Ravel, "La Valse" / Yuja Wang

The first work the Russian impresario Sergéi Diaghilev commissioned to Maurice Ravel, in 1909, suffered many production problems. So, Daphnis et Chloé was not premiered until 1912. With a lukewarm reception at the beginning, it improved substantially with subsequent performances. Diaghilev, who did not agree with Ravel's opinion that the music should be above the choreography, was nevertheless satisfied with the outcome. He insisted on the point when around 1920 he again commissioned Ravel to write the music for a new ballet.

"Vienna"
Since 1906, Ravel had been working on the idea of a waltz that would be a tribute to Strauss and Vienna. The piece, tentatively called "Vienna", was the one that Ravel adapted for the projected ballet but with a clearly different character from the original idea, because by 1920, being the war ended, Ravel had just come from fighting, precisely, to Austria. The elegant gestures of the Viennese waltz then mutated into a painting of a world that had just collapsed.

"La Valse"
This time Diaghilev rejected the work. He said it was "unreachable" and that it did look like a painting, but a painting of a ballet, not a ballet. Ravel was upset and the two artists fell out for good. The work, under the name of La Valse, was later premiered as a concert piece and in 1928 as a "choreographic poem" by the ballets of Ida Rubinstein, for whom Ravel would compose his popular Bolero that same year.

Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937)

Solo piano version

Maurice Ravel was a brilliant orchestrator, as he demonstrated by transcribing for orchestra numerous pieces originally composed for solo piano, the most outstanding example of which is his transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, today especially known for Ravel's orchestral arrangement.

For this reason, a transcription in the opposite direction, transferring the brilliance and magnificence of the orchestra to piano solo, would seem to be unproductive. However, it is supported by two practical reasons: on the one hand, to allow the enjoyment of the piece on an intimate level, and on the other hand, to supply the need for a score that could be used for the rehearsals of choreographic groups, which is precisely the case of La Valse.
Of course, both purposes meant immediate economic benefits for the composer.

The solo piano transcription of La Valse is far from the grandeur and opulence of the orchestral version, but in Ravel's hands, needless to say, the music has not lost anything, let's just say that it is different, new, and certainly a challenge for the performer.

The rendition, flawless, is by the pianist Yuja Wang, born in Beijing in 1987.

Strauss Jr, "Die Fledermaus" - Overture

When Die Fledermaus was premiered in the crowded and famous Theater an der Wien, on April 5, 1874, the Viennese citizens were in no mood for celebrations. Although less than a year earlier Vienna had hosted the first World's Fair in a German-speaking region, at the same time the booming capitalism was beginning to experience the first and largest of its recurrent systemic crises, following the collapse of the Vienna Stock Exchange and the immediately subsequent bankruptcy of a powerful banking institution in Philadelphia. The depression, known as the Long Depression, was global in scope and lasted until 1879.

Life on the downside

The economic panic brought down fortunes overnight and hundreds of businesses, including theaters, were affected. As a result, the Viennese bourgeoisie was forced to opt for a rather more austere lifestyle, much to its regret... The Viennese of then, those who in 1850 enjoyed their leisure time drinking in beer halls and cafés and fulfilling the seats of theaters and concert halls, were no longer the same in 1874.

Johann Straus II (1825 - 1899)

Anyway, a success

Despite the adverse conditions, the three-act operetta Die Fledermaus, the most famous of the 16 operettas composed by Johann Strauss Jr, was a remarkable success on the day of its premiere. To this day it remains part of the standard repertoire in its genre, although it is its overture that takes the cake. As an everlasting tribute to the Strauss family, the overture is performed every year for the New Year's Concert in Vienna, ever since the Musikverein began the series of concerts welcoming the new year in the early thirties.

Die Fledermaus - Overture
The 2010 version is presented here, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by the French conductor Georges Prêtre. The tune that everyone is able to recognize and which identifies the work can be heard from minute 3:05 onwards.

The Viennese citizens will have been reconciled with life, we presume.

Charles Ives, "Unanswered Question"

As far as we know, there is no other composer in the history of Western music who, along with his creative activity, has successfully worked in a profession so far away from the inner life that musical art entails, such as insurance sales. Indeed, the American composer Charles Ives achieved an enviable financial position shortly into his adult life, becoming a respected insurance professional before the age of 35. With his life financially solved, he went on to dabble in music.

Early Years
Born in Danbury, Connecticut, on October 20, 1874, Charles Edward Ives' musical talent quickly revealed itself. At the age of 10 he was playing drums in the band his father directed, at twelve he was a skilled organist at Sunday services at the local Presbyterian church, and by thirteen he had composed his first piece: a sort of requiem in tribute to his dead cat. He entered Yale at the age of 20 and not without effort four years later received his diploma after submitting an interesting if somewhat conventional symphony.

A successful executive
As a graduate working as an organist at the Central Presbyterian Church in New York and facing the difficulties of the job, he realized that he was living in a country where the process of capitalist accumulation and the emergence of new types of property was gaining momentum, while insurance was becoming an increasingly promising activity in the service sector. In 1902 he decided to try his luck. Soon after, he became independent and together with a friend founded the first Life Insurance Mutual in Manhattan.

Charles Ives (1874 - 1954)

Within a few years, Charles Ives had become a successful insurance executive who, while riding the commuter train from his home to his Manhattan offices, would compose music with complete freedom, not caring what the world would think of his work.

"Unanswered Question"
Written for trumpet, winds and string orchestra, the work is one of the two short orchestral pieces that made up the diptych Two Contemplations of 1906, where, according to scholars, the composer's language and musical ideas can already be seen. It is a sort of "nocturnal music" for strings on which a protagonist trumpet stands out, carrying the melodic line, and asking a question, superimposed on an orchestral ensemble to which it does not seem to belong.

