P.I. Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings

 
The large and generous inheritance that Nadezhda von Meck received after the death of her husband, allowed her to maintain, or acquire, a series of estates and palaces scattered throughout Europe, which she enjoyed very much. Among the most opulent was the one in Florence, the Villa Oppenheimer, today a hotel called Villa Cora.

The villa, located on the Paseo dei Colli, was a sumptuous dwelling, with princely rooms, surrounded by a vast garden populated by statues corroded by the sun and rain, where Nadezhda – Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's epistolary lover, and patroness – moved every summer with her family, accompanied by a butler, a couple of Russian waitresses, three Italian servants, and a detachment of cooks, footmen, and coachmen.

By Nadezhda's villa

In the late autumn of 1878, Nadezhda's last letter to Pyotr Ilyich mentioned the villa and contained an invitation for the composer to visit Florence. Thus they could both get away from the Russian winter. Piotr telegraphed his acceptance, and Nadezhda set about looking for lodgings, as the invitation was not to the village itself but to the surrounding area. Nadezhda found two lodgings.

After receiving the details of both, Piotr opted for the one on the outskirts, half a kilometer from the Oppenheimer villa, where the composer arrived on December 2. 

A grand piano dominated one of the rooms, which Nadezhda had furnished as only she could.

Tchaikovsky, in 1878

The proximity then gave rise to a strange ritual: each passing day after day in front of the other's house, on foot or by car, giving each other advance notice of their itinerary; they attended the same shows without crossing paths; and, carried by a servant, they sent letters to each other daily. At the end of December, Nadezhda left Florence. Piotr took off for Paris soon after.

Serenade for strings in C major

In September 1880, Pyotr Ilyich added a brief note to his profuse correspondence with Nadezhda: "... I have ready the sketches for a symphony or a string quartet... I do not yet know which one...". A few weeks later, Nadezhda received another note, this time more specific: "The serenade... arose from an innate impulse, that is, it was born of the sole freedom to think [but] it is not devoid of true value."

Of course, Piotr had not composed his masterpiece, but within its genre, the Serenade for strings opus 48 is a perfect piece and a worthy successor of the typical eighteenth-century serenades, of which Mozart was the great master. It consists of four movements bearing a title, and lasts about thirty minutes.

The rendition is by the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, conducted by the young German maestro Mateusz Moleda.

Movements:

1. Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo - Allegro moderato: Written in homage to the great genius of Salzburg.

2. Valse (11:00): Moderato - Tempo di valse: One of Tchaikovsky's most popular pieces, for its grace, inspiration and elegance.

3. Élégie (15:20): Larghetto elegiaco: The necessary contrast that, despite its heartfelt melancholy, never goes beyond the framework of a serenade.

4. Finale (24:21): Andante - Allegro con spirito: It is built on Russian folk themes full of energy and vitality.

Offenbach, Tales of Hoffmann - Barcarolle

 
In the archives of the Paris Conservatory of 1834, opposite the name of Jacques Offenbach, we read: "Deleted from the registers on December 2, 1834, at his own request".

The year before, the fourteen-year-old cellist Jakob, together with his eighteen-year-old violinist brother Julius, had gained admission to the Conservatoire after their director, Luigi Cherubini – who several years earlier had rejected Franz Liszt because he was twelve years old and Hungarian – had celebrated their abilities and turned a blind eye to their age and German origin. In return, Julius was renamed Jules, and from then on Jakob was called Jacques.

The young Jacques Offenbach, a cellist
Jules graduated and became an accomplished violin teacher and conductor. Jacques became bored within a year, as noted above. But he felt free, to compose, although one unsophisticated biographer notes that "he also felt free to starve". Fortunately, the situation never reached such extremes. Between 1835 and 1855 Jacques Offenbach made his living as a cellist, even achieving some international fame, also as a conductor.

Jacques Offenbach (1819 - 1880)

The Tales of Hoffmann

But his focus was the composition of operettas, and in 1855 he opened his own theater to stage the works that poured out of his mind. Offenbach wrote nearly one hundred operettas in his lifetime. The last one, with which he intended to cross the boundary between operetta and opera, kept him busy for two years but he never saw it performed. The three-act opera The Tales of Hoffmann premiered on February 10, 1881, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Offenbach had died in October of the previous year.

The Barcarolle

The work continues to be a standard in the world operatic repertoire, even in the 21st century, but the aria that managed to go beyond the traditional stages is by far the Barcarolle, for soprano and mezzo, which is performed in Act III.

The piece has made inroads in the movies: Titanic and Life is Beautiful does incorporate it in their soundtracks. But the pioneer was Elvis Presley, who used the melody to sing Tonight is so right for love in the 1960 film, G.I. Blues.

The rendition is by Russian soprano Anna Netrebko and Latvian mezzo Elina Garança, accompanied by orchestra and choirs.

José Pablo Moncayo, Huapango for orchestra

As with Ravel, whose masterpiece and most popular work is known as "Ravel's Bolero" and not simply by its original title, Bolero, the symphonic piece Huapango for orchestra, by Mexican composer José Pablo Moncayo, is identified by all who know it as "Huapango de Moncayo". Since its premiere in August 1941 in Mexico City with composer Carlos Chávez as conductor, the work has become so popular that it has sometimes been referred to as "the second Mexican national anthem".

José Pablo Moncayo
(1912 - 1958)

Popular sources
The author of such a feat was born in Guadalajara, Veracruz, in 1912. At the age of seventeen, he entered the National Conservatory of Music. He had to pay for his studies by playing the piano in cafes and accompanying amateur singers on radio stations.

In 1941, Carlos Chávez sent him an invitation to be part of a concert that would celebrate the most promising national authors. Chávez suggested he take inspiration from the popular music of the Mexican southeast, for which he had to go to the sources.

Moncayo tells of his experience:

"... We went [...] to Alvarado, one of the places where folk music is preserved in its purest form. We spent some time collecting melodies, rhythms and instruments. When transcribing them we had great difficulty with the huapangos because [the natives] never sang the same melody twice. When I returned to Mexico I showed [a colleague] the material and he advised me: 'lay out the material as you heard it and develop it according to your own style'. So I did and I was satisfied..."

Huapango for orchestra
A must in the symphonic repertoire of Mexico's orchestras, "Huapango de Moncayo" is a celebration and reinterpretation of the typical traditional rhythms of Veracruz, the huapango among them – the result of the fusion of the musical traditions of the indigenous people with European instrumentation. The work is made up of three sones from Veracruz: Siqui sirí, Balajú, and El Gavilancillo, which by Moncayo's grace became a felicitous arrangement for symphonic orchestra.

The rendition is by the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, for the BBC Proms 2007.