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WWUH
Classical programming
May/June 2005 by Keith Barrett |
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Sunday Afternoon at the Opera … Sunday
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm JUNE Wed 1 Shostakovich: Symphony #13; Nielsen: Symphony #4; Harris: Symphony #7; Field: Piano Concerto #5; Busoni: Studies for Doktor Faust; R. Strauss: Opera Scenes and Lieder Thu 2 Haydn: Piano Sonatas #50 & 51; New Additions to the WWUH Library Fri 3 What You Will… Wilson: Music for Solo Flute; Reich: The Desert Music 1; Shostakovich: String Quartet #5; Prokofiev: Cello Sonata; Frankel: String Quartet #2; Britten: Suite For Cello #2 Sun 5 Sunday Afternoon at the Opera… Purcell: King Arthur; Cavalli: Arias and Duets Mon 6 Host's Choice Tue 7 Heroic Overtures… Barber: Knoxville: Summer 1915; Second Essay for Orchestra, Third Essay for Orchestra, Toccata Festiva Wed 8 Shostakovich: Symphony #14; Dvorak: String Quartet #9; Ewald: Brass Quintet #1; Mozart: Piano Trio, K. 548 Thu 9 Nicolai: Overtures, Te Deum; Haydn: Piano Sonatas #52 & 53; Nielsen: Orchestral Music; Prioris: Requiem; Porter: Songs; Dahl: Alto Saxophone Concerto; Wuorinen: Chamber Music Fri 10 What You Will… Wilson: Music for Violin and Piano; Reich: The Desert Music II; Shostakovich: String Quartet #6; Rachmaninov: Cello Sonata, Op. 19 Frankel: String Quartet #3; Britten: Suite For Cello #3 Sun 12 Sunday Afternoon at the Opera… Mon 13 Collins: Suite for Cello and Piano; Ornstein: Fourth Piano Sonata; Blake: Violin Concerto "The Leeds"; Cowell: Homage to Iran, Six Casual Developments, Set of Five; Hindemith: Lustige (Cosmic) Symphony Drake's Village Brass Band…US Marine Band-Emblems: Music of Copland, Persichetti, Gabrielli and Purcell Tue 14 Heroic Overtures… Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony #1, Symphony #2 "Antar", Capriccio Espagnol Wed 15 Shostakovich: Symphony #15; Beach: Piano Concerto in C Sharp Minor; Faure: Piano Quartet #2; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #3; Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; R. Strauss: Four Last Songs Thu 16 Handel: Trio Sonatas, Op. 2 #1-3; Haydn: Piano Sonatas #54 & 55; Festa: Motets; Popper: Im Walde; Balakirev: In Bohemia; Saint-Saens: Morceau and Romances for Solo Instruments and Orchestra Fri 17 What You Will… Peterson: Sextet; Reich: The Desert Music III; Shostakovich: String Quartet #7; Reger: Six Burlesques; Frankel: String Quartet #4; Bridge: String Sextet Sun 19 Sunday Afternoon at the Opera… Balakauskas: Requiem in memorium; Penderecki: Polish Requiem Mon 20 Monday Night at the Movies 1…Rosenman: The Cobweb; Williams: The Terminal; Hindemith: In Sturm und Eis; Shostakovich: Hamlet Drake's Village Brass Band…US Air Force Band- French Impressions Tue 21 Heroic Overtures…Volkmann: String Quartet #2, String Quartet #5, Piano Trio, Op. 3 Wed 22 Copland: Clarinet Concerto; Dvorak: String Quartet #10; Mahler: Symphony #2; Dohnanyi: Piano Quintet #1 Thu 23 Haydn: Piano Sonatas 56 & 58; Reineke: Serenade, Flute Concerto; Vivanco: Motets; Guiraud: Caprice; Prokofiev: Music for Children, Op. 65; Melartin: Symphony #4 "Summer"; Gade: Summer's Day in the Country Fri 24 What You Will…. McLennan: Quintet; Reich: The Desert Music IV & V; Shostakovich: String Quartet #8; Reger: Introduction and Passacaglia in D Minor; Frankel: String Quartet #4; Bridge: String Quintet Sun 26 Sunday Afternoon at the Opera… Copland: The Tenderland Mon 27 Monday Night at the Movies 2…North: The Shoes of the Fisherman; Kaper: The Mutiney on the Bounty Drake's Village Brass Band…US Air Force Band-Overtures Tue 28 Heroic Overtures…Volkmann: Piano Trio, Op. 5; String Quartet #1, String Quartet #4 Wed 29 Nielsen: Symphony #2; Field: Piano Concerto #4; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #2; Smetana: Ma Vlast; Faure: Piano Quartet #1; Schubert: Piano Sonata in B Flat Major Thu 30 Handel: Trio Sonatas, Op. 2 #4-6; Jiri Antonin Benda: Viola Concerto in F; Haydn: Piano Sonatas #59 & 60; Vespers of St Jacobi de Campostela; Lajtha: Hortobagy, Op. 21; Mailman: Concertino, Op. 31; Lindblad: Symphony #1 Thursday Evening Classics Composer Capsules for May/june 2005 May 12 Johann Baptist Vanhal Birth: May 12, 1739 in Nechanicz, Bohemia Death: August 20, 1813 Johann Baptist Vanhal was one of the century's finest musicians, but his works have been largely overshadowed by his great contemporaries - Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Vanhal was born in rural Bohemia as an indentured servant to a noble family of wealth and power. As a boy he learned to play the violin and keyboard instruments, becoming organist in Opoczna at the age of 13. When he was about 20 years old he moved to Vienna, where he quickly made a name for himself as a violinist and a composer, and in the process earned enough to buy his own freedom. Apart from a couple of years in Italy, Vanhal spent his entire life in Vienna. Vanhal was a prolific composer; and some scholars have given him credit for being even more productive than he actually was. There is a distinct evolution in his symphonies, from the Baroque style of the first ones to the Sturm und Drang of those that followed. Jules Massenet Birth: May 12, 1842 in Montaud, France Death: August 13, 1912 in Paris, France Today, Jules Massenet is best known for the operas, Manon and Werther, and the solo violin Méditation, from Thaïs. During his lifetime, however, Massenet was one of the most prolific and celebrated operatic composers in Europe. He was also a brilliant orchestrator, a skill that allowed him to capture the moods and colors of a wide variety of places and eras. In addition to opera, Massenet composed songs, oratorios, ballets and orchestral works, as well as chamber music and works for solo piano. Massenet was born in to the family of a struggling metal worker. At the age of 10, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with famed operatic composer Ambroise Thomas. In 1863, Massenet won the Prix de Rome, a prize that allowed him to travel and study in Italy. There the young man experienced the sounds and textures of the region and began to compose in earnest. While in Italy, Massenet met Liszt, who introduced him to his future wife, Mademoiselle Sainte-Marie. A highly prolific composer, Massenet worked continuously throughout his life, completing a great deal of music in addition to his 25 published operas. His approximately 250 songs often reflect the same melodic ingenuity and expressiveness that define his operatic works. Massenet also composed several ballets and incidental music for plays. His only piano concerto was first performed in 1903 and receives occasional performances. Gabriel Fauré Birth: May 12, 1845 in Pamiers, Ariège, France Death: November 4, 1924 in Paris, France Fauré was the youngest child of a school headmaster and spent many hours playing the harmonium in the chapel next to the school. Fauré's father enrolled the 9-year-old at the École Niedermeyer in Paris, learning church music, organ, piano, harmony, counterpoint, and literature. In 1861, Saint-Saëns joined the school and introduced Fauré and others to the works of more contemporary composers such as Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner. Fauré's earliest songs and piano pieces date from this period, just before his graduation in 1865. In 1871, he and his friends - d'Indy, Lalo, Duparc, and Chabrier - formed the Société Nationale de Musique. Fauré wrote his first chamber works (the first Violin Sonata and Piano Quartet) then set out to meet Liszt and Wagner. In the 1880s, he continued to write songs and piano pieces, but felt unsure of his talents to attempt anything larger than incidental music. Faure was named composition professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896. His music, considered too advanced by most, gained praise from his friends. This decade was his first productive phase, with the completion of the Requiem and Dolly suite. Using an economy of expression and boldness of harmony, he built the bridge to the 20th century that his students - Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger - would cross. In 1905, he was named director of the conservatory. His works of this period exhibit the most sophisticated stages of his writing, streamlined and elegant in form. In 1920 he retired from the school, and the following year gave up his music critic position with Le Figaro, which he had held since 1903. June 9 Otto Nicolai Birth: June 9, 1810 in Königsberg, Germany Death: May 11, 1849 in Berlin, Germany Otto Nicolai was raised by his father, a composer of lesser status. The son began showing talent early on, but became resentful of his father's attempts to benefit from making him a child prodigy. Otto made repeated failed attempts to run away from home in his teenage years. At 16, however, he set out on his own as an itinerant pianist