ΜΟΥΣΙΚΟ ΗΜΕΡΟΛΟΓΙΟ ΜΑΡΤΙΟΣ
* MARCH 1
Birth of FRYDERYK CHOPIN 1810 in Zelazowa,nr.Warsaw
Polish composer and pianist.For details SEE Oct.17th(music diary)
chopin waltz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C-oiN_KDD0&feature=share
Death of Sir HERBERT BREWER 1928 in Gloucester
Death of Sir HERBERT BREWER 1928 in Gloucester
English organist and composer.A chorister at Gloucester Cathedral,he returned there as organist in 1896.An able performer,church musician,and composer of oratorios(including 'Emmaus',orchestrated by Elgar),songs,and church
music,he is best remembered for his work as conductor of the Gloucester Three Choirs Festivals(1898-1925) and for their innovatory programmes.He was knighted in 1926.
Herbert Brewer - Magnificat in D
Death of GEORG CHRISTOPH WAGENSEIL 1777 in Vienna
Austrian composer.His most important teacher was Fux on whose recommendation he was appointed court composer
in 1739.In 1745 he travelled to Venice for the premiere of his first opera'Ariodante',and over the next 15 years he cemented his reputation as an opera composer with a series of successful works.He retired fromhis court posts in
1765 but was still active as a composer when Burney met him in 1770.
Wagenseil played an important role in the development of the Viennese Classical style.With their fusion of aria,ensemble,and recitative his operas paved the way for Gluck's reforms of the 1760s His symphonies,exhibiting formal clarity and fluency,were models for some of Haydn's early works. Most of his numerous concertos were well known in the Mozart household in Salzburg and influenced the style and form of Wolfgang's earliest concertos.
Georg Christoph Wagenseil - Concerto for Harp, Two Violins and Cello - Allegro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NognD74Ixhk&feature=share
* MARCH 2
Birth of FRIEDRICH SMETANA 1824 in Litomysl
ΤHE EARLY YEARS
Born into a reasonably prosperous family he exhibited a prodigious musical talent .He attended school near home and in Prague but neglected his studies in favour of the capital's cultural life and was sent to study in Plzen in 1840.He had
composed and arranged for string quartet in Prague and continued to write for the piano,considering the Three Impromptus (1841) as the start of his composing carrier.Smetana opened a music institute in 1848 which was not a financial success,but with continuing teaching he was able to support a wife,marrying Katerina Kolarova in 1849.He
supplemented his income by playing to the deposed Emperor Ferdinand,but the next years were marked by economic difficulties and personal tragedy with the death of his daughters,in memory of the eldest of whom he wrote the C minor Piano Trio(1855).He left for Sweden in October 1856.The favourable impression of his first few months in Sweden led Smetana to think of settling permanently.However,the ill health of his wife and his feelings of artistic
isolation brought a return to Prague in the spring of 1859.Katerina died on the journey,andSmetana went back to Goteborg.In 1860 he brought his second wife,Bettina Ferdinandova,to Sweden,but hewas ready to make a final return to Prague.Apart from piano music,Smetana's work in Sweden confirmed his interest in the music of Liszt and attracted much adverse criticism.
YEARS OF MATURITY
Before finising the first of these in 1874 symptoms of syphilis became apparent,the most alarming being rapid and total deafness.Extended leave from the theatre was followed by resignation and financial difficulty. In the same year Smetana completed the comedy 'Hubicka'('The Kiss') and in spite of increasing dificulty in working composed'Tajemstvi'
('The Secret',1878)and completed'Ma vlast'.The performance of the festival opera 'Libuse'at the opening of the National Theatre in 1881 was a personal triumph though Smetana appeared to be shunned by the theatre authorities.
Against a growing disability he completed his Second String Quartet(D Minor,1883) and an introduction and polonaise for an orchestral suite entitled'Prague Carnival;he also made sketches for an opera 'Viola' based on Shakespear's 'Twelfth Night'.The distressing final stages of his illness ended with his death in a Prague lunatic asylum in 1884.
Smetana Piano Trio G minor 1st movement Part 1 Suk, Panenka, Fukačová
Bedřich Smetana: Má Vlast Moldau (Vltava) [City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra]
A TRIP TO PRAGUE, including Ma Vlast -- Download for $9.99 at:
http://emhclassicalmusic.bandcamp.com/album/a-trip-to-prague
* MARCH 3
French composer.He began his career as a cellist and subsequently became a composition pupil of Massenet,who was highly influential on his style.In 1887 the success of his first opera'Kerim' was enough to persuade him to devote himself to opera.His middle years were dominated by his collaborations with Emile Zola,the central figure of French naturalism.'Le Reve'(1891) was the first opera based on Zola,its libretto adapted by the writer and librettist LouisGallet. After Zola'sdeath Bruneau himself wrote the librettos for operas based on Zola.His Requiem is sometimes performed.
Birth of ANTONIO(LUCIO)VIVALDI 1678 in Venice
Russian composer.He was a true enfant terrible,reacting strongly to the heady atmoswphere of Russian late Romanticism as soon as his own compositional style had aqcquired the strength and character to assert itself Duringhis late 20s and 30s he lived in the west,but he returned to the USSR in 1936 and remainer there for the rest of his life,producing some of his best-known works.It wasw a sad irony that he could not test the artistic climate afterStalin's death,for he died on the same day as Stalin.As a composer he stands none the less at the forefront of 20th-century Russian culture In his early years he had set out purposfully to shock his publick in music of flamboyance and hair-raising virtuosity,but in his 30s his musical style mellowed and he consolidated his reputation for ready tunefulness,rhythmic elan.instantly appealing charm,and alert humour,expressed with a zestful openess which has rendered much of his music enduringly popular.
Russian composer.He led a colourful life,seeing active military service during the war against Napoleon and marchingwith the Russian army on Dresden and Paris in 1812.But in 1825 he was found guilty of manslaughter(having apparently struck an opponent during a card game) and after a three-year imprisonment was exiled to his native Siberia.In the early 1830s he was allowed to travel to the Caucasus for healtgh reasons,but he later moved further north to Orenburg and finally settled in Moscow.A prolific and enterprising composer,Alyabyeis known chiefly for his gentle,folk-tinged song 'Solovey'(The Nightingale,1826),which several singers later performed in the Singing Lesson scene of Rossini's 'Il barbiere di Siviglia',it was also transcribed for piano by Liszt(1842).Of his stage music,only the vaudevilles were performed during his lifetime,while his operas remained in manuscript.
Birth of MAURICE RAVEL 1875 in Ciboure,Basses Pyrenees French composer.
Birth of ALAN HOVHANESS 1911 in Somevill MA
Death of Sir WILLIAM WALTON 1902 Ischia
Spanish violinist and composer.He gave his first concert at the age of seven,and stadied at Madrit with Rodriguez before entering the Paris Conservatoire to study with Delphin Alard(1856)He Subsequently embarked on a highly successful career as a concert violinist widely in Europe and North and South America.Sarasate was famed for the classic purity of his style,beauty of tone'and facility of execution.His works,stimulated by the folk music of his native
Birth of ALEXANDRE GUILMANT 1837 in Boulogne-sur-MerFrench
German composer.Exceptionally gifted,by the age of ten he had mastered the violin,flute,zither,and keyboard instruments,and tho years later composed his first opera,'Sigismundus'.After Gymnasium studies in 1701 he became involved in the musical life of the city:as founder of a 'collegium musicum'and director of the Leipzig Opera in 1702and as organist at the Neukirche in 1704.In 1705 he composed overtures in the French style for the court.In 1708he transferred to Eisenach as Kapellmeister and in the following year he mkarried Louise Eberlin,daughter of the composer Daniel Eberlin,only to lose two years later after the birth of their first child.In 1712 he moved to Frankfurt as city director of music.In 1714 he married Maria Katharina Textor,the daughter of a local council clerk,who borehim 11 children.In July 1721,following contacts with Hamburg,he accepted an invitation from the city authorities to succeed Johann Gerstenbuttel in the coveted post of Kantor of the Johanneum ad director of the five main churchesin the city.In 1737 he visited Paris,to give profitable performances of his music at court and in the Conert Spirituel.In1738,following his return to Hamburg,the Opera was closed,and for many years from 1740 his musical output was considerably redused.However,from 1755,with renewed creative vigour,he composed a fine series of oratorios.During his lifetime Telemann contributed to a marked change in the musical life of Germany.The immensity of his output and his astonishing technical fluency marked him out as a composer of purely superficial music.
* MARCH 17
Birth of NIKOLAI ANDREYEVICH RIMSKY-KORSAKOV 1844 in Tikhvin.
