Birthdays & Events for February 5th

Birthdays:

1662 Giuseppi Vignola
1711 Joseph Umstatt
1732 Nathanael Gottfried Gruner
1748 Christian Gottlob Neefe, German composer/conductor/tutor of Beethoven
1810 Ole Bull, violinist
1862 Felipe Villanueva y Gutierrez
1863 Armand Parent
1864 Carl Teike
1865 Harvey Worthington Loomis
1866 Rossetter Gleason Cole
1868 Lodewijk Mortelmans
1882 Felice Lattuada
1889 Ioan Dumitru Chirescu
1902 Bronislaw Kaper
1903 Ivan Galamian, violinist
1909 Grazyna Bacewicz
1912 Zoltan Pongracz
1918 Kara Abulfazogli Karayev
1921 John M Pritchard, conductor
1943 Ivan Alexandrovich Tcherepnin
1951 Elizabeth Swados, composer/playwright
1960 Aris Christofellis, Greek countertenor
1968 Nir Kabaretti, Israeli conductor

Events:

1887 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Otello" premieres at La Scala in Italy
1907 Arnold Schoenberg's 1st string quartet premieres in Vienna

1911 Society of Dutch Composers forms in Amsterdam

Richard Yardumian - Violin Concerto - Symphony No. 2 for Medium Voice & Orchestra, "Psalms" - Armenian Suite - Nancy Maultsby, mezzo - Alexandr Bulov, Violin - Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui - BIS 2002

Richard Yardumian (1917-1985) was an Armenian-American composer (his parents emigrated to the United States from Armenia ten years before Richard was born) who wrote music that is accessible and lyrical, incorporating Armenian folksong into a sweepingly gestured, Western symphonic style. All three works here are wonderful, from the Violin Concerto which is both contemplative and ecstatically big-boned to the gorgeous Symphony No. 2 "Psalms" which has always impressed me. There are many gloriously explosive movements that recall the masterpiece that is Vaughan William's "A Sea Symphony". So, imho this is really an all around knock-out.

Richard Yardumian was born on April 5th, 1917 in Philadelphia, and this remained his home town until his death in 1985. His musical education was unusual: he learned a considerable amount of classical repertoire by listening when his brother Elijah, who was studying at the Curtis Institute, was practicing the piano at home, and he heard the folksongs of Armenia sung by his parents. But he did not study music in earnest until he was 22, when he began lessons in harmony with William Happich, counterpoint with Alexander Matthews and piano with George Boyle. Although as a composer he was largely self-taught, his musical style was influenced by the exploration of ancient Armenian and regional American composers. By the mid-1940s, Yardumian's music had attracted the attention of such famous conductors as Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, who encouraged and supported the young composer's work. The association with Ormandy was particularly fruitful as it led to a close, long-term collaboration between Yardumian and the Philadelphia Orchestra. (In fact, all the works included on this disc were premiered by Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.)

Though Yardumian’s music is identifiably of the twentieth century, it has suffered from being seen as somewhat old-fashioned; even though he developed "a method of composing with twelve tones" which differed from that of Schoenberg in being in general, tonally based. Perhaps the times were "out of step" with his religious preoccupations (not unlike Hovhaness, but to a lesser degree), a factor which, to today's listener, makes the music all the more interesting. Since he had few connections in the major American musical centers of New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, his music is less well known, even in America, than it deserves. Despite the championship of Ormandy and the great pianist John Ogdon, Yardumian's music has yet to really catch on (other than a few cds his music is documented on vinyl, and there's not really that much on lp either).  

The three-movement Violin Concerto (1949, rev. 1960, third movement revised in 1985) is based on a number of intervallic and rhythmic points of interest. Loudly insistent sonorities supported by C sharp and G sharp in the lower registers, accompanied by fleeing semi-quavers with melodic leaps of thirds, punctuate the opening. Very soon a plaintive descending line is heard in the solo horn, followed by strong lines in the strings, and later in the winds. Another loud tutti entry paves the way for the soloist's very first entry, with chordal support from the woodwinds, strings and brass until the end of the movement. "Soliloquy" might have been a more appropriate description of the solo part; even the cadenza, which arrives rather early in the movement, is rather plaintive and expressive in form. The soloist's line is characterized by leaps of thirds, twisted in chromaticism, and contrasts with the largely chordal support which pervades the entire movement.

