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
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