Death of ALEXANDER KOSTANTINOVICH GLAZUNOV 1936 in Paris.
GREEK composer.He studied the violin at the Athens Conservatory(1914-20) and with Willy Hess at the Berlin Musikhochschule(1921-23),and Schoenberg(1927-31).In 1933 he returned to Athens,where he earned his living as a back-desk violinist and composed quantity of music.Very little of this was played during his lifetime,and it was not until the 1960s thar Skalkotta's steture began to be recognized.He developed his own serial techniques in musicthat is often densely elaborated and of long duration:the Third Piano Concerto(1938-9),lasting for an hour,is not untypical.Among other works of this character are four string quartets,four piano suites,two symphonic suites,andthe single-movement symphony'The Return of Ulysses(1942-43)Skalkotta's output of serial music is probably greater than that of any other composer,but he also prodused a large number of tonal works at the same time.These include a colourful collection of 36 Greek Dances for orchestra(1913-6) as well as some large scale abstract pieces.
Russian pianist and composer.Like his brother Anton,he achieved early recognition as qa pianist of outstanding qualities.He also became a key figure in the musical life of Moscow founding a branch of the Russian Musical Society there in 1860:six years leter the society's music classes blossomed into the Moscow Conservatory,of which Rubinstein was director until his death.Rubinstein was a close friend of Tchaikovsky,but his name has endured in musical history for his condemnation of the First Piano Concerto as 'worthless and unplayable'.However,he conducted the first Moscow performance of the concerto,and also gave the premieres of several of Tchaikovsky's other large- scale works,including'Eugene Onegin'(1879).Tchaikovsky wrote his Piano Trio in Rubinstein's memory'dedicating it 'to thye memory of a great artist'.
Birth of BELA BARTOK 1881 in Sinnicolau Mare ,Romania.
* MARCH 26
Death of LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN 1827 in Vienna.
* MARCH 27
German composer and educationalist.Born into Bavarian military family,he showed musical aptitude early and played the piano,organ,and cello as a boy.He studied at tha Munich Academy,graduating in 1914.His early works show theinfluence of Debussy,Strauss,and early Schoenberg.In 1924,together with Dorothee Gunther,Orff founded the Gunther School of gymnastics,dance,and music,encouraging the pupils in improvisation and music and developing a range of musical publications and percussion instruments which have been widely used in education.Orff's first greatsuccess was the scenic cantata'Carmina burana'(1935-36),a setting of scabrous medieval poetry which marks both the emergence and the quintessence of his characteristic style.The Carl Orff Institute in Salzburg was founded in 1961 to propagate his teaching methods.His major works in the postwar era consisted of a sequence of music-theatre music modelled either on Baroque theatre or on Greek tragedy.They include Antigonae(1948) and Oedipusder Tyrann(1959),both of which are settings of Sophocles in German translation.He wrote the music for the MunichOlympic Games in 1972.
Birth of FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN in Robrau,Lower Austria.
Polish violinist and composer.After studying in Paris he started his solo career at 15 with a two-year tour of Russia;he also started to compose.From 1860 to 1872 he lived in St Petersburg,where he played his second concerto and taught,but after further world tours he went to the Brussels Conservatory(1875-7),later giving concerts in Paris,Berlin,and Moscow.A bad heart condition,aggravated by excessive performing,hastened his early death.
* MARCH 3
Death of PAUL WITTGENSTEIN 1961 IN Manhasset,NY
Austrian pianist.Apupil of Leschetizky,he made his debut in Vienna in 1913 but lost his right arm on the battlefield a year later.After the war he resolved to continue his solo career by adapting works and playing those written for him byStrauss,Ravel(Concerto for the left hand),Schmidt,Korngold,Hindemi
th,Britten,and Prokofiev(Fourth piano concerto).
In 1939 he settled in the USA and taught in
Wittgenstein plays Ravel's Piano concerto for the Left Hand (1)
Birth of ALFRED BRUNEAU 1857 in Paris
Alfred Bruneau - Requiem, Dies Irae - Tuba Mirum
Death of GREGOR JOSEPH WERNER 1766 in Eisenstdt
Austrian composer.From 1728 until his death he served as Kapellmeister at the Esterhazy court in Eisenstadt.
In 1761 Joseph Haydn was appointed as his assistant,and Werner,with the title Oberhofkapellmeister,was granted control solely of the court's sacred music--a covert demotion which made him resentful of his young colleague.
Werner's compositions include oratorios,a cappella and concertato masses,and 12 suites entitled'Neuer und sebrcurioser musikalischer Instrumental--Calender'(1748),the descriptive features of which may have influenced theprogrammatic elements in Haydn's earlier symphonies.
G. J. Werner: Instrumental-Calender (1748) / Twelve Orchestral Suites - Part I / A Corte Musical
Death of EUGEN d' ALBERT 1932 in Riga
German pianist and composer.He won a scholarship and studied the piano with Ernst Pauer.At 17 he won the Mendelssohn Scholarship,whic enabled him to study abroad in Vienna,and in Weimar with Lizst.He was befriended and supported by Brahms and Hanslick.His six marriages included a stormy three-year relationship with the pianist Teresa Carreno.D'Albert's concert works show the influence of Brahms;they include piano music,songs,chamber music,a symphony(1886),two piano concertos(1884,1893) and a cello concerto(1899).In the 20 operas that increasingly absorbed him the influences are more eclectic.'Tiefland'(1903),his greatest success,skilfully imported the manner of verismo to Germany.
TIEFLAND (TERRA BAIXA) d'Eugen Albert (2008-2009)
Death of NICOLA PORPORA 1768 in Naples
Italian composer and singing teacher.He studied at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesu Cristo in Naples,and by 1711 was described as 'maestro' to the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt,general of the Austrian Army present in the city at that
valet--accompanist.He finally returned to Naples in 1760,working at both the Loreto conservatory and that of S.Onofrio. Porpora was an extremely influencial singing teacher,his pupils including the famous castratos FarinelliIn 1737 he returned to Italy;during the next ten years he held various posts.From 1747 to 1751 he was in Dresden,and in about 1752 he moved to Vienna,where Haydn not only studied with him but acted as his valet--accompanist.He finally returned to Naples in 1760,working at both the Loreto conservatory and that of S.Onofrio. Porpora was an extremely influencial singing teacher,his pupils including the famous castratos Farinelli time.In 1726 he became maestro at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice and in 1733 went to London,where he composed for the Opera of the Nobility(set up as a rival to Handel's company) and enjoyed considerable success.
Nicola Porpora - Polifemo "Alto Giove" Philippe Jaroussky
* MARCH 4
Italian violinist and composer.His father was a professional violinist,originally from Brescia,who joined the orchestra atSt Mark's,Venice,in 1685.Vivaldi himself wasbaptized on the day of his birth,his life being thought to be in danger;thismay be the first sign of the illness,probably asthma,that afflicted him throughout his life.In 1703 he was appointed 'maestro di violino' at the Ospedale della Pieta,a post he held until 1709 and again from 1711 to 1716.From 1713 onwards he composed much sacred music for the Pieta,and in 1716, soon after his promotion to maestro de'concerti,he produced his fine oratorio 'Juditha triumphans'.By this time Vivaldi was also increasingly active as an opera composer,and in 1718 he left Venice for Mantua,where three of his operas were prodused during Carnival celebrations.In 1720 he went to Rome,composing more operas.In 1723,though he was still at least partly resident in Rome,the governors of the Pieta contracted him to supply them with two concertos every month;during the period 1726-8 he was involved with opera at the S.Angelo theatre in Venice.During the period 1729-33 Vivaldi's travels took him for the first time outside Italy,possibly to Vienna,and certainly to Prague,which he visited in 1730.In 1735 he wasreappionted to the Pieta as maestro di cappella,but in 1738 he lost the post again,probably because of his inability to give up his travels and settle down to his duties in Venice.The following year he paid a successful visit to Amsterdam.It is unclear why he embarked on his final journey to Vienna,though the success of his operatic work in Venice and elsewhere,which he had continued alongside his other activities,does seem to have been declining.He died apparently in poverty and was buried in a pauper's grave.
Vivaldi - Lauda Jerusalem
VIVALDI Part II
To his contemporaries Vivaldi was more important as a violinist than as a composer,and own virtuosity is reflected in his writing for the instrument,especially in his concertos.But for present-day audiences he is one of the best-known and most popular composers of the period,the 'Four Seasons' concertos especially being among the most often performed and recorded works from before 1750.Vivaldi wrote more than 500 concertos,many for solo violin,but others for cello,flute,oboe,and bassoon as well as viola d'amore and mandolin-all of which instruments were completently played by members of the all-female orchestra at the Pieta,as were those that appear only in solo groups in his concerti grossi,including the horn,trumpet,lute,and chalumeau(precursor of the clarinet).
