveling companions.

Chopin viewed Tellefsen as a major pedagogical heir, tasking him with writing a pianoforte method based on what he’d learned. However, if Tellefsen did complete it, no record of it exists.

What does exist are his compositions in a style a la Chopin.

Carl Filtsch (1830-1845) 

Carl Filtsch was born in present-day Romania in 1830. He was a child prodigy, and his family relocated to Paris when he was eleven so he could take lessons from Chopin.

Chopin didn’t teach children, but he made an exception for Filtsch. Indeed, he started teaching him three lessons a week.

Carl Filtsch

Carl Filtsch

Filtsch eventually began touring Europe to acclaim, but he died of tuberculosis in Venice when he was only fifteen years old.

One of Chopin’s friends wrote in 1843 that, “My God! What a child! Nobody has ever understood me as this child has…It is not imitation, it is the same sentiment, an instinct that makes him play without thinking as if it could not have been any other way.”

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Play

Chopin died when Fauré was only a few years old, but something about Chopin’s brand of poignancy and elegance spoke to the Frenchman. When Fauré began writing his own nocturnes in the mid-1870s, he reached back to an earlier generation for inspiration.

John Singer Sargent: Gabriel Fauré, 1896

John Singer Sargent: Gabriel Fauré, 1896

Fauré, like Chopin, was obsessed with writing for piano. “In piano music, there’s no room for padding – one has to pay cash and make it consistently interesting. It’s perhaps the most difficult genre of all,” he wrote.

His first nocturne, dating from ca. 1875, features an opening theme that immediately recalls to mind Chopin’s Prelude in E-minor.

Even when the nocturne wanders into more experimental harmonies or rhythms, a Chopinesque character still remains.

Juliusz Zarębski (1854-1885) 

Juliusz Zarębski was born in 1854 in present-day Ukraine, a country that in the past had been under Polish rule. His hometown Zhytomyr is between Kyiv (two hours away by car) and Warsaw (nine hours).

Juliusz Zarębski

Juliusz Zarębski

Zarębski studied in Rome and St. Petersburg as a young man, taking lessons from Liszt and setting to music work by poet Adam Mickiewicz (who, interestingly, was Maria Szymanowska’s son-in-law). He spent formative time in places that were deeply influenced by Chopin’s own influences, and it shows.

Tragically, his life path followed Chopin’s in a grim way: he became ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 31. He left behind a catalog of lovely music, perfect for a Chopin listener looking for something fresh.

Rosemary Brown (1916-2001)

Rosemary Brown was a psychic medium from twentieth century Britain who claimed to channel the works of the great composers.

Rosemary Brown

Rosemary Brown

The story of Rosemary Brown’s musical career is odd and fascinating. To make a long story short, Brown said that she could communicate with dead composers. (For what it’s worth, she claimed that Chopin was horrified by television.)

During their interactions, the composers dictated pieces to her in a variety of ways. She said that Chopin wrote this one.

Is this piece really Chopin composing from the afterlife? Well, frankly, deciding that is a bit beyond our pay grade, but you’re free to believe whatever you want! If nothing else, it’s a great story.

Conclusion

Regardless of what you think about the work of Rosemary Brown, here’s the truth: Chopin didn’t need a psychic medium to speak through the music of those who came after him.

Many composers shared his artistic priorities and delicate touch and wrote incredibly poignant, romantic pieces of Chopinesque music that we can still enjoy today. We hope you enjoy our picks!

Thursday, August 22, 2024

BEST PERFORMANCE OF MY LIFE | Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive | Allie Sherlock



Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (1836) — Robert Greenberg: Music As A Mirror...