and, after many impediments, made his way to Berlin. In 1830, following two years study at the Royal Institute for Church Music, he began teaching music and singing in concerts, but still struggled to make a living. Some financial stability came in 1833 when he accepted a post as organist at the Prussian embassy in Rome. He became enamored of Italian culture and after returning to Vienna to serve as Kapellmeister at the Hoftheater for a year, he returned to Italy in 1838 and began working on his first operas. Nicolai returned to Vienna in 1841 and became conductor at the Hofoper, initiating instrumental concerts and thus founding what became the Vienna Philharmonic. When he was unable to interest the Hofoper in producing his yet-unfinished The Merry Wives of Windsor, however, he resigned. After a lengthy period of illness, Nicolai traveled to Berlin in 1848 to accept a post as Kapellmeister at the Berlin Opera. That year he completed the work; it was premiered with success and has held the stage ever since as one of German opera's great comic masterpieces. His success was short-lived, however - he died on May 11, 1849, after suffering a stroke. Although he is often viewed as a "one-hit" composer, his other works are worth hearing, and he surely would have produced more had his life not ended so prematurely. Carl Nielsen Birth: June 9, 1865 in Sortelung, Denmark Death: October 3, 1931 in Copenhagen, Denmark Young Carl received his first musical instruction from his father, a painter by profession, who spent as much time on his secondary activities as a violinist. At 14 Carl was hired as a bugler with a military wind ensemble at Odense, despite his lack of formal training on the instrument. During a visit to Copenhagen in 1883, Nielsen was introduced to composer Niels Wilhelm Gade, who suggested that the young musician enroll at the Conservatory. During Nielsen's three years at the Conservatory his primary subjects were violin and theory, and at no time did he actually receive formal instruction in composition. Nevertheless, in 1888 his Suite for Strings, Op.1 received a successful debut in Copenhagen. In 1889 Nielsen was hired as a violinist at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, a position he retained until 1905. In 1891 he traveled to Paris, where he met and married Danish sculptress Anne Marie Brodersen. His career as a conductor began in 1908 when he accepted a staff position with the Royal Theatre Orchestra. From 1916 until his death in 1931 (of heart disease), he taught at the Royal Danish Conservatory. Nielsen's music is quite individual in both content and structure, although only the 6 symphonies and the 3 concertos have earned places in the repertory outside Denmark. June 23 Carl Reinecke Birth: June 23, 1824 in Altona, Germany Death: March 10, 1910 in Leipzig, Germany Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke was the son of music teacher J.P. Rudolf Reinecke, the author of several important textbooks and works on music theory. Carl's father gave him a thorough musical education and training in the piano. At the age of 21, Reinecke started touring Northern Europe and attracted favorable attention from Felix Mendelssohn and Robert and Clara Schumann in Leipzig. In 1846, he was appointed pianist at the Danish royal court of King Christian VIII in Copenhagen and served there into 1848. After his Copenhagen post, he traveled to Paris, where he taught, among others, Cosima, daughter of the great piano virtuoso Franz Liszt. In 1851, Carl joined the staff of the municipal music school in Cologne, where he taught piano and counterpoint and was a recital partner of Ferdinand Hiller. In 1860, he became a faculty member at the Leipzig Conservatory. Among the prestigious pupils who studied there were Grieg, Svendsen, Sinding, Sullivan, and Weingartner. Along with his position at the Conservatory, Reinecke was conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, keeping that position until 1895 and raising this institution to a high artistic standard. He retired from his teaching position in 1902, but continued composing until his death in 1910. Wednesday Evening Classics Presents: A Tribute to Peter Harvey (1945-2005) Featuring the popular teacher, composer, conductor,
singer and entertainer in a variety of selections from opera, musical
theater and songs of the Civil War and World War ll. WWUH: May/June Program Guide, 2005 © |
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