Beethoven, Piano Concerto No 3

With the enormous output of 27 piano concertos, Mozart undoubtedly contributed to the nineteenth-century concerto for piano and orchestra becoming a highly widespread form in Viennese musical practice. Therefore, it seems odd that composers established in the Austrian capital who followed him greatly diminished the production of concertos, such as Beethoven or, at the other extreme, omitted it altogether, as was the case with Schubert who, by the way, only lived 31 years.

The new character
But it should not be thought that the musical form known as a concerto for solo instrument and orchestra has lost prestige, or was considered outdated. Quite the opposite, that scarce production is a consequence of the composers' greater dedication and focus in the creation of concertistics pieces, which for this reason were acquiring the character of extensive, large-scale work, to which the composers will turn their attention intensively.

The "performer", a new figure
The changes that the concerto will experience in the 19th century are due to the nascent appreciation of "the artistry", the discovery of the individual hand in hand with romanticism, and with it the emergence of the figure of the "performer", who become aware of themselves as exceptional beings, capable of technical feats that astonish an astonished audience at the perfection of increasingly difficult performances, unattainable by the ordinary folk. Which means, in passing, the end of the author-performer, so close at hand in the previous century. This process, gradual like all processes, had its beginning in the early years of the century and its first promoter was, without a doubt, Ludwig van Beethoven.

Beethoven's concertos production, compared to the nine symphonies, or the sixteen quartets for string or the 32 sonatas for piano, is quite reduced: five concertos for piano and orchestra plus a juvenile one composed at age 14 and which It is never performed, a violin concerto, and a triple concerto for violin, cello and piano.

Of the five piano concertos, the first two (where the one with the number two is chronologically the first) are a transition between a world that is being left behind and the new one that comes from the hand of the French Revolution. They clearly do not respond to the Mozartian style, revealing a more ambitious attitude than any of Mozart's, although they are still limited in their conception.

Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor
The real change of style will come with the Concerto No. 3 in C minor, opus 37, completed in 1800, premiered in April 1803 and published in 1804. The music has ceased to be fresh and light to acquire epic and turbulent features, showing the hallmark of a second stage in the maestro's life since the deafness has definitely begun. In the autumn of 1802, Ludwig would confess his grief in the Heiligenstadt Testament (which will only be known after his death, twenty-five years later), where he bitterly regrets that it has been precisely him, a musician, who lost his sense of hearing.

Concerto No. 3 is the only one written in a minor mode and reflects a clear evolution in his piano literature. Not for nothing, at this point, has Beethoven composed eighteen of his 32 piano sonatas.

Movements:
– Allegro con brio. In sonata form, with two main themes (a second theme, lyrical, is presented in 5:16).

– Largo (17:01). A calm subject, conducive to meditation.

– Rondo - allegro (28:40). Funny and cheerful, perfect for closing the work.

The rendition is by Krystian Zimerman, accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein. 

Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini

 
Born into a wealthy family, Sergei Rachmaninoff did not look sympathetically at the revolutionary outbreaks of the early century that would later lead to the outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. So as soon as the historical change began, he went on a tour of the Scandinavian countries. Once the tour was over, he decided to go to North America with his wife Natalia in a fragile boat that set them down on Long Island in the first days of November 1918. It was not his first visit to America, but this time he would stay there forever.

Between the US and Europe
The successes of the previous visit allowed him to get convenient access the American musical circuits.  He toured the country extensively in exhausting tours as a virtuoso piano player, although this forced him to neglect his career as a composer. But at the same time, the economic well-being achieved in North America provided him to divide his life and his time between the United States and Europe. Between the years 1932 and 1939, he was able to travel every summer to the small village he had built in Switzerland, near Lake Lucerne, in the company of Natalia.

In Villa Senar
The Swiss refuge was called Villa Senar, a name formed by the first two letters of his name, Natalia's own, and the initial of her surname. In this house, Russian was spoken, Russian food was cooked by Russian servants and immigrants and friends from Russia were welcome – the pianist Vladimir Horowitz among them. If there was enough peace, Sergei would try to compose.

It was in the comfort of this home, between July and August 1934, that Sergei Rachmaninoff composed one of his most acclaimed works, Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, premiered to great success by the Philadelphia Orchestra in Baltimore, on November 7 of that year, with the author at the piano under the leadership of Leopold Stokowski.

"Creme de Menthe" Variations

The work comprises twenty-four variations on Caprice N° 24 for solo violin by Niccolo Paganini. It is clear that Sergei was not the inventor of the idea, as the Caprice composed by the violinist who had a pact with the devil has inspired a wide and diverse number of composers including not only Brahms, Liszt or Lutoslawski but also Benny Goodman.

Although the work is executed in one go, it can be divided into three sections corresponding to the three movements of a concert: up to variation 10 they make up a first movement; from 11 to 18, a second slow movement; and the rest the final movement. Due to great technical difficulties, the piece forced Rachmaninoff to drink a glass of creme de menthe prior to going on stage on opening day in order to calm his nerves, a protocol he followed every time he had to perform the piece that he himself later dubbed "creme de menthe variations".

Variation 18 (14:50) is by far the best known. Slow and surprisingly romantic in character, it is often featured as a standalone piece in various compilations of classical music. Its use in Hollywood movies and various popular songs has also contributed to the popularity of the piece and the subsequent fame of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

The rendition is by the Russian pianist born in 1991 Daniil Trifonov, accompanied by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Scarlatti, Sonata in A major

 

The Neapolitan composer Domenico Scarlatti met Handel during a trip the former made to Venice in 1708 when they were both twenty-three years old; both had been born the same year, 1685 (as Bach, in passing). Enthusiastic about Handel's abilities, Domenico followed him to Rome to listen to his improvisations. After a while, both musicians would consolidate a great friendship.

The contest
According to a Scarlatti biographer, Cardinal Ottoboni – Handel's patron at the time and patron of art – organized a healthy competition in Rome between the two musicians to liven up the evenings of his modest court. It was about knowing who was the best organist and harpsichord player, or Scarlatti, or Handel. At the end of the contest, and for the participants remained to be friends, the noble audience declared both artists tied: the best organist was Handel, and the best harpsichordist, Scarlatti.

