Frederick Delius - A Walk to the Paradise Garden - Dance Rhapsodies 1 & 2 - In a Summer Garden - North Country Sketches - Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox - Chandos 1995

So scraps, recently you left a comment in one of the "todays birthdays" posts, and clearly you are a Delius admirer. Not unlike saying "beetlejuice! beetlejuice! beetlejuice!" three times you gave me

Delius! Delius! Delius! Delius! four times-which is precisely the incantation to make Delius appear ;) (musically that is, this isn't a seance) Of course, you probably own this one, but let's see..

Delius was one of my early musical love affairs, and although it doesn't make sense technically I have always thought of him as Debussy's brother from Britain. Delius would always sweep me away during times of distress to sweet-scented places where everything was beautiful, life as a nature poem drenched in sunlight. One of my favorite recordings that I have played "into the ground" is a double cd set from 1994 (remastered, originally 1959, 1967, 1970, 1971, and 1975 if I remember correctly) on EMI with Sir John Barbarolli conducting the Halle Orchestra. Trying to find it at the moment.

Enjoy all

Delius-Paradise_Gardens_Etc.-Tzadik.zip

http://www29.zippyshare.com/v/uph9dTMR/file.html

Evgeny Stankovich (Yevhen Stankovych) - Symphony of Pastorals in D Minor - Chamber Symphony No. 2 - Music for the Radio Play "The Night Before Christmas" Ukranian State Symphony Orchestra, Fedor Glushchenko - Consonance 1994

Hello everyone. I am trying these days to squeeze in a quick post where I can, and I think this is a rather interesting one.

Ever since the recent Gliere/Stankovych post I have had Stankovych on my mind, but really no time to try and locate my other discs by Mister Yevhen. This morning I found this Consonance disc, under a stack of Gramophone magazines in my closet :) I will **try** to add information for this wonderful release tonight. I will say quickly that I prefer the mysterious "Chamber Symphony No. 2" and the charming "The Night Before Christmas" (from Gogol's stories Nights on a Khutor near Dikanka") radio play over the "Symphony of Pastorals", which is more of an extended violin concerto. I do like "..Pastorals" as well, it is just that to this day I find that I must warm up to it - each time I listen that is. Then again I have played the other two works much more.

I find the opening of the Chamber Symphony especially enchanting with its distant, shofar-like call from the flute (I have always wondered if it's a bass flute; my ears have been of little help!)  and then briefly a couple other winds. The is wonderful music.. as is the cheerful, lighter music of the Radio Play.

Yevhen Stankovych

Track list:

1)Symphony of Pastorals in D Minor (35:50)

2)Chamber Symphony No. 2 (15:42)

3)Music for the Radio Play "The Night Before Christmas" (11:15)

Again I hope to add the info tonight, as well as get to visitor comments. Thank you for your patience
everyone!

Enjoy this discovery!

Stankovich-Chamber_Symphony_No._2_etc.-Tzadik.zip

http://www24.zippyshare.com/v/VTJGKwIR/file.html

Birthdays and Events for January 30th - February 3rd

Hello all. It's catching up time as is all too familiar around here these days..


The ((major)) birthday for the 30th is Thomas Tallis, one of the most sublime composers of all. Also notable is one of my favorite early American composers, the highly original Charles M. Loeffler.


Jan 30th:

1505 Thomas Tallis
1563 Franciscus Gomarus, (Francois Gomaer), Dutch theologist/opera singer
1647 Konrad Hoffler
1694 Joseph Joachim Benedict Munster
1697 Johann Joachim Quantz, German royal flautist/composer
1710 Vigilio Blasio Faitello
1724 Ignaz Franz Xaver Kurzinger
1752 Joseph Matthias Kracher
1756 Josef Preindl
1760 Franz Xaver Partsch
1789 George Augustus Kollmann
1861 Charles Martin Tornow Loeffler
1862 Walter Johannes Damrosch
1892 Charles Trowbridge Haubiel
1900 Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky
1909 Mihaly Hajou
1911 Roy Eldridge, Pitts, Pennsylvania, American jazz trumpeter (Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw)
1915 Pierre Wissmer
1919 Robert Suter
1920 George Skibine, Russ/US dancer/choreographer
1921 Bernie Leighton, orchestra leader
1922 Pal Jardanyi
1926 Lizbeth Webb, soprano
1928 Mitch Leigh
1933 Richard Dufallo, clarinetist/conductor
1940 David Johnson
1944 Lynn Harrell, cellist
1945 Robert Wittinger
1947 Martin Christoph Redel

