Symphonies by Female Composers Kaprálová, Beach, Auner, Mayer, Larsen, and Pavlova

by Georg Predota, Interlude

Vítězslava Kaprálová

Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915-1940) was one of the most impressive and exciting musical voices at the beginning of the 20th century. She wrote her first compositions for piano solo at the age of nine, and graduated from Brno Conservatory with a piano concerto, which she conducted herself. She was able to secure a French government scholarship, and after her move to Paris she studied conducting with Charles Munch and composition with Bohuslav Martinů. The compositions she wrote in Paris showed every sign that she was on the verge of becoming a major musical figure in the 20th century. Her works reveal “a mature mastery of contemporary musical language as she mingles a concise polytonality with her own melancholy melodic expression.” Kaprálová shared the limelight with Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, and Paul Hindemith at the International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in 1938. Her Military Sinfonietta actually was chosen to open the festival, and she quickly received international critical acclaim. Two months after her marriage to Jiří Mucha, the son of the Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha, Kaprálová died after a brief illness on 16 June 1940.

Despite her death at 25, she left behind “a remarkable array of more than 50 works of virtually every genre. Almost all of them are of the highest craftsmanship and inspiration.” Her Military Sinfonietta serves as an important testament to the anxieties of the times, and it sparkles with colorful orchestration, fine craftsmanship, passion and great musical sensitivity. The composer described the work as “using the language of music to express the emotional relationship toward the questions of national existence… The composition does not represent a battle cry, but it depicts the psychological need to defend that which is most sacred to the nation.” Kaprálová’s life has inspired two Czech language monographs and two novels, and her compositions—ranging from art songs to orchestral cantatas—must become part of the musical mainstream.

Amy Beach

Amy Beach (1867-1944) was the first American woman to succeed as a composer of large-scale art music. An exceptional musical prodigy, “she could sing 40 tunes accurately at the age of one; before the age of two she improvised alto lines against her mother’s soprano melodies; at three she taught herself to read; and at four she mentally composed her first piano pieces and later played them, and could play by ear whatever music she heard, including hymns in four-part harmony.” She gave her successful debut in Boston on 24 October 1883 playing the E-flat Rondo by Chopin and the G-minor Concerto by Moscheles. In terms of composition, she was essentially self-taught and started publishing her works in the mid 1880s. Her early works show a remarkable sensitivity to the relationships between music and text, and song is always at the core of her style. Beach had no problems mastering extended musical forms, including her “Gaelic Symphony” premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896. Her colleague George Whitefield Chadwick famously wrote to her after the premiere, “I always feel a thrill of pride myself whenever I hear a fine new work by any one of us, and as such you will have to be counted in, whether you will or not—one of the boys.” It was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman, and Beach became one of the most respected and acclaimed American composers of her era. She published well over 300 works during her lifetime and included almost every genre. It is inconceivable and shameful that we don’t hear her music with greater regularity.

Mary Dickenson-Auner

The Irish violinist, music educator and composer Mary Dickenson-Auner (1880-1965) initially took violin lessons with Samuel Coleridge Taylor, and she continued her education at the Royal Academy of Music in London. During her career as a professional violinist, she performed the world premiere of Béla Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1. A critic wrote, “To Mrs. Dickenson-Auner also fell the distinction of being chosen by Béla Bartók for the first performance anywhere of his new Violin Sonata, which is still in manuscript. This composition, which has since been performed in London as well, created a deep impression here by virtue of its strongly personal and national touches. An equal share of admiration fell to the lot of Mrs. Dickenson-Auner and to her partner, Eduard Steuermann, a Viennese pianist from the Schoenberg group, who, in their interpretation of this piece, displayed remarkable technical resources and admirable interpretative powers.” In addition, Dickenson-Auner joined Arnold Schoenberg’s private music performance group and gave concerts under his direction. During the tumultuous times of WWII, she turned towards composition and published her early works under the pseudonym Frank Donnell. In all, Auner wrote six symphonies, four operas, two oratorios and numerous songs and chamber music works. Her compositions combine her love for Johann Sebastian Bach with the 12-tone music of Schoenberg. Auner found her musical inspiration in Irish folk tunes of her early years, tellingly calling the resulting compositions “Celtic Impressionism.”