D. Scarlatti (1685 - 1757)

555 "Exercises"
This exalted public was right. In 1733, installed in Madrid for the rest of his days as a music teacher to his student and former princess Maria Barbara, now Queen of Spain, he will compose his gigantic work for harpsichord: 555 short pieces of a single movement that he modestly called "exercises", however highly innovative compositions that herald the future sonata form of the coming decades.

A friendly welcome
The first edition of Domenico's modest "exercises" is headed by a singular and precious warning that for the understanding of his art and his personality provides us with more information than a complete encyclopedia: 

"Reader, do not expect, whether you are a dilettante or a professor, to find in these compositions any profound intention, but rather an ingenious banter in the art to exercise you in rigorous play of the harpsichord.

No point of view or ambition guided me, but obedience brought me to publish it. 

Perhaps they will be agreeable to you, and I will more willingly then obey your other orders to please you with an easier and more varied style. 

Therefore do not show yourself more judge than critic, and you will thereby grow your own pleasure.

To specify hand position I have used the letter D to indicate the right hand, and the letter M the left hand. 

Live happily."

Happy and less judge than critic, then, one must listen to the rendition of the sonata in A major K. 322, by the 16-year-old pianist born in Hong-Kong, Tiffany Poon, during a recital in Montreal in January 2013.

Antonio Lauro, "Natalia" waltz

 
The waltz, traditional European dance by nature, arrived in Venezuela in the mid-nineteenth century to acquire there its own personality, mostly from a rhythmic standpoint. Its rhythm would radically differ from the European one. Since then it was called the Venezuelan waltz, although it would keep the harmonic and formal structure inherited from the norms of the European tradition. Over the years, its popular character was losing strength while gaining ground as a concert piece. In that status, it will later show an important development in the field of classical guitar.

The maestro Antonio Lauro
It is at this point when one of the most internationally recognized Venezuelan musicians get involved. This is Antonio Lauro, whom the Australian guitarist John Williams graciously called "the Strauss of the guitar", and whose creations are today a mandatory repertoire in the music conservatories over the world. Born in Ciudad Bolívar to Italian immigrant parents, Maestro Lauro made a brilliant career as a composer and performer in Venezuela, being regarded today as one of the main Latin American masters of classical guitar.

Antonio Lauro (1917 - 1986)

Waltz No 3, "Natalia"
His famous waltz "Natalia" – a short piece of fewer than three minutes (three sections that are repeated in full) but highly demanding  – is one of the sixteen Venezuelan waltzes he wrote throughout his life and one of those pieces that cannot be missing from the repertoire of the instrument. The work dates from 1940 and for twenty-five years it was simply called Waltz N° 3, but thanks to a father's affection in the right circumstances it took the name of his daughter Natalia, who has been kind enough to let us refer to the story here in full detail:

“When dad composed the waltz, he still hadn't married my mom and it was about 10 years before I was born. The piece was part of a booklet that had three waltzes and that was number three. When I was 15 years old there was already an orchestral version. Dad asked me to dance it – it was played by the Daniel Milano orchestra. While dancing he dedicated the waltz to me and told me that from that day on the song would bear my name ... ".

 (Correo del Orinoco, digital, August 6, 2010)

The brilliant rendition is by the Greek-born guitarist, Nicholas Petrou.

JS Bach, Concerto for three harpsichords

 
On the afternoon of December 15, 1832, three young pianists of no more than twenty-two years took the stage at the Paris Conservatory. They were the Hungarian Franz Liszt, his friend Frédérik Chopin, who had just arrived from Warsaw, and the German pianist Ferdinand Hiller. The program included, along with music by various composers, the Concerto in D minor for strings and three harpsichords, composed nearly a hundred years ago by Johann Sebastian Bach. After his death in 1750, Bach had fallen into near oblivion and his reputation as a composer openly declined, before the emergence of a new style, classicism. The homage of the three pianists thus joined the admiration previously professed by Mozart and later Beethoven who had no doubt to point out Bach as "the true father of harmony".

The new times - the mismatch
The fact is that in the last two decades of the Baroque master's life, tastes had gradually begun to change, and Johann Sebastian, true to himself, had not known how to suited to or had not wanted to. According to Anna Magdalena Bach, his second wife, once heard him say that "since I write for my own pleasure, I cannot get angry because my art does not appeal to everyone". But this attitude caused him some troubles. Around the same period of composition of the concerto for three harpsichords, a close relative – his cousin and also a musician – dedicated only 39 lines to him in a monumental dictionary of music that he was making at that time.

"Old Bach"
None of his contemporaries could have been unaware that Bach was a genius, but in his later years the general judgment was that he was a bit "old fashioned". He was a genius but from the past. A question that was not difficult for him to verify by observing how the public began to prefer the works of his musical sons over his own.

In 1747, three years before his death, the maestro was invited to Berlin by Frederick of Prussia. The sovereign informed his courtiers of the arrival of the master with the following phrase: "Gentlemen, extraordinary news: old Bach has just arrived in Berlin." The singular announcement clearly shows what, enthusiasm aside, Bach was in those years even for a great admirer like Frederick the Great: old Bach.

That is why, almost a hundred years later, Liszt, Chopin and Hiller rush to pay homage to him.

Concerto for three harpsichord, strings and continuo, in D minor, BWV 1063
Old Bach would compose concertos for one, two, three and four keyboards. Scholars agree in dating the composition of this one, one of the two concertos for three harpsichords, before 1733. The work is supposed to be written for the exercise of Bach's many children to assist their formation, and of course, thus receiving their cooperation at frequent family evenings. It is also not excluded that the oldest sons, Wilhelm Friedrich or Carl Philipp Emanuel, have even taken part in its composition.

The work is in three movements:

- Allegro

- Alla Siciliana (4:57)

- Allegro (8:51 atacca)

Netherlands Bach Society with the soloists Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Siebe Henstra, and Menno van Delft,

Beethoven and Count Waldstein

Despite having sponsored the young Beethoven's first trip to Vienna to meet Mozart, the Prince-Elector of Bonn — named Maximilian Francis, patron of Ludwig at the time — did not show, on Beethoven's return, any particular favouritism for the musician, who at his seventeen wanted to acquire a greater technical base by studying with the old masters who at that time were standing out in Vienna.

