Leroy Anderson, "The Typewriter"

The son of Swedish immigrants, American composer Leroy Anderson spoke nine languages. Therefore, at the beginning of World War II, he was recruited by the army to work as a translator and interpreter. Soon promoted to the rank of captain, he was assigned to the Scandinavian section of the Pentagon's Military Intelligence Service. At the end of the war, he was offered the post of military attaché in Sweden, but Anderson declined the offer as he felt it was time to return to his first vocation, music.

Leroy Anderson, Harvard University Band Director, 1929

The Beginnings
After earning a Master of Arts degree in music from Harvard University in 1930, he had pursued doctoral studies and in 1936 composed his first piece, which he presented to Arthur Fiedler, renowned conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, an ensemble specializing in light music and popular arrangements of classical music.

The piece, Jazz Pizzicato, delighted Fiedler, but since it was only 90 seconds long, he asked Anderson for an additional composition in order to complete the three-minute recording on a 78 rpm record of the time. Highly motivated, the composer responded on the fly with the missing seconds: Jazz Legato. It was the beginning of his career as a master miniaturist.

Leroy Anderson (1908 - 1975)

A master in miniatures
In 1952 Anderson was well known in the USA and Europe as a remarkable creator of sparkling "orchestral miniatures". Two years later, he ventured into somewhat larger works by composing a piano concerto that did not receive good reviews. Anderson responded by pointing out that the work had indisputable merits, which was not to say that it could not be improved.
But his miniatures continued to gain in popularity, and by the 1950s there were dozens of television broadcasts incorporating his short pieces as a theme song or musical curtain. But it was The Typewriter, unique work for typewriter and orchestra, that set the seal on his career.

The Typewriter
Less than two minutes long, it was composed in 1950 and premiered the same year by the Boston Pops Orchestra. The piece incorporates as a solo instrument a typewriter, whose performer is not a skilled typist or its female equivalent but one of the percussionists, a professional musician whose technical skill and knowledge enable him to follow the indications that Anderson wrote for the "instrument".

Miguel Roa conducts the Spanish group "Músicos Para la Paz". Soloist: Alfredo Anaya.

Beethoven, Septet op 20

By the time he composed his only piece for the unusual combination of seven instruments (three wind, four strings) – also called Septet and completed in 1800 – Beethoven was 30 years old, had been settled in Vienna for seven years, and deafness had begun to trouble him seriously. But it was still two years before he confessed his unfortunate situation to his brothers in the famous Heiligenstadt Testament. In the meantime, he developed a huge chamber music production to satisfy the musical craving of his noble friends.

But it was also not bad appealing to a wider audience. That is why, in December 1800, in connection with the Septet already published, Beethoven wrote to his publisher: "...in view of the customs, the three wind instruments could be transcribed... for one more violin, one more viola, and one more cello...".

It happened that the nobility and gentry had just discovered nature. So, the music that bourgeois and noble amateurs could play in open-air gatherings was in great demand. For the same reason, the Septet was an immediate success from its release, although Beethoven will always maintain a certain distance with the work. He would later say: "...there is a lot of imagination in it but little art.... At that time I did not know how to compose, now I think I do".

A handsome Beethoven, in 1803

Septet in E flat major, opus 20

Nevertheless, the work exudes great enthusiasm and energy, with no shortage of captivating and attractive solos for the instrumentalists to show off. Written in the style of the divertimentos and serenades of the closing century, its six movements certainly evoke the spirit of those forms that Haydn and Mozart had cultivated with such brilliance and elegance.

Surely made known previously in some prince's parlor, its public premiere took place at the Burgtheater in Vienna on April 2, 1800, together with the Symphony No. 1 and the Piano Concerto No. 2.
It is dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, whose strict connection to the maestro we have found somewhat difficult to elucidate.

Movements

Written for violin, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, and horn, the piece consists of six movements:

00       Adagio. Allegro con brio

10:57  Adagio cantabile  

20:47  Tempo di Menuetto  -  borrows its theme from the first movement of the sonata facile Opus 49 No. 2, an earlier composition despite its opus number.

24:02  Theme with variations. Andante 

31:36  Scherzo. Allegro molto e vivace 

34:42  Andante con moto alla marcia. Presto

The performance is by Janine Jansen, leading a group of instrumentalists that the Dutch violinist refers to as "her friends".

