Going back in time to the 18th Century
>> Sunday, September 27, 2009
Mozart in the hands of youth
>> Tuesday, September 22, 2009
My favorite Mozart soprano sings Bach
>> Saturday, September 19, 2009
It wasn't until nearly five years after her death of a malignant brain tumor that I discovered this incredible soprano, Arleen Auger, however, since then I've listened to a number of her recordings and she is by far and away my favorite Mozart soprano. I own two recordings of her, 1) Singing the Mozart Mass in C minor and on the same recording, the Mozart Exultate Jubilate, and 2) her last public performance, singing the soprano solo in Mozart's Requiem at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna on the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, December 5th, 1991.
The recording I have posted here, isn't of Auger singing Mozart, but of her singing Bach's "Bist du bei mir". Never have I heard such grace, warmth, and elegance combined in one voice as in Auger's.
The World's most beautiful music: Assad Brothers with Yo-Yo Ma: Menino
>> Sunday, September 13, 2009
So Euro: Via con me by Paolo Conte
>> Saturday, September 12, 2009
Here's the English translation of the Italian lyrics:
Away with me
Away, away, get away with me
Nothing more binds you to these places
Not even these blue flowers
Let's get away, let's get away, not even this grey time
Full of musics and people that you liked
It's wonderful...
Away Away, let's get away
Enter this dark love, don't get lost for anything in the world
away, away, don't get lost for anything in the world
The art spectacle differs depending on someone who is in love with you
It's wonderfull ...
Away , away, let's get away.
Enter this dark love full of people
Away, away, enter and take a warm bath
There s a blue bath gown (nearby),
it rains a cold world outside
His First Masterpiece: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E Flat Major, K. 271
>> Sunday, September 6, 2009
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed this concerto in Salzburg, 1777. Though only 21 years old, he displayed great maturity and originality in what is regarded by many as his first great masterpiece. Renowned pianist Alfred Brendel has referred to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9, known as the Jeunehomme, as a "wonder of the world," going so far as to assert that Mozart "did not surpass this piece in the later piano concertos."
Countless beloved pieces of so-called classical music have a nickname, often one not given by the composer. Mozart would have no idea what the "Jupiter" Symphony is, Beethoven the "Emperor" Concerto or "Moonlight" Sonata, or Schubert the "Unfinished" Symphony. The names sometimes come from savvy publishers who know they can improve sales, or from impresarios, critics, or performers. The case of the Concerto we hear today is particularly interesting, and only recently explained. Little is known of the genesis or first performance of the E-flat Concerto. Twentieth-century accounts usually stated that Mozart composed it for a French keyboard virtuoso named Mademoiselle Jeunehomme, who visited Salzburg in the winter of 1777. Nothing else was known, not even the woman's first name.
In 2006, the Viennese musicologist Michael Lorenz, a specialist in the music of Mozart's and Schubert's time and a brilliant archival detective, figured out the mystery. The nickname was coined by the French scholars Théodore de Wyzewa and Georges de Saint-Foix in their classic early-20th-century study of the composer. As Lorenz explains, "Since one of their favorite names for Mozart was 'jeune homme' (young man), they presented this person as 'Mademoiselle Jeunehomme.'"
In a September 1778 letter Mozart wrote to his father, he referred to three recent concertos, "one for the jenomy [K. 271], litzau [K. 246], and one in B-flat [K. 238]" that he was selling to a publisher. Leopold later called the first pianist "Madame genomai." (Spellings were often variable and phonetic at the time.) Lorenz has identified her as Victoire Jenamy, born in Strasbourg in 1749 and married to a rich merchant, Joseph Jenamy, in 1768. Victoire was the daughter of the celebrated dancer and choreographer Jean Georges Noverre (1727-1810), who was a good friend of Mozart's. He had choreographed a 1772 Milan production of Mozart's opera Lucio Silla and later commissioned the ballet Les Petits Riens for Paris. Although we still know little about Victoire Jenamy—she does not appear to have been a professional musician, though clearly Mozart admired her playing—Mozart's first great piano concerto can now rightly be called by its proper name: "Jenamy."
Mitsuko Uchida plays piano and Jeffrey Tate conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 "Jeunehomme", in E flat major, K. 271.
A Salzburg Festival performance, recorded in the Mozarteum, Salzburg, 1989
For an old friend: Mozart's Sonata in C major for piano & violin, K. 296
>> Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Josepha Barbara Auernhammer (also Aurnhammer) was born in Vienna on September 25, 1758 to Johann Michael Auernhammer and Elizabeth Timmer. Her first music teachers were Georg Friedrich Richter (or Joseph Richter) and the Bohemian pianist Leopold Anton Kozeluch. In 1781 her family took in a border, newly arrived in Vienna, named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and she became one of his first students in this city. In Mozart’s many letters to his father this year he frequently mentioned her. It seems that she had a sound technical facility, but he noted “in cantabile playing she has not got the real delicate singing style”. Soon, though, he declared that he was thoroughly pleased with her progress and delighted with her keyboard skills.