Back to Bonn - court organist
According to tradition, Mozart would have listened to him and prophesied that Beethoven would "make people talk". But the trip lasted just two months because upon learning of the death of his mother, Ludwig had to return to Bonn where he will remain for the next five years, waiting for the elector prince offered his support again, in a hypothetical second trip. Until this happens, Maximilian Francis will assign Ludwig a salary of 170 florins for his performance as the second organist of the court.

The Breuning
During this extended period, Ludwig succeeded in forging valuable friendships, including that of an intelligent and distinguished widow, Mrs. von Breuning. She welcomed him into her home as a music teacher to two of her four children. Thus, Ludwig will find a second home, more welcoming even than his own, not counting the interest his student Eleonora aroused in him.

Count von Waldstein
Through the circle of friends of the refined lady, young Beethoven will easily find well-off students. But his most beneficial contact came in 1778, when Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, a member of the Viennese aristocracy and music lover, settled in Bonn. The count readily joins Mme Breuning's circle, hears Beethoven and becomes his devoted admirer, the first aristocrat of a long future list.

Count Waldstein (1762 - 1823)

To Vienna, for good
On the death of Emperor Joseph II, in 1790, Count Waldstein invited Beethoven to compose a funerary ode, which is not finally represented due to the difficulties it entailed for the musicians. That same year, passing through Bonn on his way to London, Haydn listened to Beethoven and invited him to Vienna to take him as a pupil on his return. After Count Waldstein spoke to the precise people, on November 2, 1792, at six in the morning, Beethoven left for Vienna, from where he will never return.

His travel notebook — in the style of Chopin when he left Warsaw — received fourteen greetings and beatitudes, including one from Eleonora and one from a single aristocrat, Count Waldstein, who wrote:

"Dear Beethoven! You go to realise a long-desired wish: the genius of Mozart is still in mourning and weeps for the death of its disciple. (...) By incessant application, receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands. Bonn, October 29, 1792. Your sincere friend, Waldstein"

Unfortunately, sincere friend Waldstein had a wretched life. Obsessed with creating his own army to fight the Napoleonic forces, he squandered his fortune and his wife's in such an undertaking. Aware of this, Beethoven dedicated to him the Sonata for piano opus 53, composed in 1804. The count, dismissed as a servant of the Empire, would die twenty years later in a home for the destitute, on the outskirts of Vienna. On the day of his death, a letter arrived informing him of the death of his elder brother — and that he was now to inherit the family fortune.

"Waldstein" Sonata, or "Aurora" Sonata, opus 53

Sonata No. 21 in C major, called "Waldstein" and also known as "Aurora", is performed here by Chilean maestro Claudio Arrau, on the occasion of the 1977 Beethovenfest, which is held in Bonn every year. At the time, maestro Arrau was 74 years old.

Originally, the sonata was in three movements but following comments suggesting that the sonata was too long, Beethoven eliminated the second movement, replacing it with a short introduction (12:20) at the final movement (15:55). The movement removed became later the famous Andante Favori, much sought after by the audience in the evenings of the time (and hence its name, suggested by Karl Czerny).

Handel, Messiah - Halleluyah Chorus

After collecting selected texts from the Bible and concocting a few psalms here and there, the English landlord Charles Jennens sent a libretto of his own in July 1741 to the London-based German opera composer, Georg Friedrich Handel. Based on it, he had to compose an oratorio in English: a song and a reflection on the relationship between man and God. Also, it would address the mystery of Redemption.

It was not the first time that the wealthy landowner had been a contributor to Handel, but this time he was quite confident in the success of the venture. And so he lets a friend know: "I hope [Handel] will lay out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other subject. The Subject is Messiah".

The oratorio - A new niche
Four years earlier, Handel had faced the failure of his third venture as a composer-entrepreneur. He still would write some Italian operas, but on the advice of friends and acquaintances, he had already been putting some distance from the Italian lyric genre, entering the field of the oratorio in English. Therefore, the libretto he received from Jennens fell into his lap.

G.F. Handel (1685 - 1759)

Premiere in a charity function
According to his own notes, the composer began work on The Messíah oratorio on August 22, 1741, and had it completed 24 days later. However, Handel's most famous oratorio could not be premiered in London with its original title and had to wait for the composer to travel to Ireland to be premiered in 1742 at the New Music Hall in Dublin as a charity performance in favour of convicts and sick people of all kinds.

On his return to London, to alleviate the criticism arising from the use of a sacred theme in an environment that had little or nothing to do with the liturgy, the title had to be changed to Sacred Drama. Its reception, while warm, was far from awakening the fervour that it will reach years later.

The Hallelujah Chorus
The oratorio is made up of three sections, in which choirs, recitatives and arias alternate. The famous Hallelujah chorus, which the author had already used in less elaborate versions in two previous compositions, is sung at the end of the second part.

Although the oratorio is not properly a sacred story, it is customary to represent it for Easter, or Christmas. This is not the case in the video presented here, in which the Canadian choral group Niagara Chorus bursts into a food center on any given day in November – thanks to a flashmob – to surprise the dozens of carefree customers with eighteenth-century music while they enjoy their contemporary burgers and fries.

Saint-Saëns, Danse Macabre

The multi-faceted and gifted intellectual and musician Camille Saint-Saëns composed his first piano piece when he was just over four years old. But that did not make that he lay to rest on his laurels. At seven he was already delighting a wide audience in family concerts. Such a promising beginning prompted him to momentarily abandon his studies of Latin, Greek, literature and other sciences to devote himself exclusively to music —a very wise decision that led him to give his first public concert at the Salle Pleyel, in Paris, at the age of ten.

An amazing recital
On the occasion, accompanied on a second piano by an Italian maestro, both a Mozart concerto and a Beethoven concerto were performed, as well as pieces by Hummel, Handel and Bach. At the end, he offered the audience to give an encore with any of the thirty-two Beethoven sonatas that, by the way, he knew by heart. The audience almost threw the room down with applause and the news of this incredible concert spread through the newspapers throughout Europe, even reaching an echo in the press in the United States. Three years later, he entered the Paris Conservatory to study organ and composition. There was no other choice.