Bernstein's opinion
In 1967, Leonard Bernstein gave the following masterful description of the work:

"Ives assigns this question to a solo trumpet who intones it six separate times.
And each time there comes an answer, or an attempt at an answer, from a group of woodwinds. The first answer is very indefinite and slow; the second is faster, the third even faster, and the sixth so fast it comes out like wild gibberish. These woodwinds, according to Ives, represent human answers, growing increasingly impatient and desperate, until they lose their meaning entirely. And all this time, right from the beginning, the strings have been playing their own music, infinitely soft and slow and sustained, never changing, never growing louder or faster, never being affected by that strange question-and-answer dialogue of the trumpet and the woodwinds. It is as though the strings were the great galaxy of stars, which keeps slowly, imperceptibly circling about over our heads, as we ask questions and try to give answers..."

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Tárrega, "Capricho árabe", for guitar

Francisco Tárrega, the author of the famous tremolo Recuerdos de La Alhambra, suffered an accident in his childhood that seriously damaged his eyes when he was already showing signs of musical talent. His guitarist father, fearing that later on the young boy might lose his sight completely and be crippled for life, decided that his son's profession should be music because, blind and all, it would allow him to earn a living. Going one step further – so that future life would not seem ominous to Francisco – he had him take lessons with two blind teachers, one after the other. After a few years, the pair of blind men had done their job to perfection.

In Barcelona

From then on, a renowned concert guitarist from Barcelona took him under his tutelage, whose teachings made it possible for Francisco Tárrega to enter the Madrid Conservatory at the age of 22 to study composition. He also studied piano, following the advice of his father, who was aware of the guitar's weaknesses as a concert instrument.

But after hearing him play on a stupendous concert guitar, his composition teacher understood the potential that the instrument held in Tárrega's hands, encouraging him to devote all his attention to the guitar and forget about the piano.

The classical guitar

Francisco Tárrega (1852 - 1909)

A very fortunate decision. Francisco Tárrega is today recognized for his immense contribution to the transformation of the classical guitar into a solo instrument and its incorporation into the concert hall. Tárrega's nearly 80 compositions for solo guitar and more than a hundred transcriptions of pieces by classical and romantic composers, mostly originally for piano, contributed to this achievement.

Among the most recognized works of his authorship, besides the popular Recuerdos de La Alhambra, stands out for its grace and charm the little piece Capricho Árabe, from 1880, a candid look at the time when southern Spain was occupied by the Moorish invaders for seven centuries.

The rendition is by the young Belarusian guitarist Tatyana Ryzhkova.

Glinka, "Russlan and Ludmilla" - Overture

The composer who once said: "Music is made by the people and we composers arrange it", came, however, from a noble family, or at least a wealthy one. Indeed, at the time of Mikhail Glinka's birth, his father was a wealthy retired military officer who lived with his family comfortably settled in a village in the Smolensk Governorate, part of the Russian Empire. Over several generations, his ancestors exhibited a long tradition of service and loyalty to the Tsars. It is not by chance, then, that the first work with which Mikhail Glinka will draw attention, an opera, will be entitled A Life for the Tsar.

The first Russian composer
Such antecedents will not prevent that during the Soviet Russia, together with Alexandr Pushkin – "the first Russian poet" –, the nomenklatura includes Mijaíl Glinka in the gallery of spoiled artists as "the first Russian composer". The aforementioned enlightened assertion may have helped somewhat, but on the whole, the Soviet authorities were not wrong. Russian nationalism was the first to appear on the scene in European music, precisely by the hand of Glinka, with the aforementioned work of 1836 based on a topic of the 1600s but entirely Russian while in the rest of the European countries would have to wait until the mid-nineteenth century for the nationalist movements to begin to prevail.

The father of The Five
Mikhail Glinka, the boy who at the age of thirteen went to study in St. Petersburg to broaden his musical experience is, therefore, the father of Russian musical nationalism.
Other Russian nationals would later imbibe from him, including Tchaikovsky and, by the way, the "powerful band" that would go down in history under the name The Five, a fundamental core of Russian nationalism whose musical activity, however, would only unfold its full force some years after Glinka's death.

Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857)

A meager oeuvre
The composer's oeuvre is not very extensive. In Tchaikovsky's words, "he wrote very little" – he tells Nadhezda in 1878. And although he recognizes Glinka's enormous talent, he seems to reproach him for his class origin when he harshly adds that "he only worked like a dilettante, on a whim, when he felt in the right mood". Although later on he qualifies: "We cannot be dissatisfied with Glinka, but we must admit that he did not fulfill the mission to which his wit had destined him".

Nevertheless, the success of Life for the Tsar encouraged Glinka to compose another opera, Russlan and Ludmilla, although only the overture has survived.

Russlan and Ludmilla - Overture
Based on a poem of the same name by Pushkin, the opera was composed between 1837 and 1842 and premiered in St. Petersburg in December of the latter year. The opera is practically never performed nowadays, but its agile overture has become one of the most recognized works in the West. To such an extent, that the American sitcom "Mom" uses it as a unique "musical curtain" between one and another event of the dysfunctional family it deals with, in a comedy tone. Tchaikovsky would be surprised; pleasantly or not, who knows.

The performance is by the Orchestra of Mariinsky Theater, St. Petersburg, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

P.I. Tchaikowsky, Violin Concerto / Listening guide

 
As, in his own words, "time heals all wounds", eight months after his disastrous decision to marry Antonina Miliukova, the Russian maestro Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was fully recovered. He had managed to put aside his dark thoughts – including a suicide attempt – and found an insurmountable antidote to preserve his sanity: the creative work.

Yet, even trapped in a marriage to Antonina in May 1877, he completed composing the opera Eugene Onegin the following month. But two months later, when the cohabitation became unbearable, he had no choice but to simply run away from Antonina. He took refuge in Italy. From Florence, he sent the finished Fourth Symphony to Moscow.

A new work

And in February 1878, from his refuge in Clarens, Switzerland, he wrote to his patron Nadezhda von Meck reporting on the state of progress of a new work:

"The first movement of the Violin Concerto is finished; tomorrow I will begin the second. Since the day I began to write this work, I have not lacked the appropriate state of mind. In such conditions, any aspect of fatigue disappears in the composition; it is, on the contrary, a continuous joy. One does not notice the passing of time, and if no one intervened I would be ready to write all day long."