During the summer of 1781 Mozart prepared for publication a set of six sonatas for piano and violin, what he called his “Opus 2” and are now labeled K.376, 296, and 377-380. These he dedicated to Josepha and they have become known as the “Auernhammer sonatas”.
Link to information source.
I've featured the 3rd movement of the Sonata in C major, K. 296. Welcome home, dear friend.
Vienna calls again
>> Sunday, August 30, 2009
This morning I awakened wishing that I was in Vienna as Steph and I were four years ago today beginning the first on-location shoots for Mozartballs. I think I will never get over that beautiful city, nor do I ever wish to.
I think I'm in love: Mozart violin sonata, K. 303
>> Saturday, August 29, 2009
I've fallen in love all over again. And although the object of my affection still has a large, prominent nose and wears a red coat and a powdered wig, I've made some new discoveries. Several weeks ago I posted Mozart's violin sonata, K. 304. Today I'm posting K. 303, and am every bit as enamored with this one as I was that one. Listen and fall in love, too.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata for Piano and Violin K303 Gil Shaham, Violin, Orli Shaha, Piano.
The World's most beautiful music: Massenet: "Meditation" from Thais
>> Sunday, August 16, 2009
I've always loved this gorgeous piece, but never more than when it is played by the incomparable Yo Yo Ma. Sit back, close your eyes and breathe it in.
Music to soothe
>> Sunday, August 9, 2009
The move is over and we're settling in to our new home. It's been a difficult transition to say the least, but we're starting to recover. In the meantime, I'm posting one of my very favorite Mozart trios, "Soave sia il vento" from Cosi fan tutte, because it's just the kind of soothing music I need today.
Here are Sir Thomas Allen, Susanne Mentzer, and Carol Vaness in a 1996 Metropolitan Opera production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.
Showdown: Rachmaninoff Vocalise
>> Saturday, July 25, 2009
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.
Kiri Te Kanawa
Read more...
Itzhak Perlman
Renee Fleming
The World's most beautiful music: Mozart Sonata for Piano & Violin in E minor, K 304, movement 2
>> Sunday, July 19, 2009
I made a new discovery as I was painting the house yesterday. Although I have owned a recording of Mozart's marvelous sonatas for piano and violin, for several years now, I hadn't paid much attention to it. But yesterday, as I painted the trim over the archway to the dining room of our new house, I was given the opportunity to really listen to and fall in love with these uncelebrated works. I realized then, that it is in Mozart's chamber works that much of his true genius is found.
I've heard several people, upon listening to the chamber works of Mozart, exclaim, "That sounds like Schubert", to which I usually reply, "No, Schubert sounds like Mozart. Mozart did come first, you know."
A little painting music
>> Saturday, July 18, 2009
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!
Summertime
>> Wednesday, July 15, 2009
We've been experiencing some extremely hot temperatures over the last several days. Over the past week our temps have been jumping as high as 109°, (Fahrenheit), with heat indexes as high as 115°! There have been heat advisories all over the southwestern part of the country, including most of the entire state of Oklahoma.
This wonderful clip seems entirely appropriate for such days as these. I've always loved Gershwin and Porgy and Bess is among my favorite of Gershwin's works. Here is the unforgettable Summertime from Porgy and Bess.
Palastorchester & Max Raabe: Oops! I did it again
>> Saturday, July 11, 2009
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!
Vintage 1930
>> Thursday, July 9, 2009
I looked up the comps on the little cottage that we're moving into and found out that it was built in 1930. Yesterday we signed the lease and were given the key to do a walk-through. It still has the original casement windows and retains all of its early 1930's charm.
For some historical perspective: 1930 was the year Hitler was elected as the supreme leader in Germany.
The clip I've chosen for today is from a 1930 film starring Bebe Daniels and Everett Marshall.
On the sunny side of the street
>> Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Our little new cottage inspired me to feature this fun classic! The pictures are of the little yellow cottage that we'll be moving into on August 1st!
A new nation born to freedom... for some: 1776, "Molasses to Rum to Slaves"
>> Sunday, July 5, 2009
Edward Rutledge, delegate from South Carolina, is unhappy with the passage in the Declaration of Independence concerning slavery. A very provoking and powerful scene, it refers to the Triangular Trade Route.
Triangular trade, or Triangle trade, is a historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions. The trade evolved where a region had an export commodity that was required in the region from which its major imports came. Triangular trade thus provided a mechanism for rectifying trade imbalances.
The Transatlantic Triangular Trade operated during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, the Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe.
The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, which were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas, the so called middle passage.
A classic example would be the trade of sugar (often in its liquid form, molasses) from the Caribbean to Europe or New England, where it was distilled into rum, some of which was then used to purchase new slaves in West Africa.
Information Source: Wikipedia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
