Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition

Less than a month it took the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky to complete the piece that, discounting the opera Boris Godunov, would become his masterpiece, the suite for piano Pictures at an Exhibition.
Starting on June 2, 1874, before the end of the month he had finished his last tribute to his great friend and companion of gatherings and sorrows, the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann, who died of an aneurysm at the age of 39. Mussorgsky was devastated. From that moment on he could not stop thinking about the best way to pay his respects to his friend who had died overnight.

Exhibition of Hartmann's work
In January 1874, the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg decided to hold an exhibition of Hartmann's works as a formal tribute to the artist. About 400 works, including paintings, sketches, and some writings, were exhibited for two months. Mussorgsky attended the exhibition and, like any visitor, went through the paintings, stopping at a painting and then moving on to the adjacent one. There he realized that this was where the homage should lie: the music should describe precisely what he was doing at that moment, observe a picture carefully, relate it, and then move on to the next.

Descriptive music
Eleven pictures were chosen by Mussorgsky to construct the work, consisting of the musical description of the paintings linked by a melancholy piece he called "Promenade", with which the piece begins, and which will later be heard throughout the work, acting as a unifying element as the stroller moves from picture to picture.

Plenty worthy of being catalogued as "descriptive music", the work was initially called "Hartmann Suite", and was not published until 1886, five years after the composer's death, under the title we know it today.

Sections
Its parts, and the corresponding Hartmann paintings, are as follows:

00        Promenade
01:28  Gnomo / Promenade II  03:48
04:33  The Old Castle / Promenade III 08:35
09:03  Tuileries (Children's Quarrel after Games)
10:05  Cattle / Promenade IV 12:50
13:36  Ballet of Unhatched Chicks
14:52  "Samuel" Goldenberg and "Schmuÿle" (two paintings)
16:52  Limoges. The Market
18:20  Catacombs
19:50  With the Dead in a Dead Language
21:38  The Hut on Hen's Legs
25:16  The Great Gate of Kiev

Countless orchestrations of the work, or of some of its sections, have been made, including a popular arrangement by the British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, in 1971. The orchestral version that usually goes on stage is the one made in 1922 by Maurice Ravel, and to which, incidentally, the work owes much of its popularity.

However, in this opportunity, we present the original version for piano, which is also usually modified, according to the interpreter. The excellent Russian master Mikhail Pletnev offers us his rendition of Mussorgsky's original version, skipping Promenade V.

Chopin, Etude Opus 25 No. 11

In the nineteen years he lived in Paris, Frédérik Chopin gave only thirteen public concerts. He did not like crowds, and so he once remarked to his friend Franz Liszt, a year his junior, adding to his words an ambiguous hint of irony:

"I am not fitted to give concerts, the public intimidates me. I feel choked by its breath, paralyzed by its curious glances, struck dumb by all those strange faces. You are destined for that, because you do not conquer the public, but you have the necessary means to pummel them!"

Indeed, listening to Franz Liszt, the ladies would fade away, and end up slumped in their boxes, having lost all their composure. Chopin, on the contrary, was made to enrapture a small audience of no more than ten or twelve listeners, in the private salon of some lady of the high Parisian aristocracy, or at the home of a noble compatriot, exiled like him.

The intimate atmosphere

In these salons, also frequented by Liszt, Berlioz, Délacroix, poets, and other artists, Chopin was in his element. And if he was in the mood, he could play for a couple of hours in a row. Obviously, in this intimate atmosphere, he did not play his greatest works, those with the greatest breath, but he improvised, or unveiled the last prelude, a nocturne, an elegant waltz, or even an etude.

Marie d'Agoult (1805 - 1876)

In 1935 he had finished the twelve Etudes of Opus 10, dedicated to his friend Franz Liszt, irony aside. The new series, opus 25, will be dedicated to Countess Marie d'Agoult, who, among other merits, played the piano and was the partner of his friend Franz.

Etudes from Opus 25 - No. 11 in A minor

Out of the twelve studies that make up the series, ten of them were composed simultaneously with those of Opus 10. Only the first and the last one were added at a later date, for their joint publication in 1837. Etude No. 11, with its scant three and a half minutes in length, is the longest of the series and, like its companions, constitutes an inescapable piece in the piano repertoire of our day. The technical challenges demand bursts of arpeggios from the right hand in opposition to a powerfully rhythmic motif from the left hand.

The performance is by the Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa, now settled in the USA.

Brahms, Six piano pieces, Op 118

Clara Schumann became a widow at the age of 37. From then on she had to care for and feed eight children on her own.
Johannes Brahms, then 23, would remain by her side, figuratively speaking, until Clara died in 1896. For forty years, they would maintain a close correspondence. Johannes, offering his love with brotherly affection in the lively hope that something would materialize. Clara, affectionate, but maintaining the right distance that would not lead to the estrangement of the faithful friend who cared for her beloved Robert during the last two years of his life.

