Janet Baker sings Handel: from Messiah

Two favourite arias from Handel's Messiah / J. Baker: Mezzo-soprano

Listening pleasure with the great English mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker interpreting some beautiful songs from Handel's immortal oratorio Messiah. Below: "O thou that tellest good tidings" and "He shall feed His flock."

Video Credit:

Janet Baker: O thou that tellest good tidings (Messiah) by Handel. Youtube, uploaded by Operazaile operazaile. Accessed December 25, 2017. Ambrosian Singers. English Chamber Orchestra, Conducted by Charles Mackerras 1967.

Janet Baker & Elizabeth Harwood: He shall feed His flock (Messiah) Handel. Youtube, uploaded by Operazail operazaile. Accessed December 25, 2017. Elizabeth Harwood, soprano Ambrosian Singers. English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Charles Mackerras, 1967.

(c) 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Cabaret (Film)

Film / Musical Drama

Superb!

Cabaret is a 1972 American musical drama film directed by Bob Fosse. Starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey.

The film is set in Berlin during the 1931 Weimar Republic, under the presence of the growing Nazi Party. The musical numbers all take place inside the club, with one exception: "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", the only song sung neither by Grey's character of the Kit Kat Klub's Master of Ceremonies nor by Minnelli's character of Sally Bowles.

Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey sing medley from Cabaret

Main Cast:

Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles
Michael York as Brian Roberts
Helmut Griem as Baron Maximilian von Heune
Joel Grey as Master of Ceremonies
Fritz Wepper as Fritz Wendel
Marisa Berenson as Natalia Landauer

Brief Plot Summary:

In Berlin in 1931, American cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) who performs at the Kit Kat Club meets British reserved academic and writer Brian Roberts (Michael York), who is finishing his university studies. Despite Brian's confusion over his sexuality, the pair become lovers, but the arrival of the wealthy and decadent playboy Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) complicates matters for them both. This love triangle plays out against the rise of the Nazi party and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.

Sally learns that she is pregnant but is unsure of the father. Brian offers to marry her and take her back to his university life in Cambridge. At first, they celebrate their resolution to start this new life together, but after a picnic between Sally and Brian, in which Brian acts distant and uninterested, Sally becomes disheartened by the vision of herself as a bored faculty wife washing dirty diapers. Ultimately, she has an abortion, without informing Brian in advance. When he confronts her, she shares her fears, and the two reach an understanding. Brian departs for England, and Sally continues her life in Berlin, embedding herself in the Kit Kat Club.

Mozart German Church Songs

Sacred Songs / Church Music / Hymns

Composer: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Opus/Catalogue Number: K.343 ; K⁶.336c
I-Catalogue Number: IWM 248
Key: F major (No.1) and C major (No.2)
Movements/Sections: 2 songs

O Gottes Lamm (O Lamb of God)
Als aus Ägypten (As from Egypt)

Year/Date of Composition: 1779
Language: German
Instrumentation: Voice, Piano

Video Credit:

W.A. Mozart - KV 343 / 336c (2 German Sacred Songs). Sung by soprano Elly Ameling, accompanied on the piano by Dalton Baldwin. Uploaded by ComposersByNumbers. Accessed November 1, 2018.

Resources:

2 Kirchenlieder, K.343/336c (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus). IMSLP. Accessed December 5, 2017.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Handel's Messiah 2017

Choral Music / Oratorio / Handel's Messiah

Hallelujah! The beloved festive treat Messiah returns to the Sydney Opera House.
Handel poured his heart and soul into this work: visitors found him shaken by the emotional labour of composing it. Something of this power remains in the piece – the profound sadness, the transporting joy, and the mystery of Christ’s birth and resurrection.

Image: Handel's Messiah 2017 Billboard. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

With its musical richness, dramatic power and spiritual intensity, there is something in Messiah for people of all faiths.

Messiah is much more than the Hallelujah chorus. The best way to feel the music of Handel is to get inside it. Join our Christmas Choir and perform with hundreds of choristers, plus soloists Miriam Allan, Helen Sherman, Andrew Goodwin, David Greco and conductor Elizabeth Scott for an unforgettable Christmas celebration.

Image: Conductor Eliizabeth Scott at the Sydney Opera House. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

The grandest presentation of Messiah to have ever taken place in Australia, Sydney Philharmonia's Christmas production brings the members of their specialist Symphony Chorus and VOX Choirs - known for their exemplary performances alongside Sydney Symphony Orchestra - together with the 460 choristers who have joined the organisation's Christmas Choir, specifically to learn and perform in this much-loved bi-annual extravaganza.

Joining the chorus for this limited season are leading Australian soloists Miriam Allan, Helen Sherman, Andrew Goodwin and David Greco, with instrumentation provided by the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, led by Fiona Ziegler and featuring trumpet soloist Paul Goodchild.

Acclaimed Australian conductor Elizabeth Scott will lead the delivery of this stunning program in the ultimate surrounds of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. The first female Australian conductor to present Messiah on the Concert Hall stage, 43-year-old Scott says the season marks a high point in her career, and will draw on all aspects of her diverse experience as musician, vocalist, choir master and music director.

Moment to Moment (Song)

Song (Soundtrack) / Down Memory Lane

"Moment to Moment" title tune was written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer.

Moment to Moment is a 1966 American psychological thriller film directed by Mervyn LeRoy starring Jean Seberg, Honor Blackman, Arthur Hill, Sean Garrison, and Peter Robbins. Jean Seberg is a married woman who has an affair which leads to murder. The movie is LeRoy's 75th and final one.