Emilie Mayer

Emilie Mayer (1812–1883) is not a household name. However, she was an extraordinary figure in the social and musical history of her era, “and one of the very first women composers to make a profession of her proclivity for creative work; Emilie Mayer saw herself primarily as a composer.” A biographer wrote, “Her financial independence was a prerequisite that allowed her to escape gender-specific social conventions and lead the life of a freelance composer.” Born in a small town in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Mayer revealed her musical talent early on and composed waltzes and sets of variations. Relocating to Stettin, Mayer auditioned Carl Loewe for compositions lessons, and he attested to her “God-given talents.” She started to compose in earnest, and the local Orchestral Society performed her first two symphonies. Mayer relocated to Berlin and became a professional composer. The public response to her works was thoroughly positive, “but equally thoroughly pervaded by a gender-specific caveat summarized by a critic for the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung… That still other abilities and a more elevated intellect are necessary in order to probe the deepest mysteries of art need hardly be stated. That which female powers – powers of a second order – are capable of attaining, Emilie Mayer has achieved and brought to expression.” Undeterred, she continued to organize concerts of her music, but the great Berlin and Leipzig publishing houses were not interested to issue her orchestral works. As such, Mayer shifted her focus to string quartets, duo sonatas and character pieces and sometimes financed the publication herself. One of the first professional female composers, Emilie Mayer primarily composed instrumental music, and that includes eight symphonies. That such an exceptional pioneer of the arts should have been summarily dismissed and forgotten is an indelible stain on the way we record and remember history.

Libby Larsen

Libby Larsen is one of America’s most-performed living composers. Her catalog contains more than 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and more than 15 operas. Her music has been praised for its dynamic, deeply inspired, and vigorous contemporary American spirit. Grammy Award winning and widely recorded, including over fifty CD’s of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world, and has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory. During the early stages of her career, Larsen was determined to work independently. Rather than working in academia, she enjoys the collaborative process of working with performers, and believes “that her works are only complete when performed for an audience.” For Larsen, the process of composition is not an isolated intellectual activity. “I view composition as a generative activity,” she explains, “that I approach by living fully in the world and bringing whatever insight I have about the world I live into my music. In that way I can’t separate myself from my music, nor do I separate myself from society. I don’t expect that society would have to come to my music; since I’m part of society, my music should be immediately part of that society.” Larsen is greatly influenced by the rhythms and pitches of spoken American English, and she describes composition as “placing sounds in order in time and space.” Contrasting styles of music represent different segments of the community, “and rhythmic vitality and a wide palette of tonal colors, which may include electronically generated or amplified sounds,” are trademarks of Larsen’s style. She considers all types of music “from choral and orchestral to boogie woogie, jazz, and rock and roll, to be different combinations of pitch and rhythm that reflect contemporary culture.” Larsen continues to share her thoughts on music and the arts in keynote addresses throughout the United States. 

Alla Pavlova

The composer and musicologist Alla Pavlova started her musical career in Moscow. After spending some time in Sofia, she moved to New York. Pavlova has special interest in writing music for film, theater, dance, and children. The orchestra seems to be her preferred medium, and she has 11 symphonies to her name. However, a number of her instrumental and vocal works have also been performed in the United States, Europe, and Canada. Her 2nd Symphony “For the New Millennium” was composed in 1997 and subsequently revised. The composer writes, “The idea of the symphony is of man and his relation to the Universe on the threshold of the new millennium. The first movement and finale express man’s subjective perception of he Universe, and this is why violin solos play an important role in these movements. The second and third movements picture the Universe, with its forces of Light and Darkness, which are always in opposition to each other, but at the same time complement each other… The essence of the symphony in its entirety is the necessity of human striving toward Light and Love, no matter how tragic the reality may be.”

My passion of music (V)

Yes, this first piano concerto by Tschaikowsky still brings tears into my eyes. 

Tchaikovsky (or Tschaikowsky) was the second of six surviving children of Ilya Tchaikovsky, a manager of the Kamsko-Votkinsk metal works, and Alexandra Assier, a descendant of French émigrés. He manifested a clear interest in music from childhood, and his earliest musical impressions came from an orchestrina in the family home.

He had a few close friends that he held on to for his entire life, including his brother Modest. This shows a fiercely loyal and devoted side of his personality. Tchaikovsky was also a bit of a perfectionist, and was known to literally tear apart his own compositions if he found them unsatisfactory.

Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky has been born on May 7, 1840 in Wotkinsk and passed away in Saint Petersburg / Russia. His father was technical director in Saint Petersburg. Tschaikowsky ignored his musical talent for a long time and got shattered when his beloved mother died so early because of cholera.

Tschaikowsky studied law and was employed in different public offices. But all those tasks had been unsuitable for him. At the age of 23, he started to study music. The overture "Romeo and Juliet" from 1869 made him popular. But the continuing popularity didn't ease his melancholy and depressions. Tschaikowsky lived mostly in the province of Saint Petersburg as well as in France and Italy.

Tschaikowsky was terrible shy and afraid of his popularity. Main works have been his six symphonies as well as his incredible and unique "Piano Concerto in b-flat major" from 1875 and the "Violin Concerto in d-major" from 1878. Wonderful music treasures are also his "1812 Overture" (1880), the "Italian Capriccio" (1880) and the "String Serenade in c-major".

Tschaikowsky has been a fantastic ballet maestro - unbelievable and seldom reachable by other composers during that period. Up to now "Swan Lake", "Nutcracker" uor "The Sleeping Beauty" have been unforgettable.

Tschaikowsky also composed nine operas, but only two are still known: "Eugene Onegin" (1877) and "Pique Dame" (1890).

It was long time ago. November 1986. I have been invited by Radio Moscow, German Language Department to join a radio program. It was really difficult taking photos during that time as a tourist in Moscow. But, I did it.

Sure, Tschaikowsky was part of the then radio program. I was somehow honored joining that broadcasting then.

Back from Moscow. I tried to reshape my life. After Russian classics,  I found myself back in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart[a] (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.

Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty, embarking on a grand tour. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position.

While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his early death at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death are largely uncertain, and have thus been much mythologized.

Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 600 works of virtually every genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. He is considered among the greatest classical composers of all time,[ and his influence on Western music is profound, particularly on Ludwig van Beethoven. His elder colleague Joseph Haydn wrote: "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years".

Mozart and his simple classical music yet deafening music fascinated me then. Simple? Well. Can you compare Mozart with Beethoven, Wagner, Chopin and other classical composers?

(To be continued!)

Robert Schumann: Paradise and the Peri, Op. 50

by Georg Predota, Interlude

Robert Schumann © Wikipedia

When Robert Schumann premiered his secular oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri, Op. 50 (Paradise and the Peri) in December 1843 in Leipzig, the composer was instantly catapulted from provincial to international fame. In the first decade after the composition, the Peri was performed more than fifty times. Schumann even called it his “greatest work,” and his wife Clara suggested, “It seems to me the most magnificent he has written yet.”

Although the work was a resounding success with audiences and critics alike, it quickly disappeared from the repertoire and has been unable to gain a foothold in the modern concert hall. A number of commentators have wrongly located the primary reason for the work’s neglect in the “flowery, Eastern-inspired verbiage of the libretto.” The subject matter is loosely based on one of the four lengthy poems from Thomas Moore’s oriental epic the Lalla Rookh. Originating in Persian mythology, the text strongly resonates with contemporary enthusiasm for oriental impressions that is reflected in light fiction as well as serious literature.

The story centers on the heroine Peri, who is seeking admission into paradise, a realm from which she has been excluded owing to her mixed descent from the union of a fallen angel and a mortal. Peri can enter the heavenly pastures only if she is able to render “the heaven’s dearest gift.” To gain admission, Peri captures the last drop of blood of a young freedom fighter in India, and in Egypt she catches the last breath of a girl who sacrifices herself for her plague-ridden lover. Both gifts, however, are not sufficient. Only the tear of a Syrian criminal, shed in remorse at the sight of a praying child, finally opens the gates of heaven. Richard Wagner enthusiastically wrote to Schumann in 1843, “I do not only know this wonderful poem, it has also been passing through my musical senses; but I found no form with which to reproduce the poem, and therefore I now wish you the luck to have found the right one.”

