Ravel's Sheherazade and Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana

Classical Music Milestone:  May 17


Maurice Ravel's Shéhérazade for solo voice and orchestra is first performed in Paris, May 17, 1904. It is a song cycle for soprano (or tenor) solo and orchestra, after three poems by Tristan Klingsor: "Asie," "La flûte enchantée," and "L'indifférent," written in 1903. The performance was at the Société Nationale, Paris, with Jeanne Hatto and the orchestra conducted by Alfred Cortot.

Pietro Mascagni's famous and most successful opera,  Cavalleria Rusticana, is first performed in Costanzi Theater, Rome, also on the same day, May 17 (1890).



Michèle Losier - Shéhérazade, I. Asie (Ravel)


 

Cavalleria Rusticana - Mascagni (opera completa) - Noto (SR) 31/08/2013

 

Video Credit:

Sheherazade by Ravel.  YouTube uploaded by Bellerophon.  Accessed 17 May 2016. 

Cavalleria Rusticana. by Mascagni.  YouTube uploaded by Giacomo Mazzoni. Accessed 17 May 2018.


Resources:


Myers RH. Ravel: Life and Works. Thomas Yoseloff, New York, 1960.

Sadie, Stanley, Ed. (1994).  The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Ne wUpdated Edition. London: Macmillan Publishers. 


(c) May 2016. Updated May 18, 2018. Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

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.

Another performance: 

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 - Rattle & NYOGB [BBC Proms 2002]. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. YouTube, uploaded by Newmono. Accessed August 12, 2025. 

   

 

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. 

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.

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!

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 is no longer available), other favourite performances include one conducted by Herbert von Karajan (Mahler's "Adagietto")

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.

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.  

Tchaikovsky's Mozartiana - Orchestral Suite No. 4

Orchestral Music

Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No. 4, Op. 61, more commonly known as Mozartiana, is an orchestral suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, written in 1887 as a tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the 100th anniversary of his idolised composer's opera Don Giovanni. Because this suite consists of four orchestrations of piano pieces by (or in one case, based on) Mozart, Tchaikovsky did not number this suite with his previous three suites for orchestra. Instead, he considered it a separate work entitled Mozartiana. Nevertheless, it is usually counted as No. 4 of his orchestral suites.

Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere himself, in Moscow in November 1887. It was the only one of his suites he conducted, and only the second at whose premiere he was present.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky regarded Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as his musical god. He had always held Don Giovanni, one of Mozart's famous operas in greatest awe.  Therefore it's not surprising at all that the great Tchaikovsky's treatment of Mozart's work for this piece was both faithful and affectionate. In other words, he was inspired by Mozart to comcpose this piece, in particular of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Tchaikovsky wrote his 'Mozartiana' in 1887, exactly 100 years after the great Mozart opera made its debut.  He took the music as it stood and endeavoured to present it in the best possible light—this is, in late 19th-century guise. His intent was to win greater appreciation among his contemporaries for Mozart's lesser known works.  

Below, is Tchaikovsky's Mozartiana,  Suite No. 4, Op. 61 "Mozartiana" (1887), shared in hope that the piece is simply listened to, enjoyed, without worrying too much about analysis. (Uploaded by Bartje Bartmans. Accessed May 14, 2018.)


Mozartiana is in four movements and lasts approximately 20 minutes.

1. Gigue. Allegro (G major).  After the Little Gigue for piano, K. 574.
2. Menuet. Moderato (D major).  After the Minuet for piano, K. 355.
3. Preghiera. Andante ma non tanto (B♭ major).  After Franz Liszt's piano transcription of the Ave verum corpus, K. 618. (In 1862 Liszt wrote a piano transcription combining Gregorio Allegri's Miserere and Mozart's Ave verum corpus, published as "À la Chapelle Sixtine" (S.461). Tchaikovsky orchestrated only the part of this work that had been based on Mozart.)
4. Thème et variations. Allegro giusto (G major).  After the piano Variations on a Theme by Gluck, K. 455. (The theme was the aria "Unser dummer Pöbel meint", from Gluck's opera La Rencontre imprévue, ou Les Pèlerins de la Mecque).

This suite is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and trumpets, four horns, timpani, cymbals, glockenspiel, harp and strings.

George Balanchine's 1981 ballet Mozartiana is set to Tchaikovsky's work. 



Resource:

Orchestral Suite No. 4 Mozartiana (Tchaikovsky). Wikipedia. Accessed May 14, 2018.