Olivier Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time - VI mov

On the train to the concentration camp, French composer Olivier Messiaen met a colleague in art and arms, clarinetist Henri Akoka, who, like him, was being transferred as a prisoner of war to a prison camp outside Görlitz, German territory that today belongs to Poland. In order to make the difficult circumstances more bearable, during the journey, Messiaen entertained himself discussing with Akoka the sketches of a clarinet piece that would later become part of a larger work, the Quartet for the End of Time, composed in the very same concentration camp a few months later.

A renowned composer
At the time, Messiaen was 31 years old and already recognized as one of the most remarkable French composers of his generation. The son of a literature professor and a poetess, the musician had grown up in an environment favoring artistic creation. A brilliant student at the Paris Conservatory, he made the organ his professional instrument of which he became an accomplished performer.

Deeply religious, his music drew inspiration from the Catholic faith as well as from Hinduism, forming a personal style that stands out for its rhythmic and harmonic richness. His richness of timbres is not far behind, sustained by a great love for nature and birdsong. All this was no impediment to his being captured by the Germans in June 1940 during the siege of Verdun and being sent to a prison camp.

Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 1992)

In the prison camp
While in prison, he had the opportunity to meet other soldier-musicians. Among them, a cellist and a violinist. Messiaen set about finishing the clarinet piece offered to Akoka and then composed a trio for the three musicians. A curious wartime indulgence granted to these non-combatant soldiers, brass band soldiers, allowed Messiaen to get an old piano back in Görlitz. The composer then devised a piano part and transformed the trio into a quartet.

Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Premiered in the concentration camp on January 15, 1941, before an audience of about 400 people, including prisoners and guards, the quartet takes its name from a passage in the Book of Revelations in which the angel announces the end of time. The unusual combination of instruments (violin, clarinet, cello, and piano) obeys, naturally, to the peculiar circumstances of its creation. And the uneven participation of them, to the fact that their genesis is very different. Of the eight movements that make up the piece, only half involve the four instrumentalists together. (The third movement is a clarinet solo, Akoka's, as might be expected).

"Dance of fury..."

The complete work lasts 50 minutes. Here we present movement VI, entitled "Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes"", the most characteristic rhythmic piece of the work, and where the four instruments are involved, playing, as a modern curiosity, in unison.

The musicians are: Marta Sikora, violin / Oded Shnei Dor, clarinet / Yedidya Shaliv, cello / Ayal Pelc, piano.

JS Bach, French Suite No 3

Maria Barbara, Johann Sebastian Bach's first wife, died at the age of 36, while the master was accompanying Prince Leopold, his patron at the court of Köthen, during a stay in the pleasant spa resort of Karlsbad, a meeting place for the German aristocracy. It was upon his return that he was met with the tragic news that left him a widower with four young children, twelve years old the eldest. He had to find a new mother for his children and a companion for himself.

Anna Magdalena
Shortly after a year, he found her as the daughter of a horn player, the 20-year-old soprano Anna Magdalena Wilcke, who, as soon as she saw him, was vividly attracted by the master's disposition, of whom, as she tells us, "it would be foolish to say he was beautiful" and who, moreover, was sixteen years her senior. They married in December 1721 and had 13 children. A happy union that Bach nurtured day by day. One night, on the eve of the first anniversary of their marriage, he quietly approached Anna Magdalena and placed before her "a little green bound book, with leather spine and corners".

JS Bach (alleged portrait)
(1685 - 1750)

The French Suites
On its first page, one could read the inscription Clavierbüchlein vor Anna Magdalena Bachin, Anno 1772, a collection of simple and charming compositions for harpsichord, of the most diverse genres, choral preludes, minuets, rondos, arias. A few years later, Bach was to rework and complete three of these pieces, giving rise to the first three suites of the famous French Suites – six in all –, works that are as French as the almost parallel English Suites are English. They were once published under the name of Suites pour le clavecin, which is probably the origin of their appellation.

Organization

As a whole, the structure of the six suites is entirely German, or better still, Italian, with its traditional four movements or dances: allemande – courante – sarabande – giga, to which are added, in between the sarabande and the giga, a variable number of supplementary movements such as a minuet, a gavotte, bourré, or an aria. Unlike the English suites, they do not include a prelude.

French Suite No 3, in B minor, BWV 814
Seccions:

00       Allemande 

03:28  Courante

05:17  Sarabanda 

07:56  Gavotte

09:18  Minueto I

10:25  Trio

11:21  Minueto II

11:56  Giga

The rendition is by the Hungarian pianist András Schiff, on the occasion of the Bach Festival (Bachfest) 2010, a classical music festival that takes place every year in Leipzig in June.