The work is clearly the product of Schumann’s ever-fertile interest in literature and allegory. Above all, Schumann was looking to create an oratorio “not for the chapel, but for merry people.” In a musical sense, he blended elements from the oratorio, opera and song. Internally, the work is held together by lyrical quasi-recitative that propels the narrative portions of the text. Since it contains a number of memorable tunes, Schumann was quickly accused of pandering to popular taste. But it was not the choice of text or Schumann’s musical treatment that plunged the work into obscurity. Rather, it all had to do with a subtle change in the inner constitution of concert life. While church music is primarily sustained by the institution, secular non-theatrical music was aligned with notions of education, culture and good breeding. The educated classes in the 19th century extended from the lesser nobility to academics and the working middle classes. Compositions for mixed chorus represented the educated classes, and choral societies formed throughout Europe that would perform at specific times during the year in large musical festivals. Since secular vocal music was closely linked with the spirit and institution of the public concert, it only took some minor changes in social conventions and attitudes to make the entire repertory disappear into oblivion. Maybe the early 21st century is once again sensing the need for a closer connection between the public concert and the educated classes. Whatever the case may be, it is decidedly satisfying to witness the revival of this once highly popular secular choral repertory.

This new Netflix heist movie has got Wagner trending, thanks to its safe-cracking plot

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, ClassicFM

@sophiassocials

 

Army of Thieves is the prequel to the Netflix zombie movie, Army of the Dead, and the film takes a surprising amount of inspiration from Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. 

German composer Richard Wagner is trending, and it might not be for the reason you think.

Netflix’s latest heist movie, Army of Thieves, tells the story of a German safe-cracker, Dieter, who is hired by an internationally renowned heist team to break into a series of safes inspired by Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring Cycle).

The film is a prequel to the zombie movie released on the streaming platform earlier this year, Army of the Dead, which also stars German actor Matthias Schweighöfer as Dieter, and is directed by Zach Snyder.

Every good heist movie has *that* scene, where the characters tensely wait as the skilled member of their team attempts to open a vault full of goods. One false move, and it could mean the end of their entire mission, and possibly prison time or death for the whole team.

Well if you enjoy those kind of scenes, get ready for at least three in this film alone, and that’s not including the underground safe-cracking ring which Dieter finds himself in for a series of games in front of a betting audience.

Bank-teller Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert (aka. Dieter), is an expert in all things safe-cracking. At the beginning of the film, we see him sharing his knowledge to his 0 subscriber YouTube channel, where he makes videos about his favourite safe-maker, Hans Wagner.

In the film, Hans Wagner is introduced as a German master-locksmith, who is famed with having created four almost impenetrable safes based on Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

Dieter is therefore recruited by an international heist gang to assist in their plan to break into three of these four safes, after one of the members sees his YouTube video on the safes. By joining the team, he begins a character transition from Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert the bank-teller, into Ludwig Dieter, the international safe-cracker.

The parallels between this story and Wagner’s Ring Cycle become obvious as the film plays out. As Dieter cracks each of the three safes in Hans Wagner’s own Ring Cycle, he plays famed music from the opera, while explaining to his team member, Gwendolyn, a brief summary of the musical work and significance.

Here’s a brief introduction to the four operas which comprise Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and how they are linked to the safes in Army of Thieves.

Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)

Wagner’s first opera of the Ring Cycle was completed in 1854. Despite being the first score to be completed, it was actually the last text to be written, as the operas were written from back-to-front, with the first text being the last opera, Twilight of the Gods.

The Rhinegold begins with three Rhine maidens who are approached by a Niebling dwarf, Alberich, who tries to woo them in order to reveal the Rhinegold (gold found in the river Rhein).

In a similar fashion, the first safe Dieter encounters, has three knobs designed to look like the Rhine maidens, and he has to crack the safe in order to find his own Rhinegold (the money inside the safe).

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)

The second safe is based on the second opera in the Ring Cycle, completed in 1854.

The Valkyrie is an epic work in its own right. It’s over five hours long and is the birthplace of the infamous orchestral piece, The Ride of the Valkyries, which has appeared in numerous soundtracks, most notably in the 1979 American epic psychological war film, Apocalypse Now.

The engravings on The Valkyrie safe depict the story of Richard Wagner’s second opera, and Dieter correctly guesses that the knobs must be solved in the order of the story-telling.

 Dieter explains the storyline as he cracks the safe to the accompaniment of Ride of the Valkyries, saying: “Wagner’s work had many themes of great importance to him, but all of them touched upon love.

“I believe the locks are to be solved in the order of the story and then the cycle begins anew. The themes of these stories were the model, still relevant, such as deception and double cross in love.” 

Opera number three out of four of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, gives inspiration to the final safe we see cracked in this film.

Siegfried is named after the title tenor character, Siegfried, who is Siegmund and Sieglinde’s son. Siegfried grows up without parental care, and is instead raised in a foster care situation by the dwarf Alberich’s brother, Nibelung Mime.