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

Brahms Symphony No. 1

Classical Music / Symphony

 

Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68


Johannes Brahms spent at least fourteen years completing his Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68. His sketches date from 1854. He declared that this work, from sketches to finishing touches, took 21 years, from 1855 to 1876. The premiere of this symphony, conducted by his friend Felix Otto Desssoff, was on 4 November 1876, in Karlruhe, then in the Grand Duchy of Baden. A typical performance lasts between 45 and 50 minutes.

Enjoy listening to the video below conducted by Paavo Järvi, with Orchestre de Paris - Brahms: Symphony No.1 in C Minor, Op.68.

 

Delius Two Orchestral Works

Classical Music Milestone: October 2

The orchestral works of Frederick Delius were first performed in Leipzig on October 2, 1913:

• Summer Night on the River
• On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring

1)   "Delius - Summer Night on the River" YouTube uploaded by Orquestra Classica de Centro. Accessed  October 2, 2016.

2)  "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" YouTube, uploaded by antPDC. Accessed October 2, 2025.   

 

 

 

 

(c) October 2, 2016. Updated October 2, 2025. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.   

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture

Classical Music / Orchestral 

The Year 1812, festival overture in E-flat major, Op. 49

Popularly known as the 1812 Overture,  The Year 1812, festival overture in E-flat, Op. 49, is an overture written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to commemorate Russia's defence of its motherland against Napoleon's invading Grand Army in 1812.

The overture was first performed on August 20, 1882, on an all-Tchaikovsky program at the Art and Industrial Exhibition, in Moscow, conducted by Ippolit Al'tani under a tent near the then-unfinished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, also memorializing the 1812 defense of Russia. 

 

It was conducted by Tchaikovsky himself in 1891 at the dedication of Carnegie Hall, in what became the first time a major European composer visited the United States.




1812 Overture is best known for its climactic volley of cannon fire, ringing chimes, and brass fanfare finale. It has also become a common accompaniment to fireworks displays on the United States' Independence Day.  It went on to become one of Tchaikovsky's most popular works, along with his ballet scores: The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker.

 

Brief history of the famous 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky

 

Nikolay Rubinstein, head of the music section in connection with an exhibition of industry and the arts planned for 1881, commissioned from Tchaikovsky an overture which would open the exhibition. Tchaikovsky was reluctant: it was not the kind of job that attracted him, but he could not refuse Rubinstein's request. The composer only worked on it in October 1880, and finished it in less than a week, apart from the orchestration. He did not cherish any illusion of its true worth, as he told his patroness  Madame Nadezhda von Meck, "It will be very loud and noisy. I wrote it without much warmth and therefore there will probably be no artistic merit in it." By this time, however, Tchaikovsky's music was famous worldwide.

 

It's common knowledge that Overture 1812 is one of Tchaikovsky's most popular works.     

Trivia:

 
1812 Overture is personally emotional and memorable: In celebrating 40 years of Sydney Festival: Symphony in the Domain 2016, 16th January, the finale was performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Symphony Chorus. Some of us from SPC Festival Chorus sung a special 'Happy Birthday' rendition and a small choral part of the overture itself.     

Suggested Listening:

Tchaikovsky : Overture 1812 (Full, Choral) (Sure, best version ever) - Ashkenazy. Uploaded by greatclassicrecords. Accessed August 20, 2016.

Flashmob of Tchaikovsky's Overture 1812 - July 4th fireworks from Spain's Societat Musical d'Algemesi. Accessed August 20, 2018. 

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture (Full with Cannons). Youtube, uploaded by avrilfan2213. Accessed August 20, 2016. 

Video Credit: 

 

Tchaikovsky: Ouverture 1812 | Prinsengrachtconcert 2013, conducted by Antonio Pappano. Youtube, uploaded by AVROTROS Klassiek. Accessed August 20, 2016.

Resources:

1812 Overture. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed August 20, 2016.  

 

Mountfield, David. TCHAIKOVSKY: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840-1893.  New Jersey, U.S.: Chartwell Books, Inc. (1990).

The History of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. ThoughtCo.  