Manuel María Ponce, Suite in A minor

Only two years after entering the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, Mexican pianist and composer Manuel María Ponce felt that he had learned nothing, or at best, very little. So in 1903 he abandoned his formal studies and returned to the family home in Aguascalientes, capital of the state of the same name, where he began to work, at the age of 21, as a private piano and solfeggio teacher. The composer, had to wait...

Popular songs
The traditional National Fair of San Marcos that was held there every year gave him the splendid opportunity to listen to the autochthonous music played by the traveling troubadours who moved from fair to fair sharing their vast repertoire of popular songs. A very rich material that Ponce thought could be the basis for the creation of genuine Mexican classical music. These were the beginnings of Mexican musical nationalism, which Manuel Ponce is regarded as its father, although it was his future student, Carlos Chávez, who would consolidate the movement.

Travelling to Europe
But in order to carry out all this it was urgent to broaden his knowledge, and for that there was no better way than to set off to Europe. So the Mexican composer first ventured to Bologna, Italy, and from there he went to Germany where between 1906 and 1908 he refined his piano technique with none other than Professor Martin Krauze, a former student of Liszt, who shortly thereafter would become Claudio Arrau's teacher and trainer.

Manuel M. Ponce (1882 - 1948)

A friendship with Segovia
Some years later, after two seasons as conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de México, he was assigned to study composition under the guidance of Paul Dukas. There he was fortunate to have Joaquín Rodrigo and Heitor Villa-Lobos as fellow students.
In the new journey he also forged a great friendship with Andrés Segovia, since the maestro Ponce, besides being a pianist, also mastered the guitar. Proof of this are his nearly 40 compositions for guitar, including sonatas, sonatinas, preludes, studies and suites.

Suite in A minor
Presented here is his Suite in A minor for guitar, from 1929, composed while Ponce was pursuing his degree in composition at the Ecole Normal de Musique de Paris, and written specifically in the style of the baroque suite at the request of the friend to whom it was addressed, Andrés Segovia.

Sections:
00       Preludio
02:41  Allemande
05:23  Sarabande
09:56  Gavota I y II
12:37  Giga

The rendition is by Armenian guitarist Gohar Vardanyan.

Chopin, Piano Concerto No 1

When Chopin settled in Paris in 1831, six years earlier the German-born pianist, teacher, and piano maker Friedrich Kalkbrenner had done the same. After a long period in London as a pianist and businessman, he had arrived in the City of Light, the center of European musical activity at the time, carrying the title of "the best pianist in Europe", made up by himself. Twenty-one-year-old Chopin, a newcomer, came to him for advice and contacts. Kalkbrenner offered to make him an accomplished virtuoso within three years if he would take lessons with him.

Chopin hesitates

It is true that Chopin had not had a piano teacher until then. Those who gave him the basic tools were his teachers in Warsaw, but one was a violinist and the other a composer. So it is not surprising that he wrote enthusiastically to his parents and sisters that he intended to stay in Paris for "about three years," precisely the time frame suggested by Kalkbrenner. But his enthusiasm for his potential teacher waned as, with the weapons he already possessed, he dazzled those attending the Parisian soirées where he was invited to play. Finally, Chopin resigned Kalkbrenner's support but he honored him with the dedication of his Concerto in E minor, when it was published in Paris in 1833.

A young Chopin, by Ary Scheffer

The second concerto

It was the second piano concerto Chopin wrote, but the first to be published. For this reason, the publisher assigned it No. 1. The first had been the Concerto in F minor, which would be published three years later, in 1836, and consequently designated as No. 2.

Both were composed in Warsaw, when Chopin was between 19 and 20 years old. They both had their premiere on the occasion of the numerous soirees organized to bid farewell to the young virtuoso who was leaving Warsaw with the idea of being away for "about three years", but who would never return.

Concerto No. 1 in E minor, opus 11

Then and now, there has been no shortage of opinions about the weakness, or the lack of ingenuity or brilliance of Chopin's orchestration. Uninteresting, is the most common imputation. It happens that the young composer does not have as models the Beethovenian or Mozartian concerto, but those of his contemporaries, less notable (Hummel, Hiller, or Kalkbrenner himself), in which the piano is openly the protagonist, with the orchestra on a secondary plane, in charge of the initial exposition of the themes and of underlining the moments of great expressiveness in support of the soloist. What they all agree on is that the piano writing is unparalleled.

Movements:

There are three, typical of the period:

00        Allegro maestoso

21:07  Romance. Larghetto

30:56  Rondo. Vivace

From the Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw, on 27 August 2010. Martha Argerich and the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra under the baton of Jacek Kaspszyk.