Throughout his career Vivaldi was in the habit of borrowing from or re-composing his own earlier works,so that many exist in more than one version.
A.Vivaldi:Concerto for Strings A major RV 158
* MARCH 5
Death of SERGEY SERGEYEVICH PROKOFIEV 1953 in Moscow
Romeo & Juliet - Prokofiev
Death of THOMAS AUGUSTINE ARNE 1778 in London
English composer.The son of an upholsterer,he was educated at Eton College.He learnt the violin with Michael Festing.He became involved in an enterprise to establish opera in English in London in direct competition with the Italian opera companies that were then dominant.He set Addison's libretto'Rosamond'which was performed in 1733,but soon afterwards the company split up.For some years he was house composer at Drury Lane,where his setting of Milton'spastoral 'Comus',one of his most successful theatre works,was first performed in 1738.For Drury Lane he also wrote songs for productions of Shakespeare's plays in the 1740's.In 1742 he followed Handel to Dublin,where he performed not only his own but also Handel's music.His oratorio 'Judith' was written for the Lenten season in 1761.His greatest achievement came the following year when 'Artaxerxes',a full-scale English opera,was staged at Covent Garden;itwas still being performed in the 19th century.Arne was a talented composer with a particular melodic gift('Rule,Britannia!',in the masque 'Alfred',1740,is by far his best-known melody),and he also wrote much fine instrumental music.He was the most important English theatre composer of his day,and his musical style effectively intergratesboth late Baroque and early Classical characteristics
Thomas Arne - Concerto No. 3 in A major 1/4
Birth of FRANCESCO GASPARINI 1668 in Camaiore
LuccaItalian composer.After studying with Legrenzi in Venice he went to Rome,where he knew and may have studied with Corelli and Pasquini,and where he wrote his first operas.In 1701 he returned to Venice as maestro di coro at the Ospidale della Pieta(he was responsible for Vivaldi's appointment as violin teacher there).He returned to Rome in 1713,becoming maestro di cappella at S.Lorenzo in Lucina in 1717;though appointed to St John Lateran in 1725 he was prevented by poor health from taking up the post.He was extremely active as an opera composer in bothVenice and Rome.Domenico Scarlatti was among his pupils.
Francesco Gasparini: Sonata per l'Elevazione
* MARCH 6
Death of ALEKSANDR ALEKSANDROVICH ALYABYEV 1851 in Moscow
Russian composer.He led a colourful life,seeing active military service during the war against Napoleon and marchingwith the Russian army on Dresden and Paris in 1812.But in 1825 he was found guilty of manslaughter(having apparently struck an opponent during a card game) and after a three-year imprisonment was exiled to his native Siberia.In the early 1830s he was allowed to travel to the Caucasus for healtgh reasons,but he later moved further north to Orenburg and finally settled in Moscow.A prolific and enterprising composer,Alyabyeis known chiefly for his gentle,folk-tinged song 'Solovey'(The Nightingale,1826),which several singers later performed in the Singing Lesson scene of Rossini's 'Il barbiere di Siviglia',it was also transcribed for piano by Liszt(1842).Of his stage music,only the vaudevilles were performed during his lifetime,while his operas remained in manuscript.
Dilber - Solovej / nightingale by Alyabyev
* MARCH 7
Birth of HEINO ELLER 1887 in Tartu
Estonian composer and teacher.In St Petersburg he studied the violin,hen composition,at the conservatory with Vasili Kalafati,and Maximilian Steinberg,and law at the university.He taught at the Tartu Higher School of Music before moving to Tallinn as professor of composition at the State Conservatory.Eller's own music emerges from late romanticism,but without a trace of sentimentality.His tone-poem'Koit'('Dawn',1918)shows an exquisite sense of orchestral colour that allies him to Rakhmaninov.He composed over 30 orchestral works,including three symphonies,seven concertante pieces,and eight symphonic poems.His chamber and instrumental music includes five string quartets,four piano sonatas,and two sonatas for violin and piano.
Heino Eller- Dawn
Birth of MAURICE RAVEL 1875 in Ciboure,Basses Pyrenees French composer.
For more details SEE Dec.28th at music diary.
Maurice Ravel - Pavane for Dead Princess
Maurice Ravel - Pavane for Dead Princess
Death of LEONIE RYSANEK 1998 in Vienna Austrian soprano.
She studied in Vienna with Alfred Jerger and sang in Innsbruck and Saarbrucken before making her Bayreuth debut as Sieglinde(in Die Walkure)in 1951,establishing herself immediately as one of the finest postwar Wagner sopranos.She joined the Vienna State Opera in 1954.In 1959 Rysanek took New York by storm when she stood in at a short notice for the indisposed Maria Callas as Lady Macbeth;she remained a favourite at the Metropolitan Opera.Towards the end of her 40-year career she sang dramatic mezzo-soprano roles.A singing actress of often overwhelming force,she was famous for a voluptuous beauty of tone,particularly in her voice's upper registers,and for the emotional intensity of her performances
Leonie Rysanek "Dich teure Halle" from Tannhauser
Death of JOHANN GEORG ALBRECHTSBERGER 1809 in Vienna
Austrian organist,composer,theorist,and teacher.After studies in his hometown,he went to the school at Melk Abbey and subsequently studied philosophy at the Jesuit seminary in Vienna.About 1775 he became organist at Raab in Hungary,later holding similar posts in Lower Austria and at Melk.He was second court organist in Vienna in 1772 and was promoted to first organist in 1792.A year later he was appointed Kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral, remaining there until his death. He was a master of counterpoint,with an understanding of Bach's techniques as well as Palestrina's.He was a prolific composer,of church music and instrumental works,and author 0of an influential treatise on composition.He taught a whole generation of Viennese musicians,including Beethoven(who,like Mozart,thought highly of him)and Hammel.
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809) - Concertino for flute, guitar and orch. in D minor (1/2)
* MARCH 8
Birth of ALAN HOVHANESS 1911 in Somevill MA
American composer,of Armenian-Scottish parentage.He studied with Frederick Converse at the New England Conservatory and Martinu at Tanglewood(1942).His enormous output-over 400 opus numbers,covering nearly all genres-includes more than 60 symphonies.He also wrote 12 operas,mostly to his own librettos,six ballets,and chamber works for a large variety of instrumental combinations.Richly imbued witg Armenian modality, his music tends to be colourful and massive.
Alan Hovhaness Mysterious Mountain I (Andante con moto)
Death of Sir WILLIAM WALTON 1902 Ischia
English composer. He was a chorister at Christ Church,Oxford(1912-18);his already apparent creative gifts gained the admiration of Parry,H.G.Ley,and Hugh Allen,enabling him to be accepted as an undergraduate there in 1918.However,he left in 1920 without a degree and moved to London,where he was unofficially adopted by the Sitwells.The first fruit of his association with the Sitwells was 'Facade(1921-2),music for a recitation of poems by Edith Sitwell;it won the composer a reputation for wit and iconoclasm and placed him among those British composers who were captivated by elements of popular music and neo-classicism spearheaded by Stravinsky and Les Six.During the next two decades most of his music was on a smaller scale or of an occational nature though his coronation marches'Crown Imperial'and'Orb and Sceptre' have long outlived the occations for which they were written.His work for the theatre was his three-act opera'Troilus and Cressida'(1954)'an adaptation of Chaucer which was full of rich thematic invention and steely drama. Walton was knighted in 1951 and awarded the Ordet of Merit in 1967.
Yuri Bashmet plays Viola concerto by Sir William Walton
* MARCH 10
Birth of PABLO de SARASATE 1844 in Pamplona
country,include fantasias,romances,and transcriptions,of which 'Zigeunerweisen','Jota aragonesa',and the four books of Spanish dances are still played.
Sarasate Plays Sarasate Zigeunerweisen
* MARCH 10
Death of CARL REINECKE 1910 in Leipzig
German composer.After early years as a concert pianist,also teaching in Barmen and Breslau,he became a teacher of
piano and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1860;he was made director in 1897. His pupils included Grieg,Svendsen,and Weingartner.Having earlier attracted the attention of Mendelssohn,he became conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts;here he was also a strong disciplinarian.He wrote some charming piano music and was a noted editor of the standard classics.