Clara, an outstanding pianist
Clara needed support, of course, but she solved her helplessness by working. An outstanding pianist of the stature of Liszt and Thalberg, despite her status as a female concert pianist at the core of the 19th century, she was able to carry out an active professional career, giving acclaimed and well-paid concerts throughout Europe.

Brahms, a helpmate
So Brahms's encouragement did not contemplate any economic dimension but was simply expressed in the friendly word that helped to overcome states of despondency, and perhaps something more, when they both decided to replace the pronoun Sie (formal you) with the more familiar du (you) in their correspondence. It was also the time when Brahms began to dedicate part of his work to Clara.

Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896)

Six piano pieces, opus 118
Brahms dedicated a total of thirteen works, in various genres, to Clara, in forty years. In 1892, in a composer's stage of fullness, five years before his death, he offered Clara what would be his penultimate work for solo piano, the Six Pieces of Opus 118. Absolute master of his art, the author has returned to the small forms, and to the intimate richness of the unique and so beloved timbre of the piano, without fuss. Perhaps the last colloquy, the last confidence, from Brahms to Clara.

More than with any previous set of miniatures, with opus 118 Brahms achieved a work that functions as a whole. And this is how it is generally performed, even when the particular beauty of some of its pieces moves performers to offer it as an encore in their performances, as is the custom with the second in the series, the popular Intermezzo in A major.

The complete work includes four intermezzi, a ballade and a romanza:

No. 1. Intermezzo in A minor. Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato.

No. 2. Intermezzo in A major. Andante teneramente 02:33

No. 3. Ballade in G minor. Allegro energico 08:08

No. 4. Intermezzo in F minor. Allegretto un poco agitato 11:26

No. 5. Romanza in F major. Andante 14:05

No. 6. Intermezzo in E flat minor. Andante, largo e mesto 18:13

The rendition is by German pianist Alexander Lonquich.

Mikhail Glinka, "Jota aragonesa"

"The Spaniards are sincere and direct when speaking, they do not have a language affected and full of ceremony like the French". Thus wrote the Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka to his mother in the summer of 1845, from Valladolid, where he had arrived after a nine-month stay in Paris. Nonetheless, despite his disenchantment with the Parisians, his colleague Hector Berlioz had conducted excerpts of his works in Paris and published a praiseworthy article about him. But he did not like the French and that is why he had left for Spain.

Valladolid
The composer was about 41 years old and three years ago one of his works in which he had put all his efforts, his second opera, Russlan and Ludmilla, had received a cold reception in St. Petersburg. In 1845, still shocked by the rejection, he decided to leave Russia and embark on a concert tour of some European cities to become acquainted with and nourished by the musical traditions, mainly French and Spanish. Thus, that summer, he was in Valladolid, enthusiastic and delighted to meet the local people.

Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857)

An Aragonese jota
In that cozy atmosphere, he got to know a local merchant, Félix Castilla, who was also an excellent guitarist. One afternoon, Castilla played for him a traditional folk dance, a jota aragonesa. It was what Glinka was looking for. The melody became the basis for one of his most popular works. Entitled Capricho brillante sobre la jota aragonesa, he began writing it in Madrid where he moved later and where he finished it at the end of 1845.

Capricho brillante sobre la jota aragonesa - Obertura Española No. 1
Despite Glinka's interest that audiences in Spain would appreciate his attempt to integrate the Spanish sound into the Western musical tradition, the work was not premiered in Spain but in Warsaw three years later, in 1848.
Also known as Spanish Overture No. 1 (No. 2 being the somewhat less celebrated Noche de verano en Madrid, from 1851), it is presented here in two versions.
The first, a choreographed reduced version, danced by the Igor Moiseyev Ballet of Moscow, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the great Russian choreographer and dancer Igor Moiseyev (1906 - 2007).

Complete original version. Glinka's orchestration is remarkable here for its extensive use of multiple orchestral colors. With several instrumental combinations, he is able to produce a lush, full sound. And when required, he resorts to harp and pizzicato strings to imitate the sound of the guitar.

The edition is by the Zhukovsky Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladislav Ivanovskyi.

Shostakovich, Piano Concerto no 1

Comrade Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, so-called Stalin, did not immediately realize that the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, a work by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, was anti-democratic from head to toe, and alien to the artistic inclinations of the Soviet people. Premiered in 1932 with resounding success, the work remained on the bill for two years until the unlucky day when Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili attended the first performance of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. As a result of such a visit, the play was withdrawn from the stage, losing overnight its status as a masterpiece.

Surviving the purges
It was the first confrontation that the author of the Funeral March in Memory of the Victims of the October Revolution had with the Soviet authorities. It would not be the last. But, as it turned out, comrade Dmitri knew how to navigate in troubled waters.
Dmitri survived the purges of 1948 by remaining serene and composing the soundtrack of a curious film – The Unforgettable Year 1919 – which sang of the courage of the young Comrade Stalin during the war against the White Russians. But for many years he refrained from joining the Communist Party. He only decided to do so in 1960, at a stage in his life when it was not easy to scold a world-famous Soviet artist.