Mozart, Piano Concerto No 21

By the time he was seven years old, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had toured the European courts playing the piano with the keyboard hidden by a cloth, and before the age of eight he had composed his first symphony. Therefore, when he settled in Vienna in 1781, at the age of 25, he did so with the determination to make a living by cultivating both skills, that of pianist and that of composer, to the highest degree possible. So nothing could have made more sense than to compose his own concertos and conduct them from the piano, accompanied by an orchestra put together and hired for the occasion.

Leopold disagrees...

His father, Leopold, was not in favor of the idea. From Salzburg, he strongly reprimanded him in an epistolary argument in which he argued that his destiny lay in some glamorous European court and not in his turning into a free-lance musician, a concept that, of course, did not exist. The icing on the cake was put by Wolfgang the following year, when, without Leopold's consent, he married Konstance Weber.

The concerto production

By this time, Mozart had composed six piano concertos. And life as a couple only increased his output significantly. In the 1782-83 season, he composed three concertos, which were received enthusiastically by the Viennese public, prompting him to double the stakes with the creation of six more concertos in 1784. The subscription concertos with his own music proved to be an excellent vein, although in the following two years he slackened his pace slightly: he composed only three.

The good years

Leopold had to pull back. He was pleasantly surprised. His son was living in Vienna happily married and managing on his own.

These are, by the way, Konstance and Wolfgang's best years: they have a gracious one-year-old baby (i.e., he has survived so far), they live in a posh section of Vienna, they have hired servants, and Wolfgang is looking for an opportunity to confess to Konstance that he is about to purchase a billiard table.

Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467

No sooner had Mozart finished Concerto No. 20 in D minor than he set about composing the next concerto, which was to become the most popular of them all. In just four weeks, while teaching and attending to his visiting father, Mozart began and completed the Concerto in C major, premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna, with Wolfgang at the piano, on March 10, 1785, one day after adding it to his catalog.

The widespread reputation it enjoys today is due, malgré tout, to the inclusion of its second movement, Andante, in the soundtrack that accompanied the romantic story told in the 1967 Swedish film Elvira Madigan. Neil Diamond, for his part, added to the piece's popularity with his 1972 song Song Sung Blue, although he didn't tell anyone about it.

Movements:

The typical three of the classical period: fast - slow - fast.

00         Allegro maestoso

14:23   Andante

20:55   Allegro vivace assai

Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy at the piano conduces The Philharmonia Orchestra.

Rimski-Korsakov, "Capriccio Espagnol"

That morning, the girl in charge of the store was surprised to see a tall, lanky sailor enter the store in her direction, slightly raising his Russian naval officer's cap. The officer wandered among the shelves filled with books of all kinds and stopped in front of what appeared to be the section reserved for music. The girl watched him complacently and was even more pleased when she saw him approaching with a volume in his hand. They spoke in French, the officer fluently, the girl rather hardly. After leaving the tent, the officer looked happy. He was carrying in his hands the compilation "Cantos y Bailes Populares de España", by the Spanish composer José Inzenga y Castellanos.

The officer's name was Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov and he was serving on the frigate Almas, which two days ago had made port in Cadiz, on its way back to St. Petersburg after almost two years of cruising around the world.

Rimski, who, as you may have guessed, was also a musician, was 21 years old at the time. He had already composed his first symphony, greeted an enthusiastic audience on its premiere, and was a member of The Five, a group of Russian composers who advocated the creation of a specifically "Russian" music, as opposed to one that simply imitated the style on which European music had been based until then.

Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908)
1864 picture 

Folklore from other lands
But just as Russian themes were promoted, the group was not opposed to using folk motifs from other lands. Therefore, it is not surprising that the visionary Rimsky got hold of Inzenga's songbooks twenty years in advance of their orchestral treatment in a symphonic work. The result of such a profitable acquisition was the composition of one of his most popular works, Capriccio Espagnol, composed based on the themes that he met in Cadiz that morning in 1865.

Capriccio Espagnol, op. 34
With the original title of Capriccio on Spanish Themes for orchestra, it had its premiere on October 31, 1887, in St. Petersburg, conducted by the composer. The themes, mainly Asturian, are approached in the "Russian manner" with an orchestral treatment that highlights Rimsky-Korsakov's genius as an orchestrator. The work, applauded by the instrumentalists during rehearsals, was dedicated to all of them. Its premiere was enough for its immediate incorporation into the standard repertoire, and it remains there to this day.