An excerpt from the “Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (1836)” lecture from the new “Music As A Mirror of History” series from The Great Courses. Full Course available at https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/?p=2610 See more courses at http://www.robertgreenbergmusic.com Glinka: A Life for the Tsar (1836) Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar was a landmark in the creation of Russian language opera. Learn about the origins of the opera’s storyline in Russia’s “Time of Troubles,” an era of discord and invasions, and consider Glinka’s role in a community dedicated to bringing Russian art and literature to prominence. Through compelling excerpts from the hugely successful opera, observe how A Life for the Tsar embodied the pride and patriotism of the Russian people.

Glinka: Ruslan and Ludmila - Overture (Benjamin Zander, Boston Philharmonics


Benjamin Zander (conductor)
Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra

November 2, 2015, Symphony Hall, Boston

Der Bettelstudent: Overture


Provided to YouTube by NAXOS of America Der Bettelstudent: Overture · Nürnberger Philharmoniker · Christian Simonis Millöcker: Walzes, Marches & Polkas ℗ 2017 CPO Released on: 2017-11-03 Orchestra: Nürnberger Philharmoniker Conductor: Christian Simonis Composer: Carl Millöcker Auto-generated by YouTube.

Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Haydn Symphony No. 101 'The Clock' by Adam Fischer & Danish Chamber Orchestra



Franz Joseph Haydn’s last great symphonies electrified his London audiences, and with these recordings Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra recreate the powerful, stormy and exciting effects that caused such a sensation in the 1790s. Symphony No. 99 in E flat major was Haydn’s first ever symphony to use clarinets; No. 100 in G major gained its ‘Military’ appellation due to its grand second movement featuring cymbals and triangle; and No. 101 in D major has long been nicknamed ‘The Clock’ due to the ticking rhythm in the second movement for plucked strings and bassoons. Previous volumes in the series are available on 8.574516 and 8.574517. Joseph Haydn Symphony No. 101 in D major ‘The Clock’ 00:30 I. Adagio – Presto 08:15 II. Andante 15:26 III. Menuet: Allegretto – Trio 22:47 IV. Finale: Vivace

Monday, August 19, 2024

Bernstein: West Side Story - 'Maria' - BBC Proms



The Sound of Music -Sierra Boggess PROMS 2010


The Sound of Music Main Title cor de monges I have cconfidence in me Sierra Boggess, soprano Maida Vale Singers John Wilson Orchestra John Wilson conductor Royal Albert Hall PROMS 49 Prom 49: A Celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein 28 d'agost de 2010

Friday, August 16, 2024

Khatia und Gvantsa Buniaishvili: Astor Piazzolla, Libertango vierhändig


Khatia und Gvantsa Buniaishvili: Astor Piazzolla, Libertango vierhändig

Air - Johann Sebastian Bach


Das "Air" von Johann Sebastian Bach aus der 3. Suite für Orchester (D-Dur; BWV 1068), 2. Satz. Einfach zurücklehnen, ins Grüne schauen und genießen. The "Air" by Johann Sebastian Bach from the 3rd orchestral suite (D minor; BWV 1068), 2nd movement. Just lean back, look into the green and enjoy. Photo 2005 by Nebelwarner: Forest at the "Venner Moor" near the city of Senden (German state North Rhine-Westphalia).

The Magpie as Thief: Rossini’s La gazza ladra

Three of Rossini’s operas mark turning points in his development as an opera composer. SemiramideGuillaume Tell, and La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) each gather up a summary of his operatic development to that point and are made into very long operas. They also share another characteristic: none of these operas show the self-borrowing that marks much of his work. Semiramide is the culmination of his opera seria work and is the turning point in his withdrawal from Italian operatic life. Guillaume Tell is the end of the series of his operas written in Naples and then Paris, which were about experimentation and exploration – this is his farewell to his career in the theatre. La gazza ladra, with its mix of serious and comic elements, is his last experiment in comic opera. His next area was the musical farce (farse), starting with L’Italiana in Algeri, where his operas called for the top soloists to take on his difficult principal roles.