The master, recovered
Tchaikovsky is happier than a clam at the Pension Richelieu, the composer's favorite quiet corner of Switzerland. And he is not alone. He is accompanied by his brother Modest and his young servant Alyosha. Soon, Piotr Ilyich will also receive a very welcome visitor: his disciple Iosif Kotek, a 23-year-old violinist who will be of great help to him in rehearsing certain complex passages of the new concerto, since the master does not have a good command of the violin. Kotek's suggestions will eventually persuade the master to write a new Andante and introduce modifications to the first movement. The young pupil, however, will refuse to premiere it because he does not feel capable.

Kotek and Tchaikovsky, in 1877

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 35
There was also a second violinist, Leopold Auer, who declined the honor of playing it on the grounds of the excessive difficulty of the composition. And as with the Piano Concerto No. 1, the work was premiered by someone other than the person for whom it was intended.
Adolf Brodsky, a Russian violinist, was commissioned to premiere it in Vienna three years later, on November 22, 1881, thus earning the dedication.
The critics were not favorable, but the public loved the work from the beginning. Until today.

It is unusual for a concert piece to become the protagonist of another story. But that is what happened five years ago, with the 2009 Franco-Russian film production, The Concert, where Tchaikovsky's work takes the lead role.

The rendition is by the German violinist (and also a pianist) Julia Fischer, accompanied by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by the Russian maestro Vasily Petrenko.

Movements - Listening Guide 

Following post-Romantic canons, the concerto is in three movements with the second and third movement connected without a pause:

00 Allegro moderato - Moderato assai   After the splendid orchestral introduction, the violin, after an introductory phrase, exposes the famous main theme, "moderato assai", at 1:14, to captivate the audience from the beginning. After the exposition (re-exposition, on double strings, 1:51), a "bridge" passage (2:26). Second theme, "molto espressivo" at 3:05. At 4:55, the violin begins to prepare what will be the vibrant attack of the main theme by the orchestra at 6:12. The violin, the protagonist, plays with ornaments and variations on the first theme at 7:45. Virtuosic scales by the violin at 8:49 lead to another attack of the main theme by the orchestra at 8:54, now more pompous and grandiose, although this time it will follow new paths. Orchestra and violin alternate one measure each (9:34) at the threshold of the cadenza: 9:43 (written by Tchaikovsky, it quotes the introductory motif at the beginning and both themes). Recapitulation: the orchestra takes the first theme, more lyrical and serene at 12:22 with the violin playing trills. Orchestra and violin dialogue. 13:29: second theme. Marked poco piu mosso (a little more moving) it heads to the end at 13:45, crescendo; orchestra and violin respond to each other at 15:45, then embark together on the conclusion to a brilliant finale.

18:32  Canzonetta. Andante. A sweet and melancholy theme, introduced by the orchestra. It is taken by the violin at 19:12. This is followed by the flute at 20:23. A second theme at 20:43. Development and variations. Clarinet and violin dialogue. Winds and woodwinds take the lead at 23:42, establishing a somber atmosphere, after which the third movement will enter without pause at:

24:41  Allegro vivacissimo. A rondo. The orchestra introduces a Russian theme, cheerful, which will immediately take up the solo violin at 24:55, with a brief intermission cadenza. At 25:02 the calm main theme is resumed. At 25:28 the tempo primo returns. A second theme, more lyrical, is introduced by oboe and clarinet at 27:27, taken up by the violin at 27:47, developing it. Return to the first theme featuring the violin, vivace, at 28:38, to quiet down at 30:01. Return to the tempo primo at 30:24. The orchestra takes up the second theme at 31:00, meno mosso, then individual instruments dialogue with it, including the violin, almost andante, at 34:07. Calm before the storm, at 32:12. The violin falls silent at 33:33 and the orchestra begins the resolution. At 33:48, a spirited final confrontation between violin and orchestra, heading toward the conclusion, full of panache and gallantry.

Mozart, Symphony No 40

 
The last years in Vienna
True to his curious habit, in June 1788, W.A. Mozart and his wife Konstance moved house for the umpteenth time. With their two small children, Karl, 4 years old, and Therese, barely six months old, they gave up their walks in the Prater and moved to an apartment in the suburbs of Vienna, to change their surroundings and, at first, to reduce their monthly rent, which was becoming more and more difficult in the center of the city. But nothing of the sort happened. Wolfgang and Konstance ended up renting the most expensive apartment available in the residence in the secluded suburb of Alsergrund. Unfortunately, little Therese died just ten days after the family moved in.

With the help of his friends
And for the umpteenth time as well, friend and brother Mason Michael Puchberg did not ignore the request for financial support. It was only two years since Figaro's success, but Mozart was now in a state of bankruptcy. The Alsergrund apartment was indeed the most expensive but also the most spacious, the only one with access to the garden and the only one with seven rooms. A lot of comforts for such a less opulent tenant.

But the Mason friend understood all this: he understood that Mozart, like any ordinary individual, found it difficult to give up a lifestyle to which he had become accustomed. He also understood that the genius from Salzburg needed space and contact with nature more than ever to continue his work.

Three symphonies in 6 weeks
And Mozart did not disappoint him. In the Alsergrund apartment, although in mourning but comfortably installed, Wolfgang Amadeus would compose in the summer of 1788, in less than six weeks, his last three symphonies: No. 39 completed on June 26, No. 40 on July 25, and No. 41 called Jupiter on August 10. His new home will be short-lived. He will have to move to a smaller apartment in January of the following year. Mozart's golden years in Vienna were coming to an end.

Symphony No 40 in G minor, K 550
Famous for its popular first movement, it is one of only two symphonies written in a minor key. As with the Jupiter symphony, there is no documentary proof that it was performed during the composer's lifetime. But Mozart made changes to it, and both manuscripts are preserved, which has led one scholar to reasonably assert that the composer "would not have taken the trouble to add the clarinet parts and rewrite the flute and oboe parts if he had not heard them performed."

Movements:
00        Molto allegro

09:42   Andante

17:23   Menuetto. Allegretto - Trio

22:04   Finale - Allegro assai

The rendition is by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Austrian conductor Karl Böhm.

Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia / Cavatina "Largo al factotum della cittá"

Gioacchino Rossini was an extraordinarily prolific composer. For 19 years he composed two operas a year, and more than once he composed as many as four. So when he was commissioned to compose two operas for the Rome Carnival of 1816, he poured himself, heart and soul, into the task, and the same day he finished the first, at the end of December 1815, he began the second, which was due on January 20, 1816. The two-act play, completed in less than three weeks, was called Almaviva o sia La inutile precauzione.

An already proven story

We do not know it today under that name, because the title Il Barbieri di Siviglia, with a common origin in Beaumarchais' work, had already been used more than thirty years ago by Giovanni Paisiello to set the same plot to music. Hence its premiere at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on February 16, 1816, was a complete failure, provoked, it is said, by the supporters of Paisiello's work, who saw in Rossini's a comfortable musical construction on an already proven theme.

Rossini, young (1792 - 1868) 

The rush

Comfortable or not, Rossini did not abandon here his propensity to use whole melodies or arias from previous works, including, on this occasion, even the overture. Rushing is a serious thing, so either the overture was lost, or he didn't get around to writing it. And Rossina's cavatina borrowed – in the second performance – previous melodies and Berta's aria is modeled on a Russian melody.

Even so, Rossini showed in this, his most popular work, arias that are a prodigy of inspiration and novelty. A perfect example of this is the famous aria sung by Figaro in the first act.

Cavatina "Largo al factotum della cittá".

After the Count of Almaviva in the guise of Lindoro, a poor student, sings his love to Rossina, Figaro, the Count's former servant, appears on the scene to announce to the crowd that, as the most famous barber in Seville, all doors are open to him - a prebend that Lindoro/Almaviva will later use to his advantage. Presumptuously, he sings and requests that "Make way for the factotum of the city".

2010 performance in Moscow, set in the 1950s. As Figaro, the Italian baritone Pietro Spagnoli.

Dvorak, 9th Symphony, Fourth Movement

The Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904) did not find it easy to learn German. Nor was it easy for him to compose. For this reason, he only gained his first public recognition when he was 32 years old, although he had finished his studies at the Prague Organ School at the age of 18. For more than ten years, the author fought a hard battle to master the intricacies of composition, the result of which he finally captured in a choral work of 1873, which was followed the same year by his famous Slavonic Dances. From then on, it was all plain sailing.

An Austrian government scholarship
The following year, with the warm support of Johannes Brahms, he was awarded a scholarship that the city of Vienna granted to young artists of limited means. For five years, Dvorak received an annual pension of 400 guilders, a huge sum compared to the 10 guilders a month he had been earning as an organist at St. Adalbert's Church in Prague. After that, nothing hindered his progress. By 1878, the composer's career had definitely taken off, both in his homeland and abroad.

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904)

The trip to New York
His efforts crystallized in the great choral work Stabat Mater, and in his eight symphonies, being also named doctor honoris causa of many European universities. The year 1891 brought him undisputed international recognition when Jeannette Thurber, founder of the National Conservatory of New York, sent him an invitation to take over the direction of the establishment. Dvorak, at first reluctant, eventually accepted the position. The fifteen thousand dollars a year offered was more than he had earned in his entire life.

Ninth Symphony "From the New World"
In September 1892, accompanied by his family, he set out for New York. He remained there for two years, and in 1893 composed what is perhaps his most popular work, the Ninth Symphony in E minor, which he himself entitled "From the New World". Premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893, it was an immediate success, being seen from then as a reflection of the "American musical universe".
Despite Dvorak's interest in the black and indigenous music of the United States, the day before the premiere, in an interview for the New York Herald, he slightly relativized the influence of that music in his work:

"I have not actually used any of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral colour."

Movements:
The work is in four movements: Adagio - allegro molto / Largo / Scherzo / Allegro con fuoco, and lasts around 40 minutes.
Presented here is the fourth and last movement, in the rendition of the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

Franz Liszt, Piano Concerto No 1

It didn't take Liszt long to recover from his love affair with Countess d'Agoult in 1844. Soon he fell in love again, this time with Princess Carolyne von Sayn Wittgenstein, whom he had met on a tour of Russia in 1847. Two years later he was settled with her in Weimar, where, after resuming his position as chapel master, he would later carry out a fruitful work as organizer of the city's musical life.

Carolyne, aware of what could happen with the maestro and his fans during the tours, hastened to advise him to abandon his concert career so that he could focus his energies on symphonic composition. Liszt, the idol of multitudes of the first half of the XIX century, admirably solicitous, gave up piano recitals at the age of 36.

Concert works
Carolyne guessed correctly. Now we see that most of Liszt's concertante works are framed, precisely, in the period of his first stable stay in Weimar, from 1849 to 1861.
Before Weimar, the Hungarian master had made a name for himself in European musical circles as a virtuoso concert pianist, and so he devoted all his efforts to composing for solo piano, because that was the instrument he mastered and, after all, his status as a performer ensured the immediate diffusion of his creations.

Piano and orchestra
So when he wanted to compose for piano and orchestra, he found himself somewhat untrained. And this is where Weimar comes in because during his stay there he regularly conducted a large instrumental ensemble, for which he needed to know in depth the orchestral pages of the great masters, thus managing to climb steps in the experimentation of his own ideas. Even so, in his first orchestral works, he requested the intervention of his pupil Joachim Raff as an instrumentalist. This is the case of the Piano Concerto No. 1, although some say that Liszt required technical assistance not because he had doubts, but because it was comfortable for him.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E-flat major
Its first sketches date from 1830 when Liszt was 19 years old, but the master began to work resolutely on it only after 1840. He finished it in 1849 and after several revisions it was premiered only in 1855, in Weimar, with Liszt at the piano and Hector Berlioz conducting.

The rendition is by the Chinese-born pianist Lang Lang, accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner, during the 2011 Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Brief audition guide
The work consists of four sections, which are played with no interruption:

00 Allegro maestoso. The orchestra introduces, majestically, the first motive. The piano enters dramatically, at 0:40, with a passage in octaves, typical of Liszt. Then the initial, quieter motive reappears. A second theme is introduced by the piano at 1:33. At 2:27 the piano enunciates a beautiful melody that at 3:06 will establish a dialogue with the clarinet and then with the violin. The sweetness ends when at 3:52 the first theme appears again, now more dramatic. At 4:30 the second theme returns, even more romantic, if possible: the maestro Lang Lang can no longer contain so much lyricism.

