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."
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.
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
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" 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.)
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.
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
20th 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 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."
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.
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.
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'.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Great Mass in C of Mozart premieres in Salzburg, October 26, 1783.
The GreatMass 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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!
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.
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.
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.
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: Lacattiva 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.
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 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.
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.
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 (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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Marguerite Monnot: Hymne à l'amour (If You Love Me)
"Hymne à l'amour" (French for "Hymn to Love") is a popular French song originally performed by Édith Piaf.
The lyrics were written by Piaf and the music by Marguerite Monnot. She first sang this song at the Cabaret Versailles in New York on September 14, 1949. It was written to her lover and the love of her life, the French boxer, Marcel Cerdan. On October 28, 1949 Cerdan was killed in a plane crash on his way from Paris to New York to come see her. She recorded the song on 2 May 1950.
Lyrics HYMN TO LOVE
Original : Hymne À L'Amour
(Eddie Constantine / Marguerite Monnot)
Recorded by : Christine Albert; Corey Hart; Cyndi Lauper; Edith Piaf.
If the sky should fall into the sea
And the stars fade all around me
All the times that we have known here
I will sing a hymn to love
We have lived and dreamed we two alone
In a world that's been our very own
With it's memories ever grateful
Just for you I sing a hymn to love
I remember each embrace
The smile that lights your face
And my heart begins to sing
Your eyes have never lied
And my heart begins to sing
And my heart begins to sing
If one day you should ever disappear
Always remember these words
If one day we had to say goodbye
And our love should fade away and die
In my heart you will remain here
And I'II sing a hymn to love
O for love, we live eternally
In the blue we'll roll this harmony
With every day we are in heaven
As for you, I'll sing a hymn to love
Don't you ever worry, dear
And the stars shall fade from the sky
All the times that we have known here
I will sing a hymn to our love
Oh darling,
Just for you I sing
A hymn to love
*****
HYMNE À L'AMOUR
(M. Monnot / E. Constantine)
Edith Piaf (France)
Le ciel bleu sur nous peut s'effrondrer
Et la terre peut bien s'écrouler
Peu m'importe si tu m'aimes
Je me fous du monde entier
Tant que l'amour inondera mes matins
Tant que mon corps frémira sous tes mains
Peu m'importent les grands problèmes
Mon amour, puisque tu m'aimes...
J'irais jusqu'au bout du monde
Je me ferais teindre en blonde
Si tu me le demandais...
J'irais décrocher la lune
J'irais voler la fortune
Si tu me le demandais...
Je renierais ma patrie
Je renierais mes amis
Si tu me le demandais...
On peut bien rire de moi,
Je ferais n'importe quoi
Si tu me le demandais...
Si un jour la vie t'arrache à moi
Si tu meurs, que tu sois loin de moi
Peu m'importe, si tu m'aimes
Car moi je mourrai aussi...
Nous aurons pour nous l'éternité
Dans le bleu de toute l'immensité
Dans le ciel, plus de problèmes
Mon amour, crois-tu qu'on s'aime?...
...Dieu réunit ceux qui s'aiment!
(c) 2017. Tel Asiado. Written for Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.