Video Credit:

Henry Mancini MOMENT TO MOMENT (Uploaded by Felixbautista. Sound contents solely and rightfully belongs to, owned and administered by SME - not intended for copyright infringement and exclusively for audio and visual entertainment. Accessed November 28, 2016.)

Resource:

Moment to Moment Film. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed November 28, 2018.

Moment to Moment. IMDb. Accessed November 28, 2018.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Songs Of Farewell

Choral Singing / Chamber Music

Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers Presents 'Songs of Farewell: Music of Remembrance'

On the 11th of November, the sacrifices made by men and women is recalled. It is a time for contemplation of the grandest themes of life and death. Music has always played a role in occasions of shared sorrow, both as a means of expressing it, and as a consolation. Choral music is a specially powerful vehicle for the music of remembrance, a collective singing on behalf of humankind. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Chamber Singers mark Remembrance Day with works that confront tragedy and offer hope.

Niels Bohr

Science / Great Scientists

Danish physicist was a physicist, philosopher, teacher, and humanist, known for atomic structure with electrons orbiting nucleus

Brief biography of Niels Bohr, best known for his 'solar system' model of atomic structure, the foundation of quantum mechanics.

Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist, was one of the greatest physical chemists of the 20^th century, famous for his contribution to quantum physics and atomic structure that won him Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. He proposed the 'Solar System' model of atomic structure in which electrons orbit the central nucleus. He married Margrette Norlind in 1912. They had six sons, the fourth, Aage Bohr, followed in his footsteps and won his own Nobel Prize in 1975.

Early Life

Niels Henrik David Bohr was born on October 7, 1885, in a mansion owned by his maternal grandmother of influential Jewish banking family. His father, Christian Bohr, was a professor of physiology at Copenhagen University. The children grew up in an atmosphere in which pursuit of knowledge, intellectual discussions and culture were greatly encouraged. He loved football.

A Hopeful Beginning

Bohr studied at Copenhagen University and did experimental work by using his father's physiology laboratory since there was no physics laboratory at that time. In 1906, he won the Gold Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of the Sciences for his measurement of the surface tension of water.

On 1911, Bohr completed his PhD and went to England the same year. In Cambridge he met Ernest Rutherford, who just published his discovery that most of the mass of an atom is in its center, the nucleus. Bohr joined Rutherford's team in Manchester working on the structure of the atom. Rutherford became his role model and lifelong friend.

The Wizard of Oz (Film)

CLASSIC MOVIE / Datebook: September 27

The film popularised the uplifting song "Over the Rainbow" beautifully sung by Judy Garland

The 1939 American musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. The songs were written by Edgar "Yip" Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music). The musical score and the incidental music were composed by Stothart. Widely considered to be one of the greatest films in American history,it is the best-known and most successful adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, alongside other stars, and with Terry (as Toto).

Youtube, uploaded by Movieclips. Accessed August 25, 2019.

The Wizard of Oz is an icon of American popular culture, nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It won in two other categories, including Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart.

The 1956 broadcast television premiere of the film on the CBS network reintroduced The Wizard of Oz (film) to the wider public and eventually made the presentation an annual tradition, making it one of the best known films in movie history. The film was named the most-viewed motion picture on television syndication by the Library of Congress, which also included it in its National Film Registry in 1989. Designation on the registry calls for efforts to preserve it for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."

Resource:

The Wizard of Oz (1939 Film). en.wikipedia.org. Accessed September 27, 2010.

(c) September 2010. Updated August 25, 2019. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

George Gershwin

Classical Music / Great Composers

American composer and songwriter. Gershwin's works include theatre musicals and jazz classical music. He is famous for Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy & Bess.

American composer and songwriter, as well as pianist and conductor, George Gershwin was a sensitive and passionate musician, who synthesized his musical creations between jazz and classical traditions. He is famous for the sophistication, swing and rhythm in his music.

George Gershwin in a Nutshell

George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, 1898. As one of America’s greatest composers/songwriters, George Gershwin was part of the golden age of the New York musical theatre in the 1920s and 30s. Essentially self-taught, he started as a song plugger in Tin Pan Alley and an accompanist. Perhaps not known to many, Gershwin also painted as a hobby. Gershwin was among Broadway's most successful composers, including Strike up the Band, Funny Face, and Girl Crazy. His opera Porgy and Bess uniquely incorporated jazz rhythms and popular song styles in an operatic format. Although his musicals scores were famous, his concert works also, particularly Rhapsody in Blue and Piano Concerto in F earned him critical acclaim. George Gershwin was mostly in partnership with his lyricist brother, Ira Gershwin.

Jazz as a Springboard

With his love for jazz, his songwriting talent, and knowledge of established forms in concerto and opera, he began to compose songs and produced succession of musicals from 1919 to 1933, with his first show La Lucille, the song “Swanee” was made a hit by Al Jolson, on of the top singer during that time.

George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue - Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic (1976). YouTube, uploaded by Qiyu Liu, accessed February 12, 2024.

Mahler Symphony No. 8

Classical Music / Symphony

Composer: Gustav Mahler (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911)

Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major is frequently called "Symphony of a Thousand" because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces, although it is normally presented with fewer than a thousand performers. It is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. The work was composed in a single inspired burst, in the summer of 1906, at Maiernigg, Southern Austria. The last of Mahler's works premiered in his lifetime, it was a popular success when he conducted the Munich Philharmonic in its first performance, in Munich, on 12 September 1910.