5:53 Quasi adagio.  A cantabile theme introduced by the strings, in una corda. At 6:43 the piano, in solo, takes the theme and develops it. At 8:32 the strings take it again. After a few brief bravura passages, a very long piano trill (10:05) is enough to accompany the flute, oboe, and clarinet, ending the movement in complete calm.

11:08 Allegretto vivace - Allegro animato. A playful theme initiates the movement, but at 13:11 the shadows will reappear as the piano takes up the initial theme in the lower register. Previous themes are quoted. At 13:56, the orchestra and piano play the opening theme, almost unchanged from what was heard before, as if the piece is beginning again, though it will take a different course to link up with the next section.

15:13 Allegro marziale animato. The orchestra introduces a new theme. Alternating between intricate passages and stormy octaves, and after revisiting all the motifs, at 18:48 the concerto moves on to its finale in the most "classical" Lisztian style, with great bravura, as the maestro liked and was an expert at.

Mozart, Sonata for two pianos

The first sonatas for piano four hands or for two pianos composed by Mozart were intended to be performed together by him and his sister Nannerl, five years his elder. With them they toured most of Europe between 1763 and 1766, dazzling with their prodigious virtuosity every prince and noblewoman who had the opportunity to listen to them. The august audience entertained them with kisses and from time to time with a gift, once a watch, another time a gala dress, like this one little Mozart wears in the picture, a gift from the Empress Maria Teresa of Austria.

In 1781 Maria Theresa was no longer in this world and Mozart had long since ceased to be a child prodigy. He was 25 years old, and had also long since stopped "rolling around the world like a beggar," in Maria Theresa's not very restrained words ten years earlier.

And he had settled in Vienna, after his patron, Prince-Archbishop Colloredo, had removed him from his position at the irrelevant court of Salzburg, following a bitter dispute a few months earlier.

In Vienna

Settled in Vienna as a free-lance pianist and composer, he obtains his first "outstanding success" with the opera Idomeneo. He has fallen in love with Konstance and plans to marry. Mozart, hunter and gatherer, gets some pupils and prepares and produces concerts presenting his own works, but his talented sister is no longer there to accompany him. Nannerl leads a simple life in Salzburg, under the care of her father Leopold, and somewhat oblivious to her own art.

Sonata for two pianos in D major, K. 448

Premiered in November 1781, it was composed specially for that occasion and performed in the company of fellow pianist Josephine von Aurnhammer, with whom he had already duetted in the Concerto for two pianos of 1779.

It is written in a gallant style, luminous and brilliant, and consists of the three "classical" movements:

00       Allegro con spirito

08:00 Andante

18:01 Molto allegro

Mozart Effect
The sonata was part of the scientific study aimed at testing the theory of the Mozart Effect, which postulates that classical music increases brain activity more than any other type of music. The research continues.

The rendition is by Russian pianists Anatalia Injushina and Vlatseslav Novikov, in a performance at Helsinki's brand new Temppeliaukio Lutheran Stone Church, opened in 1969.

Joseph Haydn, Variations in F minor

A biographer of Joseph Haydn notes that the Esterházy musician was surprised that in the course of his life he had been loved by so many beautiful women. The biographer quotes these words of Haydn: "They could not have been captivated by my beauty". Indeed, Haydn was not as handsome as he would have liked, but in 1760, at the age of twenty-eight, he began his official love life by marrying Maria Anna Keller, the daughter of a hairdresser. The marriage was not a happy one and Haydn had to seek happiness elsewhere, this time informally. And it didn't go badly at all.

Maria Anna

At least four girls, some of them noble, others not so much, established with Haydn a sentimental relationship, more or less lasting. The one who takes the cake seems to have been the "European beauty" Maria Anna von Genzinger, the wife of Prince Esterházy's family doctor, a noblewoman on her mother's side, and a talented music lover. Apparently, she began the relationship by sending the maestro her piano reduction of an adagio taken from one of his symphonies. The maestro responded, extremely flattered, and thus a relationship began, mainly epistolary – although without reaching the heights of Tchaikovsky in the coming century – that would last for many years.

The beloved one, in Vienna

Maria Anna lived in Vienna. Haydn, quite far away, in the Esterhaza palace. So when his patron decided to visit the capital of the empire, the maestro was delighted to accompany him, since it was a chance to see his beloved and not only to correspond with her. But the relationship was platonic. The fact that each belonged to a different social stratum made any other rapprochement impossible.
To make matters worse, it was only Haydn who succumbed to infatuation, and not Maria Anna who always responded to his messages as the faithful, sincere, and deep friend she was.

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)

A tribute to a friend

Sadly, Maria Anna died suddenly in 1793, at the age of 38, during a Haydn tour of London. This had a profound impact on the master, notwithstanding the asymmetry of the relationship.  The Variations in F minor, one of his most intimate and personal pieces, written at the height of his glory, is believed to have been published as a final tribute to Maria Anna, the wife of another.

Variations in F minor

Composed in 1793 and published in 1799, they belong to the type of variations with two themes, in which Haydn proved to be particularly skilled. The main theme has the character of a funeral march, which is followed by a trio in the major mode. At times, the harmonic language foreshadows certain aspects of the romantic style to come.

The rendition is by young Turkish artist, Can Cakmur.

Chopin, "Military" Polonaise in A major

The first work composed by Frédérik Chopin was a polonaise. He was seven years old. Then would come six more "youthful" ones, until 1829, shortly before leaving Warsaw. By that time, the city was occupied by the Russians but was not yet suffering the harsh repression of 1830-31, the result of the frustrated Polish uprising of November 1830. However, in these early works, the Polish musician does not attach any patriotic value to his polonaises, for he composes them according to tradition: Chopin writes polonaises simply because the dance is fashionable.