Camille Saint-Saëns
(1835 - 1921)

Maturity and Danse Macabre 
Before the age of twenty, with two symphonies to his credit, Camille will have earned the admiration and support of Liszt, Berlioz,
Gounod and Rossini, among others.
By 1875, at the age of forty, his intense creative rhythm had paid off enormously, covering all fields of music and all possible instrumental and vocal combinations.
This is the year that marks the great triumph of his third tone poem, Dansa Macabre, which will earn him even more notoriety, making him the most internationally recognized French composer of his time.

The work
In a waltz rhythm and scarcely seven minutes long, the work is
based on a poem by Henri Cazalis, which describes Death playing the violin before the graves, and at whose call the skeletons come to dance for him. Twelve bells announce the beginning of the work. Death then bursts in with a violin somewhat distorted in pitch to create a ghostly atmosphere. At minute 2:47, the xylophones enter to mimic the beating of the bones when dancing and at the end (7:02), the oboe announces the new day with the crowing of the rooster, calling the dancing skeletons back to their graves.

The excellent animation belongs to a Mr Henderson who in the credits, unfortunately, assigns the work to Liszt, perhaps mistaken for a piece by the Hungarian author with a similar name: Totentanz. Camille's piece ends at minute 7:45, with two chords of little enhancement, dominant and tonic (like tangos). What you hear next is the song Destroying Angel, by the English band Sneaker Pimps.

And as there is room for everyone in the vineyard of the Lord, the video has received various and opposing comments on Youtube, from the most enthusiastic greeting to the label of gross stupidity, including the claim that the dancing skeletons seem to be gay. As for me, I loved it.

Ottorino Respighi, "Notturno"

Ottorino Respighi is one of those musicians who in his time gave a huge boost to music without having been monumental figures themselves like the great masters. Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1879, he took his first steps in the art of music at the hands of his father, a piano teacher. Then he will enter the Liceo Musicale in his hometown, where he will study violin, viola and composition. A year after receiving his diploma in 1899, he traveled to Russia to perform as a principal violist at the Imperial Russian Theater in Saint Petersburg, where he met Rimsky-Kórsakov, of whom he was also a student.

First violin and composer
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Ottorino stood out primarily as a performer, forming part of a famous quintet in which he took the position of the first violin. In the second decade of the century, he added composing to his activity as a performer. 

Florence
In 1913, when his compositions began to attract attention, he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, in Florence, a position he held for a short time, although he will remain in the city for the rest of his days.

Ottorino Respighi (1879 - 1936)

The stigma
For a long time, Respighi's work was considered music of little value, even vulgar, strident and indebted to other minds. Furthermore, his most recognized work, the trilogy of "Roman" symphonic poems – which stands out as I Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome), a remarkable composition for its surprising orchestral effects – was associated with Mussolini's fascism, accusing Ottorino, in passing, of support the fascist regime.
The truth is that the composer, in addition to being shy, was not interested in politics at all. His world was simply made up of music alone. However, the celebrations for the centenary of his birth, in 1979, faced strong political opposition. It has only been since 1986, for the commemoration of the 50 years of his birth, that things have begun to change, leading the composer and his music to an honored place.

An early work - Six pieces for violin and piano
Ottorino Respighi was also a musicologist. In this vein, he studied in depth Italian musicians from the 16th to the 18th centuries, rescuing compositions by authors such as Marcello, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, and publishing their works, as well. For this reason, some of his early compositions are strongly influenced by baroque authors, or are perhaps tinged with a late romanticism. This is the case, in our opinion, of the Notturno, from his Six Pieces for Violin and Piano, published between 1901 and 1906, later transcribed for solo piano.

Notturne, for piano solo, in the rendition (audio only) of the Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan.

Richard Strauss, "Also sprach Zarathustra"

"Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) is one of the seven tone poems composed by the musician born in Munich in 1864, Richard Strauss. Written between the years 1895-1896, it is the freest and more fantastic, and according to some, the most elaborate and difficult, perhaps due to its association with the complex work of the same name by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, on which it is freely based.

A "programmatic" support
After its premiere in Frankfurt under the author's conducting, a heated debate arose that yet was less due to the music than to the complicated program that Strauss developed as a support for the understanding of a programmatic nature work. In this case, a piece of music created under the suggestion of the moods caused by reading a literary text.

On that occasion, Strauss asked to include the following text in the concert hand program:

"First movement: Dawn. Man feels the power of God. Religious wandering. But he continues to yearn. He plunges into passion (second movement) and does not find peace. He turns to science and tries in vain to solve the problems of life with a fugue (third movement). Pleasant melodies sound and he becomes an individual. His soul rises, while the world sinks beneath him. "

Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)

To be frank, it seems like a joke. But the work became part of the universal repertoire since its premiere, until today. The complete work typically lasts about 40 minutes and is divided into nine sections, which Strauss named in consonance with certain chapters of the philosopher's book.

A very brief fanfare... and a "funky version"
The first section, Introduction, or Sunrise, a fanfare less than two minutes long, was featured in Kubrick's 2001 film, A Space Odyssey, which favored its awareness by a wide audience.

On a pianissimo ostinato entrusted to the double basses, the theme is exposed by the trumpet. After traversing between major and minor modes, the piece ends with a spirited and spectacular tutti in C major, which then shuts down to leave the organ alone for a couple of seconds.

The rendition is by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by the Spanish director Juan José Mena.
(Below. a "funky" version).

A "funky" version
Eumir Deodato, Brazilian musician and arranger born in 1943 in Rio de Janeiro who lives in the United States since the mid-seventies, surprised the American audience in 1974 with a great "funky" arrangement of the Introduction to Richard Strauss' work, which earned him that year the Grammy Award for Best Pop / Instrumental Performance.

Some recognition is needed to be made, as well, to the author of the video presented here. Some images from space brilliantly accompany these spectacular ten minutes of music created by Deodato from a piece of classical music, in which jazz, blues, gospel, elements of African tradition coexist... that is, "funky" music.