Mime forges a sword for Siegfried in order to slay the dragon, Fafnir, and says that the dragon will teach Siegfried what fear is. This is echoed in Dieter’s fear when he attempts to crack the Siegfried safe; he is scared as he is not sure whether he will be able to break into this safe, due to his near failure with The Valkyrie, and the high-pressured situation he is in, trying to crack a safe in the back of a moving vehicle.

Dieter tries to crack ‘the Siegfried’ safe in Army of Thieves. Picture: Alamy

Dieter once again explains, in this opera, “Siegfried faces his darkest of trials in order to understand what it means to truly be afraid. He slays the dragon Fafnir and then he slays the dwarf who raised him, when confronted with his betrayal. Then he finds Brünnhilde and the two of them fall in love. After all the pain and fear, there’s a happy ending.”

This story follows a similar vein to Dieter’s own journey. His new persona of 'Ludwig Dieter' having started the film as Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert, was created and raised by the heist team – who would subsequently betray him in the final act. While he doesn’t slay his team, they are arrested, and he hopes the similarity between Siegfried finding love with Brünnhilde, and his own love interest in team member Gwendolyn, will be realised at the end of the film.

While not everything works out how he planned, the character of Dieter certainly follows a similar journey to the Ring Cycle’s main characters.

Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)

The fourth and final safe, is not actually seen in this film, but rather features in the first instalment of the movie franchise in Army of the Dead.

In the film, a different heist team are assembled to travel into Las Vegas, which has been overrun by Zombie’s since an outbreak six years previously.

The team are tasked with breaking into the final Hans Wagner safe, Götterdämmerung, which lies underneath the Las Vegas strip and contains $200 million, before an imminent nuclear bomb is set to destroy the city.

Due to Dieter’s experience, he is brought on as the safe-cracker, and is overjoyed to be able to join the team to fulfil his life’s purpose of cracking into the final Wagner safe. In the final act of Götterdämmerung, Brünnhilde dies in the ultimate act of self-sacrifice.

Dieter also sacrifices himself, locking his teammate, Vanderohe, in the final safe away while he is left outside with the ravenous Zombies.

Here ends the Ring Cycle of Dieter.

Who wrote the score for Army of Thieves?

The Army of Thieves score is by Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro, who worked together on the recent Bond film, No Time to Die.

Zimmer also wrote the music for the first instalment of the cinematic universe, Army of the Dead. A wink is even given to the legendary German composer when one of the character’s describes how their brother’s favourite film is Pirates of the Caribbean, a film Zimmer scored.

The Army of Thieves soundtrack features multiple tracks from the three Wagnerian operas, and Army of the Dead features Siegfried’s Funeral March from Götterdämmerung during the safe-cracking scenes.

Netflix has been inspired to bring new audiences to classical music for the past few years, with series such as Bridgerton and Squid Game heavily featuring the genre.

As Richard Wagner and the Ring Cycle have been trending since the film premiered on 29 October, we’re excited to see how the streaming platform could bring a whole new (zombie-loving?) audience to classical music

My passion of music (IV)

The music of my life started at the age of 6. During my first steps on the piano with Beethoven's  "Für Elise", I remember my very first LP (Long Play) on my birthday gifts table: Serge Prokofieff's ' "Peter and the wolf". 

In an autobiographical sketch, the Russian composer described the three chief qualities of his complex work as: a classical or rather classicist rendencityan emotional vein and  grotesque element, which the composer detected as "fun, laughter, satire". "A symphonic tale for children '' awoke my dream of classical music.  

In spite of this drastic sound-painting  portrayal, the general effect produced is not that of a musical jest, but - thanks to Prokofieff's artistry and skill - one of singular poetry.

There are few musicians with such eloquence and improvisational skills as Sergei Prokofieff, the Russian composer of many different talents, some of which included the piano and keyboards. Born to a financially well-off family in 1891, Prokofieff’s first exposure to music was through his mother, who would spend two months a year learning the piano while also playing a few sonnets every evening. Prokofiff began learning the piano instantly, and became so proficient that he was then composing his first piano composition, under the watchful supervision of his mother. Before the age of 10, he had also shown interest in opera music and started work on his first opera, called The Giant.