Carl Reinecke Symphony No 1 Op 7 I. Lento - Allegro con Brio (1/4)
Death of JOHANN PETER EMILIUS HARTMANN 1900 in Copenhagen
Danish composer and teacher.He was the scion of the most important family in Danish musical history:his grandfather,his father,his son,his son-in-law(Niels W.Gade),and his great-grandson(Niels Viggo Bentzon)were all composers.Appointed organist of Garnisons Kirke when he was 19,in succession to his father,he resigned the post in 1843 on becoming organist at Copenhagen Cathedral;he held the two appointments for a total of 76 years.He was a prolific composer,writing several hundred works in all genres,including three operas,several ballets,two symphonies,chamber and instrumental music,and songs
Johan Emilius Hartmann - Symphony No. 2 Op. 48 I. Praeludim - Moderato Sostenuto (1/6)
* MARCH 11
Death of EMILIO de' CAVALIERI 1602 in Rome
Italian composer.Of noble birth,he was involved with the Roman Oratorio del Crocifisso in his earpy years.He met Cardinal Ferdinando de'Medici when the latter was resident in Rome,and,after the cardinal became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1587,Cavalieri mived to Florence the next year as superintendent of the court artists and musicians.In the 1590s,he provided the music for a number of pastoral entertainments in Florence,and later he claimed precedence for the invention of the recitative style.Of his surviving works,the best known is the'Rappresentationedi Anima,et di Corpo',given at the Oratory in Rome in April 1600.Another remarkable work is a setting of the Lamentations for Holy Week for one to five voices and continuo.
29 Emilio De Cavalieri: Lamentations: Miserere mei Deus: part1
Death of GEORG REUTTER 1772 in ViennaAustrian composer.He studied with his father and Caldara.He enjoyed a successful career at court,as vice- Kapellmeister after Fux's death in 1741 and as Kapellmeister in 1751In 1731 he married the opera singer Theresa Holzhauer,and in 1738 succeeded his father as Kapellmeister at St Stephen's,where in 1749 he is alleged to have dismissed Haydn,somewhat callously,when his voice broke.His large output includes operas,oratorios,masses,and a fine Requiem in C minor(1753).His music bwas often criticized for the busy style of its string writing-expressed,proverbially,as'rushing violins a la Reutter
Georg Reutter - Missa a 4 voci G-Dur - "Gloria" "Qui tollis" "Quoniam"
* MARCH 12
organist,composer,and editor.He came from a family of organists and organ builders and had his first lessons with his father;in 1860 he went to Brussels to study with J.N.Lemmens.In the 1860s he inaugurated several organs,and in 1871 became organist at La Trinite. He also pursued an international career as a concert recitalist with an extraordinary wide repertory,which he did much to popularize through his colouful performances and numerous editions.He succeeded Widor as organ professor at the Paris Conservatoire(1896-1911) and was a founder of the Schola Cantorum (1894)His compositions include eight organ sonatas.
Alexandre Guilmant: Symphony No. 2 for Organ and Orchestra - part 1
* MARCH 13
Birth of ENRICO TOSELLI 1883 in FlorenceItalian pianist and composer.
A pupil of Sgambati and Martucci,he was a successful concert pianist in his early years,until his sensational marriage in 1907 to Archduchess Louis of Austria-Tuscany led to the neglect of his keyboard technique.He composed a number of operas and operettas,and is still known by his popular song 'Serenata'(1900).
Beniamino Gigli Enrico Toselli "Serenata" Version 1 1926 New Jersey
Death of ANTONIO MARIA BERNACCHI 1756 in BolognaItalian alto castrato.
He studied with Francesco Pistocchi and Giovanni Ricieri in Bologna and in1703 made his opera debut at Genoa,showing prodigious technical talent and command in florid writing.He became greatly in demand in Italy,Germany,and England.where Handel engaged him for the 1729-30 season.He sang in the premieres of Handel's'Lotario'and 'Partenope'.As a teacher he exerted a great influence;in1736 he founded a celebrated singing school in Bologna.
Handel - Partenope "Furibondo spira il vento" David Daniels
* MARCH 14
Birth of GEORG PHILIP TELEMANN 1681 in Magdeburg.
Telemann - Concerto a 6 for Flute & Violin TWV52:e3
Birth of JOSEPHINE LANG 1815 in Munich.
German composer.She made her debut at the age of 11,praying a set of piano variations by Herz,and four years later met Mendelsson,who gave her lessons in theory.During the 1830s she taught singing and the piano,sang in the royal Vocalkapelle,and composed.She wrote some 150 songs,most of which deal with themes of love or nature;theycontain daring melodies with independent accompaniments.
Josephine Lang: "Erinnerung" by Dana MacKay
Birth of OLIVE FREMSTAD 1871 in Stockholm.
Swedish-born American soprano,originally mezzo-soprano.Brought up by adopted parents in Minnesota,she was trained as a pianist before taking up singing in 1890.In 1893 she studied in Berlin with Lilli Lehmann.She made herdebut as Azucena in Il trovatore'in Cologne in 1895,later gravitating towards the dramatic soprano repertory.She was a member of the ensemble at the Metropolitan Opera,New York(1903-14)where she became an outstanding Wagner performer.Her Isolde,a role she sang regularly with Mahler,was considered definitive by many.Her carrier inspired Wilda Carter's novel''The song of the Lark'',widely regarded as one of the finest of all literary portrayals of the artistic temperament
Olive Fremstad, "Dich, teure Halle", Wagner: Tannhäuser (Columbia, 1911)
* MARCH 15
Birth of CHARLES DIBDIN 1745 in Southampton.
English composer and dramatist.As a composer he was largely self-taught,and he doubtless learnt much from his early experiences in the chorus at Covent Garden.He took a few solo operatic roles,but most of his life was devoted to composing and supervising music for various London theatres(including Covent Garden and Drury Lane )He was enormously prolific composing some 60 stage works(including operas,pantomimes,and dialogues,many to his own librettos)as well as writing several music textbooks,novels,and other prose works.
Charles Dibdin - Tom Bowling (Robert Tear)
Death of LUIGI CHERUBINI 1842 in Paris.
Italian composer.For details SEE 14th Sept.(Music diary)
Karajan: Cherubini overture Anacreon - Turin SO - ca 1943
Birth of NICOLA VACCAI 1790 in Tolentino.
Italian composer.He studied with Paisiello in Naples and,after trying his hand at writing operas,worked as a singing teacher there from 1815.Vaccai was more successful with later operas,two of which(Zadig ed Astartea and Giulietta e Romeo) were staged in 1825.In 1830 he went to Paris,where he again taught singing,and in the same year moved on to London for three years before returning to Italy.He was appo[nted professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory in 1838.He wrote a total of 17 operas,as well as church music.cantatas,songs,and four balletr,but he is best known for his singing tutor,the'Metodo practico di canto italiano per camera(London,1832).His singing exercises are still in the repertory.
Cecilia Gasdia - Vaccai - Zadig e Astartea
* MARCH 16
Death of GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI 1736 in Naples.
Italian composer.For details SEE 4th Jan.(Music Diary)
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) - Sinfonia fa maggiore
* MARCH 17
Death of JACQUES FROMENTAL HALEVY 1862 in Nice.
French composer..
Born into a Jewish family,he entered the Paris Conservatoir at the age of ten;his teachers includedBerton for harmony and Cherubini for counterpoint.He won the Prix de Rome in 1819,having previously twice been placed second.On his return from Italy he determined to concentrate on music for the stage,and in 1827 his opera'L'Artisan'was first performed at the Theatre Feydeau.Two years later 'Clari'was accepted for performance at the Theatre Italien.Durinf the next 30 years Halevy composed over 35 operas,of which the most successful was undoubtedly'La Juive',first performed at the Paris Opera in 1835;it ranks among the most important examples ofFrench grand opera and remains the work on which his fame rests.His most successful works at the Opera after 'La Juive'included'Guido et Ginerva'(1838),'La Reine de Chypre'(1841),and 'Charles VI(1843).'La tempesta'based on Shakespeare,was written for London in 1850.Towards the end of his life Halevy wrote two volumes of memoirs and musical criticism under the titles'Souvenirs et portraits'and'Derniers souvenirs'(1863)which possess great charm and erudition and which were critically admired at the time.He died of tuberculosis.