The second movement pursues a similar line of enquiry; a cadenza for the soloist makes an early entry with block vertical sonorities for support, and the demands again are more expressive than technical. More than midway through the movement, however, the orchestral texture becomes richer with the woodwinds, brass and strings playing out a web of unison lines and sonorities. Plaintive lines replace this short-lived texture, first in a further solo cadenza and then in orchestral solo lines from the trombones, trumpets, violins and violas. Like the first movement, this one ends quietly.

The motoric pursuit of a motif – rhythmically and intervallically – sets the third movement apart from the rest with its quick pace and increasing virtuosic demands – not only on the soloist, whose passages are curiously not marked "cadenza" in this movement, but also on the orchestral forces. The perception of C sharp and F sharp in the movements of this work as significant pitches of focus, the linearity of melodic configuration and the seemingly unrelated vertical sonorities are characteristic of the modality not only of a distant past but also of Yardumian's compositional strategy in the Violin Concerto.

Yardumian's individual style, a system of melody and harmony based on the chromatic inflection of the intervals of major and minor thirds, coupled with religious fervour and mysticism – characterizes almost all his music. This is most telling in his two symphonies. The Symphony No. 2, subtitled "Psalms", features a vocal soloist (mezzo-soprano, alto or baritone). The first version, written in 1947, was premiered in the 1950s under the title "Psalm 130" for Tenor and Orchestra. In the second version (1964) a substantial movement lasting more than twice as long as the first was added. Stylistically speaking, however, there are few perceptible differences in idiom between two movements. The symphony is, in effect, a richly orchestrated song cycle with arresting melodic lines. The first movement is characterized by a hushed orchestral entry based on a C sharp/B cluster before the vocal entry, which is characterized by chromatically inflected modality. Recitative-like gestures by the euphonium, and later the horns, distinguish this movement in which the vocal line is closely, but not identically, shadowed by the first violins. There is a deliberate attempt by Yardumian to define 'space' for the vocal soloist, and the orchestration is carefully maintained in order not to overshadow that balance.

The second movement is notable for a relatively more mellifluous vocal line, although the modality is unmistakable. The orchestra is given a more prominent role here, and holds for the most part a steady, stately rhythmic pulse. Orchestral textures and modal clashes of major and minor thirds in this movement recall a style not far removed from Vaughan Williams. The vocal cadenza towards the end of this movement is to be understood from Yardumian's perspective, which has little to do with virtuosic display. In fact, the directions in the score read: "Perhaps the best way to interpret this cadenza is that it be sung as a mother to an infant (as an ancient song)". As in the Violin Concerto, C sharp and F sharp as pitches of focus in the work affirm the modal quality, but the chromatic inflection of the modal line and the use of the third intervals are Yardumian's.

Yardumian's Armenian Suite is, in conception, an early work. The suite started out as a small piece for piano based on an Armenian lullaby. The composer orchestrated this, adding five other movements in 1937. In 1954 the suite attained its present seven movements after Eugene Ormandy had asked for a new conclusion to the work. This resulted in the splendid Finale, the seventh movement of the suite, which is much more extended than the other, generally quite brief movements. The various movements of the suite, some (wildly) festive, some meditative to the point of melancholy, combine Armenian influences (all the folk-songs included in the suite are genuinely Armenian) with seemingly Middle Eastern melodic elements as well as various Western musical influences. The results variously tear at the heartstrings and give rise to a sense of elation, not to mention providing lovely solos for almost all the section leaders. This is a piece that surely no one could resist for its range of emotions and its sheer beauty, all contained in a minimal space.

Enjoy everyone!

Yardumian-V.Concerto_Symphony2_A.Suite-Tzadik.zip

http://www55.zippyshare.com/v/GLWup4op/file.html

Birthdays & Events for February 4th

Please let me know if this blue font is better for everyone. It is definitely softer, and I personally prefer it to regular white on black.


1549 Eustache du Caurroy
1581 Daniel Selich
1677 Johann Ludwig Bach,
1751 Blas de Laserna
1758 Pierre-Gabriel Gardel, French ballet dancer/choreographer
1767 Johann Franz Volkert
1805 Georg Andreas Henkel
1875 Raymond Moulaert
1876 Victor Jean Leonard Vreuls
1893 Bernard Rogers
1903 Siro Cisilino
1904 Predrag Milosevic
1910 Alfred Mendelsohn
1912 Erich Leinsdorf, conductor
1916 David Vassall Cox
1922 Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Indian Classical Singer
1934 Jouko Sakari Linjama

1953 Kitaro

1957 Don Davis

1960 Jonathan Larson

Events:

1938 "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway

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