The origins
Of course, the dance originated in Poland, but by Chopin's time, it had become a conventional dance known throughout Europe for two centuries. Already in the early baroque period, numerous composers had written "Polish dances" or, as the French liked to call them, "polonaises". But by the 19th century it had lost its character of danceable dance to become an instrumental piece with its own characteristics: ternary metre, neither too slow nor too fast, and with a unique rhythmic pattern that Chopin surely knew how to model according to the atmosphere.

Chopin (1810 - 1849)

Chopin in exile
Chopin was an exile, a Polish exile, and with this in mind he developed his existence in Paris. His also exiled compatriots, nobles in their majority, would celebrate the magnificence of his mature polonaises, seeing in them a symbol of Polish nationalism. Some of them evoke drums, fanfare, and parade of troops, as is the case of the so-called "Military" Polonaise. But Chopin, in the end, only pretended to be a musician. Chopin's pain in the face of the invaded motherland is permeated with longing for his homeland, which is why he will ask for his heart to be taken back to Warsaw on the day of his death.

Military Polonaise Opus 40 N° 1
It was dedicated to his friend and countryman Julian Fontana and was completed in 1838, shortly before Chopin began a nine-year relationship with the writer George Sand. Along with the polonaise in C minor from the same period, both were published as Opus 40 in 1840.
In the group of mature polonaises, it is one of the most "traditional", in the sense that Chopin preserved in it untouched the melodic and rhythmic aspects of the old dance, although he chose an abrupt and surprising ending, in which all spectacularity is absent.

The rendition is by the Israeli pianist Tzvi Erez.

Torelli, Concerto for two violins

The dialogue between soloist and orchestra
The idea of a dialogue between an isolated soloist and a supporting orchestra was not so far from the composers' minds at the end of the 17th century. After all, this had already been happening in opera for more than a century, when singers began to act as a solo instrument in charge of a melody, accompanied by a more or less dense orchestra. The human voice, of course, has always been the same, or at least it has never required technological advances for its development. The same is not true of instruments.

Technological improvements
During that century, the quality of the violin made by Italian craftsmen had been enjoying substantial improvements by the Lombard families Amati, Guarneri, or Stradivari. Thanks to this, the concertino group instrumentalists were able to add to the virtuosic exercises allowed by the concerto grosso a quality of sound unknown until then, which will demand special attention. The appearance of the solo instrument was just a step away. Technological improvement and the idea of dialogue between instrument and orchestra brought by the opera will go hand in hand so that the musical world of the West will know a new transformation of the expressive medium: the concerto for solo instrument and orchestra.

Giusseppe Torelli (1658 - 1709)

Torelli
It is the Veronese Giuseppe Torelli who has entered history as the creator of the new form or, at least, the first to use it more openly. Despite the discovery, little is known about his beginnings as a musician – as well as about his last years. Born in Verona, Italy, in 1658, he left the city in the early 1680s to take up the post of maestro di capella at the Cathedral of Imola in Bologna shortly afterward. He would later travel through Germany and also visit Vienna, returning to Bologna in 1701 where he would assume a position in the newly reconstituted musical chapel of San Petronio.

12 Concerti grossi with a pastoral
Torelli called his orchestral pieces symphonies, sometimes sonatas, but also concertos. His Concerti musicali opus 6, from 1698, shows passages for solo violin, not very abundant, certainly, nor very outstanding, but enough to distinguish a soloist in comparison with the concertino group of the concerto grosso.
The disintegration of the concertino group would come somewhat later with the posthumous publication of his 12 Concerti grossi with a pastorale Opus 8, from 1709, in which a violin –or two, as the music evolves- confronts the rest of the orchestra with passages where he can feel free to take the initiative. From here onwards, all that remains is to wait for the virtuoso performers to appear.

Concerto for two violins Op. 8 No. 5
From the Opus 8 series, the Concerto No. 5 for two violins in G major is presented here, in a performance by the Croatian Baroque Ensemble. For our current idea of a concerto, the work is very short. It lasts barely eight minutes and follows the fast-slow-fast scheme of only three movements that Alessandro Scarlatti had just consecrated for his Italian overtures: Allegro - Andante - Allegro.

Ernesto Lecuona, "Y la Negra Bailaba"

Ernesto Lecuona, the greatest composer the island of Cuba has ever given to the world, was at the height of his fame when his single song "Siempre en mi corazón" – part of the soundtrack of the eponymous film – was in close competition for an Oscar award for best song in 1942. He did not get it, but it mattered little to the author because his zarzuela Maria la O and the song Siboney had been applauded all over the world for more than ten years.

A fruitful composer
However, such pieces, famous in their time, are a tiny part of the composer's output born in Guanabacoa, a suburb of Havana, in 1895. The versatile and prolific creator of Malagueña is the author of about 400 songs, 37 orchestral works, eleven movie soundtracks, numerous zarzuelas, ballets, and even an opera. To all this must also be added more than 170 pieces for solo piano.

Ernesto Lecuona (1895 - 1963)

The native music

This last sphere is where Lecuona stands out to this day with vernacular brilliance. Highly valued as an interpreter of Liszt, Chopin, or Gershwin, the Cuban composer brought Afro-Cuban rhythms to the concert hall that were absent from the traditional stages until the end of the 19th century. Following in the footsteps of Ignacio Cervantes and others, Lecuona made it possible for local motifs and rhythms to occupy a space of their own, signaling with his work that Cuba and its music were also beyond the walls of Havana's elegant salons.

"Y la Negra Bailaba!"

The production of piano pieces occupied Lecuona mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. From those years are the eternal Comparsa and the unsurpassable rhythmic gem "¡Y la Negra Bailaba!"

The latter is presented here in a rendition by Cuban maestro Gabriel Urgell Reyes. It begins with two bars in charge of the left hand only, a common feature of many of Lecuona's piano pieces, a hallmark that, in a recital, allowed them to be immediately identified.

Salieri, Piano Concerto in C major

Better known today for the musical personalities with whom he was associated than for himself, the Italian musician Antonio Salieri nevertheless enjoyed wide recognition as a conductor and opera composer in Vienna and Paris during the 1770s and 1780s.