Dvorak, Romance for violin and orchestra

 
Following the amorous path traced eighty years earlier by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak was forced to set his eyes on the younger sister of Josefina Cermakova, his first love, after she did not respond to his requests despite the great effort Antonin put into it. The younger sister was named Anna and, although she was always aware of her status as a consolation prize, she ended up marrying Antonin, enchanted about her life, in 1873.

The couple conceived nine children and were immensely happy, despite the fact that during the years 1876-77 they had to face an ordeal. In the span of two years, the couple lost three of their children: one before birth, another in an accident and a third from smallpox.

A special movement
Three years earlier, Dvorak had composed an F minor string quartet that was never released. Shortly after, he published a version for violin and piano that did not obtain the recognition of the general public. In spite of everything, Antonin recognized in the quartet's second movement a great intrinsic value. Therefore, in the midst of the pain imposed by the loss of his children, he devoted himself in those same years to rebuilding the movement, endowing it with individuality and unique personality. for he was firmly convinced that he had written a major work, which should be preserved. It is the origin of the Romance.

Romance for violin and orchestra in F minor, opus 11
The work is built on two main ideas. The first, a simple melody, a song, presented at first by the violins and then freely elaborated by the soloist (1:45). The second motif is a romantic melody, somewhat less elaborate than the first (3:40). Then comes a short, more dramatic midsection that allows the soloist to show his virtuosity (4:50). But soon he returns to the serenity of the first motive. The piece takes the major mode when the second motif reappears, after which a brief coda will lead to the serene closure.

The rendition is by the Slovenian violinist Tanja Sonc, accompanied by the Slovenian Philharmonics conducted by the Canadian director Kery-Lynn Wilson.

Chopin's funeral, Prelude No 4

 
According to an eyewitness, Frédéric Chopin died without suffering, between three and four in the morning of October 17, 1849. On the third day of his death, after the sculptor Clésinger took casts of his face and left hand, the autopsy was carried out by extracting the heart that will later be placed on a column in the Church of the Holy Cross, in Warsaw, thus fulfilling the express wish of the composer, made to his sister Ludwika.

The body of the "great artist Chopin" – as it was designated by Débats magazine in an article published following his death – was embalmed and then dressed and laid out again on his bed. Surrounded by flowers, he was exposed to his friends, admirers, and onlookers to say goodbye. The admirers would parade for days through the apartment of Place Vendôme, the last residence of the Polish master.

The Funeral
It was not held until October 30. The funeral ceremony began at eleven in the morning, and at noon, the coffin was carried aloft by the side aisle and placed on a high catafalque, to the sounds of its own funeral march and in the presence of the three thousand people who were taking part the Madeleine Church. Then the orchestra and choir of the Conservatory's Concert Society sang Mozart's Requiem, which had not been heard in Paris since the return of Napoleon's ashes in 1840.

Before starting the journey to the Pére Lachaise cemetery, the organist of La Madeleine dismissed Frédéric's body by playing some of his preludes, including a "plaintive, galvanized with startles, almost desperate melody". It is Prelude N ° 4 in E minor, one of the 24 Preludes of opus 28, completed in Mallorca ten years before, and which we present here in the rendition of the Chinese pianist Eric Lu.

At the grave, there were no speeches. The handful of Polish earth that Frédéric had received from his friends when he left Poland and which he kept until then in a silver goblet, was simply dropped on the coffin.

Telemann, Don Quixotte Burlesque Suite

 
The composer Georg Philipp Telemann, the most significant representative of the North German school during the first half of the 18th century, was capable of writing a four-part motet with the same ease an ordinary person writes a letter. At least, this is what his young friend Handel — four years younger than Telemann — told him, whom he met in Leipzig when, under family pressure, Telemann began law studies that he would soon abandon.

A self-taught musician
Born in 1681 in Magdeburg, a city in western Germany, on the banks of the Elbe, Georg Philipp came from a family with a strong Protestant tradition, several of whose members had been pastors. His first training was humanistic and very broad: when he was just a boy, he wrote verses in Latin, German and French. His musical training, on the other hand, has a weak base in the period in which he had to attend the cathedral school where he attended the teachings of a composer of ecclesiastical music and also a keyboard course which, interestingly enough, lasted exactly fourteen days.

The fact remains, however, that at the age of ten Georg Philipp played the flute, violin and other instruments with mastery. On the basis of the direct study of the scores of the great composers of the time, the young Telemann soon began to compose his own pieces. 

Georg P. Telemann
(1681 - 1767)

An extensive catalog
Throughout his life, the catalog of this self-taught composer was going to acquire gigantic dimensions, far surpassing, for example, the work of Vivaldi. He cultivated all kinds of genres: operas, religious cantatas and psalms, passions, oratorios, profane cantatas, and much more, to which a large number of pieces of vocal and instrumental music is added.

A great naturalness distinguishes Telemann's music, which allows it to easily reach a wide audience. The composer argued that the musician who wanted to reach a large audience should write better than one who addresses a select minority. A good example of this maxim is represented by the suite inspired by Don Quixote.

Don Quixotte Burlesque Suite
During his last years, Telemann was strongly attracted by the spirit of Cervantes's work, to the point that it served as inspiration for an opera and, from it, a Suite for string orchestra and basso continuo, known as Don Quixotte Burlesque.

Light in character, almost humorous, the Suite includes seven movements or sections:

00:00  Ouverture
03:55  Le reveille de Quixotte (The awakening of Don Quixote)
06:58  Son attaque des moulens a vent (The attack on the windmills)
08:44  Les soupirs amoureux apres la Princesse Dulcinèe (Sighs of love for Dulcinea)
12:38  Sanche Panche berné (Sancho Panza disappointed)
14:22  Le galop de Rosinante alternat, avec sequent (The gallop of Rocinante)
16:59  La couché de Quixotte (Don Quixote's dream)

The rendition, performed with period instruments, is by the New York Baroque Incorporated chamber group.

Rossini, The Barber of Seville - Overture

 
When, in 1816, the Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello learned that an opera entitled Almaviva, ossia L'inutile precauzione, was about to be premiered at the Argentina theater in Rome, he had no hesitation in gathering his cohort of adherents and attending en masse at the work premiere with the sole and express purpose of causing excesses and turning the premiere into a failure from which its author, Gioacchino Rossini, could never recover.