Hidden treasures - Fromental Halevy - La juive (1835) - Selected highlights (Act III, IV & V)
* MARCH 18
Russian composer,conductor and teacher.He was born into a noble family and received his early education at home.He entered the St Petersburg Naal College in 1856.Of t6he various entertainments available in the capital he chose opera,and his growing interest in music was strengthened by productions of Donizetti.Meyerbeer,and Glinka. His piano teacher,Fyodor Knille,was another strong influence,introdusing him to Bach,Beethoven,and Schumann.In 1861 a new acquaintance,Balakirev,became his informal tutor.Bakaliev introduced him to the critic Vladimir Stasovand to the young composers Musorgsky,Borodin,and Cui.Thus Rimsky-Korsakov soon became one of The Five,that cradle of Russian musical nationalism.Although it was undoubtedly Rimsky-Korsakov's efforts that brought theincomplete and unorchestrated 'Khovanshchina'to the stage,the case of'Boris Godunov'was different:there were already two complete versions,the later one having been performed in 1874.Undeterred,he completed his own abridged version of Boris in 1893,restyling the harmony and orchestration in accordance with his own tastes.Rimsky-Korsakov's central position in the Russiannationalist music school was further enhanced by his pedagogicalactivities.By the end of the 1880s he had taught a generation of students,of whom Glazunov and Lyadov were the most gifted.Rimsky also left his mark on the development of Russian sacred music when he served as Balakirev'sdeputy at the imperial court chapel from 1883 to 1894.
Because of these activities,Rimsky-Korsakov's own compositional output had slowed down by the mid-1880s;putting opera aside,he composed t6hree works t6hat demonstrated his virtuosity in orchestration:the'Spanish Capriccio'(1887),'Sheherazade',and the overture 'Russian Easter Festival';both 1888.He could barely have imaginedthat they would make him internationally renowned wlile his opera would remain lergely unknown outside Russia.Rimsky-Korsakov's last 15 years were the most prolific:a series of operas flowed from him at an unprecedented rate:'Christmas Eve','Sadko','Mozart and Salieri','Tsarskaya nevesta'and many other.He left for Paris on 28 July 1907 toconduct Diaghiley's Saisons Russes,and there performances won Western audiences over to Russian music,establishing it as a permanent part of the repertory.He died the following year and was buried in St Petersburg in the grounds of the Alexander-Nevsky monastery,next to Glinka,Musorgsky,Borodin,and Stasov.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Russian Easter Festival Overture Op.36 PART 1 of 2
A Panorama of Rimsky-Korsakov's Best Works
Birth of GIUSEPPE OTTAVIO PITONI 1657 in Rieti.
Italian composer.He was a choirboy at S.Giovanni dei Fiorentini and a the Ssnti Apostoli,Rome.He became maestro di cappella in 1676 at Rieti,and then at the collegiate church of S.Marco,Rome,holding that post until his death.Pitoniwas a hugely prolific composer:his sacred music included over 200 masses and mass movements for from four toeight voices,over 700 psalms,'Magnificat'settings,motets,litanies,and Passions.41 of his notes on musical subjects are conserved in the Vatican libraries,but only the first part of his'Guida armonica was ever published,for like many Romans he felt little inclination to send his work to press.
CANTATE DOMINO by Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni
* MARCH 19
Birth of MAX REGER 1873 in Brand,Bavaria.
German composer,pianist,conductor,and teacher.His father,a keen amateur musician,taught him the organ and encouraged his early musical ability.Adalbert Lindner,his first formal teacher in Weiden,where he grew up introduced him to the music of Bach and Beethoven.who were to be important influences;and by the age of 15 Reger had composed a number of instrumental works.In 1890 he was sent to study with Riemann in Sondershausen and Wiesbaden,where he continued to compose chamber works,lieder,and piano pieces.He later taught at the Wiesbaden Conservatory and did military service;at the same tine he began to drink heavily.In 1898 illness forced him to return home to Weiden,where he revived an early interest in the organ,composing a number of large-scale,elaborate works-among them several choral fantasias,two sonatas,and the 'Fantasia and Fugue on BACH,op.46-which both rely on and extend the traditions of Bach and Mendelssohn.Reger experienced a productive period in Munich from 1901,teaching and giving piano recitals and composing.In 1907 he moved to Leipzig as music director of the universityIn 1911 he was appointed music director of the court orchestra at Meiningen,where he conducted mainly Germanic symphonic works and increased his own output of orchestral music;it was here that he wrote the'Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart op.132.He became ill in 1913and,after the outbreak of war moved in 1915 to a more restful situation at Jena.His sudden death was probably the result of a heart attack.
Reger (2) on Europe's Largest Pipe Organ: Passau Cathedral
* MARCH 20
Birth of SVIATOSLAV RICHTER 1915 in Zhytomyr,Ukraine.
Russian pianist.Initially an opera repetiteur,he studied the piano with Heinrich Neuhaus in Moscow in 1937.Befriended by Prokofiev,whose music he championed,he won many competitions and performed thyroughout btheSoviet bloc he was permitted in (1960) to -play in the West,which he immediately took by storm with his supremely virtuoso yet physically restrained playing.Hs refined and transparent chamber music was exemplified by suberb performances at the Aldeburgh Festival.Although he hated committing his interpretations to record,fortunatelymuch remains of his enormous repertory.
Sviatoslav Richter playing Chopin, and interviewed - "Richter, the Enigma"
Death of GIOVANNI BATTISTA PESCETTI 1766 in Venice.
Italian composer.Apupil of Antonio Lotti,he composed operas in Venice from 1725 to 1732.In 1736 he went to London,where he took over from Porpora as director of the Opera of the Nobility and published some keyboard sonatas.He returned to Venice in about 1745 and became second organist at St Mark's in 1762.
Pescetti Giovanni Battista - " Sonata I in Mi maggiore " (Londre,1739)
* MARCH 21
Birth of JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1685 in Eisenach.
German composer.
EARLY YEARS,ARNSTADT,and MUBLBAUSEN
Bach-the supreme musical genius of the late Baroque period-occupies a central position in the most gifted family in musical history;he was the youngest of the eight children of Johann Ambrosius Bach and his first wife MariaElisabeth.Within ten years of his birth he lost both his parents-his mother in May 1694 and his father less than a year later-and was sent with his brother Johann Jacob to live with their eldest brother'Johann Christoph Bach(ii)(1671-1721),who was organist at Ohrdruf,near Arnstadet.Under Christoph's care Sebastian received sound instruction in musical technique and taught himself composition mainly by copying out the works of othyer composers.In 1700 he gained qa scholarship at the Michaellisschule in Luneburg,where he swang at the choir.In July 1702 he was offered the post of organist at Sangerhausen but was thwarted by the reigning duke,who preffered a candidate of his own choice;for several months thereafter he occupied his time as a lackey and violinist at Weimar.O 9 August 1703 Bach was appointed organist and choirmaster at the church of St Boniface in Arnstadtwith agood salary and relatvely light duties.Eager to find wider scope for his ambitions he transferred in June 1707 to Muhlhausen as organist at the Blasiuskrche where he found fruitful outlets for his energies.In October 1707,in the village church a Dornheim,he married Maria Barbara Bach,his second cousin,who bore him seven children,including Wilhelm Friedeman and Carl Philipp Emanuel.
WEIMAR and COTHEN
In June 1708 Bach was appointed organist and court musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar.From this period there date many of his best-known organ works-the Prelude and Fugue in D major,the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor,theToccata Adagio,and fugue in C major,and many of the choral preludes in the 'Little Organ Book' together w2ith keyboard arrangements of works by Vivaldi and others,which involved him in a study of the Italian concerto style of crucial importance to his expanding creative armoury.With the death in December 1716 of Samuel Drese,the Weimar Kapellmeister,and the subsequent frustration of his hopes of succeeding to the vacant post,Bach's provision of cantatas soon ceased.His search for new employment was rewarded in August 1717,when the post of Kapellmeister to the court os Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen was offered to him.At Cothen Bach at first found congenial employment with a generous ruler who was keenly interested in music and was an able player of the violin,bass viol,and harpsichord.His agreeable mode of life at Cothen was sadly disrupted in July 1720,while he was away in Carlsbad,by the d3eath of Maria Barbera,which left him with four young children to raise.On 3 December 1721,he took a second wife,Anna Magdalena Wilcken,the 20-year-old daughter of a court trumpeter;she was to bear him 13 children,of whon ten died in infancy.In 1722 he applied for the post of Thomaskantor at Leipzig and was appointed in April 1723.