Of course, none of this was picked up by the 1984 film Amadeus, which, according to legend, decided to feature him as Mozart's alleged poisoner, albeit in a comedy tone.
The truth is that among the many illustrious pupils Salieri took in – Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Czerny –, there was one by the name of Franz Xavier Mozart, a son of Wolfgang Amadeus.
Then as now, no one is taught by someone who has poisoned his father.

Early years
Born in Legnago, today in the province of Verona, Italy, in 1750, Antonio Salieri received his first lessons from his older brother, and at the age of 18 he composed his first opera, La Vestale, now lost and probably not a major success.
But he recovered in 1771 with Armida, which for the 21-year-old Antonio Salieri was a great step forward, since it secured him a prominent position among the musical circles of Vienna, where he had arrived in 1766, under the guidance of Florian Gassmann, the court composer.

Antonio Salieri (1750 - 1825)

A prominent figure
Upon Gassmann's death in 1774, he assumed his position as well as that of director of the city's Italian Opera Company. This was followed by an increasingly successful career in Milan, Venice, and Paris. From then until 1790 Salieri would live his best years; he is one of the most prominent figures in musical Europe and occupies a social position that none of his talented contemporaries, including Mozart, could ever attain. There was, therefore, no need to poison anyone.

Piano Concerto in C major
Primarily a composer of operas, Antonio Salieri wrote a modest number of instrumental works. These include two piano concertos. The C Major Concerto, composed in 1773, is presented here.
Gallant in style, its movements are:

00        Allegro maestoso
08:58  Larguetto
16:00  Andantino

The rendition is by South Korean pianist Heeguin Kim, accompanied by the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Yongho Choi.

Mendelssohn, Piano Concerto No 1

One of the few romantic musicians born in a golden cradle, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy received from his banker father in 1829 a gift that any artist of the 19th century – and of any other century – would have eagerly envied. The twenty-year-old had already shown enough signs of talent so his father thought it appropriate for him to fulfill the dream of every artist of the time, to travel to Italy. And since the family's financial well-being could afford a little more, Mendelssohn Sr. financed Felix's travels all over Europe, back and forth, for three years.

On the way

The first visit was to England, where he conducted his own works, gaining the total admiration of the English. Then, it was Scotland, where he will take inspiration for his Scottish Symphony. In 1830, after spending a few months in different cities of Austria, he arrived in Venice on October 9. After a brief but intense visit to Florence, he jumped to Rome, where he settled for several months, meeting Hector Berlioz who was there enjoying his Grand Prix de Rome scholarship. They did not become close friends, but Mendelssohn would later invite Berlioz to conduct the Symphonie Fantastique in Leipzig.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
(1809 - 1847)

On his return

After a short visit to Naples and Pompeii in the company of friends, he will be on his way back in 1831. On his way to Switzerland, he crossed Italy again, visiting Florence, Genoa, and Milan.

Mendelssohn had been working on his first piano concerto since the previous year. So, besides exercising on the way his extraordinary gifts for painting, he took the opportunity to premiere the concerto, with him at the piano, during a short stay in Munich.

In the middle of December, he was settled in Paris. There he met Chopin and Liszt. With the first one he will become a great friend. As for the second, he will be pleasantly surprised when he witnesses the reading at first sight that the Hungarian master will make of his First Piano Concerto. 

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in G minor

With very short dimensions, less than 20 minutes, the concerto was premiered in Munich in a benefit concert on October 17, 1831, with great success. However, it was Liszt who later, in Paris, made it truly famous. 

It is organized in the traditional manner, fast-slow-fast movements, which follow one after the other without pause.

Movements: 

00 Molto allegro con fuoco. A very fast and fierce movement. A fanfare (small brass section) at 6:35 precedes the andante, without pause.

6:50 Andante. In total contrast to the first movement, its tenderness becomes almost melancholy. With the four simple chords that end the movement, Yuja Wang takes the opportunity to show off his poise by brilliantly and astonishingly naturally achieving the piano's diminution in volume from piano to pianissimo.

12:18 Presto - Molto allegro vivace. It is also introduced by a fanfare, clearly reminiscent of the famous motif of the Fifth Symphony, three short notes and a long one. It is an exuberant, enthusiastic and lively rondo.

Yuja Wang is accompanied by the Verbier Festival Orchestra conducted by the German maestro Kurt Mazur.

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No 4

At the same time that the Viennese public held him in the highest esteem as the most prestigious composer of the capital of the Empire, Ludwig van Beethoven was becoming hopelessly deaf, when the nineteenth century had not yet completed its first decade. The year 1808 marks his last public performance as a soloist, conducting from the piano an improvised orchestra for the premiere of the Concerto No. 4 in G major.

Napoleonic forces had invaded Vienna in 1805 and would do so again in 1809. Perhaps intuitively, Viennese people were enjoying an intermezzo of relative peace when the marathon session of December 22, 1808, was scheduled for the new but unbelievably chilly Theater an der Wien, run by the impresario and former Mozart librettist Emanuel Schikaneder.

On the same day, a concert was scheduled at the Burgtheater in aid of a foundation of musicians' widows. Therefore, Beethoven had to struggle to put together an orchestra to accompany him in a concert for his own benefit (as well as that of Schikaneder and the musicians), with a program that only included works of his own authorship.

Bust of Beethoven
made from a life mask

A marathon evening

But the evening did take place, and Beethoven premiered there the Fifth and Sixth symphonies, the Choral Fantasy, the Mass in C major, and the Piano Concerto No. 4. As usual, the program also included an Italian Scena for female voice. The Viennese audience, perhaps aware of the historical hiatus, endured the relentless cold with nobility during the evening's four long hours.

Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 4 in G major

Composed in 1806-07, the concerto had a private performance well before its public premiere, in March 1807, at the home of Prince von Lobkowitz, one of Beethoven's noble friends. It is dedicated to his pupil, also a friend and patron, Archduke Rudolf of Austria, whom the composer favored with numerous dedications, among others, the Emperor Concerto, the Triple Concerto, and several sonatas.

The oblivion

Although at the time critics regarded it as the most admirable, personal, and complex concerto Beethoven had ever composed, the work was long forgotten until a year before his death when Felix Mendelssohn performed it on his last visit to London in 1846. Today, it is an essential part of the standard repertoire of piano concerto literature.