The rendition is by Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, conducted by Lutz Köhler.

Movements:

   00  Alborada   Festive dance, typical of Asturian music.

1:20  Variations   The theme is introduced by the horns, followed by four variations. 

6:14  Alborada   Recreation of the first movement theme, with different instrumentation and in a different key.

7:25  Gypsy scene and song   Series of dances. The last dance links without pause with the last movement (atacca):

12:40  Asturian Fandango.

The work ends with a new exposition of the Alborada theme, somewhat more spirited.

Johannes Brahms, Wiegenlied ("Lullaby")

For millennia, mothers around the world have sung lullabies to their babies to induce sleep or stillness. But it has not always been tenderness or love that drives them. Some contain a scolding to the child for crying, or a serious threat if he continues to make noise. The oldest documented song recently discovered in what was once Babylonian dates back four thousand years. It warns the baby – in cuneiform writing – that his crying will awaken the devil, and that if he does not shut up immediately, the devil will have no choice but to eat him.

Fortunately, the English lullabies, French berceuses, or German Wiegenlied of the much later and romantic 19th century show other moods, where tenderness and affection are lavished – the construction of attachment, we would say today, modernly. Usually in 6/8 rhythm and with scarcely another chord beyond tonic and dominant, a good part of the romantic composers worked the "form", because it was in demand of a nascent middle class. But there was one that greatly distanced itself from its peers, to this day. It is the work of Johannes Brahms.

Wiegenlied, opus 49 N° 4
Perhaps the most popular and world-renowned lullaby, it was published in 1868 and is dedicated to a lady friend of Brahms on the occasion of the birth of his second child, a lady with whom he is said to have been in love in his youth. With verses from German folklore, it was first performed in public on December 22, 1869, in Vienna. It was sung by the German soprano Louise Dustmann accompanied on piano by Clara Schumann.

In a version for cello and piano, it is presented here by the Hungarian cellist Lászlo Fenyó and the Russian pianist Kirill Krotov. As is obvious, it lasts less than two minutes.

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No 30, Op 109

 
In addition to his total and irreversible deafness, the last ten years of Ludwig van Beethoven's life were marked by family problems derived from the dispute over the guardianship of his nephew Karl, son of his brother Kaspar, who died in 1815. His temper became irritable to an extreme degree, making it even more difficult for him to interact with his peers. These were the years of the conversation notebooks, when his interlocutor had to write down what he wanted to say to Beethoven and the latter, depending on his mood, would respond with a verbal reply or write in the same notebook.

Domestic life

Of course, his domestic life also became complicated. Although they may seem slightly comical today, the letters he sent in 1817 to the landlady who provided him with some services are a reflection of a real tragedy:

"I thank you for your interest in me. Matters are already better — meanwhile I have endured much today from N., but have thrown half a dozen books at her head as a New Year's gift. 

"...N. has quite changed since I threw half a dozen books at her head. Probably something of it has settled in her brain or bad heart; at any rate, we have a buxom deceiver.

"Yesterday the infernal tricks recommenced. I made short work of it, and threw at her my heavy chair which stands by the bed; for that I was at peace the whole day. "

Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Painting by K.J. Stieler, 1820

A diminished and intimate oeuvre
During those years, his creative capacity became considerably diminished. Between 1815 and 1820, that is, when Beethoven's life was between 45 and 50 years old – a stage of life that today we would consider highly productive – he only wrote six works: two sonatas for cello and piano, the songs To the distant beloved, and the piano sonatas opus 101, 106 (Hammerklavier) and 109. 

It is a period in which his music shows little connection with worldly events, producing an intimate work in which grief and despondency are the predominant feelings. However, he is getting ready to compose the Ninth Symphony, in which he will sing, in spite of everything, of human joy and fellowship, in 1823.

Sonata No. 30, opus 109

Composed in 1820, published in 1821, and dedicated to Maximiliane Brentano, an advantaged disciple daughter of a friend, it is the first of the epic trilogy of his last piano sonatas. Due to the untraditional arrangement and length of its movements, to this day scholars disagree on the number of them, whether two or three. Assuming there are three, let us say that the first lasts just over four minutes, the second (where the slow movement would traditionally be) is marked prestissimo and lasts less than three, and the last is a theme with variations of sublime beauty that surpasses in length the previous two movements taken together.

The performance is by the Chilean maestro Claudio Arrau.

[Listening guide, following the video] 

Brief listening guide:

00  Vivace ma non troppo - Adagio espressivo   Written in sonata form, after the first theme's exposition in a scant eight bars, it immediately takes on the character of adagio, which it will sustain for no more than seven bars before returning to tempo primo.

