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MaestroDJS

A nice alternative to "Messiah" for the holiday season Seeing "Frankenstein" and "Messiah" in the same post prompts me to dream up this news item I'd love to see about creating a monster. :D Headline: "Nutty Crasher Ballets Discontinued" Chicawguh — Attempting emulate the annual Do-It-Yourself "Mes...

MaestroDJS

I'm with you, chalkie. There is simply far more music available than any single person can absorb, and you have to pick your spots. And you are always willing to re-test your assumptions by trying a second time. The difficulty is distinguishing that which we've superceded and put behind us, versus ...

MaestroDJS

Donald Isler wrote:Happy Birthday to our distinguished Australian colleague, whose birthday is January 13th!

That's cause for celebration with one of my favorite works by an Australian composer!

Edward Neeman plays Sonata Ballade by Roy Agnew

MaestroDJS

That's very lively and interesting, and it gives an idea of how popular Victor Hugo's writings were in the 19th century, and why. Of course he wrote no opera librettos himself, but his plays and novels were the basis of countless operas of the 19th and early 20th century, not without reason. Some d...

MaestroDJS

I really like that music of yours Karl :wink: Agreed! My own compositional efforts have declined due to other demands (better too busy than not enough), but Audible Books used some of my music in their audio versions of my wife's latest 4 books. Meanwhile, I can enjoy the composition process vicari...

MaestroDJS

piston wrote:even in South Carolina.......

Carlisle Floyd

MaestroDJS

Heifetz was so concentrated on his playing that he grew frustrated teaching students who were not so similarly obsessed, or so I've heard. I've heard that too, and the films of his master classes seem to bear that out. It's interesting to contrast this with a remark by the teenage Heifetz, so appar...

MaestroDJS

Victor Hugo , by Camille Saint-Saëns Reprinted from Musical Memories (Chapter III), by Camille Saint-Saëns English translation by Edwin Gile Rich, 1919 Everything in my youth seemed calculated to keep me far removed from romanticism. Those about me talked only of the great classics and I saw them w...

MaestroDJS

Peter Schickele was born in Ames, IA, but grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, and we North Dakotans claim him as one of us. Nice state, North Dakota. Friendly people, and the East 40 Chophouse in Bismarck was fabulous. Peter Schickele is a fine composer indeed. I love both of his piano quintets. Peter ...

MaestroDJS

Montana: I've been in all 50 states, and manage to find some interesting music just about everywhere. During a trip to Montana, I heard about Turkish-American composer Kamran İnce, who was born to American and Turkish parents in 1960 in Glendive, eastern Montana. His family moved back to Turkey whe...

MaestroDJS

The same is true of Arturo Toscanini. His recorded legacy is pretty conservative, but his actual concert and broadcasting programs are surprisingly varied. Sergei Rachmaninoff also wanted to record much more than he did, but management allowed only the most commercially viable recordings. The common...

MaestroDJS

This might demonstrate that official recordings give only incomplete pictures of an artist. Apparently Stokowski performed in concert or on radio broadcasts with instrumental soloists much more often than I realized, but for various reasons they issued relatively few commercial recordings together. ...

MaestroDJS

Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) was one of the great conductors of the 20th Century, yet he made surprisingly few recordings with an instrumental soloist. It has been suggested that his quest for control and self-sufficiency made him reluctant to share the interpretation with a leading instrumentalist...

MaestroDJS

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): L'Orfeo (1607) Filmed by director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle in a Baroque setting at Zürich Opera House in 1978, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting period instruments. uJ_mjTTDM5A&feature=PlayList&p=7417C2A728961F59&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1 Nikolaus Harnoncourt...

MaestroDJS

Such as the New York Philharmonic, whose players choose Lorin Maazel as their music director when the board failed to get their man, Riccardo Muti. From the grapevine I gather that it wasn't long before they were grumbing about his interpretations. So you might have a point. :) That's right. He's n...

MaestroDJS

Congratulations, and it is a privilege to benefit from your vast knowledge.

MaestroDJS

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), France: Les Troyens , Opéra en cinq actes et neuf tableux { The Trojans , Opera in five acts and nine tableux}. Jon Vickers, Tenor; Josephine Veasey, Mezzo-Soprano; Berit Lindholm, Soprano; Peter Glossop, Baritone. Wadsworth School Boys' Choir; Chorus and Orchestra of the...

MaestroDJS

... Rózsa lived to hear his Symphony performed and recorded. An interesting side note, Rosza may be the only composer to hear every one of his works performed and recorded in his lifetime. How must other composers envy him in that! PS: But unfortunately I have never heard his Symphony. From the Koc...

