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.

Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4

Classical Music / Piano Concertos

Wolfgang A. Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began his series of preserved piano concertos with these four that he wrote in Salzburg, K. 37 and 39-41, the autographs dated by his father Leopold Mozart as having been completed in April (K. 37) and July (K. 39–41) of 1767.  Although these works were long considered to be original, they are now known to be orchestrations of sonatas by various German virtuosi. The works on which the concertos are based were largely published in Paris, and presumably Mozart and his family became acquainted with them or their composers during their visit to Paris in 1763–64.

The young Mozart seems to have begun to learn how to cope with the structural problems of composing in the piano concerto form by using movement from the sonatas of other composers. It may be that his father had devised this as a compositional teaching method.


Here's a link: Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4, K.37, 39-41. Produced by Decca in 12 videos. Artists: Robert Levin, harpsichord; The Academy of Ancient Music with Christopher Hogwood, conductor & director.  Accessed July 28, 2020.




Resource: 

Piano Concertos Nos. 1-4 (Mozart). en.wikipedia.org. 



(c) April 2018.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.