4:26  Prestissimo   It is linked to the first by sustaining its last chord with the pedal. Hence, perhaps, the controversy over the number of movements. Its scant two-odd minutes suffice, however, to sustain the allegro sonata structure typical of the first movement but not of the second. It's Beethoven.

6:55  Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo   The tempo indication (which Beethoven took care to point out also in German) is prescribed for the theme, whose melodic beauty announces the proximity of Romanticism, which rehearses its first steps. It is followed by six variations: 

Var I: 9:28 / Var II: 11:41 / Var III: 13:18 / Var IV: 13:46 / Var V: 16:55 / Var VI: 17:55. 

The piece concludes with the original theme, taken up softly and serenely.

Alexandr Scriabin, Etude op 8 No 12

A visionary guy according to some, or an exquisitely maniacal according to others, the mystical Russian composer Alexandr Scriabin undertook at a mature stage of his life the task of creating a monumental multimedia work, "a grandiose religious synthesis of all the arts that would herald the birth of a new world." With this in mind, he wrote in his diary at some point in 1914, that he needed to live "as long as possible". Unfortunately, the ambitious project, called "Mystery", never came to fruition as Scriabin died the following year from septicemia caused by the bite of a miserable mosquito.

Alexandr Scriabin (1872 - 1915)

A composer with no diploma
Twenty years earlier, in 1892, after finishing his studies at the Moscow Conservatory, Alexander Nicolaievich Scriabin had shown signs of rebelliousness and independence by leaving the Conservatory without receiving his diploma due to a disagreement with his tutor, Anton Arenski, despite having obtained a gold medal at the graduation recital for his interpretation of Beethoven's sonata opus 109, an undeniable feat considering that the young pianist experienced difficulties in reaching more than an octave at the keyboard due to his small hands.

The Twelve Etudes of Opus 8
Not much later, in 1898, the Conservatory offered him a position as a piano teacher, a position Scriabin held until 1903. In the meantime, he decided to pursue a career as a concert pianist. To this end, he devoted himself to the creation of his own repertoire, and in a very short time, he produced the two impromptus of opus 7, from 1892, and the twelve Etudes of opus 8, from 1894. Although in the vein of similar works by Chopin and Liszt, the Etudes of Opus 8 show a high sophistication, foreshadowing the individual genius that the composer would later display in his later compositions.

In the rendition by the great Russian master Vladimir Horowitz, we present here the last and most popular of the series, Etude No. 12, which despite its short duration does not lag behind the most demanding of the aforementioned romantics.

Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé - Suite N° 2

The Ballets Russes, the famous ballet company created by the Russian impresario Sergéi Diaghilev in 1907, celebrated its first official season in Paris from May to June 1909, with music by Chopin and by the Russians Borodin, Tcherepnin, and Arenski. The company made a sensation with its vitality and lavish set, which far surpassed the ballet being produced in France in those years. They would have to return year after year. Diaghilev, who was not lacking in instinct, thought it convenient to leave the Russian composers at home for the time being, and the same year of his irruption on the French scene he commissioned Maurice Ravel to compose a ballet.

The ballet
The work, Daphnis et Chloé, described by Ravel as a "choreographic symphony", about an hour-long, suffered numerous production problems, to which were added modest trifles between egos, to which Ravel, who did not share at all Diaghilev's opinion that the choreography should have prominence over the music, was no stranger.

Because of all this, it was not premiered until 1912, though with a lukewarm reception. But it was fully reversed in its re-release the following year. Today it is considered one of Ravel's most brilliant works, if not his masterpiece.

Ravel (1875 - 1937) at the piano, in 1912

The work, in one act divided into three scenes, is based on a Greek poem of the second century and tells the eventful love story between two children: a goatherd, Daphnis, and a shepherdess, Chloé, which ends happily for both of them.

The suites
The work requires a huge orchestra including about fifteen percussion instruments and a "mute" (wordless) choir on and off stage. The complexity of this production led Ravel, a year before its premiere, to extract from the scores an orchestral suite with the first scenes. The same year of the premiere, Ravel extracted a second part, Suite N° 2, taken from the three final scenes and which has become the most demanded on the world's stages, and with it, the most popular.

The rendition is by the Radio Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Australian maestro Daniel Smith.