MaestroDJS

It is nothing short of scandalous that the Swingle Singers are again denied the recognition they so richly deserve.

"I felt like lying on the floor and kicking my heels, that's how good I thought they were." — Glenn Gould

J. S. Bach: Fugue for Organ in G Minor BWV 578

MaestroDJS

For some reason I've been listening to Hungarian music lately, so here are 3 candidates which date from both very early and very late in their composers' careers. They might not be the best "first" symphonies ever written, but they are very good. Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960): Symphony No 1 in D Mi...

MaestroDJS

I'm not sure if the "flash mob" novelty has worn off yet. Possibly. According to National Public Radio, they might be harder to arrange and more likely to go out of control. NPR, Monday, December 20, 2010: Planning A Flash Mob? Better Keep It Quiet http://www.npr.org/2010/12/20/132205587/planning-a...

MaestroDJS

jbuck919 wrote:The descending minor third is the characteristic interval for phrases with a feminine ending in Gregorian versicles.

Cool! I didn't know that. That's what's so great about good music. No matter how much we know, we can learn something new every day.

MaestroDJS

Chalkperson wrote:http://www.ricola.com/

Can you be more specific?

MaestroDJS

Hector Berlioz , by Claude Debussy Reprinted from Monsieur Croche Anti-Dilettante [Monsieur Croche the Dilettante Hater] , by Claude Debussy: "Chapter XXIII. Berlioz" Translated by B. N. Langdon Davies, The Viking Press, London 1928. Berlioz never had any luck. He suffered from the inadequacy of th...

MaestroDJS

I found a brief account of some of the circumstances of Messiah in a book about the city of Dublin. Here are some excerpts. Then final sentence stands out. ;) Excerpts from Dublin: a Historical and Topographical Account of the City , by Samuel A. Ossory Fitzpatrick, Dublin, Ireland, 1907 The great e...

MaestroDJS

There is some noise on the single, musician's shuffling their feet, fiddling around with their instruments, Bill Bragg using his Blackberry and some ambient sounds from within the Studio itself...sixty musicians packed into a tiny studio on Dean Street in London's Soho to make this Recording... Her...

MaestroDJS

That's a shame to hear the orchestra is no more, but not a surprise. :( Some friends lived in Honolulu for many years and my wife I visited them several times (just to be polite of course). One friend was a volunteer who drove guest soloists between their hotel and Blaisdell Concert Hall. He said so...

MaestroDJS

A musical lecture in a medical school? Magnificently transcendental music, composed as Beethoven recovered from a life-threatening illness in 1825. One comment of particular interest is the speaker noted Beethoven made abrupt but effective transitions, whereas Mozart probably would have made smooth ...

MaestroDJS

NewsBiscuit: John Cage 'still being cheated out of royalties for his silent work' Posted: Oct 25th, 2010 http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2010/10/25/john-cage-%e2%80%98still-being-cheated-out-of-royalties-for-his-silent-work%e2%80%99/ Lawyers acting for the estate of late avant-garde composer John Cage ha...

MaestroDJS

If you really want to get inside this music, here is a fascinating 1983 master class in 14 parts by Jorge Bolet with pianists Ira Levin, USA; Jose Feghali, Brazil; Philip Smith, UK; Marc-Antionio Barone, USA; Wolfgang Manz, Germany and Barry Douglas, UK CnyvFpP30bs&feature=&p=A4E3B0944A21E8E9&index=...

MaestroDJS

A related subject concerns musical scenes which depict suicides. One of the most famous is of course the Immolation scene which concludes Götterdämmerung by Richard Wagner. Of course we also have this merry little ditty by the sensational 19th-, 20th- and 21st-Century avant-garde composer Leo Ornste...

MaestroDJS

I'm rather partial to the radiant Hymn of Thanksgiving which concludes the opera William Tell by Gioacchino Rossini. They were rejoicing because the hero had just shot the big turkey, figuratively speaking. ;) William Tell is a fabulous opera, all four acts and four hours of it. And the Overture is ...

MaestroDJS

Jerry Hadley's suicide at 55 was a great shock. A handsome man with a handsome voice, a stylish singer and a fine actor, he made the kind of career that many dream of; for 25 years he sang leading roles from Mozart to Harbison at the world's great opera houses, often in major new productions, made ...