The fusion of song and symphony had been a characteristic of Mahler's early works. In his "middle" compositional period after 1901, a change of direction led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Symphony No. 8, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and voice in a symphonic context. The structure of the work is unconventional; instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts. Part I is based on the Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus ("Come, Creator Spirit"), and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust. The two parts are unified by a common idea: redemption through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.

Mahler offered the Eighth as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit. In the period following the composer's death, performances were comparatively rare. However, from the mid-20th century onwards the symphony has been heard regularly in concert halls all over the world, and has been recorded many times.

Video Credit:

Mahler Symphony No. 8 / Bernstein (1975) - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Youtube, uploaded by Lennyforever. Accessed September 12, 2017.

Resources & Suggested Reading:

Symphony No. 8 (Mahler). en.wikipedia.org. Accessed September 12, 2013.

Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major, Symphony by Gustav Mahler. Britannica (Online). Accessed September 12, 2013.

(c) September 2013. Updated September 12, 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Bernstein Young People Concert: A Melody Defined

Classical Music / A Melody Defined

Bernstein Young People Concert - What is a Melody?

Leonard Bernstein with New York Philharmonic. He explains the different types of melodies, what makes us think of some music being melodic, and some not. The works of Wagner, Mozart, Hindemith and Brahms are performed.

The American Leonard Bernstein (25 Aug 1918 - 14 Oct 1990), was an eclectic composer, taking his ideas from the music of Mahler, Stravinsky, from religious ritual, and most of all, from fellow American composers George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and the exciting idea of concert jazz. His own works are splendid kaleidoscope of all these influences ... making Leonard Bernstein one of the most entertaining of 20th-century composers. (Right now, my mind is preoccupied with musical 'West Side Story' and 'Candide'.

Suggested Links:

Bernstein's Candide

West Side Story (Musical)

Leonard Bernstein - Young People Concert. YouTube, uploaded by CMAjorEntertainment. Accessed September 11, 2019.

Video Credit:

Leonard Bernstein - Young People's Concerts - What is a Melody? (1962). Youtube, uploaded by Andy Anker. Accessed February 12, 2023.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

Choral Singing / Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, Op.38

Based on the Victorian poem by Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman, Sir Edward Elgar's oratorio Dream of Gerontius (1900), has a dramatic framework within which the music expanded orderly, a massive piece for chorus and orchestra. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory.

Dates:
Thursday 19 October, 8pm
Saturday 21 October, 2pm

Venue:
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House

Image credit: Eric Hansen

Artists:

Brett Weymark conductor

Jacqueline "Jacqui" Dark mezzo soprano

Andrew Goodwin tenor
Jose Carbo baritone
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
The Sydney Youth Orchestra

At the end of the music score of Sir Edward's The Dream of Gerontius, the composer wrote: “This is the best of me.” This monumental work embodies Elgar’s spiritual and artistic ideals – it is as stirringly Romantic and grand as you’d expect, but it is also Elgar’s most personal utterance. Elgar poured his “heart’s blood” into Gerontius, responding to the words with evocative, sincere and imaginative music – imposing marches full of pomp and circumstance, choirs of demons and angels, and celestial harmonies – that takes us from earth to heaven. Elgar’s masterful choral writing celebrates the beauty and power of the voice in partnership with the orchestra.

Top 50 Greatest Biographical Movies (Biopics)

Films / Biographical Movies

A biopic, or a biographical movie, is a film that deals with the story of a well known person or group of people in history. Here's website containing a list of 50 films considered the greatest biopics of all time as this time of posting.

1. Amadeus (1984)

The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was insanely jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him. The story is set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, and is a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg, described by its writer as "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". Mozart's music is heard extensively in the soundtrack of the film. Winner of 8 Academy Awaards (1984).

Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice

2. Gandhi (1982)

Gandhi's character is fully explained as a man of nonviolence. Through his patience, he is able to drive the British out of the subcontinent. And the stubborn nature of Jinnah and his commitment towards Pakistan is portrayed.

Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth

3. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.

Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins

4. Malcolm X (1992)

Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam.

Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee

5. Schindler's List (1993)

In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall

Mozart Opera La Clemenza di Tito

Classical Music / Operas

La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), K. 621, is an opera seria in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzola, after Metastasio, an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti. Mozart's La clemenza was started after the bulk of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), the last opera that Mozart worked on, was already written. The work premiered on 6 September 1791, at the Estates Theatre in Prague.

For more info about the opera, go to Wiki resource below.

Listening Pleasures:

Mozart's Opera La Clemenza di Tito. Uploaded by EGMusic Opera Production. Accessed September 6, 2018. Live performance at the Covent Garden, 1976. With Janet Baker, Yvette Minton, Werner Hollweg. Covent Garden Orchestra, conducted by J. Pritchard.

Aria "Ah, perdona al primo affetto", beautifully sung by Lucia Popp and Frederica von Stade.

Resource:

La clemenza di Tito. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed September 6, 2017.

(c) September 2017. Updated September 6, 2019. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Eric Coates London Suite

Classical Music / Suite

The London Suite, also known as London Everyday, is a suite of orchestral music by the English composer Eric Coates. The Suite was completed in 1933 when Coates was 47.It consists of three movements:

I. Covent Garden (Tarentelle)

II. Westminster (Meditation)

III. Knightsbridge (March)

The work was extremely popular when it was first published, with the third movement, Knightsbridge, being used as the theme tune for a BBC Radio Radio chat show programme called In Town Tonight, broadcast initially on the National Programme from 1933 and then switched to the Home Service in 1939 where it continued until 1960.