The truth is that Paisiello was right in behaving that way. Almost forty years ago, he had premiered an opera also based, like Rossini's, on a libretto that emerged from Beaumarchais's comedy, Le Barbier de Séville ou la Précaution inutile. The work had been widely accepted in its time. So, Paisiello regarded as a personal affront that the young Rossini, an author of "Muslim works", dared to compose a new version of the opera that had made him famous, even when he offered it with another title.

Gioachino Rossini (1792 - 1868)

An ill-fated premiere
And indeed, the first performance, on February 20, 1816, did nothing but make things easier to provoke the brawl. The premiere was full of errors and mistakes that provoked mockery and blunders from the audience, unwittingly joining to the unruly spirits of Paisiello supporters. It is even said that at a certain moment, even a cat took the stage.

However, Paisiello and his entourage were likely the main responsible for the failure, since the second performance, a few days later, was a high success, and has continued so until today, to the point that The Barber of Seville exhibits nowadays the accolade of being the most performed opera in the world.

A "borrowed" overture
The work was composed in three weeks, forcing Rossini to make use not only of arias from other operas. The overture presented here borrowed, with some orchestration changes, the overture from a previous opera, Aureliano en Palmira, which had not been well received in its time. Rossini, entirely rightly, considered that the overture was of such quality that it could not be tied to a minor work. It had to be re-released.

The rendition is by the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra conducted by the Italian maestro Maurizio Benini.

Mozart, "Eine kleine Nachtmusik"

 
Although it seems unusual to put it this way, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was for much of his life a musician who would compose "on demand." Unlike the musicians of the later Romantic era, the works that came from his pen were almost always motivated by specific commissions, either because they were intended for a specific performer or orchestra, or because they were intended to please some aristocrat or bourgeois who, by the way, wanted the work at home as soon as possible.

Mozart was obliged to write quickly, despite which he fulfilled orders in very short periods, although the pay was never enough. "A lot for what I do, very little for what I could do," he replied in writing on one occasion, upon receipt of his "fees", although this time he referred to his salary as a part-time "chamber musician" of Emperor Joseph II.

Despite all that has been said, perhaps the most popular piece by Mozart has no known recipient and it is not known why he wrote it. But we do know exactly the end date of its composition — August 10, 1787 — because that is how it appears in the catalog he began to build in February 1784, the year in which he was also working on Don Giovanni, whose entry into the catalog follows that of the Serenade No 13.

In his catalog (which he planned to end around 1800, hopefully "updated" by that time) Mozart would annotate five pieces by facing pages. On the right page he would write down the initial two or three measures of the composition, and on the left, the date, the title and the instrumentation. In the image, the Serenade entry is the last one, at the bottom of the page. What Mozart writes here does not seem like a title at all but rather a few words as a summary or reminder. He writes: "Eine kleine Nachtmusik ... [the movements] ... 2 violini, viola e basis."

The catalog entry let us know that the work has five movements, but one of them would have been lost or Mozart did not get to compose it as the piece that is heard today only has four. In addition, let us point out that the composition was never performed during the composer's lifetime.

Serenade No 13 for strings in G major - Movements:
00       Allegro
05:46  Romance
11:20  Minuet and trio
13:30  Rondo

The rendition is by the Gewandhaus Quartet, a Leipzig-based group founded in 1808, joined on this occasion by a double bass as a guest artist.

Enrique Granados, Spanish Dance No 5

 

Despite being the son of an army officer, Enrique Granados y Campiña showed signs of an enviable musical talent at an early age. Born in Lleida in 1867, when he was seven the family had to move to Barcelona, ​​where the stubborn father would get a colleague in arms, another officer, to give little Enrique his first piano and music theory lessons. Such was the learning aptitude the boy showed, that soon after his parents decided to provide him with formal musical education. It was the beginning of a road without potholes only interrupted by the hardships he had to face as a result of the economic difficulties that, after his father died, led the young Granados to become the provider of a large family.

A café pianist
Qualified by one of his teachers as the most brilliant student he had ever had, young Enrique, who at the age of ten had given his first public concerts and who in 1883 had won the Academy competition for novice pianists, had to abandon his studies to serve as a pianist in the cafés of Barcelona, ​​playing up to four or five hours a day. But simultaneously he was fortunate to be hired by a wealthy businessman as his children's teacher at a very decent salary. With that money plus the support of the businessman and other additional pesetas obtained at the cost of performing operatic rehashes in cafés, in September 1887 he went to Paris since in Spain it was not guaranteed that he would be able to complete his musical studies.

Enrique Granados (1867 - 1916)

Paris and the Twelve Dances
But shortly after arriving, he fell ill with typhoid, and when he was to apply to the Conservatory he was above the age limit for admission. For this reason, he had to take private lessons with a prominent teacher who at that time had among his disciples a short, neatly dressed student named Maurice Ravel.

Apparently, is from that time that a good part of his Twelve Spanish Dances dates, although the author once declared that most of them had been composed in 1883 when he was only sixteen. But in Paris, he did not get publishers. Back in Barcelona in 1889, he got to publish them with a prestigious house.

Spanish Dance N ° 5
The set of the Twelve Dances marks the first international recognition of Granados, receiving praises from established composers as Saint-Saëns, Massenet and Grieg. The series of twelve pieces for piano thus became one of the greatest contributions to the Spanish pianistic repertoire of the 19th century.

In a rendition by the French pianist Guillaume Coppola, the best known of all the dances is presented here, the Spanish Dance No 5, called Playera or, more properly, Andalusian, due to its undisguised flamenco feeling, underlined by the left-hand support aimed to evoke the strumming of a guitar.

Vivaldi, Concerto for guitar and strings

 
Vivaldi in St. Mark's Square

In order to lead the life that we all would want, in the 18th century you also had to do some juggling. Born in Venice as the first-born of a Venetian merchant marriage, Antonio Vivaldi came into the world at a time when the Venetian commercial monopoly of the sale of spices, merchandise and slaves, had begun to crumble. It was the result of the emergence of alternative routes to the "Silk Road" established in the High Middle Ages that connected China and Europe, with Venice as its only commercial intermediary.