The rendition is by the Chilean maestro Claudio Arrau, accompanied by the Bavarian Broadcast Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein, in Munich, 1976. It must have been impressive to have witnessed the effusive mutual recognition between the two great masters, what we can see at the end of the video.

Movements:

00 Allegro moderato  -  Unusually, the theme is introduced by the piano, a theme rhythmically close to the famous motif of the Fifth Symphony.

21:22 Andante con moto  -   Soloist and orchestra dialogue in this simple and straightforward movement, yet full of contrasts.

27:01 Rondo. Vivace   -   Joyful and optimistic, it is taken without pause after the Andante.

Corelli, "Christmas Concerto"

The baroque violinist and composer Arcangelo Corelli, born and died in the Papal States, today Italy, was a fortunate man from the cradle to the grave. Born into a wealthy family, he studied violin with the best teachers, and at the age of 17, he entered the Philharmonic Academy in the city of Bologna, where he had moved from his native Fustignano. He then traveled to Rome where he emerged as one of the most outstanding violinists, joining the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, who had settled there after abdicating the throne, to Corelli's good fortune.

The patrons
After the queen's death, one patron after another succeeded the other, with no compromise on salaries or the kindness of the lodging. His last patron was the young Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, recipient of the office by the grace of his uncle Pope Alexander VIII. Ottoboni and Corelli became great friends. An admirer of his music, Ottoboni favored him with even more generous stipends, which was entirely fair because Corelli was already a great celebrity, enjoying fame throughout Europe. Not many musicians in history have enjoyed such a lucrative and profitable relationship with their patrons. Permanently housed in their palaces, at the end of his life, Corelli became rich. So, at his death, he earned a place in the Pantheon in Rome.

Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713)

The concerto grosso and the publishing industry
Creator of the concerto grosso, according to some, and a wise precursor according to others, Arcangelo Corelli was able to add to his talent and good star the historical circumstance that while he was composing, the music publishing industry was emerging and flourishing in Europe, mainly in Venice, and later in Holland and Germany. This explains why in the course of his life Corelli saw a large part of his work published and disseminated internationally. It was not very extensive but enough so that after his death his scores were available to musicians and composers for a long period, thus encouraging the subsequent transformations in the field of concerto grosso by Vivaldi, Haendel or Bach.

Corelli's concerto grosso
Corelli's contribution to the development of the form was rather cautious, without delving into the exploration of its possibilities. In his concerti grossi, the two blocks into which the ensemble of instruments had begun to split, concertino and ripieno, are very well balanced. The concertino, of course, acts as a unit carrying the melody, usually very brief; then the rest of the orchestra (the ripieno) enters to reaffirm the material presented by the small group, but the latter never adopts the character of a cohesive group opposed to the rest of the orchestra as a collective protagonist, as it will happen later, in the work of later baroque composers.

Concerti grossi Opus 6, No 8 - Christmas Concert
The twelve concerti of opus 6 were published posthumously in Amsterdam in 1714. The most popular, to this day, bears the number 8. Commissioned by Cardinal Ottoboni, it has become known as the Christmas Concerto – it bears the entry "fatto per la notte di Natale". It is written for a concertino of two violins and cello, in dialogue with a larger group of strings and basso continuo, the ripieno.

The traditional fast-slow-fast-slow sequence of movements is here turned upside down by Corelli. Thus, for example, the third movement, adagio (4:17), incorporates a lively allegro passage.

The best-known section, Pastorale, is the last (10:38), and, unusual for the time, it is approached without a pause.

The rendition is by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by Dutch maestro Ton Kupman.

Schubert / Liszt, "Ave Maria"

 
Of the total number of lieder composed by Franz Peter Schubert during his short life of 31 years, those written for a single voice amount to an impressive 634, composed over a period of 13 years, between 1814 (at the age of 17) and 1827 (a year before his death). Schubert was not the inventor of the musical form, of course, but he was the one who took it to its highest peaks. This was greatly influenced by the composer's connection with the literary personalities with whom he shared a certain space and an era, the Vienna of the first quarter of the 19th century.

The poets
Some of them were his friends. Others, although far from his environment, were also a source of inspiration for his songs. This is the case of Schiller, or Heine, or Goethe, the latter a poet who, needless to say, did not bother to listen to the music that Schubert had created inspired by his texts.
But there was plenty to choose from, and the little master did not hesitate to draw inspiration from the great figures of world literature. Sir Walter Scott was one of them.

The Lady of the Lake
In 1810, the Scottish poet and novelist author of Ivanhoe and inventor of the romantic historical novel had published a narrative poem entitled "The Lady of the Lake," made up of three stories taken from folk tradition.
The last cantos narrate a war between the Lowland Scots led by King James V and the Highland clans following one of the heroes, Roderick Dhu, who also fights for the love of Ellen Douglas, the female character, the Lady of the Lake.

Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832)

Ellens Dritter Gesang
Translated into German, Schubert set three of Ellen Douglas's cantos to music. The last of these became the most successful and popular to this day, the lied "Ellens Dritter Gesang" (Third Song of Ellen). It is the prayer with which the protagonist cries for help for her and her father, victims of the conflict. Roderick was supposed to help her, but in the middle of the mountains, he does not listen to her. Ellen reinforces her prayer by invoking the Virgin Mary.

"Ave Maria"
The lied was composed in 1825 and published the following year. The piece was thus incorporated into the seven songs that make up the cycle of lieder "The Lady of the Lake" on the epic poem by Walter Scott. Some time later, taking advantage of the fact that Ellen's third song begins with the words "Ave Maria", Sir Walter Scott's text was changed to the traditional Catholic prayer in Latin that begins with the same invocation.

Piano transcription
By the middle of the 19th century, Franz Liszt had already invented the piano recital. He achieved this by greatly increasing the piano repertoire through transcriptions of orchestral works, opera arias, and, incidentally, lieder. Such was his musical inventiveness that he was able to make more than one transcription per work. For the lied "Ellens Dritter Gesang", the Hungarian master made three transcriptions. Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa presents here one of them.