In his early years, Prokofieff’s parents were adamant on providing him with theory lessons, so as to clarify his conceptual frameworks as far as the piano and composition went. However, they soon began having second thoughts about their young son pursuing a music career at such a delicate age, and therefore, decided to enroll him in the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Here, he worked and learned the piano and other instruments under the auspices of renowned composers such as Alexander Winkler, Nikolai Tcherepnin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Before his father’s death in 1910, he had started performing in local clubs and other music venues like the St. Petersburg Evenings of Contemporary Music, performing some of his early Piano Sonatas such as Four Etudes for Piano, Op 2(1909). All through the early 1910s, Prokofieff had been experimenting with a wide variety of genres, one of which was ballet music. While he may have succeeded in a number of other music compositions, he always seems to have a hard time with ballet music, with the likes of Chout becoming subject to intense modifications in the 1920s.
 
Having received menial works in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, Prokofieff decided to move to Russia in 1936. The period post-1936 was a completely different time for Prokofieff, and set in motion some of his most impressive works. Bearing in mind the hostile reality of the time, most of the themes covered in his works such as his orchestral piece Russian Overture (1936) and War Sonatas embraced war-related topics and disregarded true musical passion. However, Prokofiev managed to retain his incredible ingenuity with compositions such as Peter and the Wolf, Alexander Nevsky and Romeo and Juliet, all of which were received well on an international scale. Some of these compositions were Sergei Prokofiev’s most valuable works, and are still widely performed today.

The war and post-war years saw the likes of some impressive compositions, such as War and Peace, The Ballet Cinderella and various violin sonatas, encompassing the true remarkability that Prokofieff deserves large-scale appraise for. It becomes important to realize the tremendous contributions this great artist made to the classical music world, despite the troubles he so often had to face.

Because of Prokofieff, my world of classical music first opened up to Russia. Yes, not to Germany or Austria. Not to (sorry Maestro!) Beethoven or Liszt, Mozart or whomever.  Suddenly, fell in love with Tschaikowsky. His first piano concerto in b-minor kept me speechless and full of tears at any stage play, I was blessed during my whole life. 

The very first bars of this piano concerto are so distinctive that they will remain in the listener's memory forever. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is recognizable and catchy. Charismatic piano virtuoso Martha Argerich lends an elegant lightness to this impressive piece. Conducted by Charles Dutoit, Argerich performed with the Verbier Festival Orchestra at the Verbier Festival in 2014.

(To be continued!)

Johann Sebastian Bach and His Circle of Friends I

 by Georg Predota, Interlude

Johann Sebastian Bach

Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788) described his father’s household in Leipzig as a “pigeon coop.” People were constantly swarming in and out all the time, and he told the Bach biographer Forkel, “with his many activities Bach hardly had time for the most necessary correspondence, and accordingly would not indulge in lengthy written exchanges. But he had the opportunity to talk personally to good people, since his house was full of life.”

Forkel: J.S. Bach Biography

Johann Sebastian and his wife Anna Magdalena Bach kept an open house, welcoming friends and colleagues from near and far. “No master of music was apt to pass through Leipzig without making Bach’s acquaintance and letting himself be heard by him.” And that included a good number of the leading figures in contemporary German musical life, including Carl Heinrich and Johann Gottlieb Graun, Franz Benda, Johann Joachim Quantz and the famous husband and wife team of Johann Adolph Hasse and Faustina Bordoni, who came to Leipzig several times. The Bach family frequently entertained at home, and that always included house concerts. And we do know that Carl Philipp Emanuel performed in his father’s Concerto for two Violins, BWV 1043.

Johann Nikolaus Forkel

From 1736 until his death, Johann Sebastian Bach held the title of Royal Polish and electoral Saxon Court Composer. The composer actually never traveled to the Kingdom of Poland or the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, governed by Augustus II (Augustus the Strong,) and his son Augustus III. However, when Augustus III succeeded his father in 1733, he announced a surprise visit to Leipzig one year later. Bach immediately went to work and in a mere three days composed his secular cantata “Preise dein Glücke, gesegnetes Sachsen,” (Praise your good fortune, blessed Saxony) BWV 215.

August Weger: J.S. Bach

This cantata was first performed on 5 October 1734, in front of the Apels Haus, the Elector’s palace on the market square in Leipzig. Apparently, Augustus III was overjoyed, and he wrote in his official account that he had been “warmly pleased.” Bach had already been in contact with Augustus III in 1733, when he presented the manuscript of a “Missa of Kyrie and Gloria” to the monarch. These movements later became part of the B-minor mass, and Bach eventually did get his “Royal Polish” 1736 appointment.