 

 

(c) August 2010. Updated August 20, 2016. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Respighi Fountains of Rome

Classical Music / Symphonic Poems


Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome) is a 1916 symphonic poem written by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, now considered part of the "Roman Trilogy" of symphonic poems along with Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome, 1924) and  Feste Romane (Roman Festivals, 1928). It is the first orchestral work in this trilogy.  Each of the four sections depicts one of Rome's fountains during different periods of the day.  It was first performed on March 11, 1917, where it appeared at the Teatro Augusteo in Rome with Antonio Guarnieri as conductor. Toscanini conducted the work in Milan in 1918 with tremendous success.



Movements:

1. "La fontana di Valle Giulia all'alba"
2. "La fontana del Tritone al mattino"
3. "La fontana di Trevi al meriggio"
4. "La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto"

First section: "La fontana di Valle Giulia all'Alba" shows this fountain at daybreak in a pastoral landscape, in which cattle pass during the morning.

Second section: "La fontana del Tritone al mattino", Naiads and Tritons dancing in the morning light, as figures of the Bernini fountain are seen nearby. Gods and goddesses using conch shells (used in many rituals as spiritual symbols) are portrayed by the French horn.

Third section:  Introduces "La fontana di Trevi al meriggio" and is ushered in by a triumph giving news of a recent victory by the god Neptune.

Final section: "La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto" portrays a much more melancholic atmosphere as the brilliance of the sun fades.


Video Credit:

Ottorino Respighi - Fountains of Rome - Eugene Ormandy, 1957. YouTube, uploaded by mahlerman77, Accessed July 9, 2015.

Resource:

Fountains of Rome. en.wikipedia.org  


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

Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending

Classical Music / Solo Violin and Orchestra

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


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

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


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




Video Credit: 

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

Resource:

The Lark Ascending.  en.wikipedia.org. 



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

Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3, Organ Symphony

Classical Music / Symphony

Camille Saint-Saëns's Symphony No.3 "Organ symphony" is first performed in London on May 19, 1886, at St. James's Hall in London, conducted by the composer himself.

Commissioned by England's Royal Philharmonic Society, Camille Saint-Saëns's Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, popularly known as "Organ Symphony" was completed by the composer in 1886, considered the best time of his career life. Although nicknamed "Organ symphony" it is not a true symphony for organ, but an orchestral symphony where two sections out of four use the pipe organ.

Movements:  Adagio - allegro moderato - allegro moderato

The composer inscribed it as: Symphonie No. 3 "avec orgue" (with organ).  

Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 'Italian'

Classical Music Datebook: May 13

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy conducts the premiere of his Symphony No.4, "Italian." On May 13, 1833, Mendelssohn's Symphony No.4 was first performed in London at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert.

Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, known as Italian, is an orchestral symphony composed by by Felix Mendelssohn, a German composer. 

Like Mendelssohn's "Scottish Symphony" and the orchestral overture "The Hebrides" (Fingal's Cave), "Italian" was also inspired during his tour of Europe from 1829 to 1831. His inspiration was the colour and atmosphere of Italy. Symphony No. 4 was completed in 1833.

Prokofiev Symphonic Fairy Tale Peter and the Wolf

Classical Music Milestone, May 2.

Sergei Prokofiev's Famous Fairy Tale Premieres

Peter and the Wolf (Russian, Petya i volk), Op. 67 (1936), is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in May 2, 1936.  It is a symphonic fairy tale for children. The composer also wrote the text, which is spoken by a narrator and accompanied by the orchestra.

Each character in the story has a musical theme (leitmotif) and a particular instrument. Sergei Prokofiev's symphonic fairy tale Peter and the Wolf is scored for the following instruments. Duration of the work is approximately half an hour.

• Peter: string instruments
• Bird: flute
• Duck: oboe
• Cat: clarinet
• Grandfather: bassoon
• Wolf: French horns
• Hunters: woodwind, with gunshots on timpani and bass drum

Synopsis of Peter and the Wolf

Peter, a young boy, lives in a forest clearing at his grandfather's home.  One day he goes out leaving the garden gate open. The duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to go swimming in a pond nearby. The duck starts arguing with a little bird ("What kind of bird are you if you can't fly?" – "What kind of bird are you if you can't swim?"). Peter's cat stalks them quietly. The bird flies to safety in a tall tree while the duck swims to safety in the middle of the pond.