The BBC received such a large number of requests for the name of the piece by post so that they had slips of paper printed specifically to help with the demand. Gerrard Williams arranged the military band edition of the suite for Chappell's Army Journal, while Paul V. Yoder also arranged the march for Chappell & Company.

Such was the popularity of London Suite that in 1936 Coates wrote a sequel to it called the London Again Suite.

Resources:

London Suite (Coates). Youtube, uploaded by Guilhem Buisson. Accessed August 27, 2017. (Orchestre Symphonique Opus 31, Direction Guilhem Boisson) - Apology. This video is no longer available. / Tel, May 7, 2023.

London Suite (Coates). en.wikipedia.org.

(c) August 2017. Updated May 7, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Mozart Great Mass in C Minor

Sacred Music /

Great Mass in C of Mozart premieres in Salzburg, October 26, 1783.

The Great Mass in C Minor, K. 427 (K. 417a), is a musical setting of the Mass of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was composed in 1782 and 1783 in Vienna. The large scale work remained unfinished. It was set for two soprano soloists, a tenor and a bass, double chorus and large orchestra. The Mass was written as a result of a vow Mozart made with himself in relation to Constanze, his wife, and his father, Leopold Mozart. At that time, his relationship with his father was strained.

As a thanksgiving offering after his marriage to Constanze Weber, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed this "great" Mass in C in 1782 and 1783. The mass was first performed in the Church of St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg, October 26, 1783. It took place in a Roman Catholic Mass context, with the performers, the Hofmusik, employed at the court of Salzburg's Prince-Archbishop Count Hieronymus von Colloredo. At this premiere the soprano solos were sung by Constanze Mozart.

In a letter written to his father, Leopold Mozart (January 4, 1783), Wolfgang mentioned the score of "half a mass lying on his desk bearing witness to the promise". Later that year in St. Peter's Salzburg (October 26), the completed sections of the mass were performed - the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Benedictus, had been completed, but the Credo was not set in full. It was scored in Mozart’s usual draft, and the Agnus Dei was not even begun.

Orchestral masses compositions had fallen out of favour in Austria during the reign of Emperor Joseph II, and Mozart composed it during this time. Even the older Joseph Haydn did not compose any orchestral masses between 1782 and 1796.

Of the remainder of the mass, the Credo was never completed, the Sanctus and Benedictus, although complete, subsequently became partially lost, and the Agnus Dei had never been contemplated by Mozart beyond some sketches he made for the Dona nobis pacem.

Perhaps Mozart's Great Mass's incompleteness rightly symbolizes the failure of its underlying purposes: to express filial piety (respect to his father), to evidence devotion to religious music in an age of reform, and especially to serve as an emblem of Mozart's reconciliation with his father and sister, conditioned upon their acceptance of his wife, whose worthiness Mozart expressed by the sublimity of the 'Great Mass in C' itself.

Suggested Listening:

Great Mass in C minor - Kyrie - K. 427- W. A. Mozart - Bernstein - Delacroix. Uploaded by codonauta. Accessed Octoboer 25, 2010. Leonard Bernstein - Conductor. Arleen Auger - Sopran. Frederica von Stade - Mezzo sopran. Frank Lopard - Tenor. Cornelius Hauptmann - Bass. Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Symphonie orchester des Bayerrischen Rundfunks. Pictures: Delacroix

Mozart: Great Mass in C Minor, KV 427 - John Eliot Gardiner. YouTube, Uploaded by Huckleberry Finn. Accessed October 25, 2014. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mass in C minor, KV 427 Barbara Bonney, soprano. Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano. Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor. Alastair Miles, bass. Monteverdi Choir. English Baroque Soloists. John Eliot Gardiner, conductor. Barcelona, December 1991.

Mozart: Mass in C minor Kv. 427: Kyrie (1785). Uploaded by Azael Hernandez. Accessed August 25, 2016. (effectively dismantled and used as a cantata, Davidde Penitente K. 469). Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra & Monteverdi Choir. Conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.

Mozart Mass in C minor K.427 Gardiner. YouTube, uploaded by vse vsad. Accessed April 1, 2019. (Monteverdi Choir. Eric Ericson. Chamber Choir. Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Mia Persson soprano. Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano. Helge Rønning tenor. Peter Mattei bass. Nobel Prize Concert 2008.)

Trivia
(Added: April 4, 2019). For 2019 Easter offering, our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and the visiting Capella St Crucis from Hannover will fill the Sydney Opera House with the glorious and uplifting sounds of J.S. Bach's Magnificat and Wolfgang A. Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. The concert: "Bach and Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts" will be conducted by Florian Lohmann, for Mozart, and Brett Weymark, for Bach. It will also include Anotny Pitts new setting of 'Mente cordis sui' (in the imagination of their hearts), as he takes inspiration from Bach. Saturday April 20 at 2pm. Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Video Credit:

Mozart - Great Mass in C minor, Nathalie Stutzmann, Conducting. Accessed August 25, 2017.

Resources:

Bras, Jean-Yves; Bras, Jean-Yves; transl. Derek Yeld (2006). "A Mass of Thanksgiving", p. 31 [CD]. Album notes for Mass in C minor (La Chapelle Royale, Collegium Vocale Gent, Orchestre des Champs-Éllysées, cond. Philippe Herreweghe) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Arles: Harmonia Mundi (HMX 2961393).