St. Michaelis monastery in Lüneburg

Johann Sebastian Bach lost both parents before the age of ten. He spent the next five years with his older brother Johann Christoph in the town of Ohrdruf. And at school, he became best friends with Georg Erdmann. When Johann Christoph’s ordered his younger brother out of the house, the two friends decided to walk to Lüneburg, a distance of almost 350 miles. There they joined the choir of the wealthy Michaelis monastery, which provided free places for poor boys with musical talent. The boys were inseparable until their paths diverged in 1702. Bach moved back to Thuringia, and we have no idea what happened to Erdmann over the next 27 years.

Bach’s letter to Erdmann

Bach and Erdmann had lost touch, but their friendship endured, as we learn from two surviving letters dating from around 1730. “Dear Friend,” Bach writes, “you might excuse an old friend, who allows himself to bother you with this letter. Almost four years are gone, since you answered my last letter. I remember you asked me to report about my difficulties, which I would like to do now. Since our youth you know my career, until my change as a bandmaster in Koethen…” Bach also reports to Erdmann about personal matters, “I am married for the second time… From my first marriage three sons and one daughter are still living, whom you saw in Weimar years ago. From my second marriage one son and two daughters are living. My oldest son is studying law; the two others still go to school, one in the prima; the other one in the secunda. The children from the second marriage are still little; the oldest is six years of age. They are all future musicians.” The “Partite diverse” BWV 766 dates from around 1700, at a time when both Ermann and Bach were studying at the Michaelis School.

Johann Matthias Gesner

During his time in Weimar, Bach became good friends with the eminent philologist and scholar Johann Matthias Gesner (1691-1761). An expert in Semitic languages, classical literature, metaphysics and theology, Gesner became librarian and vice-principal at Weimar. Eventually, Gesner was appointed rector at the School of St. Thomas, and he therefore became Bach’s boss. As it turns out, Gesner was the only superior in Bach’s 27 years of service in Leipzig who recognized, admired and fostered his greatness. Gesner freed Bach from many unnecessary responsibilities, and since he was an admirer of Bach’s music, “he allowed Bach to assume his social position as a truly great musician and to assert his influence at the school as well.” Gesner raised Bach’s salary, allowed him to travel, freed him from teaching Latin, and asked for advice on updating the curriculum, admissions, and administrative approaches. In fact, Gesner published an extensive description of Bach in 1738, placing the composer far above the musical gods of Greece. In turn, to celebrate Gesner’s 40th birthday on 9 April 1732, Bach adapted his Cantata “Soar upwards in your joy” to celebrate the occasion.

Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen

In 1719, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen sent Johann Sebastian Bach on an errand to Berlin. Bach was placed in charge of negotiating for a new harpsichord for the court, and he tried out a number of instruments in the presence of Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. We don’t know what Bach played on that occasion, but he was invited to send in some compositions.

Christian Ludwig, Margrave of
Brandenburg-Schwedt

Initially, Bach did not respond to the commission as he himself said, he “took a couple of years.” Bach changed his mind in 1721, however, as Prince Leopold summarily dismissed him from his services. As such, Bach was forced to look for employment opportunities elsewhere, and he sent the Margrave six instrumental compositions. These compositions became known as the Brandenburg Concertos, and they represent a compendium of highly original and individual compositions for a varied combination of instruments. According to the composer “they were written to exploit the resources of Cöthen.” However, these resources did not seem to have been available to the Margrave of Brandenburg. As such, Bach received no thanks, no fees and no employment offer. 

He was born Christian Friedrich Henrici in Dresden in 1700, but everybody knew him under the pseudonym “Picander”. Picander started his poetic career in Leipzig in 1721, and in time, he would become one of Bach’s most important poets. He probably wrote his first text for Bach in 1723 but there are still some uncertainties as to the authorship of texts during Bach’s first years in the city. However, by 1725 Bach and Picander were definitely working together.

Picander: Book of Poems, 1732

Their collaborations produced some of the most important works in the Lutheran tradition, including the St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244), the funeral music for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, and the St. Mark Passion (BWV 247). Picander claimed that Bach “set a whole cycle of his cantata texts in 1729.” Since only nine of these Bach settings are known to have survived, Picander’s claim must be approached with some caution. Their collaboration, however, wasn’t limited to religious texts, but also produced a number of secular works as well. For one, there is the well-known “Coffee Cantata,” and the delightful “Peasant Cantata,” written at a time when Picander served as a Liquor Tax Collector and Wine Inspector.

