Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade - IV (1/2)

Serge Prokofieff - His Music and Life (II)

After the Russian revolution 1917-1918, Prokoieff pulled out to live abroad in Japan, U.S.A., and Upper Bavaria/Germany.His opera "Love to Three Oranges" (1919) also flopped; only the opera march remained as hit up to now.

The children's opera "Peter and the Wolf" is classical music equipment. I grew up with this antique record (by the way, the first in my classical music collection), when I started playing piano at the age of 4 sometime in 1957.

Prokofieff composed fantastic ballet works: "Romeo and Juliet" (1935), "Cinderella" (1941-1944 during World War II), or "The Stony Flower" (1949).

During my stay in Russia in 1981, Prokofieff's ballet works became main parts of Moscow's theatres. Prokoieff's last work (opus 125) has been "The Concerto for violin cello and orchestra", which has been dedicated to Msistlaw Rostropowitsch, a great violin cello virtuoso from the Moscow College of Music.

Serge Prokofieff - His Music and Life

Born in Sonzowka-Jekaterinoslaw/Russia on April 23, 1891, Serge Prokofieff passed away on March 5, 1953. His father was an estate trustee; his mother taught him effusive music classes.

At the age of 9, Prokofieff couldn't read or write, but being able to compose, he started with his first opera. His teachers have been all very well-known: Reinhold Gliere (1875-1956), Anatol Liadow (1855-1914), and Nikolai Rimsky-Korssakof (1844-1908).

The "Piano Sonata f-minor" from 1909 became his Opus 1. In 1913, Prokofieff played his "Second Piano Concerto in g-minor" for the honorable dedication of Serge Diaghilew (1872-1929).

At the end of his studies in 1914, he won the "Rubinstein Trophy".

Prokofieff's ballet "Ala and Lolly" became a flop; some pieces from this ballet, known as "Skythetic Suite" became a scandal in 1916. Prokofieff's ironical hemisphere, especially remarkable in his piano pieces "Sarcasm" (1912, opus 17) widened certain uneasiness among music lovers. 

His "Symphony classic d-major" (1916/1917) became a continuous success.

(To be continued!)

 

Serge Prokofieff: Peter & The Wolf

Camille Saint-Saëns - The Swan -Der Schwan

Franz Liszt - His Music and Life

Franz Liszt was born on October 22. 1811 in Raiding im Burgenland/Austria and passed away in Bayreuth/Germany on July 31, 1886.

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.

Pavarotti- La Traviata- Brindisi

Volodos - Franz Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13

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.

Stabat Mater ( Giovanni Pergolesi) - the great Emma Kirkby

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...

Mozart : Violin Concerto No. 3 (Hilary Hahn)

Giacomo Meyerbeer: Die Hugenotten

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.

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.