Mozart, W. A.; Holl, Monika (preface), Thalmann, Gabriele (transl.) (2006). Mass in C minor (Urtext). Bärenreiter-Verlag. pp. VII. ISMN M-0006-20223-2

Solomon, Maynard. (1995) Mozart: a Life. Harper Collins Publishers.

(c) Posted Oct. 25, 2010. Updated Aug. 25, 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Claude Debussy

Composers Datebook: August 22.

French composer, founder of Music Impressionism: Short profile of the life and works of Claude Debussy. He is mainly famous for piano music Clair de lune and orchestral La mer and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

French composer Claude Debussy reached his career peak when the late Romantics like Liszt and Wagner were coming to an end. He is often called a musical 'Impressionist' as aligned with French impressionism painters Monet, Renoir, and Degas.

Beginnings

Debussy did not come from a musical family but was encouraged to take up music at an early age. He was born on August 22, 1862 in St Germain-en-Laye. At the age of 10, he studied with Guiraud at the Paris Conservatoire. Initially, he planned to be a virtuoso pianist but he abandoned it when won the coveted Prix de Rome competition twice.

Early Impressions

In his early years, he travelled extensively to Vienna, Italy and Russia. He also spent some years in Rome but often he was not happy. He was known to be unsociable even as a youth.

I've chosen to feature Claude Debussy's "Clair de lune" beautifully performed on the piano by composer and pianist Sally Whitwell. Sal is an ARIA Award-winning Australian pianist.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Tudor Portraits

Choral Singing / 16th Century Period Music

Dates:
   Thursday 24 August, 7:30pm
   Sunday 27 August, 2:00pm
Venue:
   City Recital Hall

Review:

Tudor Portraits (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), by Clive Paget. LimelightMagazine.Com. August 25, 2017.

Music transports us to other times and places. Journey to the Elizabethan era with our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Symphony Chorus and works inspired by a golden age of English art. Thomas Tallis and Thomas Tomkins created a unique style of choral music: expressive, dramatic and intimate. A great English composer of a later generation rediscovered their music and was profoundly transformed: Ralph Vaughan Williams paid tribute to his forebears in his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and invoked the spirit of Shakespeare in his gorgeous Serenade to Music, but it is the Five Tudor Portraits that are Vaughan Williams’ most extended love letter to Merrie Olde England.

Sydney Philharmonia soloists rehearsing.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - The Passing of the Year

Choral Singing / Chamber Music

(The passing of the year was August 2015.)

Tuesday 31 March 2015, 8pm: Saturday 4 April 2015, 1pm

Review from Limelight: Review: St. John Passion (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs)
Review from SMH: Bach's St John Passion review: Sydney Philharmonic Choirs deliver the best performance of this work you'll hear.

Dates:
   Thursday 24 August, 7:30pm
   Sunday 27 August, 2:00pm
Venue:
   City Recital Hall

Review:

Tudor Portraits (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), by Clive Paget. LimelightMagazine.Com. August 25, 2017.

Music transports us to other times and places. Journey to the Elizabethan era with our Symphony Chorus and works inspired by a golden age of English art. Thomas Tallis and Thomas Tomkins created a unique style of choral music: expressive, dramatic and intimate. A great English composer of a later generation rediscovered their music and was profoundly transformed: Ralph Vaughan Williams paid tribute to his forebears in his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and invoked the spirit of Shakespeare in his gorgeous Serenade to Music, but it is the Five Tudor Portraits that are Vaughan Williams’ most extended love letter to Merrie Olde England.

Sydney Philharmonia soloists rehearsing.

Charade (Film)

Classic Movies / Charade

Charade is a 1963 Technicolor American romantic comedy/mystery film directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The cast also features Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, and Jacques Marin. It spans three genres: suspense thriller, romance and comedy. Because Universal Pictures published the movie with an invalid copyright notice, the film entered the public domain in the United States immediately upon its release.

The movie is based on The Unsuspecting Wife (1961) short story by Peter Stone and Marc Behm. Music is by Henry Mancini.

Harassed by three men who had a linkage to her late husband's murder, Reggie seeks help from Joshua who confesses that he is the brother of the fourth accomplice in the crime. Will she trust him?

Video Credit:

Charade (1963) Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn. Hollywood Movies. Uploaded by Cinecurry. Accessed August 8, 2018

Resources:

Charade (Film). en.wikipedia.org
Charade (Film). Turner Classic Movies.

(c) August 2008. Updated August 8, 2018. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Ketelbey In a Monastery Garden

Light Classical Music/ Orchestral

In a Monastery Garden is a piece of light classical or semi-classical music composed by Albert Ketèlbey (born Augsut 9, 1875 - died November 26, 1959), an English composer, conductor and pianist, best known for his short pieces of light orchestral music. He was born in Birmingham and moved to London in 1889 to study at Trinity College of Music, however, he did not pursue the classical career, instead became director of the Vaudeville Theatre before gaining fame as a composer of light music and conductor of his own works.

Albert Ketèlbey's In a Monastery Garden, surprisingly, has been performed only once at the Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall, and the above video is that one performance, given on the 2009 'Last Night at the Proms' by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO ) and BBC Symphony Chorus, under conductor David Robertson, current artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO). As you'll hear, Ketèlbey was "tweeting" long before 'Twitter' was invented!

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Nordic Songs

Choral Singing / 16th Century Period Music

Dates:
   Thursday 24 August, 7:30pm
   Sunday 27 August, 2:00pm
Venue:
   City Recital Hall

Review:

Tudor Portraits (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), by Clive Paget. LimelightMagazine.Com. August 25, 2017.