MaestroDJS

Henryk Wieniawski and Ernst's Élégie . Reprinted from Music , A Monthly Magazine, Chicago, December 1895 This is the famous history of the Élégie d'Ernst, said Eugène Ysaÿe to the Call , of San Francisco, and I can assure you that it is authentic, for it was given me by Wieniawski himself — all exc...

MaestroDJS

Everybody changes as they get older. If you want to put it that they lose their younger selves, instead of that they grow into new selves, nobody can stop you, but it's a jaundiced way to look at it. Bernard Shaw observed that the elderly Verdi couldn't (or at least he didn't) compose hit tunes lik...

MaestroDJS

My first Telemann was his Trumpet Concerto in D Major , closely followed by his Viola Concerto in D Major . Beautiful music! Georg Philipp Telemann: Trumpet Concerto in D Major I. Adagio; II. Allegro; III. Grave; IV. Allegro John Schroeder, Piccolo Trumpet Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile, David del Pino...

MaestroDJS

III. Tchaikovsky Speaks! In Anna Brodsky's above book, it was interesting to read that after a concert Tchaikovsky conducted in Berlin on 8 February 1888, he experienced the latest in modern technology: the telephone! On another occasion his extreme sensitiveness revealed itself in a different way....

MaestroDJS

II. Brahms, Grieg and Tchaikovsky: Revisited Reprinted from Recollections of a Russian Home: A Musician's Experiences , by Anna Brodsky, Manchester, 1904 Note : Russian violinist Adolph Brodsky (1851-1929) championed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major , which was completed in 1878 for Leopold...

MaestroDJS

Some more literal pages from history... It's fun to learn what happens when two fine composers of different temperaments meet, but what about three at once? Below are two accounts of the same meeting between Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on New Year's Day 1888 in Leipzig...

MaestroDJS

Very rarely do I talk about music in much depth with anyone, unless I know it's someone who is truly interested and knowledgeable about it. Otherwise I'm happy to explore the musical collections and literature of digitized archives and libraries around the world. as I have mentioned before, I freque...

MaestroDJS

Yes, I would prefer English, if you don't mind. :D I think it's a good testimony. I can understand it, of course, but would like you to share it with the CMG crowd, if you will. BTW, you're doing what I consider one of the least rewarded functions of society. Translators are seldom recognized for t...

MaestroDJS

Heck148 wrote:Schuman Symhony #3 - I [Passacaglia/Fugue]

ContrapunctusIX wrote:seconded.

Thirded.

MaestroDJS

jbuck919 wrote:And why, pray tell, are you asking someone else to translate a passage in French? Hmmm? I could do it pretty much, which means it is certainly not beyond your abilities.

A fair question and one that is much on my mind.

MaestroDJS

Mind working on this one for the collective sake of CMG? Sure, when I have some time. It might take me a week or so to get around to it. Generally when I translate a French or German source, my first draft is simply to plow through the text and render it into some semblance of English. Damn the spe...

MaestroDJS

I had the privilege of studying the piano with Leo Ornstein in 1954 and he was a superb teacher, who unfortunately gave up that work shortly after that to concentrate on his composing. I'm certain that if he had pursued his gift of performing as a pianist, he would have been legendary, and I was da...

MaestroDJS

Agreed. Shaw was one of the finest writers in the English language, but sometimes he was just plain wrong. Good reading nonetheless. Sometimes it's fun to read what was considered common knowledge a century or two ago. Writing in 1901, Grieg asks, "Where now are to be found among the younger generat...

MaestroDJS

Leo Ornstein (1893-2002) may be the only notable composer whose life literally touched the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries. He achieved vast notoriety by age 20 as one of the most radically avant-garde composers, and he was in equally great demand as a spectacular pianist. However in the mid 1920s Orn...

MaestroDJS

Horatio Parker in the Classroom , by Charles Ives Excerpts from Charles E. Ives: Memos , Edited by John Kirkpatrick, 1972. I did sometimes do things that got me in wrong. For instance, a couple of fugues with the theme in four different keys, C G D A — and in another, C F Bb Eb. It resulted, when a...

MaestroDJS

In December 1909, American composer Horatio Parker (1863-1919) delivered a speech in Washington, DC about the state of contemporary music. Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss, then in their 40s, were the leading modern composers. He compared and contrasted "the uncertain, keyless music of Debussy" wi...

MaestroDJS

A Word More About Verdi , by G. Bernard Shaw The Anglo-Saxon Review: A Quarterly Miscellany , London, March, 1901 I have read most of the articles on Verdi elicited by his death, and I have blushed — blushed for my species. By this I mean the music-critic species; for though I have of late years di...

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