His grandfather scolds him for being outside in the meadow and chides him: "Suppose a wolf came out of the forest?" When Peter defies him, saying that boys like him are not afraid of wolves, his grandfather takes him back into the house and locks the gate. Soon enough Peter's grandfather is right as a big, grey wolf comes out of the forest. The cat quickly climbs into a tree. Unfortunately, the duck, who has excitedly jumped out of the pond, is chased, overtaken then swallowed by the wolf.  Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree. As a distraction, Peter asks the bird to fly around the wolf's head while he lowers a noose to catch the wolf by its tail. The wolf struggles to get free, but Peter ties the rope to the tree; the noose gets tighter.

All along hunters have been tracking the wolf. They enter the scene and come out of the forest ready to shoot, but Peter gets them to help him take the wolf to a zoo in a victory parade.

This work has been conceived as a children's introduction to the orchestra.


Video Credit:

Peter and the Wolf.  Youtube, uploaded by DigaPix.  Accessed May 3, 2016.


Resources:

S. Shlifstein. ed. Sergei Prokofiev:  Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. Rose Prokofieva (translator). (@000) [1960] The Minerva Group, Inc. p. 89.

Manuel de Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Classical Music Milestone: April 9

Manuel de Falla's "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" for piano and orchestra, is first performed in Madrid, Spain.

Spanish composer Manuel de Falla began his work "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" (Spanish: Noches en los Jardines de España) as a set of nocturnes for solo piano in 1909 but later turned turned it into a piece for piano with orchestra. Falla completed it in 1915. He dedicated it to Ricardo Viñes. The first performance was performed on April 9, 1916, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain, with the Sinfonica de Madrid Orchestra conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós. The piano part was played by José Cubiles.

Watch and enjoy the video of M. de Falla's "Nights in Gardens of Spain" with Daniel Barenboim (piano) and Placido Domingo (conducting), with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

Beethoven Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"

Ludwig Van Beethoven conducts his own "Eroica"

This day, April 7, 1805, Beethoven conducts in Vienna, Austria, the first public performance of his Symphony No.3 in E Flat Major (Op. 55), famously known as Eroica symphony.  He began composing the third symphony soon ater his second symphony in D major, completing the actual work in early 1804. 

"Eroica" is an Italian term meaning "heroic." It is a  landmark musical work that marks the advent of Beethoven's series of unprecedented large scale works of intense emotion and structural strength, referred to as "middle-period."

Béla Bartók Concerto for Orchestra

Classical Music / Concerto for Orchestra / Orchestral

The Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123, is a five-movement work for orchestra composed by Béla Bartók in 1943. It is one of his best-known, most popular and most accessible works. The score is inscribed '15 August – 8 October 1943' and premiered on December 1, 1944, in Symphony Hall, Boston. It was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with Serge Kousssevitzky conducting.

The concert was a great success and since then has been regularly performed. Perhaps it is the best-known of a number of pieces that have the apparent contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra, in contrast to the conventional concerto form which features a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. Bartók said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way.


Below is a wonderful performance as well as recording of Concerto for Orchestra, recorded in 1955.  Composer: Béla Viktor János Bartók (25 March 1881 -- 26 September 1945). Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Fritz Reiner




Movements: 

00:00 - I. Introduzione. Andante non troppo -- Allegro vivace
10:03 - II. "Giuoco delle coppie". Allegretto scherzando 
16:05 - III. "Elegia". Andante non troppo
24:05 - IV. "Intermezzo interrotto". Allegretto 
28:21 - V. Finale. Presto


Video Credit:

Béla Bartók - Concerto for Orchestra. Uploaded by Olla Vogala. Accessed March 25, 2016


Resource:

Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók). en.wikipedia.org.



(c) 2016. Tel Asiado. Written for Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Leopold Mozart's Musical Sleigh Ride

Classical Music / Leopold Mozart / Dances / Musical Sleigh Ride 

Leopold Mozart, like his famous son Wolfgang Amadeus, also composed his own Musikalische Schlittenfahrt (Musical Sleigh Ride)

The musical works of Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang's father, a great violinist and composer himself, is inevitably overshadowed by the work of his endeared son. Leopold Mozart willingly sacrificed his own career to promote Wolfgang's.  Like Wolfgang Amadeus, Leopold also composed his own musical sleigh ride, a Divertimento in F Major, considered popular enough.

Other works of Leopold Mozart that have survived include: The Toy Symphony, a trumpet concerto, and a number of symphonies.




Video Credit:

Leopold Mozart Musical Sleigh Ride (Musikalische Schlittenfahrt). YouTube uploaded by JHBernardo.  Accessed March 18, 2016.



(c) March 2016. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.