Music transports us to other times and places. Journey to the Elizabethan era with our Symphony Chorus and works inspired by a golden age of English art. Thomas Tallis and Thomas Tomkins created a unique style of choral music: expressive, dramatic and intimate. A great English composer of a later generation rediscovered their music and was profoundly transformed: Ralph Vaughan Williams paid tribute to his forebears in his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and invoked the spirit of Shakespeare in his gorgeous Serenade to Music, but it is the Five Tudor Portraits that are Vaughan Williams’ most extended love letter to Merrie Olde England.

Sydney Philharmonia soloists rehearsing.

Chaminade 6 Pièces Romantiques, Op.55

Classical Music / Piano Music

Cécile Chaminade's '6 Pièces Romantiques, Op.55'

(1) 0:18 Primavera (2) 2:38 La Chaise à Porteurs (3) 4:05 Idylle Arabe (4) 6:44 Serenade d'Automne (5) 9:15 Danse Hindoue (6) 11:19 Rigaudon

Performed by Julia Mortyakova and Valentin Bogdan, piano.

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944), French Composer and Pianist. She was born in Paris, and studied at first with her mother, then with various teachers on piano, violin, and music composition, however, not officially in all this, since her father disapproved of her musical education. Her first experiments in composition took place in very early days, and in her eighth year she played some of her music to Georges Bizet, who was much impressed with her talents. Chaminade gave her first concert when she was eighteen, and from here on, her work as a composer gained favor. She wrote mostly character pieces for piano, and salon songs, almost all of which were published and popular.

Video Credit:

Cécile Chaminade - 6 Pièces Romantiques, Op.55. Youtube, uploaded by Jorge E.C. Cunha. Accessed August 8, 2017.

Resource:

Cecile Chaminade. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed August 8, 2017.

(c). 2017. Tel Asiado. Written for Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Mikis Theodorakis

Brief Biography / Film Music Composers

Michael "Mikis" Theodorakis, Greek songwriter and composer, has written over 1000 songs. He is born on the Greek island of Chios, July 29, 1925 but spent his childhood years in various provincial Greek cities. His father, a lawyer and a civil servant, was from the small village in Crete and his mother, Aspasia Poulakis, was from an ethnically Greek family in what today is Turkey. He was raised with Greek folk music and was influenced by Byzantine liturgy.

Theodorakis's fascination with music began in early childhood. He taught himself to write his first songs without access to musical instruments. In Patras and Pyrgos he took his first music lessons, and in Tripoli, Peloponnese, he gave his first concert aged 17. He went to Athens in 1943, and became a member of a Reserve Unit, and led a troop in the fight against the British and the Greek right. During the Greek Civil War he was arrested, sent into exile on the island of Icaria then deported to the island of Makronisos, where he was tortured and twice buried alive.

Apology: The video originally shared (Best Melodies, 1975) is no longer available. Below, some listening pleasures:

Mikis Theodorakis - Strose to stroma sou & Zorba (live,2005). Accessed July 29, 2024.

The very best of Mikis Theodorakis. Accessed July 29, 2024.

Songs of Struggle by Mikis Theodorakis. July 29, 2024.

Toselli Serenata 'Rimpianto' Op.6 No.1

Serenade / Instrumental / Down Memory Lane

Serenata Rimpianto is one of the sweetest serenades and best-known work of Enrico Toselli (1883-1926), an Italian pianist and composer who wrote operetta, chamber music, and songs. The lyrics were written by Alfredo Silvestri.

Enjoy the video. Alfredo Kraus, one of the best tenors of the end of the 20th century brilliantly sang the song, with lyrics translated by Margaret Smythe.

Briefly, about the composer. Enrico Toselli, Count of Montignoso, (born March 13, 1883 – died January 15, 1926), was an Italian pianist and composer born in Florence. He studied piano and composition, and embarked on a career as a concert pianist, playing in Italy, European capital cities, Alexandria and North America.

Aside from Serenata "Rimpianto" which is his most popular, his other works include two operettas: La cattiva Francesca (1912) and La principessa bizzarra (1913). However, his fame is mainly derived from his scandalous elopement with the Archduchess Louise of Austria (the former Crown Princess of Saxony, in 1907) rather than his musical ability. His marriage ended in divorce in 1912. They had one son.

Resource:

Enrico Toselli. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed July 29, 2017

Video Credit:

Toselli Serenade (Rimpianto - Regret), subtitled in Italian lyrics and English translation. Youtube, uploaded by ChantYip. Accessed July 29, 2015.

(c) 2015-2017. Tel Asiado. Written for Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Wagner Opera Parsifal

Classical Music / Opera

Wagner took most of the story from a medieval poem Parzival by the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. Parsifal was the last opera Wagner completed.

Parsifal, WWV 111 ('WWV' denotes Wagner's catalogue of musical works in German, meaning "Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis") is and opera in three acts by German composer Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, a 13th-century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grain (12th century). Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but did not finish it until twenty-five years later. It was his last completed opera.

Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Wagner's widow Cosima (Franz Liszt's daughter), was outraged that she declared none of the singers involved in the unauthorised production would ever work at Bayreuth again. Bayreuth only lifted the baon on January 1, 1914. Parsifal was so popular that in the first six months after the ban was lifted, numerous European opera houses staged performances.