In these circumstances, the Venetian merchant families were compelled to encourage in their children the inclination for the practice of a musical instrument, or the development of any artistic talent, in order to attract the European aristocracies to the city and thus establish new commercial alliances. In a relatively few years, Venice ceased to be a fiefdom of merchants who by tradition despised art in all its forms as an unprofitable activity, to become a Renaissance and cosmopolitan cultural capital, the first tourist city in history.

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
(1678 - 1841)

Antonio's father, faced with the family's growing debts, chose to teach his son the little he had learned when, years ago, he had also worked as a musician due to similar shortages. By the way, Saint Mark's Square had become a new public square where artists showed their talents.

There, in that fledgling stage, the little musician Antonio Vivaldi made his initial training in the domain of the violin, taking home, incidentally, some coins as a result of his efforts.
Before long, his father would join him. Reasonably reliable testimonies of the time indicate that the father-son duo delighted the then "tourists", with little Antonio standing out for his ability to create beautiful melodies capable of evoking the most diverse states of mind.

Concerto for guitar and strings, in D major
Although it has been rightly said that the heyday of the concerto in the Baroque period was due in large part to the great 17th century advances in the art of violin making, maestro Vivaldi did not always entrust to a violin his works for soloist and orchestra. This is the case of this concerto, where the solo instrument is the guitar, although it was originally written for lute.

These first manifestations of what would later be the resorted and celebrated "concerto for soloist and orchestra" of the following centuries are very short duration works. The entire work lasts barely ten minutes. However, they have three movements, which inaugurate the traditional scheme: fast - slow - fast. The second movement, largo, is the most popular and recognizable (3:44).

The rendition is by maestro John Williams, accompanied by the Seville Symphony Orchestra.

Rachmaninoff, Prelude Op 23 No 5

 
The resounding failure of Sergei Rachmaninoff's First Symphony left the 24-year-old Russian composer dealing with a deep depression. His friends, fearing that at any moment he would make a fatal decision, advised him to put himself in the hands of a specialist in "life failures", that is, a "doctor of the soul".

After long months undergoing sessions of autosuggestion and hypnosis led by a prominent figure of the time, the young Sergei managed to get out of the quagmire. Shortly after, in the mid-1900s, he left for Italy, where he would slowly regain his peace in the picturesque coastal town of Varazze, near Genoa.

Natalie
Such was the degree of recovering his soul that only two years later, he decided to marry. But he did not go all over Moscow to find her soul mate. It was enough to look around him, putting his eyes on a cousin whom he had met two years ago, Natalie Alexandrovna Satina.

A difficult liaison
Of course, the relationship between lovers was enormously complicated. Not only did they have to face the rejection of both families but, forced by the laws of the time, they had to request various dispensations, including that of the Tsar. Finally, they managed to overcome all obstacles and were married in April 1902. Against all odds, they lived immensely happy for the rest of their days.

The Preludes
Following in the footsteps of Bach, Chopin and Scriabin, the Russian composer wrote 24 Preludes throughout his life, although scattered in three different opuses. The series began with the popular Prelude in C minor, a youth work belonging to opus 3. Then came the ten preludes to opus 23, written between 1901 and 1902. Sergei will end the cycle with the thirteen preludes to opus 32, composed around 1910.

Prelude Opus 23 No 5
Prelude No. 5, opus 23, is presented here. Its form is similar to the traditional tripartite rondo, with an initial section "A" marked Alla marcia, which is followed by a more lyrical and melancholic section "B" accompanied by arpeggios on the left hand (1:30), then, a transition to the original tempo and finally the recap of the opening section (2:40). The work ends without fuss with short arpeggios that finish off pianissimo.

The rendition is by the Russian maestro Emil Gilels, born in 1916 in Odessa and died in Moscow in 1985. Although less known, Gilels is part of the select group of great pianists of the 20th century, along with Arrau, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Benedetti Michelangeli and Sviatoslav Richter.

Igor Stravinsky, The Firebird

 

Igor Feodorovich Stravinsky was the third of four children of a famous singer of the Russian Imperial Opera and of a mother to whom "he only felt duties", according to his own confession. He never felt comfortable in the company of his brothers, so little Igor had to find a note of joviality in an overwhelming childhood whose only joy seemed to come from the care of his nurse, whom he would love and respect all his life, to the point that when she died, he wept for her more than he did for his own mother.

A musician... or a lawyer
Fortunately, the family's musical evenings brought a fruitful breath of life and encouraged his passion for music. At age 9, he began receiving his first piano lessons, and at 11 he was dazzled by attending the opera for the first time. Shortly after, he attended the premiere of Tchaikovsky's Pathetic Symphony, and this time, he was enchanted. At the same time, he was composing his first works. Everything was apparently going well for the young Igor to make music a career, but the ominous fate of young Russian musical promises stood before him and he had to begin studying law at the age of eighteen.

The maestro Nicolai
The only thing that took him away from juridical destiny was having made acquaintance with the composer Nicolai Rimski-Kórsakov who, despite frowning at his first works, finally received him at his home for three years to teach him the trade, explaining everything concerning the musical forms and their language, and supporting him in the orchestration of his own piano scores. The maestro Nicolai, perhaps unintentionally, thus became the only musician from whom Stravinsky later admitted having learned anything.

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)

Diaghilev
The year 1908 already sum several scores to his credit, applauded by the public and critics. The only thing missing is a bit of luck and this comes hand in hand with a concert where two of his works are performed and which is attended by an attentive spectator, Sergei Diaghilev, creator of the Ballets Russes that are all the rage in Paris at that time. Diaghilev did not delay in asking the author to orchestrate Chopin's music for a planned future ballet to be called The Sylphides.

The Firebird
Igor is happier than a clam. Even so, he does not imagine that the celebrity is around the corner and that he is going to conquer it overnight. Indeed, at the end of the summer of 1909, he received a telegram from Diaghilev commissioning him to write the score for the ballet The Firebird, scheduled for the following season of the Ballets Russes. Despite the short term granted, Igor completed the work on time, which premiered on June 25 of that year at the Paris Opera, not without some setbacks. The frenetic rhythm of the music puzzled some dancers, to the extent that the famous Anna Pavlova refused to dance "such atrocities", being replaced by Tamara Karsavina (pictured).