Marie Françoise Constance Mayer: Gioachino Rossini (Pesaro: Casa Rossini)

Marie Françoise Constance Mayer: Gioachino Rossini (Pesaro: Casa Rossini)

La gazza ladra, which sits between opera seria and comic opera, is an opera semiseria. The opera received its premiere on 31 May 1817 at La Scala, Milan.

Many opera semiseria, also called melodrama, were ‘rescue operas’ which involved a class conflict between the feudal aristocracy and regular society, generally peasants. The settings are usually the village square, with the nobleman’s house (or the local prison) looming over the scene. In La gazza ladra, the climax is set in the nobleman’s court, pushing the emphasis over to a more opera seria ending.

José Álvarez Cubero: Bust of Gioachino Rossini, ca. 1819 (private owner)

José Álvarez Cubero: Bust of Gioachino Rossini, ca. 1819 (private owner)

Ninetta loves Giannetto, who is on his way back from the wars. Her father, Fernando, a deserter from the army, shows up and asks her to sell two of their silver spoons so he has some money. She gathers up the spoons and is interrupted by the mayor who asks her to read out the description of a deserter in the area. She makes up a different description of her father, and while she’s doing that, a magpie swoops down and steals a spoon.

Alessandro Sanquirico: Tribunal del podestà in un grosso villaggio non molto distante da parigi : questa scena su eseguita pel melodramma La Gazza Ladra, posto in musica dal sig. Gioachimo Rossini, e rappresentato nell'J. R. Teatro alla Scala (Design for courtroom scene (Act II: 9)) (Gallica: btv1b53117267k)

Alessandro Sanquirico: Tribunal del podestà in un grosso villaggio non molto distante da parigi : questa scena su eseguita pel melodramma La Gazza Ladra, posto in musica dal sig. Gioachimo Rossini, e rappresentato nell’J. R. Teatro alla Scala (Design for courtroom scene (Act II: 9)) (Gallica: btv1b53117267k)

Giannetto’s mother, who is not in favour of Ninetta, accuses Ninetta of theft, and as the two family spoons have the same initials on them, Ninetta is found guilty and sent to the scaffold. The magpie steals a silver coin, and when it’s followed to its nest, both Ninetta’s and Gianetta’s mother’s lost spoons are found. Will the discoverers get back to the scaffold in time to save Ninetta? Of course they do, and all have a happy ending, except the Mayor, who was hoping Giannetta’s troubles would be solved in his arms.

Discovery of the magpie’s nest

Discovery of the magpie’s nest

The overture, which starts with a snappy drum roll, is significant for its use of snare drums.

Gioachino Rossini: La gazza ladra Overture

This 1928 recording was conducted by Ernst Viebig, leading the Berlin State Opera Orchestra. Ernst Viebig (1897–1959) was an accomplished composer from a family with literary connections. His father was a publisher and his mother a writer. His original name was a hyphenated version of his parents’ names, Cohn-Viebig, and was shortened to Viebig in 1914 when he wanted to join the army. The family hoped that eliminating his father’s Jewish name would make his way easier. His father had converted to Lutheran Protestantism when he married Clara Viebig.

Ernst Viebig

Ernst Viebig

Family connections brought the world of literature to the house and his own interests in music started with the piano, with a particular skill in improvisation. He served in WWI and returned to Berlin with a position at the Electrola record company as musical director, while also serving as a bandmaster and composer. With the rise of the National Socialists in Germany and an inquiry by the Gestapo about his Jewish background, he decided to leave Germany for South America. His music did not find favour there and he and his second wife opened a German bookstore in Rio de Janeiro and then in São Paulo. He returned to Berlin in 1958 but could not find work and retired to Lower Bavaria where he died in 1959.

As the musical director at Electrola in the 1920s, he played an important role in their recordings. As a conductor, he made not only this La gazza ladra recording but also important recordings of the overture to von Suppé’s operetta The Beautiful Galathée and Puccini’s Turandot Fantasy.

