I've done this several times before: I present three different performances of a piece, and you choose the performance you like best. Here are three very well-known and loved artists performing the beautiful and haunting Rachmaninoff Vocalise. Choose your favorite and tell us why you prefer that particular performance.
Today Steph, Joel, and I are piling into the van with our painting clothes on to begin painting the interior of our new home! Whenever Steph and I engage in activities such as painting, cleaning, etc. we like to listen to Baroque music, for the steady, constant, dance tempo keeps one stimulated and moving. So today I'll be armed with my paint brush and a good collection of music by Handel!
Today I'm featuring the Hornpipe from Handel's Watermusic Suite, an all-time favorite of mine!
Gotta love this 1930's version of Britney Spears' early hit, Oops! I did it again, by the German singer Max Raabe & Palatsorchester. It's straight out of 1930's Berlin!
As a child, I loved the musical Carousel, and one of my favorite numbers was "June is busting out all over", simply because my birthday is in June. So today, I've chosen to feature this great piece from the 1956 film version of Rogers & Hammerstein's Carousel, including the wonderful dance sequence, just because it's June and it's my birthday!
I sang the role of Katisha in a production of The Mikado several years ago, so these scenes from the film Topsy Turvy, about the famous team of Gilbert & Sullivan bring back some delightful memories!
The Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello, D. 929, was one of the last compositions completed by Franz Schubert, dated November 1827. It was published by Probst as opus 100 in late 1828, shortly before the composer's death. Unlike much of Schubert's late music, he actually heard this work performed before he died. It was also used as one of the central themes of music in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, a period film about a boy called Redmond Barry. It has been used in a number of other films, including The Hunger, Crimson Tide, Land of the Blind and the HBO miniseries John Adams.
Informatioin source: Wikipedia
Of course I had to include Mozart's "arch nemesis", Antonio Salieri. Actually he wasn't a nemesis at all. That was all a big myth propagated by the film, Amadeus. In truth, Salieri and Mozart were very good friends and respected one another tremendously. Of course there was some healthy rivalry at times, but in the highly competitive world in which they were associated, there was always some rivalry.
The following aria was composed in 1772 for the opera La fiera di Venezia, and is an example of some of Salieri's best and most challenging compositions. Sung marvelously here by Cecilia Bartoli.
Without a doubt, my favorite French composer has to be Gabriel Fauré. As I have sung many of his numerous vocal pieces, as well as his Requiem, I am always impressed by his sensitive and tender melodic lines and voice leading. I'm featuring today, one of his instrumental works, which I believe to be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed. I featured it several months ago in my "World's most beautiful music" series, but I didn't receive any comments on it, so I figured that it didn't get a fair listen, so I'm featuring it again today.
The Pavane in F-sharp minor, op. 50, is a composition for orchestra and optional chorus by the French composer Gabriel Fauré and dates from 1887. Obtaining its rhythm from the slow processional Spanish court dance of the same name, the Pavane ebbs and flows from a series of harmonic and melodic climaxes, conjuring a cool, somewhat haunting, Belle Époque elegance. The piece is scored for only modest orchestral forces consisting of strings and one pair each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns. A typical performance lasts around seven minutes.
When Fauré began work on the Pavane, he envisaged a purely orchestral work to be played at a series of light summer concerts conducted by Jules Danbe. After Fauré opted to dedicate the work to his patron, Elisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe, he felt compelled to stage a grander affair and thus he added an invisible chorus to accompany the orchestra (with additional allowance for dancers). The choral lyrics were based on some inconsequential verses, à la Verlaine, on the romantic helplessness of man, which had been contributed by the Countess' cousin, Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac.
The orchestral version was first performed at a Concert Lamoureux under the baton of Charles Lamoureux on November 25, 1888. Three days later, the choral version was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique. In 1891, the Countess finally helped Fauré produce the version with both dancers and chorus, in a "choreographic spectacle" designed to grace one of her garden parties in the Bois de Boulogne.
From the outset, the Pavane has enjoyed immense popularity, whether with or without chorus. It entered the standard repertoire of the Ballets Russes in 1917, where it was alternatively billed as Las Mininas or Les Jardins d'Aranjuez. Fauré's example was imitated by his pupils, who went on to write pavanes of their own: Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte and Debussy's Passepied from his Suite bergamasque.
Information source: Wikipedia
I had a hard time coming up with another "T" composer when all of a sudden Telemann popped into my thoughts! And this little concerto is quite charming, (I know you'll enjoy it, Kathy!).
Georg Philipp Telemann (March 14, 1681 – June 25, 1767) was a German Baroque music composer and multi-instrumentalist, born in Magdeburg. Self-taught in music, he studied law at the University of Leipzig. Often described as the most prolific composer in history (at least in terms of surviving oeuvre), he was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and a lifelong friend of George Frideric Handel. While in the present day Bach is generally thought of as the greater composer, Telemann was more widely renowned for his musical abilities during his lifetime.