The tout Paris was immediately seduced by Stravinsky's music as well as by the costumes and novel sets of the staging. The sparkling and charming music of the 28-year-old young master would greatly influence the choreographic work, revitalizing an art that seemed exhausted from so much pas de deux. The Firebird will kill them forever, taking the tutus with him in passing.

Listening "with new ears"
The rendition, as a suite for orchestra, is by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez, including the last scenes: Infernal Dance, Berceuse and Finale (the complete ballet lasts nearly fifty minutes).
One final word: it is not easy to distinguish in this music tunes that can be hummed, but since it has already turned one hundred years old, I think it is time to make an effort to listen to it "with new ears", abandoning the sound and harmonics schemes from the 19th century and earlier.

Chopin, Polonaise "Heroique"

 
Despite being a Polish folk dance, "polonaises" were not written by the first time by Fréderic Chopin. Before him, Bach, Telemann, Mozart and Schubert did write pieces "with a polonaise rhythm ". And after him, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, along with Chopin, Liszt and Schumann would write polonaises, as well. But of all "classical polonaises", those by Chopin are the most famous, perhaps because Frédéric, in addition to being Polish, acquired great skill in its composition throughout his life, given that his first work, written when he was seven years old was, precisely, a Polonaise.

The Polonaise in A flat major opus 53, called "Heroique" – in no way by Chopin but by some of his editors – was written in 1836 and published in 1843. The date of its composition can be taken for granted since an autograph score has been preserved from September 12, 1836, a copy that Frédéric offered to a young Clara Wieck on her way through Leipzig, On that copy, he stamped in his own handwriting, the words: "from his admirer", as a birthday present, because Clara was turning seventeen the next day.

A gentle touch

According to legend, on one occasion when he was playing the piece in front of some friends Chopin paused impetuously on the difficult octaves scaling of the left hand (3:24), fascinated by the evocation of the armies advancing towards Poland, in pursuit of their liberation. But the anecdote is doubtful since those who once heard him assure that Frédéric highly dosed the two "crescendos" in octaves, starting from a mezzo-forte to a forte without too much bravery, due to both his fidelity to his aesthetics and his physical weakness.

Vladimir Horowitz
The rendition is by one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, the Russian maestro Vladimir Horowitz, born in Kyiv in 1903 and died in New York in 1989. His first public performance outside the nascent Soviet Union was in Berlin in 1925. Then he played in Paris, London, and New York. From the last city, he would not move. He stayed in the West until 1986, when he returned to the – this time – the failing Soviet Union to give a recital at the Moscow Conservatory, before a packed auditorium.

The video is apparently recorded in one of the concert halls of the Musikverein, in Vienna. It follows the recital in Moscow, and the Russian maestro would be at least 84 years old.

Robert Schumann, Piano Concerto

On September 12, 1840, thanks to their loyalty and determination, the epic of Robert and Clara Schumann, the lovers, ended happily. That day, they were married at the small church of Schönefeld, near Leipzig. Out of sheer joy, the following year Robert wrote two symphonies, the marriage's first daughter was born, and the composer wrote the outlines for what will later become his Piano Concerto in A minor.

Clara on tour
Despite the fact that his catalog of musical compositions kept growing day by day, Robert Schumann still did not obtain recognition from the general public. For her part, Clara did not stop working offering recitals throughout Europe, occasions when, by the way, she would make known her husband's works.

Robert Schumann
(1810 - 1856)

In 1842, Robert decided to accompany Clara to a recital in Weimar, where the famous pianist idolized by the public had been invited. It was the first time that Clara's husband had to answer a question that should not be asked.

"And you, are you also a musician?
The question, made more out of courtesy than — for the worse — out of genuine concern, became habitual and began to make Robert uncomfortable. So when, a little later, Copenhagen called for Clara's presence for a two-month tour of Denmark, Robert preferred to stay at home and Clara set out on the journey by herself.

Upon return, they continued to be the happy couple they will be their entire life.

Clara Schumann
(1819 - 1896)

Piano Concerto in A minor
In 1845 Robert Schumann took up the 1841 sketches, originally a one-movement fantasy for piano and orchestra, and saw that they were good. He added two movements to the fantasy project and thus built his first and only piano concerto, premiered, unsurprisingly, by the brilliant Clara on January 1, 1846, in Leipzig.

The rendition is by the wonderful Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, accompanied by the Radio Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi, in a performing given in the German town of Wiesbaden, August 2012. At the end, Khatia gives us as an encore, Liszt's Love Dream No. 3.

Below, a listening guide:

The concert lasts about 30 minutes and is in three movements. Schumann, as Mendelssohn, tended to connect the movements of some of his works together. In this case, the second movement links to the third without interruption. The solo piano interventions are difficult and elaborate but, as usual in Schumann, they never become orphan exhibitions of musical sense or passages of pure brilliance.

Movements:
Allegro affettuoso. The piano comes into action simultaneously with the orchestra, introducing the first theme, which is then repeated by the piano solo, allowing us to perceive the intense Chopinian aroma of the motif. A second theme includes beautiful passages for the solo piano, interrupted by beautiful clarinet passages. At the end, after a furious passage of chords at high speed, Khatia attacks the opening theme with her left hand while over it she plays a long trill with her right, which leads to a final coda that brilliantly closes the movement.

Intermezzo - andantino grazioso (15:45) The Chopin world returns, represented by a beautiful phrasing of the piano, accompanied by a serene orchestral background. Afterwards, the cellos pick up a variation of the melody and the piano adorns it with arpeggios. An allusion to the first theme of the first movement serves as a bridge to address the execution of the third, without pause.

Allegro vivace (20:55) Supported by two brilliant songs, syncopated, the piano covers almost restlessly a wide expanse of the keyboard. Before the end, Khatia repeats the subtlety of the prolonged trill. A coda based on the first theme will lead to a brilliant ending.