Rachmaninoff, Moment Musical No 4

Sergéi Rachmaninoff had just turned 19 when fame started knocking on his door. His opera Aleko, with which he had graduated with honors in 1892, gold medal included, was being performed for the first time in St. Petersburg, to great acclaim from the public and critics.
As if this were not enough, a professor at the Conservatory, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, dazzled by the talent shown by the young composer, encouraged him to undertake a concert tour of the main Russian cities, which was, by the way, a great success.

At the Conservatory
But since, today as yesterday, it is better to count on a stable income to solve life, the following year he accepted a professorship at the Conservatory. He held this position for years despite the meager 50 rubles that the position provided him, with which he barely managed to travel around Russia as an itinerant concert pianist.

Financial difficulties
On the other hand, his publishers, enthusiastic since his famous Prelude in C minor were published in 1892, did not respond with the same eagerness to pay royalties. In Russia, they did not exist. Only a negotiated sum was paid to the author on a one-time basis. Despite the recognition he received, by the middle of 1896 Sergéi Rachmaninoff was facing serious financial difficulties.
It was necessary to make some money.

Sergei Rachmaninoff, c. 1909.
(1873 - 1943)

Moments Musicaux, Opus 16
Composed between October and December 1896, Moments Musicaux are a series of six piano pieces of diverse form, ranging from a nocturne, a song without words, a barcarolle, an etude, to a theme with variations. They were composed in imitation of Schubert's Moments Musicaux of 1828, although they distance themselves from the intense lyricism of the latter, for it is not by chance that almost seventy years have passed.

Moment Musical N° 4 in E minor
The enormous technical demands of Musical Moment No. 4, marked presto, shed light on the astonishing virtuosity that Rachmaninoff displayed in his performances, very well paid by the way, especially in the USA, when his cache did not go below 3,000 dollars per recital.
Some scholars have seen some similarities with Chopin's "Revolutionary" Etude, with some reason. Others, also with the Prelude in G major, with some less. Both opinions are based on the titanic left hand and the scarce melody that the three works share.

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

Chopin, Nocturne op. 48 No. 1

During the eighteen years that Chopin lived in Paris, he was treated by twenty-five doctors who, in turn, diagnosed him with pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic laryngitis, tenacious anemia, muscular weakness, scleroderma, intestinal fragility, and psychasthenia. His lover George Sand was right, then, when she described her Chip, her Chop, her Chopinski, as a being "desperate in intimacy". By 1847, when the relationship had died, or was in its death throes, Sand would confess to a friend that "I have been living like a virgin for seven years, with him and with the others. I have grown old before my time...".

The family, in Paris

But in 1840 there were still ardors if ever there were. Returning from a summer spent at Nohant, madame Sand and her two sons settled that autumn at 16 Rue Pigalle, consisting of two pavilions, joined by a small garden.

Chopin, provisionally lodged in Rue Tronchet, soon joined them, and the following month he was installed there, together with his "family", the only one he had in Paris: Chopin and Maurice in one pavilion, Sand and Solange, in the other. Appearances had to be kept up.

George Sand (Aurore Dupin)
(1804 - 1876)

Working at home
George Sand produced day after day –though at odd hours– a river of words that she turned into novels.
Chopin gave piano lessons, 30 francs an hour, values suggested by Sand. In Paris he did not compose, or composed very little – the long-term works were left for the summer, in Nohant.

He would perhaps correct some short, intimate piece on which he was working, and which he would perhaps unveil that very day in the gloom of the aristocratic salon where the couple had been invited and where Chopin, at least, was received like a prince.

Nocturne op. 48 No. 1

The year 1841 marks the beginning of a fruitful period in Chopin's output. That year saw the appearance of several of his notable works, including the two Nocturnes of Opus 48. Published that same year in Paris, they are dedicated to Laure Duperré, one of his outstanding pupils. The first of these, in C minor, is considered one of Chopin's greatest piano accomplishments in achieving an enrapturing emotionality. Three sections are distinguished in it, amalgamating melancholy, majesty and beauty in just over six minutes of music:

00 Largo / 2:45 Poco piú lento / 5:04 Doppio movimento (twice as fast as the preceding).

The piece experiences stormy passages. Nevertheless, it ends in absolute tranquility.

The rendition is by the fine Chinese pianist, Yundi Li.

Fernando Sor, "Introduction and Variations on a theme by Mozart"

 
Born in Barcelona in 1778 into a wealthy family with a long-standing military tradition, Fernando Sor received from his father a fondness for the guitar and Italian opera. This enthusiasm was heightened when he joined the choir of the Monastery of Montserrat at the age of eleven, where he showed great musical abilities. But later he had to enroll in the military academy of Barcelona because the family was not willing that the military legacy was interrupted by his love of music. Against all odds, during the four years he remained there, he had enough free time to practice the guitar and train in composition.

