Stravinsky and Gounod

Classical Music Composers Datebook: June 17

Charles Gounod and Igor Stravinsky were both born same day.

Charles Gounod (17 June 1818 - 18 October 1893), born in Paris, was a French composer, organist and conductor.  His operas - best known is Faust -  combine graceful melody and elegant harmonization.  Gounod's Meditation on Bach's Prelude became successful and most popular with his "Gounod's Ave Maria" we often refer to as "Bach/Gounod Ave Maria."  The piece was published 1853 under the name "Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach". The original composition by Bach dates 1722. French romantic composer Charles Gounod layered his melody on a slightly changed version of the Prelude No.1 in C Major, from Bach's 'Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846', Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. P

I'm familiar with few other "Ave Maria" creations and I have to admit that my two all-time favourites are "Ave Maria" by Franz Schubert and the one below by Bach/Gounod. Below, a then 14 year-old girl Elena sang Gounod/Bach's "Ave Maria."  Elena sang 

Edvard Grieg

Classical Music / Composer Datebook: June 15

Norway's Greatest Composer

Edvard Grieg (June 15, 1843 - September 4, 1907), Norway's greatest composer, is best known for his incidental music Peer Gynt Suite adapted for the Ibsen play Peer Gynt. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music a part of the standard classical repertoire. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to international consciousness, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana did in Czechoslovakia.

His major works include Concerto in A Minor, Holberg Suite, and Lyric Pieces of piano. He played a part in the formation of the Norwegian Academy of Music.

A son of a merchant, Grieg was of Scottish descent. He is the most celebrated person from his city of birth, Bergen, with numerous statues depicting his image, and many cultural entities named after him: the city's largest concert building (Grieg Hall), its most advanced music school (Grieg Academy) and its professional choir (Edvard Grieg Kor). The Edvard Grieg Museum at Grieg's former home, Troldhaugen, is dedicated to his legacy.

Edvard Grieg: Anitra's Dance from Peer Gynt Suite • Volker Hartung, conductor.  Sorry, I've deleted the embedded video for copyright. Please watch directly in Youtube.  Thanks.

Grieg studied in Leipzig. In 1863 he went to live in Copenhagen and studied with Niels Vilhelm Gade. The following year he met Rikard Nordaak, who inspired him for Norwegian national music. He then settled as a teacher and conductor at Christiania.

Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending

Classical Music / Solo Violin and Orchestra

The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams premiered in London in June 14, 1921. It's an orchestral romance for violin and orchestra. The music is inspired by a poem of 122 lines of the same name by the English poet George Meredith. It is about the song of the skylark. Siegfried Sassoon, English writer, poet and soldier, called it matchless of its kind, "a sustained lyric which never for a moment falls short of the effect aimed at, soars up and up with the song it imitates, and unites inspired spontaneity with a demonstration of effortless technical ingenuity... one has only to read the poem a few times to become aware of its perfection."


Vaughan Williams's beautiful music is now considered more widely known that the poem itself.  He originally composed it in 1914 for violin and piano. It was revised in 1920, when the composer re-scored it for solo violin and orchestra, and a year later, premiered under the conductor Adrian Boult.  Featuring a prominent solo violin part, the composition is intended to convey the lyrical and almost eternally English beauty of the scene in which a skylark rises into the heaven becoming almost invisible. 

This version, now the more often performed of the two, premiered in 1921. The Lark Ascending is one of the most popular in the Classical repertoire among British listeners. In 2015, it  ascended to ABC Classic FM 'Classic 100,' Swoon programme.


The video below is performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with David Nolan on violin and Vernon Handley conducting.  (Picture: "The Cornfield", 1826, by John Constable)




Video Credit: 

Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending. YouTube, uploaded by Richard Brittain. Accessed June 14, 2013.

Resource:

The Lark Ascending.  en.wikipedia.org. 



(c) June 2013. Updated June 14, 2016.  Tel.  Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Wagner Opera Tristan und Isolde

Classical Music / Opera  


Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde, or Tristan and Isolda, or Tristran and Ysolt) is an opera or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by him, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Strassburg. Composed between 1857 and 1859, it was first performed in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bulow conducting. Wagner referred the work not as an opera but called it "Eine Handlung" (literally a drama, a plot or an action). 

In 1886, 1st of December, Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde in its American premiere is enormously successful. Anton Seidl conducted the Metropolitan Opera in the New York opening.
 

This work by Wagner was inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as Wagner's affair with Mathilde Wesendonck. Acknowledged as one of the peaks of the operatic repertoire, Tristan und Isolde was notable for Wagner's unprecedented use of chromaticism, orchestral colour, harmonic suspension and tonality, and was enormously influential among Western classical composers.

 

The Prelude to Act I and Isolde's Liebestod (Love Death) are often performed as concert item.

 

Listening Pleasures: 

 

Love Duet from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" Pt. I (English Subtitles). YouTube, uploaded by Eric Anderson. Accessed December 1, 2020.

 

Richard Wagner "Tristan Und Isolde" | Carlos Ludwig Kleiber. YouTube, uploaded by Adagio. Accessed June 10, 2015. Richard Wagner - Tristan and Isolde, Complete Opera, WWV 90. Staatskapelle Dresden, Carlos Ludwig Kleiber. Deutsche Grammophon, 1982. Act I. Prelude http://youtu.be/l25J7xdhhKc Act III. Liebestod http://youtu.be/YjMwDbFng_g

 

Live Performance:

Below is Act I of Tristan und Isolde performed in 2015 by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, conducted by American conductor David Robertson.  Christine Brewer (soprano) – Isolde, Lance Ryan (tenor) – Tristan, Katarina Karnéus (mezzo-soprano) – Brangäne, Boaz Daniel (baritone) – Kurwenal, Angus Wood (tenor) – Melot,  John Tessier (tenor) – Young Sailor, Shepherd, John Relyea (bass) – Marke, King of Cornwall, Harrison Collins (baritone) – Steersman. Tristan und Isolde Act I - SSO.  YouTube, uploaded by Sydney Symphony Orchestra.  Accessed December 1, 2016. 
For those interested: Act II - here,  and Act III - here.

 

Resource:

Tristan und Isolde. en.wikipedia.org.  Accessed June 10, 2016. 

Tristan und Isolde. Opera Online. Accessed June 10, 2018.

(c) December 2016. Updated Dec 1, 2020. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' ChorusOz 2016

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Presents

ChorusOz 2016: George F. Handel's 'Israel in Egypt'

12 June 2016, 5 P.M.  Sunday
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House 


At Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, once again, it's that time of the year in June when hundreds of passionate singers from interstate and all over the world join SPC choristers for the annual ChorusOz weekend of singing, fun and friendship, finishing with a performance on the world-famous Sydney Opera House Concert Hall with a professional orchestra and soloists.



Briefly, Handel's Oratorio 'ISRAEL IN EGYPT' 

George Frideric Handel's  Israel in Egypt (HWV 54) is a biblical oratorio. Most scholars believe the libretto was prepared by Charles Jennens, thesame text writer for Handel's most famous Messiah. It is composed entirely of selected passages from the Holy Bible's  Old Testament mainly from the books of Exodus and the Psalms.

Israel in Egypt premiered at London's King's Theatre in the Haymarket on April 4, 1739.  Handel started it soon after the opera season at King's Theatre was cancelled for lack of subscribers. The oratorio was not well received by the first audience though commended it was commended in the Daily Post, and the second performance was shortened, the mainly choral work now augmented with Italian-style arias.