1933-LES CHEFS PROSCRITS-ERNST VIEBIG

Performed by

Ernst Viebig
Berlin State Opera Orchestra

Recorded in 1928

Official Website

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Movers and Shakers: Giulio Gatti-Casazza (1869-1940)

 

He single-handedly revolutionized the world of opera by applying an unprecedented entrepreneurial philosophy to arts management. Giulio Gatti-Casazza managed La Scala in Milan for a decade, and he also served as the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera of New York for a record 27 seasons! His ideas of organizing opera houses as not-for-profit cultural companies situated an ancient art form decidedly in the modern world.

Giulio Gatti-Casazza

Giulio Gatti-Casazza

“Even the greatest genius,” he writes, “would not be able to change the nature of things and prevent the theater from being a great public service; its two faces, artistic and economic, must be wisely harmonized, to ensure the survival of an organism that is so schematic, but not less alive.” Gatti-Casazza was born in Udine but spent his formative years in Ferrara. He studied naval engineering, but his love of opera compelled him to take on the role of general manager at the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara. His way of combining knowledge of opera, his love for music and his gift for management soon attracted attention elsewhere.

Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly, “Love Duet” 

At the recommendation of Arrigo Boito, Gatti-Casazza became the general manager of La Scala, and he oversaw the premiere of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. And as you might know, he brought with him a 29-year old gifted conductor from Parma by the name of Arturo Toscanini!

Arturo Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini

He approached his appointment with an almost maniacal passion for organization. Guided by instinct, curiosity and a clear project vision, he made radical changes in Milan. He turned the opera house into a not-for-profit institution dedicated entirely to lyric art. In addition, his vision and unshakable faith in the power of Art meant that the repertoire at La Scala was no longer confined to native composers but reflected wider European operatic expressions. His approach quickly raised eyebrows in Paris and Vienna, and came to the attention of Otto Kahn, chairman of the Met board. He strongly believed that the company needed a robust and creative leader for the future.

Giacomo Puccini: Il Trittico, “Gianni Schicci-O mio babino caro” 

Gatti-Casazza arrived in New York in 1908 and brought Toscanini with him. Toscanini became the guiding artistic presence—at least until 1915—and Gatti-Casazza engaged the most important singers of the day, starting with the young Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar. He brought Puccini to New York to oversee a production of Madama Butterfly as well as commissioning La Fanciulla del West and Il Trittico. Listening to Verdi’s advice, Gatti-Casazza made it his vision to have a full house every night, and Toscanini made it a priority to elevate the Met orchestra and chorus into great virtuoso artists. But what is more, Gatti-Casazza was eager to adopt new technologies and made audio recordings of the Met’s leading singers. He also initiated live radio broadcasts of opera from the Met stage, creating the template that still informs the Met transmissions on satellite radio and HD broadcasts in cinemas worldwide.

Engelbert Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel, “The Witch’s Ride” 

In a number of short years, Gatti-Casazza had turned opera into a cultural product in the corporate sense. High-quality productions combined with a self-sufficient business model raise funds without a single dollar of public subsidy. His brilliant insights into the needs of the business helped him to overcome a number of severe predicaments. Toscanini resigned and returned to Italy in 1915, and WWI prevented many European singers from coming to New York.

Giacomo Puccini with Giulio Gatti-Casazza, David Belasco and Arturo Toscanini in New York

Giacomo Puccini with Giulio Gatti-Casazza, David Belasco
and Arturo Toscanini in New York

Responding to that need, Gatti-Casazza spearheaded the development of American talent. Under Gatti-Casazza’s leadership, the Met even survived the stock market crash of 1929 and the prolonged depression. He looked at every crisis not as a danger but as an opportunity. Although he never fully mastered the English language, he insisted that operas be done in their original languages if possible. Gatti-Casazza left New York in 1935, but only after having introduced his last great discovery, the soprano Kirsten Flagstad.