Franz Berwald

Classical Music / Composers

Franz Adolf Berwald (23 July 1796 – 3 April 1868), was born in Stockholm, a Swedish Romantic composer. He made his living as an orthopedic surgeon and later as the manager of a saw mill and glass factory.

Berwald came from a family with four generations of musicians; his father, a violinist in the Royal Opera Orchestra, taught Franz the violin from an early age. In 1809, Karl XIII came to power and reinstated the Royal Chapel. Berwald worked there and also played the violin in the court orchestra and the opera. He received lessons from Edouard du Puy, and also started composing. On summers' off-season for the orchestra, Berwald travelled around Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. Of his works that time, a septet and a serenade he considered worthwhile music in his later years.

In 1818 Berwald started publishing the Musikalisk journal (later renamed Journal de musique), a periodical with easy piano pieces and songs by various composers as well as some of his own original work. In 1821, his Violin Concerto was premiered by his brother August. It was not well received.

Franz Berwald - Symphony No. 3 in C-major, "Sinfonie singuliere"

Gerald Finzi

Classical Music / Great Composers Dateline: July 14

Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956), was a British composer. He is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. His large-scale compositions include the cantata Dies natalis for solo voice and string orchestra, and his concertos for cello and clarinet.

Gerald Finzi was born in London. He became one of the most characteristically "English" composers of his generation. Finzi was educated privately. His father, a successful shipbroker, died a fortnight short of his son's eighth birthday.

During the first World War the family settled in Harrogate, and Finzi began to study music at Christ Church, High Harrogate, under Ernest Farrar, a former pupil of Irish composer Charles V. Stanford. Finzi found him a sympathetic teacher, and Farrar's death at the Western Front deeply affected him. It was also during these formative years that he suffered the loss of all three of his brothers. These adversities contributed to his bleak outlook on life.

Suggested listening:

Finzi's Romance in E-b Major, Op. 11. Youtube, uploaded by imusiki. Accessed July 14, 2017.

Despite being an agnostic of Jewish descent, several of Fenzi's choral works incorporate Christian texts. His music is elegiac in tone. Below is Finzi's Magnificat.

Oscar Hammerstein II

Musicals / Great Lyricists & Librettists

Oscar Hammerstein II (born Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II, July 12, 1895 – August 23, 1960), was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and theater director of musicals for almost forty years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song.

Hammerstein II co-wrote 850 songs. He was the lyricist and playwright in his partnerships; his collaborators wrote the music. He collaborated with numerous composers, such as Jerome Kern, (with whom he wrote Show Boat), Richard Rodgers, Rudolf Friml, Vincent Youmans, Sigmund Rombert and Richard A. Whiting; but he is best-known for his collaborations with Richard Rodgers, which include Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific (Pulitzer Prize), The King and I, and The Sound of Music.

Article:

Revisiting Rodgers & Hammerstein by Tel Asiado, July 27, 2006 (edited, July 12, 2017.)

Hammerstein's sharp dialogue and ability to create dramatic movement through song helped transform the American musical theater; where musical comedies became seamless and powerful dramatic works.

Below, "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein's one of all-time best musical The Sound of Music. It is sung at the close of the first act by the Mother Abbess for Maria, in particular. In general, it is themed as an inspirational piece, to encourage people to take every step toward attaining their dreams. Beautiful and uplifting.

Apology: Video embedding of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is unavailable on websites. Please WATCH on YouTube.

Listening Pleasure:

Rodgers & Hammerstein - A partnership that redefined musical theatre forever.

Music Theme from To Kill a Mockingbird

Soundtrack / To Kill a Mockingbird (Film)

The theme for Robert Mulligan's "To Kill a Mockingbird" film (1962) based on (Nelle) Harper Lee's all-time best selling book of the same name. The music, composed by Elmer Bernstein (American composer and conductor known for his many film music), is beautiful, evocative and poignant Americana theme for a great book and film.

The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. To Kill a Mockingbird marked the film debuts of Robert Duvall, William Windom, and Alice Ghostley.

Scout Finch (Mary Badham), 6 years old, and Jem (Phillip Alford), her older brother, live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill (John Megna) and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall). When Atticus (Gregory Peck), their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.

Video Credit:

Theme from "To Kill a Mockingbird" film. Youtube, uploaded by Bobbengan. Accessed July 11, 2017.

Mahler Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 - Soundtrack of Death in Venice (Film)

Classical Music / Movement from a Symphony

Adagietto, the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in C# minor, which lasts about 10 minutes, is often considered his most famous composition and is frequently performed of his works. Its orchestration is scored only for strings and harp. It was likely a declaration of Mahler's undying love for his wife Alma, that instead of a letter, the composer expressed it in this movement without a word of explanation. Aside from Leonard Bernstein's beautiful interpretation (Sorry, video no longer available), other favourite performances include those conducted by Herbert von Karajan (Mahler's "Adagietto") and by Valery Gergiev (Mahler "Adagietto"), World Orchestra for Peace, Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms Live.

In the simmering tumult of the Fifth Symphony, the fourth movement, Adagietto ("little Adagio"), is calm, with its gentle sound and restrained mood of sustained string notes and a bit of harp. It has full of longing - beginning quietly with graceful melody before it gradually rises to a soaring climax, then ends peacefully. Likely so, Adagietto is featured in the film Death in Venice, in 1971. In this French-Italian film adaptation of Thomas Mann's novel of the same name directed by Luchino Visconti, Dirk Bogarde stars as avant-garde composer Gustave Aschenbach (loosely based on Gustav Mahler), travels to a Venetian seaside resort in search of repose after a period of artistic and personal stress. Instead of finding peace there, he soon develops a troubling attraction to an adolescent boy, Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), on vacation with his family. The boy embodies an ideal of beauty that Gustave has long sought and he becomes infatuated. However, the onset of a deadly pestilence endangers them both physically and represents the corruption that signifies threats and destruction to all ideals.