LEIPZIG
From 1729,for some 13 years,Bach acted as director of the 'collegium musicum'that Telemann had founded in Leipzig in 1702 and was able to provide regular weekly concerts.On 27 July 1733 Bach sought to advance his status at Leipzig by petitioning Friedrich August II,the new Elector of Saxony,for a court title,submitting the Kyrie and Gloriaof a Lutheran Mass,and the title of Royal Court Composer was conferred on him in November 1736.On May 1747Bach visited Potsdam at the invitation of Frederick the Great,and was given a theme on which to improvise which served as the basis of his Musical Offering,a collection of ricercars and canons,together with a trio sonata,as a concession to Frederick's more modern tastes.Towards the end of his life he went blind,and it is thought likely thathe may have suffered from a severe form of diabetes. He died in Leipzig on 28 July 1750.
Johann Sebastian Bach - Cello suite No.1 Prelude in G - Major
J.S. Bach~Trio sonata No. 5 in C major (1/2)
Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (Allegro-Adagio)
* MARCH 21
Russian composer.He had lessons in theory and composition from Rimsky-Korsakov,who reports that he progressed'not by the day but by the hour',and at the age of 16 he scored a success with his First Symphony(1881-2),which reveales skilful orchestration and a pleasing melodic strain owing much to the music of the Five.The First Symphony inspired a wealthy industralist Mitrofan Belyayev who instituted the Russian Symphony Concerts series and gave Glazunov his debut as a conductor in 1888;from 1896 he became a regular conductor for the concert series.His First String Quartet(1882) followed swiftly after the Symphony.He collaborated with Rimsky-Korsakov in producing a completed version of Borodin's opera'Prince Igor'.Tchaikovsky was to be the next major influence.Between 1898 and 1900 St Petersburg saw the premieres of Glazunov's three ballets,'Raymonda','Les Ruses D'amour',and'Vremena goda'(The seasons).During the following decade,however,Glazunov's productivity was more sporadic,since he was now burdened by his duties as director of the conservatory and distracted by World War I and the Revolution.By 1928 he was using any excuse to travel outside the USSR,and he embarked on a conducting tour that took him across Europe and the USA.He eventually settled in Paris,but continued to justify his absence from the USSR ongrounds of ill health.
Alexander Glazunov Cortege Solennel
* MARCH 21
Birth of NIKOS SKALKOTTAS 1904 in Halkis,Eubea.
Dimitris Mitropoulos/Nikos Skalkottas: Fête Crétoise (1919, orch. 1923/1924)
* MARCH 22
Birth of ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER 1948 in London.
English composer.He studied at the RCM and wrote the musicals 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'(1968),'Jesus Christ Superstar'(1971),and 'Evita'(1978) with the lyricist Tim Rice.Exploiting commercialopportunities,these works were hugely successful,as,later were'Cats'(1981),'Starlight Express'(1984),'The Fantom of the Opera'(1986),'Aspects of Love'(1989),'Sunset Boulevard'(1993),and ' Whistle down the Wind'(1998).Lloyd Webber has also written film scores,a Requiem,and variations for cello and rock band.The recipient6 of many awards,he was knighted in 1992 anw was created a life peer in 1997.
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Requiem concert - Part 1
* MARCH 23
Death of NICOLAS ISOUARD 1818 in Paris.
French composer.He studied in Paris,Malta,Palermo,and Naples;his first opera,'L'avviso ai maritati'(Warning to Married Couples),was written for Florence in 1794.He was then appointed organist to the Order of St John of Malta,composing serious and comic Italian operas until the French invasion in 1798.INn 1799 he arrived in Paris,wherehe collaborated on two 'operas comiques'and reworked two of his earlier operas before achieving success with Michel-Ange(1802).Thereafter his popularity continued with a stream of works for the Opera-Comique,includingthe fairy-tale opera 'Cendrillon(Cinderella,1810) and 'Joconde'(1814),which confirmed his international reputation.He also composed masses,motets,cantatas,duets,and songs,but his reputation is founded on his contribution to thegenre of 'opera comique'and the Italian influence he brought to French music.
Hidden treasures - Nicolas (Nicolo) Isouard - Cendrillon (1810) - Selected highlights
Death of NIKOLAI RUBINSTEIN 1881 in Paris.
Nikolai Rubinstein: Mazurka, Op. 11
Birth of THOMAS SELLE 1599 in Zorbig.
German composer.He held appointments in north-west Germany bebore settling in Hamburg in 1641 as Kantor at the Johanneum and civic director of music.His compositions include some 280 sacred works,among them motets marked'ad imitationem Orlandi',which'parody' works by Lassus.His second St John Passion(1643)was the first toinvolve obbligato instruments,both to provide an accompaniment and to delineate characters.
Thomas Selle (1599-1663) - O Gott, wir danken deiner Gut
Birth of FRANZ SCHREKER 1878 in Monaco.
Austrian composer ,conductor,and teacher.He studied at the Vienna Conservatory from 1892 to 1900.His first opera 'Flammen'was performed in Vienna in 1902.He had begun work the previous year on the opera'Der ferne Klang'to hisown libretto,temporarily abandoning the score when its erotic subject matter,partly autobiographical,caused alarm among many of his friends.On the strength of 'Der ferne Klang's'success,Schreker was appointed professor ofcomposition at the Vienna Conservatory in 1912.In 1920 he was appointed director of the Musikhochschule inBerlin,where he lived for the rest of his life.Krenek,Haba,and Goldschmidt were among his pupils,andZemlinsky and Hindemith held teaching posts under his directorship.Schreker was Jewish and the last years of his life were tragically marked by the rise of Nazi anti Semitism.He was dismissed of his teaching post in 1933,an event widely believed to have precipitated the sudden heart attack that killed him a year leter.He is now widely regarded as ranking among the finest of post-Romantic composers.
Franz Schreker: Die Gezeichneten - Act I prelude
* MARCH 24
Death of ENRIQUE GRANADOS 1916 at see,English Channel.
Spanish composer and pianist.He studied composition in Barcelona with Felipe Pedrell and the piano in Paris with Charles de Beriot from 1887.It was the success of his piano suite 'Goyescas '(1911,inspired by the painting of Goya) that he gained much recognition as a serious composer. After performing 'Goyescas 'in Paris in 1914,he was invited to compose an opera based on it for the Paris Opera,but the war intervened,and it was eventually given by the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1916,in the composer's presence.He lost his life on his return to Europe,when his ship,the'Sussex' was torpedoed in the English Channel.
Enrique Granados: GOYESCAS - Intermedio (Ex.)
Birth of MARCOS ANTONIO PORTUGAL 1762 in Lisbon.
Portuguese composer.He studied at the Seminario Patriarcal in Lisbon,remaining in the city as a conductor and opera composer until 1792.That year he went to study in Italy,though he seems to have spent more time composing operasthan taking lessons;the most successful of his Italian works was 'La confusione della somiglianza'(1793).In 1800 he returned to Lisbon to take up the posts of royal mestre da capela and director of opera at the S.Carlos theatre.Portugal wrote over 50 operas,both Portuguese ind Italian,and composed over 100 sacred works.The finale of his cantata'La speranza(1809) served as the Portuguese national anthem until 1834.
Marcos Portugal cuidados tristes cuidados
Birth of JUAN FRANCES de IRIBARREN 1699 in Sanguesa,nr Pamplona.
Spanish composer and organist.Trained as a choirboy at the Colegio de Cantorcicos in Madrid,he became organist at Salamanca Cathedral(1717-33) and maestro di capilla at Malaga Cathedral(1733-66).His style is characterized by occasional use of polychoral writing,figured continuo parts,and idiomatic writing for the violin and oboe,then rarely heard in churches.His output exceeds 800 works including more than 500 villancicos His music survives mainly at Malaga Cathedral,with some works in other Iberian and Latin American archives.
Juan Francés de Iribarren-Arde el furor intrépido-Espada-OBS-Fasolis
* MARCH 25
Death of RUPERTO CHAPI 1909 in Madrid.
Spanish composer.The son of a village barber,he studied at the Madrid and Paris conservatories and in Rome.Several of his many zarzuelas,including 'La bruja'(The witch,1887)and 'La revoltosa'(The Troublemaker',1897) are staples of the Spanish repertory.He also wrote operas,chamber music,and orchestral works.He also founded the Sociedad de Autores(1899) to safeguard copyright for all Spanish artists.
Preludio. El tambor de granaderos. Ruperto Chapí
Birth of BELA BARTOK 1881 in Sinnicolau Mare ,Romania.
Hungarian composer.For details SEE Sept.26 (Music diary)
Bartók Concerto for Orchestra pt 1
* MARCH 26
Death of HEINRICH ISAAC 1517 in Florence.