Napoleon invades Spain
Before the age of twenty, after composing his first opera, he left for Madrid. There he performed minor administrative tasks in government agencies while continuing to compose, privately. He was in that act of magic when, in March 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Ferdinand VII had to gently cede the crown to Joseph Bonaparte. After the mutiny of Aranjuez and the uprising of May 2nd, Sor saw his nationalist vein emerge and he fought the invaders with his music and songs of burning patriotic value. However, by 1810 he had already become accustomed to the new regime's presence.

Fernando Sor (1778 - 1839)

Sor, an "afrancesado" (Frenchified)
After the complete defeat of the Spanish army, Sor accepted an administrative position under the rule of the new authorities, because, like many Spaniards, despite the occupation, he also saw in the ideals of the French Revolution an opportunity for the fall of absolutism in his own country. When the French troops withdrew in defeat in 1814, Fernando Sor, together with numerous Spanish intellectuals – the "Frenchified" guys –, left with them for Paris. He never returned to Spain.

A prolific composer

In Paris, London, and Moscow, Fernando Sor developed an extensive and successful career as a guitarist and teacher. Although he composed music for diverse instrumental ensembles, the composer is remembered today mainly as an exceptional guitarist whose corpus of more than one hundred works for the instrument constitutes today an important share of the "classical" repertoire for concert guitar. Among his most popular pieces, his Variations on a theme by Mozart stand by far.

Introduction and variations on a theme by Mozart, Op 9

Published in 1821 and dedicated to his brother Carlos, the thematic material is taken from the finale of the first act of The Magic Flute, the aria "Das klinget so Herrlich", which Sor liked to translate as "O cara Armonia". A highly demanding piece for the performer, it consists of an introduction and five variations (the icing on the cake).

The rendition is by the superb Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic.

Alexander Borodin, Polovtsian Dances

The fundamental nucleus of Russian nationalism known as "The Five", originated in St. Petersburg in the second half of the 19th century to encourage the creation of properly Russian music, counted among its spirited members a brilliant creator in the person of Modest Mussorgsky, a masterful composer like Rimsky-Korsakov, a great leader like Balakirev, the indispensable theoretician in the person of César Cui, and a doctor in chemistry, Alexander Borodin.

Borodin, the scientist
In fact, Borodin, the illegitimate son of a Russian prince and the legitimate wife of a doctor in his army, – that is, the prince's army –, was a dilettante musician, meaning a musician who made music for the simple pleasure of doing so. Although at the age of nine he had already taken his first flute and piano lessons, and composed his first concerto for these instruments at the age of fourteen, Alexander Borodin soon realized that his true passion was science. In 1850, at the age of 17, he entered the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy, where he chose chemistry as his special interest.

Borodin, the musician
Around the same time, however, he composed his first songs and formed a string quintet with a group of friends. Nothing strange, then, that three years after obtaining his doctorate with the thesis "About the analogy of arsenic with phosphoric acid", the musician Borodin composed a celebrated Quintet in C major that attracted the attention of The Five, which he joined, later strengthening close bonds with Balakirev and Mussorgsky.

Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887)

Prince Igor
Around 1869, when he had already composed his first symphony, he felt that the theatrical genre was calling for him and began work on what was to be his masterpiece, the opera Prince Igor. But his scientific career also called for him. As a full professor at the Academy, he had to travel outside Russia often, visiting universities, and even working on joint research with European scientists, which incidentally resulted in the discovery of a couple of chemical reactions that today bear his name, shared.

An unforeseen ending
So Prince Igor had to wait, until 1887 when he was able to take it up again. Unfortunately, on the evening of February 17 of that year, while exercising some dance steps at a costume party organized by the Academy, dressed in the Russian peasant style, he fell to the ground, struck by a heart attack. His most ambitious work had to be finished by his friends Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. Its premiere took place to great acclaim in November 1890 at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
With a libretto by the composer and inspired by a medieval poem, the action of the work is set in the year 1185 and narrates the struggle of Prince Igor against the Polovtsians, an invading tribe. The Polovtsian Dances constitute a brilliant moment in Act II, when Igor, taken prisoner with his son, is offered his freedom in exchange for an alliance that the prince refuses, which arouses the admiration of his enemy, who then commands dances in his honor.

The solidarity group "Músicos para la Paz", performs an orchestral version, conducted by the Spanish maestro Andrés Salado.