Some people have labelled this film as a gay movie. I think it is not. It's a film about an artist who is convinced that beauty does not exist in nature but is created by man. The film exquisitely demonstrates the nature of beauty and not the nature of sexuality. The artist, as he is dying, recognizes beauty in nature in the form of a beautiful teenage boy. The conflict in the artist is perfectly represented by Gustav Mahler's music in the soundtrack. Beautiful!

Mahler's Symphony No. 5

One problem for Mahler's early audiences lies in his long symphonies, scored for huge orchestra. Mahler composed his Fifth Symphony during the summers of 1901 and 1902, spent at his new summer-house in central Austria. At its premiere in Cologne in 1904, the symphony was a complete failure with an audience unprepared for its dramatic power and scope. Yet a century later, the Fifth has become one of Mahler's most popular symphonies.

Mahler's "Adagietto" for Choir:

Mahler's "Adagietto" for Choir. Arranged by Gerard Pesson. Accentus Chamber Choir. Conducted by Laurence Equilbey. So beautiful! Accessed May 10, 2018.

Video Credit:

Death in Venice - G Mahler, Adagietto from Symphony No. 5. YouTube, uploaded by Thomai Pavlidou. Accessed July 7, 2017.

Luchino Visconti Morte a Venecia 1971. (Death in Venice). YouTube, uploaded by Slava Batareykin. Accessed 7 July 2017.

Gustav Mahler-Film "Mort a Venise"-"Morte a Venezia"-"Death in Venice"-Luchino Visconti-(1971). Youtube, uploaded by bilitis131313. Accessed 7 July 2017.

Resources:

Symphony No 5. www.laphil.com. Accessed July 7, 2017.

Symphony No. 5 Mahler. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed July 7, 2017.

(c) July 2010. Updated July 7, 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Jean Sibelius Finlandia

Classical Music / Symphonic Poem

Finlandia, Op. 26 is a tone poem by Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer. Written in 1899 and revised in 1900, the piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. Finlandia was first performed on 2 July 1900, in Helsinki, with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes between 7½ and 9 minutes.

To avoid Russian censorship, Finlandia had to be performed under alternative names at various musical concerts. Titles under which the piece masqueraded were numerous—famous examples include Happy Feelings at the awakening of Finnish Spring, and A Scandinavian Choral March.

The piece is taken up with rousing and turbulent music, evoking the national struggle of the Finnish people, however, towards the end, a calm comes over the orchestra, and the serenely melodic Finlandia Hymn is heard. Initially composed for orchestra, in 1900, Sibelius arranged the work for solo piano. Lataer, he also reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland. It is also sung with differient words, as a Christian hymn (Be Still, My Soul; Hail, Festal Day, and in Italian evangelical churches: Veglia al mattino.)

Video Credit:

Jean Sibelius - Finlandia. YouTube, uploaded by Tarja M. Accessed July 2, 2017.
Wild Scandinavia / Wildes Skandinavien / (2011), Director: Oliver Goetzl, Writer: Oliver Goetzl, Cinematography: Ivo Nörenberg, Jan Henriksson and Rolf Steinmann. Gulo Film Productions

Resource:

Finlandia. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed July 2, 2017.

(c) July 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' ChorusOz 2017

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Presents

ChorusOz 2017: Felix Mendelssohn's 'ElIJAH'

11 June 2017, 5 P.M. Sunday

At Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, 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. This year ChorusOz is also joined by Sydney Auslan Ensemble (Signed Language.)

SPC's ChorusOz 2017 presents the magnificent oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn, 'ELIJAH.'

Briefly, Mendelssohn's Oratorio 'ELIJAH'

Elijah (German: Elias), Op. 70, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn. It premiered in 1846 at the Birmingham Festival. It depicts events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings of the Holy Bible's Old Testament.

Britten's War Requiem

CLASSICAL MUSIC / Non-liturgical

War Requiem, Op. 66, composed by English composer Benjamin Britten.

This work by Benjamin Britten is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. It was first performed on 30th May 1962, for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in World War II. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with settings of poems by Wilfred Owen, written in World War I.

Britten's War Requiem is scored for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chorus, boys' choir, organ and and two orchestras (a full orchestra and a chamber orcchestra.) The chamber orchestra accompanies the intimate settings of the English poetry, while soprano, choirs and orchestra are used for the Latin sections. All forces are combined in the music finale. The work has a duration of approximately 90 minutes.

Notes about the Video:

Benjamin Britten, Conductor
Meredith Davies, Conductor
Heather Harper, Soprano
Thomas Hemsley, Baritone
Peter Pears, Tenor
With Melos Ensemble, BBC Symphony Chorus & BBC Symphony Orchestra
August 4, 1964

Other Britten War Requiem Performances:

1. War Requiem conducted by Marin Alsop, Nov 2014, Southbank Centre.
2. War Requiem, Salzburg Festival, 2013.

Video Credit:

Benjamin Britten Conducts War Requiem. YouTube, uploaded by John Randolph. Accessed May 30, 2017.

Resource:

Britten's War Requiem. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed May 30, 2017.

(c) May 2017. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

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