Events:

1858 Charles Halle founds Halle Orchestra in Manchester, England
1952 Paul Creston's 4th Symphony, premieres
1959 Paul Hindemith's symphony "Pittsburgh" premieres

Jan 31st:

Talk about notable.. Monteverdi and Schubert were both born on this date. Also Benjamin Frankel, a composer I admire greatly and who is featured on my blog (thus far) in a couple posts. -And so I don't get any 'hey what about..." comments...yes, todays is also Philip Glass's birthday.

1517 Gioseffo Zarlino
1573 Ambrosius Metzger
1573 Giulio Cesare Monteverdi
1614 Nicolas Saboly
1734 Julien-Amable Mathieu
1759 Francois Devienne
1784 Carl Wilhelm Henning
1797 Franz Schubert
1798 Karl Gottlieb Reissiger
1836 Henryk Szulc
1891 Max Drischner
1901 Blaz Arnic
1906 Benjamin Frankel
1913 Hector Iglesias Villoud
1915 Bobby Hackett, Providence RI, trumpeter/orchestra leader
1915 Alan Lomax, American musicologist (an American treasure!)
1917 Jose Maceda
1921 Mario Lanza, Phila, actor/singer
1935 Bojidar Dimov
1937 Philip Glass
1945 Noah Creshevsky
1947 Jim Nollman
1956 Johnny Rotten, (John Lydon), Sex Pistols

Events:

1679 Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera "Bellerophon" premieres in Paris
1904 Bela Bartok's symphony "Kossuth" premieres
1955 RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer
1994 Barcelona opera theater "Gran Teatro del Liceo" burns down

Feb 1st:

1603 Michael Trumper
1633 Gabriel Schutz
1669 Miguel Lopez
1673 Alessandro Marcello
1690 Francesco Maria Veracini
1789 Hippolyte-Andre-Baptiste Chelard
1791 Charles J Sax, Belgian instrument builder
1801 Adolf Fredrik Lindblad
1821 Charles Samvei Bovy-Lysberg
1859 Victor Herbert
1875 Eddie Pola (Lullabye of Broadway..)
1877 Thomas Frederick Dunhill
1879 Sydney Baynes
1880 Antonio Guarnieri
1880 Francesco Balilla Pratella
1881 Jose Ignacio Quinton
1892 K Rudolf Mengelberg, composer/musicologist
1894 James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer
1902 Carlo Borbolla
1906 Pierre Cardevielle, French composer/conductor
1907 Mozart Camargo Guarnieri, composer/conductor
1908 Edward Staempfli
1922 Renata Tebaldi, lyric soprano
1928 Ursula Mamlok
1945 Ole Buck

Events:

1893 Puccini's Opera "Manon Lescaut" premieres in Turin
1896 Giacomo Puccini's Opera "La Boheme" premieres in Turin
1918 Franz Lehar's opera "Wo die Lerche singt" premieres in Budapest
1918 Kern, Bolton & Wodehouse's musical premieres in NYC
1930 Arnold Schoenbergs opera, "Von heute auf Morgen" premieres in Frankfurt
1949 RCA releases 1st single record ever (45 rpm)

Feb 2nd:

1669 Louis Marchand
1714 Gottfried August Homilius
1748 Christian Gottfried Thomas
1773 Vincenc Tomas Vaclav Tucek
1804 Leopold Eugen Mechura
1817 Jose Maria de la Purificacion
1840 Louis Bourgault-Ducoudray
1844 Leander Schlegel
1847 Jules Francois Blasini, Curacaos pianist/composer
1856 Makar Grigori Ekmalyan
1873 Leopold Fall, Austria, operetta composer
1875 Fritz Kreisler, violinist/composer
1883 Mikhail Fabianovich Gnesin
1887 Ernst Hanfstängl, German pianist and politician
1888 Candelario Huizar
1904 Jose Enrique Pedreira
1908 Pavel Sivic
1908 Renzo Rossellini
1911 Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, French organist/composer
1911 Johan J "Jussi" Bjorling, Swedish tenor
1912 Burton Lane, Broadway composer
1919 Lisa Debeljevic-della Casa, Swiss vocalist
1925 Michel Paul Philippot
1927 Richard Vance Maxfield
1927 Stan Getz, Phila, jazz tenor saxophonist
1929 Reiner Bredemeyer
1937 Martina Arroyo, opera soprano
1941 Serge Alexandrovich Tcherepnin
1942 Graham Nash, guitarist (Crosby, Stills, Nash)
1944 Andrew Davis, conductor
1944 Ursula Oppens, pianist/co-founder (Speculum Musicae-NYC)
1968 Simon Wickham-Smith

Events:

1633 M Rossi's opera "Erminia sul Giordano" premieres in Rome
1731 George Frederick Handel's opera "Poro" premieres in London
1762 Thomas Arnes's opera "Artaxerxes" premieres in London
1795 Joseph Haydn's 102nd Symphony in B premieres
1823 Rossini's opera "Semiramide" premieres in Venice
1900 Gustave Charpentiers opera "Louise" premieres in Paris

Feb 3rd:

Palestrina!! And the one, the only, Mendelssohn.  And the notable 20th century composer for today surely is Luigi Dallapiccola.

1525 Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina
1648 Louis Bouteiller
1736 Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, organist/composer
1740 Guillaume Lasceux
1755 Florido Tomeoni
1784 John Fane graaf van Westmorland, opera composer/diplomat
1809 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
1817 Emile Racine Gauthier Prudent
1842 Sidney Clopton Lanier
1868 Damaso Ledesma
1886 Erwin Kroll
1887 Carlo Jachino
1903 Priaulx Rainier
1904 Luigi Dallapiccola
1906 Ludvig Nielsen
1910 Blas Galindo Dimas
1911 Jehan (Ariste) Alain, French organist/composer
1915 Richard Bales

Avner Dorman - Mandolin Concerto - Piccolo Concerto - Concerto Grosso - Piano Concerto in A - Avi Avital, Mandolin - Mindy Kaufman, Piccolo - Eliran Avni, Piano - Metropolis Ensemble, Andrew Cyr - Naxos 2010

This outstanding Naxos disc offers four concerto works by the young (b. 1975) American composer Avner Dorman. I find everything here to be a delight to listen to, and much of the music is downright exciting. He has been inspired by Baroque styles in particular, and this type of modern assimilation always agrees with me. A blockbuster gem i.m.h.o..

**I am sorry to everyone who has left replies or comments over the last few days; I planned on getting back to you all by the weekend and I simply didn't have the time. I will hopefully do so tonight, as I am running late for work as I type. Hoping to post Stankovych tonight too. Anyway I have included the booklet notes here, extra helpful for me now!!

Enjoy everyone!

Avner_Dorman_Concertos-Tzadik.zip

http://www69.zippyshare.com/v/ViRlh2Jo/file.html

Birthdays & Events for January 29th

A few of the notable birthdays for today include Frederick Delius, Havergal Brian, Ludolf Nielsen, Luigi Nono, and Ferdinand Ries (Ries remains an underrated exceptional composer; he was not only Beethoven's pupil as a child but also a close friend and served as Beethoven's secretary for a period of time. I first heard his music on a Crystal Records disc of music for horn & piano in the late 90's and soon after bought up everything I could find on Naxos and CPO especially. If the classical era is your thing, then Ries will be your overflowing cup of tea)

1703 - Carlmann Kolb
1711 - Giuseppi Bonno
1715 - Georg Christoph Wagenseil
1782 - Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber
1782 - Franciszek Ścigalski,
1784 - Ferdinand Ries