Flemish composer.He was one of the most prolific and influential composers of his time,and is usual for having beenemployed principally for his compositional skills rather than as a performer.36 masses by him survive,based variously on secular material-songs,dances,and mottoes-or on plainchant;in many of the latter settings,Issac set only portions of his liturgical texts to music,these to be sung in alternation with each chant or organ music.His massive cycle of mass Propers,built round plainchant melodies,was composed partly in response to the Konstanz commission partly for use by the imperial chapel choir.His large output of motets and secular works is extremely varied,and reflects his international career and outlook.Isaac's best-known work is also one of his shortest and simplesr,the lied 'Innsbruck,ich muss dich lassen.
Heinrich Isaac: Alla battaglia (Instrumental)
Birth of FRANCOIS-JOSEPH FETIS 1784 in Mons,Hainaut.
Belgian scholar,critic,teacher ,and composer.He came from a musical family and in 1800 entered the Paris conservatoire,where he developed a special interest in 16th-century contrapuntal music,especially that of Palestrina.After a spell of teaching elsewhere(1811-18)he returned to Paris and from 1821 taught counterpoint at the Conservatoire.In 1833 he became the first director of the Brussels Conservatory.Fetis built up an extensive library and a fine collection of instruments.He founded(1827)and for six years edited the famous journal 'Revuemusicale'through which he encouraged interest in music of the past while showing a somewhat conservative attitude to contemporary music.
François-Joseph Fétis - Fantasie symphonique for organ and orchestra
Death of PAL ESTERHAZY 1713.
ESTERHAZY was a Hungarian noble family,patrons of the arts.Pal who succeeded to the princiate in 1687,consolidated the family's wealth and power.A general,poet,artist,and composer,he published a collection of 55sacred cantatas,'Harmonia caelestis,in 1711.
Pal Esterhazy: Harmonia caelestis 1
Death of LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN 1827 in Vienna.
German composer.For details SEE Dec.16th (music diary)
Beethoven's Tempest Sonata mvt. 3 -- Wilhelm Kempff
* MARCH 27
Death of JOHANN STAMITZ 1757 in Mannheim.
Bohemian composer and violinist.The most prominent member of a family of musicians.His father,an organist and choirmaster,gave his first musical instruction.He studied at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Jihlava(1728-34),then for a year at university in Prague,and probably spent the next few years as an itinerant violin virtuoso until he settled at theMannheim court in 1741.Graduating from first violinist to Konzertmeister(1745),he was made director of instrumental music in 1750,though since 1745 he had been the best-paid member of the orchestra.His output comprises orchestral.chamber,and a small amount of church music including a Mass in D much performed in his day.He wrote several violin concertos and a small number for wind including probably the first solo clarinet concerto.
Johann Stamitz: Op. 4 n. 2 - Sinfonia Pastorale in D major (Wolf D4) / Northern Chamber Orchestra
Birth of JOHANN ERNST EBERLIN 1702 in Jettinen,Bavaria.
German composer and organist.In 1726 he entered service in Salzburg as fourth organist at the cathedral,and 23 years later eventually attained the rank of court and cathedral Kapellmeister.His vocal works include operas,intermezzos,and oratorios,in a mainly Italianate manner,together with numerous church compositions(including some 70 masses),several of which were admired and imitated by Leopold Mozart.In addition tokeyboard toccatas and fugues,he composed music for the mechanical organ at Hellbrunn Castle,the summer palace of the archbishop.
Johann Ernst Eberlin - Sinfonia in sol magg. - 1. Allegro
* MARCH 28
Birth of RUDOLF SERKIN 1903 in Eger.
Austrian-born American pianist.He studied the piano with Robert and composition with Schoenberg in Vienna.An appearance with the Busch Chamber Orchestra in Berlin in 1920 launched his career,and in 1935 he married into the Busch family,playing chamber music with Adolf and Hermann.He fled to the USA in 1938,ran the Marlboro Festival,and led the piano department at the Curtis Institute.Although he was not a natural performer(he waseccentrically given to foot-tapping or to singing along)his playing was bold,bright,and eloquent,his modesty sincere.
Rudolf Serkin Beethoven Moonlight Sonata 3rd mvt
Death of SERGEY RAKHMANINOV 1943 in Beverly Hills.
Russian composer,pianist,and conductor.His family was comfortably affluent,but following his parent's separationand the consequent break-up of the home he had to rely on scholarships and goodwill to study music,first at the St Petersburg Conservatory,then at the conservatory in Moscow.Although his main efforts at the time were channelled into practising for his piano finals,he became increasingly occupied with composition,writing a numberof piano pieces,a little Mendelssohnian orchestral Scherzo(1887),and his First Piano Concerto(1890-1).for his graduation exercise in composition(1892) he also composed his one-act opera 'Aleko',warmly praised by Tchaikovsky,whose influence it clearly shows.His professional success was enhanced by the emotional security of his marriage in 1902,and for the next 15 years or so he was able to compose with a facility,assurance,and ever-increasing mastery of his art,produsing many of his finest works:two sets of piano Preludes,two piano sonatas,two sets of Etudes-tableaux,the Second Symphony,the Third Piano Concerto and the symphonic poem 'The isle of the Dead'At the same time he consolidated his career as a pianist,travelling widely in Russia and abroad:he made the American debut in 1909(giving the premiere of the Third Concerto there),an experience that stood him in good stead in later life-for,with the outbreak of the 1917 October Revolution,he decided to emigrate from Russia and make his home in the USA.
With the necessity to provide for himself and his family(which now included two daughters),he had to concentrate on giving concerts and recitals. Almost every season from his arrival in the USA(1918)until 1942-3 he undertook an exhausting schedule of engagements,which all but precluded work on new compositions.Only did he secure the necessary periods of relaxation;but when he did manage to away from the concert platform-perhaps retreating to a rented house in the French countryside or Dresden,or from the early 1930s settling into his own Swiss villa on Lake Lucerne-he found a piece of mind to write music of extraordinary vitality,originality,and rhythmic zest.The Fourth Piano Concerto,the Three Russian Songs,the 'Corelli'Variations for solo piano,the 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini',the Third Symphony,the Symphonic Dances-all were written during this creative Indian summer.The Symphonic Dances were in fact his last work of substance.Having suffered douts of ill health in his later years he decided that the 1942-43 concert season would be his last..Abnormal tiredness caused additional alarm, and in February 1943,after giving a concert in Knoxville,he had to be taken home to Beverly Hills.He died of cancer then than six weeks later,leaving a legacy of music which has proved enduringly popular and which has also shown itself to be of key importance in the late Romantic repertory.Moreover,during the last two decades of his life he had made many gramophone recordings.
Rachmaninov Symphony No.2 (1 Mov pt 1)
Rachmaninov plays Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 3 (1939)
* MARCH 29
Death of NICOLAUS BRUHNS 1697 in Husum.
German organist and composer.He came from a family of professional musicians:after learning the organ with his father he went to Lubeck in 1681 to study the violin and viol with his uncle.He also had organ and composition lessons from Buxterhude,soon becoming so skilled that he was able to provide a pedal obbligato to his own violin playing.He went to Copenhagen to undertake further studies.He later returned to Schleswig-Holstein as organist of the parish church in Husum.where he settled and married,only to die at the age of 32. Bruhms was one of the greatest organists of his time,second only to his teacher Buxtehude in northen Germany.Of his compositions only five organ pieces and 12 sacred vocal works survive.
Nicolaus Bruhns (1665-1697) Prelude and Fugue in E minor
Death of CONSTANTIJN HUYGENS 1687 in The Hague.
Dutch composer. As part of his broad education he was taught to play the lute,viol,organ,and harpsichord.He claimed to have written almost 1000 works,byt very few of them survive;his'Pathodia sacra et profana'includes settings of his own poetry.He is remembered today mainly for his correspondence with,among others,Chambonnieres,Froberger,and Gaultier,which gives interesting information about musical life in the various cities he visited.
Constantijn Huygens - Orsa bella e crudele (Caccia Amorosa)
Death of CARL ORFF 1982 in Munich.
Carl Orff - Gassenhauer
* MARCH 30
Death of PIETRO ANTONIO LOCATELLI 1764 in Amsterdam.
Italian composer and violinist.In 1711 he went to Rome,where he studied the violin and seems to have enjoyed thepatronage of Cardinal Ottoboni between 1717 and 1723.In about 1725 he embarked on a carrier as a travelling virtuoso violinist,visiting Venice,Munich,and Berlin,and in 1729 he settled permanently in Amsterdam.There he gave concerts,taught,entered the publishing business,and from 1741 ran a thriving business importing violin strings from Italy.He was one of the finest violinists of his time and has been called'the 18th-century Paganini'.His concertos and sonatas show both Roman and Venetian influences;a set of concertos published in 1733 contains written-out cadenzas.