Georg Böhm

During his early years at Lüneburg, Bach was probably taking organ lessons from Georg Böhm (1661-1733). Böhm was principal organist at the Johanniskirche in Lüneburg, and the young Bach studied at the Michaelis School between 1700 and 1703.

First page of Reincken’s An Wasserflüssen Babylon, with an endnote in J. S. Bach’s hand

Although no formal connection existed between these two institutions, Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel reported to the Bach biographer Forkel in 1775, “My father loved and studied the works of the Lüneburg organist Georg Böhm.” Strong and clear evidence of this teacher/student relationship emerged on 31 August 2006 when the earliest known Bach autograph was discovered. It is a copy of Reincken’s famous chorale fantasy “An Wasserflüssen Babylon,” and Bach signed it “Il Fine â Dom. Georg: Böhme descriptum ao. 1700 Lunaburgi.” It is clear that Bach knew Böhm personally, and they apparently became close friends. This friendship seems to have lasted for many years, as Bach named Böhm as his northern agent for the sale of his keyboard partitas No. 2 and 3 in 1727. 

Maria Barbara Bach (1684-1720) was the second cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach. She had been orphaned at an early age and was sent to live with relatives in Arnstadt. Johann Sebastian met her after his appointment as church organist in 1703, and for a time they apparently lived in the same house, as relatives do. In 1706, Bach was severely reprimanded for inviting a “strange maiden” into the church organ loft to “make music.” Scholars today believe that the maiden in question must have been Maria Barbara.

Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara Bach

When Bach’s maternal uncle died in Erfurt, he left Bach a substantial amount of money. As such, Bach was able to marry Maria Barbara on 17 October 1707 in the village of Dornheim, near Arnstadt. Their marriage, by all accounts, was a contented one and four of their seven children lived into adulthood, including Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

C.P.E. Bach

In 1720, Bach accompanied his employer Prince Leopold to the spa in Karlsbad. When he returned two months later, he discovered that Maria Barbara had died from a sudden illness, and that she was already buried at Köthen’s Old Cemetery. She was only 35, and the heart-broken composer gave voice to his grief in the monumental “Chaconne,” the fifth and final movement of the Partita in D minor for solo violin. Play

Johann Adolph Scheibe

The composer, organist, theorist and music critic Johann Adolph Scheibe (1708-1776) considered J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel to be the finest composers of keyboard music. Yet, on 14 May 1737, Scheibe published a weighty criticism of Bach’s music, claiming “by his bombastic and intricate procedures he deprived music of naturalness and obscured their beauty by an excess of art.”

Title page of Scheibe’s music criticism, 1745

Bach was not amused, and he urged his friend, the Leipzig lecturer in rhetoric Johann Abraham Birnbaum (1702-1748) to write a response. That response was printed in January 1738, and Bach distributed the article among his friends and acquaintances. It discusses the issues of naturalness and artificiality in Bach’s style, and his “definition of harmony as an accumulation of counterpoint,” made an important statement about the unique character of Bach’s compositional art. Scheibe’s attack, as it turned out, stimulated a good bit of sympathy for Bach, and in the end he published a conciliatory review of the Italian Concerto, which included the apology “I did this great man an injustice.” Play

Electress Christiane Eberhardine

In order to commemorate the death of the Electress Christiane Eberhardine in 1727, the University of Leipzig planned an extended memorial ceremony. The Electress was somewhat of a religious celebrity, as she had remained a Protestant when her husband, August the Strong of Saxony, had converted to Roman Catholicism.

Johann Christoph Gottsched

Bach was commissioned to set a text by the Leipzig professor poetry, Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700-1766). That commission proofed to be controversial, as the university director of music Johann Gottlieb Görner, considering himself to be Bach’s superior, tried to bar Bach from taking any role in the service. The council thought otherwise and Bach retained the commission. As such, Bach performed the two parts of his Funeral Ode (BWV 198) on 17 October 1727. This cantata unfolds in ten sections, and includes chorales, recitatives and solo arias for soprano, alto, and tenor. Even the bass gets a lengthy accompanied recitative that borders on being an aria itself.

(To be continued!)