Ferdinand Ries

1801 - Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist/composer
1824 - Karl von Perfall
1852 - Frederic Hymen Cowen
1862 - Frederick Delius
1864 - Adolf Philipp
1869 - Andrey Vladimirovich Scherbachov
1871 - Eduardo Lopez-Chavarri y Marco
1874 - Robert Lach
1876 - Carl Henrik Ludolf Nielsen
1876 - Havergal Brian
1884 - Juhan Aavic
1887 - Albert Conti
1889 - Francisco Santiago
1889 - Rudolf Mauersberger
1890 - Marguerite Canal
1893 - Edric Cundell
1893 - Martian Negrea
1898 - Fernand Quinet, Belgian cellist/composer/conductor
1900 - Marco Tajcevic
1924 - Luigi Nono
1928 - Bengt Hambraeus
1931 - Leslie Bricuse
1934 - Paul Gutama Soegijo
1936 - Malcolm Binns, concert pianist
1943 - Timothy Andrew James Souster

Events:

1728 John Gays's "Beggar's Opera" premieres in London
1781 Mozart's opera "Idomeneo" premieres in Munich
1954 Arnold Schoenberg's "De Profundis" premieres in Cologne
1996 La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire.

Music of Ukraine: Rheinhold Gliere - Taras Bulba, Ballet Suite - Yevhen Stankovych - Rasputin, Ballet Suite - Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, Hobart Earle - ASV 1997

Colorful music from the Ukraine, Gliere's lovely Suite from the ballet "Taras Bulba" is rooted firmly within the realm of Borodin. Yehven Stankovch's "Rasputin" Suite from 1990 is a work packed with original ideas and forward drive, in an idiom that is generally tonal yet clearly modern. The second movement is especially memorable with it's satirical, circus-like atmosphere which stylistically reminds me of Ervin Schulhoff in his earlier dadaist-influenced years. Delicious, swirling "prankster" music! 

The evolution of Ukrainian symphonic thought is a dynamic and continuing process which has deep historical roots. At first glance Gliere and Stankovych may seem worlds apart, but a hereditary link exists between them which transcends both space and time. 

Rheinhold Gliere is a worthy representative of late 19th century symphonic tradition, and I cannot think of a single score that does not enchant. 

*I will add a proper amount of information on this disc late tonight, I must run for now!

*And thank you to everyone who has left comments the last couple days! I will go through them tonight, I look forward to this greatly as always :-)

Enjoy everyone!

MusicOfUkraine-Gliere&Stankovych-Tzadik.zip

http://www7.zippyshare.com/v/75qLPN1v/file.html

Birthdays and Events for January 28

1627 - Alfonso Marsh
1645 - Gottfried Vopelius
1691 - Johann Balthasar Konig
1693 - Gregor Joseph Werner
1722 - Johann Ernst Bach
1756 - Hans Adolf Friedrich von Eschstruth
1757 - Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni
1832 - Franz Wullner
1841 - Viktor Ernst Nessler
1868 - Frederick Archibald Lamond
1868 - Julian Aguirre
1875 - Julian Antonio Carillo-Trujillo
1878 - Walter Kollo (Kollodziepski)
1887 - Artur Rubinstein, pianist
1887 - Lily Theresa Strickland
1891 - Karel Boleslav Jirak
1893 - Elliot Griffis
1898 - Vittorio Rieti
1900 - Michael Dewar Head
1907 - Constantin Regamey
1908 - Paul Misraki, French composer and songwriter
1913 - Jan Masseus
1916 - Peter Crossley-Holland
1930 - Luis de Pablo
1935 - Leonid Grabovsky
1936 - Robert Suderburg
1944 - John Tavener
1959 - Burkhard Dallwitz

One of the greatest pianists of all time: Artur Rubinstein.

Events:

1830 Daniel Auber's opera "Fra Diavolo" premieres in Paris
1916 Enrique Granados's opera "Goyescas" premieres (NYC)
1936 Pravda (the Soviet newspaper) criticizes Shostakovitch's "Lady Macbeth" opera

To read the original 1936 Pravda article:

http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/25/muddle-not-music-pravdas-review-of-shostakovichs-opera-lady-macbeth/

Not sure how much is lost in translation, but it gives one a glance of what DSCH had to deal with under the regime.