Pietro Locatelli - Concerto Grosso No. 11 in C minor
Death of VINCENZO CIAMPI 1762 in Venice.
Italian composer.A representative of the Neapolitan school,he was a pupil of Leo and Durante and had six operas performed in Naples before moving to Venice,where he was appointed maestro di coro at the Ospedale degliIncurabili in 1747.However in 1748 he was in London with the company responsible for the first season of Italian comic opera there.He remained in Englanduntil about 1756,when he returnedto Venice,resuming his post at the Incurabili in 1760.His operas were widely successful,especially in Paris,but the aria for which hi is best known,'Tregiorni son che Nina',was probably added to his operah.
Enrico Caruso - Vincenzo Ciampi: Tre giorni son che Nina
Birth of TOMMASO TRAETTA 1727 in Bitonto,nr Bari.
Italian composer.He studied in Naples with Porpora and Durante and began his career as a prolific composer in conventional comic and serious genres setting librettos by Carlo Goldoni and Pietro Metastasio.In 1758 he obtained employment at the Bourbon court of Parma,where he began a series of operas that anticipate the Viennese reform operas of Gluck and other attempts to unite French dramatic forms with modern Italian music.His works made integral use of scenes with chorus and ballet,and combined solo and choral singing into elaborate movements in which the forms resemble those of Gluck's reform operas,thoughTraetta's music is more expansively lyrical.His famespread beyond the Alps,and he tool full advantage of a more developed orchestral style.His output include'Armida','Sofonisba','Ifigenia in Tauride'.He continued to turn his hand to more conventional works,and moved to Venice as director of the Conservatorio dell'Ospedaletto.In 1768 he succeeded Galuppi at the court of Catherine the Great inSt Petersburg where in 1772 he produced a crowning masterpiece,'Antigona'.After an unsuccessful period in London,then under the spell of Sacchini,he returned to Venice in poor health
TOMMASO TRAETTA ANTIGONA "Non piangete i casi miei"
* MARCH 31
Austrian composer.THE EARLY YEARSBorn into a humble family of modest means,Haydn was the second child of Mathias Haydn,a master wheelwright bytrade and village magistrate,and Anna Maria Koller,a former cook at the nearby castle of Count Harach,a locallandowner.At about the age of six Haydn went to live with a distant relative,a schoolmaster in the nearby town ofHainburg. During the Hainburg years his music education progressed rapidly;as well as learning several musical instruments he developed a sonorous soprano voice.Recognizing his'pleasant voice' and 'studious diligence',Georg Reutter,Kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna,accepted the young Haydn into his choir school in 1740.In the late 1740s Haydn suddenly found himself without food,lodging,or asource of income.At first he eked out ameagre existence in his adopted city by giving keyboard lessons,performing in ad hoc orchestras,and playing the violin and organ in churches and private chapels.The year 1759 marked a turning-point for the young composer.He was appointed Kapellmeister to Count Carl Joseph Franz Morzin.Having secure full-time employment,Haydnmarried Maria Anna Keller in 1760.Thecircumstances surrounding Haydn's termination of employment with Count Morzin are unclear,but he was certainly in Esterhazy service by 1 May 1761,the date of his contract with PrincePaul Anton.
ESZTERHAZA,1761-90
During the almost 30 years he worked at the court of Hungary's wealthier family,Haydn developed and consolidated many of the genres and stylistic features identified with Classical composition.Though engaged primarily as an instrumental composer by Prince Paul Anton,for whom he wrote the innovatory concertante Symphonies nos.6-8,'Le Matin','Le Midi',and'Le Soir',Haydn in effect assumed responsibility for all musical activities at court.After Paul Anton's death in 1762,control of the large family estate passed to his younger,music-loving brother Prince Nicolaus,in whose service Haudn remained until 1790.At the request of his gifted patron,Haydn composed numerous baryton solos,duets,and trios,but with his promotion to full Kapellmeister after Werner's death in 1766 he also took up sacredcomposition.By the late 1760s Prince Nicolaus was spending less time at the Esterhazy residences in Vienna andEisenstadt,some 50 km south-east of the capital,and instead was devoting considerable time and expense to the renovation of a rural hunting-lodge,called Eszterhaza,in nearby Suttor.Although the demands of theatrical compositionrevision,rehearsing,and conducting left Haydn little time for instrumental composition following the introduction in 1776 of a regular operatic season at the court,his reputation continued to grow through wide circulation of his works.On the death of Prince Nicolaus in Sept.1790,the heir to the title,Paul Anton II,disbanded the orchestra and opera troupe leaving Haydn free to return to Vienna.
THE LONDON VISITS,1791-5
Although he remained in Esterhazy service,he was able to accept the invitation of the violinist and impresario J.P.Salomon to visit London.When Haydn arrived in London in January 1791,he was aleady a celebrity.His lucrativecontact with Salomon called for a new opera,six'grand' symphonies,and other smaller compositions and concert engagements.The Symphony no.92 in G major,warmly received at the first concert in March 1791,was repeated that July when Haydn received an honorary doctorate in music from the Universuty of Oxford.After a successful 18-month stay in England,Haydn returned to Vienna,where he instructed Beethoven in composition and introdused the rising young star to several aristocratic patrons.With his wife he bought a small house in the Viennese suburb of Gumpendorf,but Vienna held little allure now that his musical colleague Mozart was dead.Following the death of his close friend and confidante,the pianist Marianne von Genzinger,Haydn negotiated a second contract with Salomonand returned to London in February 1794 accompanied by his long-time copyist and assistant,Johann Elssler.Nos. 102-4 symphonies comprete the set of 12 'London' Symphonies designed to please and edify connoisseurs and amateurs alike,and mark the end of Haydn's long and remarkable career as a sumphonist.
THE LATE YEARS
Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795 a wealthy man with an unrivalled international reputation.Dividing his time between Vienna and Eisenstadt at the request of his new patron,Prince Nicolaus II,he wrote a series of six masses for the nameday celebrations of the prince's wife between 1796 and 1802.Forced by deteriorating health to giveup conducting and composition late in 1803(leaving unfinished the String Quartet op.103)'Haydn settled into retirement.Assisted by Elssler.he began drawing up a catalogue of the works'he could approximately recall having composed',while awards and accolades poured in from across Europe.To mark Haydn's 76th birthday in March 1808,Antonio Salieri conducted a performance of the 'Creation' in the great marble hall f the old university beforean exclusive audience of admirers that included Princess Esterhazy and Beethoven.In May the following year,asNapoleonic troops bomberded Vienna,Haydn died at his small home and was buried in Gumpendorf cemetary.At thebehest of Prince Nicolaus his remains were moved to the Bergkirche in Eisenstad.
Joseph Haydn - Symphony No. 63 in C major 'La Roxelane' - 1. Allegro
Tine Thing Helseth: Haydn Trumpet Concerto, 3rd mvt
Haydn - The Creation - The Heavens are Telling
Haydn- "Surprise" Symphony No.94 in G -Mov.1/4
Death of HENRYK WIENIAWSKI 1880 in Moscow.
Ivry Gitlis Henryk Wieniawski "Capriccio-Valse E major", op.7
* MARCH 31
Death of Sir JOHN STAINER 1901 in Verona.
English composer and organist.A chorister at St Paul's Cathedral,he later studied at Christ Church,Oxford,returning to to St Paul's as organist in 1872.He was an influential educationist(as an inspector of Schools)as well as an able performer.He was appointed professor of music at Oxford in 1889,having resigned from St Paul's because of bad eyesight. His substantial contribution to Aglican church music includes hymn tunes and some fine anthems,notably 'I saw the Lord'(1858),'Drop down,ye heavens'(1866),and'Lead,kindlylight'(1868),though he is bestknown for the oratorio'The Crucifixion'(1887).He was knighted in 1888
St Pauls Cathedral Choir: God So Loved The World John Stainer
Birth of JOHANN ABRAHAM PETER SCHULZ 1747 in Luneburg.
German composer and theorist.He studied in Berlin and from 1768 travelled widely in Europe in the service of the Polish princess Sapieha Woiwodin.After his return to Berlin in 1773 he prodused operas at local theatres,from 1780 working also in Rheinsberg as court composer.In 1790-5 he was in Copenhagen as court Kapellmeister and director of the Royal Theatre;he then returned to work in Berlin and Reinsberg.He is best known for his 'volkstumlische Liedersimple,folk-like settings of verse by cuch poets as Goethe and Klopstock.
Johann Schulz - Der Mond ist aufgegangen {Dresden Kreuz Choir}
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