Telemann traveled widely, absorbing various musical styles and incorporating them into his own compositions. He is known for writing concertos for unusual combinations of instruments, such as multiple violas, trumpets, oboes, or harpsichords.
He held a series of important musical positions, culminating in that of music director of the five largest churches in Hamburg, from 1720 until his death in 1767.
Information source: Wikipedia
I can't say as I'm a fan of Wagner, but I just couldn't think of any other "W" composers, so here we are! (At least I'm honest.)
Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner. The story comes from the legend of the Flying Dutchman, about a ship captain condemned to sail until Judgment Day.
Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843 Autobiographical Sketch Wagner acknowledged he had taken the story from Heinrich Heine's retelling of the legend in his 1834 satirical novel The Memoirs of Mister von Schnabelewopski (Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski). The central theme is redemption through love, to which Wagner returns in most of his subsequent operas.
Wagner conducted the premiere at the Semper Oper in Dresden, 1843. This work shows early attempts at operatic styles that would characterise his later music dramas. In Der fliegende Holländer Wagner uses a number of leitmotifs (literally, "leading motifs") associated with the characters and themes. The leitmotifs are all introduced in the overture, which begins with a well-known ocean or storm motif before moving into the Dutchman and Senta motifs.
Wagner originally wrote Der fliegende Holländer to be performed without intermission — an example of his efforts to break with tradition — and, while today's opera houses sometimes still follow this directive, it is also performed in a three act version.
Information Source: Wikipedia
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is one of the best known of all violin concertos. It is also considered to be among the most technically difficult works for violin.
This is an early live recording of Itzhak Pearlman playing the Allegro Moderato of the wonderful Tchaikovsky violin concerto. Too amazing for words!
A favorite Mozart piano concerto to brighten up your Monday.
Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, KV. 453, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was written in 1784.
The work is orchestrated for solo piano, flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings. As is typical with concertos, it is in three movements:
1. Allegro
2. Andante in C major
3. Allegretto Presto
According to the date that the composer himself noted on the score, the concerto was completed on April 12, 1784.
The date of the premiere is uncertain. In one view, the work is said to have been premiered by Mozart's student, Barbara Ployer, on June 13, 1784 at a concert to which Mozart had invited Giovanni Paisiello to hear both her and his new compositions, including also his recently-written Quintet in E flat for Piano and Winds. Afterwards, Ployer was joined by Mozart in a performance of the Sonata for Two Pianos, K. 448. Another possibility, advanced by Lorenz (2006, 314), is that Mozart did not wait over two months to premiere the work, but performed it in his concert with Regina Strinasacchi on 29 April 1784 at the Kärntnertortheater.
The finale is a set of variations on what Alfred Einstein has described as a birdlike theme, which Mozart taught his pet starling to sing. The movement ends with an extensive coda.
JE Gardiner, Malcolm Bilson, English Baroque Soloists
Vorrei Spiegarvi O Dio, K418 was composed in 1783 for Mozart's sister-in-law and former sweetheart, Aloysia Weber Lange, as an insertion aria for Il curioso indiscreto, an opera by Anfossi, along with No, che non sei capace and Per pieta non ricercate. The aria is one of Mozart's most delicate and effective, especially in its stunning use of the voice in conjunction with various instruments. The very delicate orchestral introduction sets the tone of the piece, and the various obbligatos with the voice and instruments can be stunning. It seems quite likely that the opera composers of the Romantic era who used similar devices(e.g. Lucia's Mad Scene in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor) were influenced by this aria.
Clorinda, who is in love with the Count, who is promised to Emilia, sings that she wishes she could explain to him why she appears not to return his love. In the fast-paced second part of the aria, she urges him to leave her, telling him to go to Emilia. The whole piece is quite moving as well as being lovely, and an excellent display piece for vocal agility and grace.
It is sung here by three great Mozart divas. You choose your favorite and tell us why you chose her.
Way back in 1973 when the soon-to-be great singer/songwriter Barry Manilow created his debut album entitled simply Barry Manilow, he included a piano driven number lifted straight from Chopin's Prelude no 20 in C minor called Could It Be Magic. The Julliard educated pianist went on to become one of the most popular and successful songwriters and entertainers in history and still performs in his own show at the Las Vegas Hilton as well as tours all over the world.
Presented are first, Chopin's Prelude no. 20 in C minor, (played by pianist Arthur Rubinstein), followed by the Chopin inspired Could It Be Magic, by Barry Manilow.
Shakespeare said that all the world is a stage. And then there is the saying which goes, Opera is life. Then if this is so, which opera best represents your life?
I've presented three very different performances of Purcell's heart-breaking aria "When I am laid in earth" from Dido and Aeneas. Choose your favorite and tell us why you chose it.
More than 200 dancers performed their version of "Do Re Mi" in the Central Station of Antwerp. With only two rehearsals they created this amazing stunt! The four fantastic minutes started the 23rd of March 2009, 08:00 AM. It was a promotion stunt for a Belgian television program, where they were looking for someone to play the leading role in the musical The Sound of Music.
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| Lynette Erwin |
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