The "confession"
And by the early thirties she had overcome Lady Macbeth's impasse in the style in vogue. That is, by means of a confession. Musical in his case: his Symphony No. 5, from 1937, was subtitled "A Soviet artist's response to just criticism". Nevertheless, confessions aside, it was possible to contrast the orthodox voice, to oppose the ideological mandate, by simply composing for oneself. In this spirit, Dmitri Shostakovich finished his first Piano Concerto in 1933, at the age of 27.

Concerto for piano, trumpet and string orchestra, in C minor
According to the composer himself, the original idea was to compose a concerto for trumpet and orchestra, to which he later added the piano part to build a double concerto, but the involvement of this instrument was gradually increased until the work finally became a piano concerto with the prominent contribution of a trumpet, especially in the last movement. Its premiere took place in Leningrad (i.e. St. Petersburg) in October 1933, with Shostakovich at the piano.

The "quotations"

With a "neo-baroque" combination of instruments and stylistically close to neoclassicism (not counting the cluster at minute 20:54 that interrupts a "circus-like" trumpet), the concerto adds to its undeniably playful character an abundant series of "quotations" to other authors, among them, Ravel, Beethoven and Haydn. This is undoubtedly true, but there are those who have taken things to the extreme, pretending to see in minute 1:06 (and of course, every time the "motif" is repeated) a "quotation" to the first movement of the Appassionata sonata.

Movements:
Depending on how you look at it, the concerto has, or three, or four movements, due to the fact that the third, in addition to its brief duration, links without pause with the last.

00:00  Allegretto - Two contrasting themes

07:14  Lento - Surprisingly lyrical (quote from Ravel, adagio from the G major concerto)

15:32  Moderato - More like an interlude

17:32  Allegro con brio - Contains the Haydn and Beethoven parodies, with some ragtime, too.

The rendition is by Daniil Trifonov, accompanied by the Marinsky Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Manuel de Falla, "El amor brujo", suite

Such was the eagerness of Manuel María de los Dolores de Falla y Matheu for setting foot in Paris, back in 1904, that he dared to participate simultaneously in two musical skills contests while in Madrid after his family moved there from his native Cadiz.
One of them summoned pianists, with a first prize consisting of an instrument donated by the piano builder who organized the contest. In the other, he had to compete with a symphonic work or an opera, whose royalties, if he won, would allow him to travel to the City of Light.

A double winner
Manuel de Falla was victorious in both contests. But the one he was most looking forward to, in which he won with the operetta La vida breve, turned out to be a fiasco. The ambiguous wording of the contract did not assure in any way that the piece was going to be performed, at all events. And there was just no theater that would take the risk with a novel composer.

On tour
Falla overcame his frustration by joining as a pianist a mime company that was preparing to tour France, Belgium, Switzerland and some German cities. Thus, the composer found himself in Paris in 1907, at the same time as his fellow countryman Albéniz, who was working hard on the Iberia suite, while Debussy was writing the triptych Imágenes, and Ravel was busy working on the Spanish Rhapsody.

"El amor brujo"

Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946)

After the outbreak of war in 1914, Falla returned to Madrid. And the first thing he did was to accept a commission from a gypsy artist, Pastora Imperio, who asked him to compose for her something as simple as "a song and dances". Falla responded with a "gitanería" in two scenes for small orchestral ensemble, which tells the story of a gypsy girl who wins back an indifferent lover with the magic of love; the story ends happily. This was not the case with "gitanería". Premiered at the Teatro de Lara, in Madrid, in April 1915, with the title "El amor brujo", the work was not well received.

Versions and arrangements - Ritual fire dance

In view of the failure, the following year Falla rewrote the work for symphony orchestra, dividing it into two tableaux and adding three mezzo-soprano songs. In late 1930, he took four pieces from the original "gitanería" and turned them into a suite for piano. But before that, in 1924, he had made the arrangement that has survived to the present day. It is the ballet version, a one-act "ballet-pantomima", which was the most successful of all and the one commonly heard in concert halls as an orchestral piece, consisting of thirteen pieces, including the popular "Danza ritual del fuego", which can be heard from minute 09:40 in the version of the Radio Kamer Filharmonie ensemble, conducted by the Spanish conductor Alejo Perez.

Dvorak, Violin Concerto in A minor

A celebrity of his time, the composer, teacher, conductor and brilliant violinist Joseph Joachim did not hesitate for a moment in sending back, "amended", the works for violin that younger composers would send to him reverently dedicated, in order to ask for his opinion and heed his invaluable advice. The master, aware of his worth, did not merely review the solo parts but also gave his opinion on the structure of the work and its orchestration.

Joachim, Bruch and Brahms
This had been the case with Max Bruch's G minor concerto in 1865, and later with Brahms' D minor concerto of 1878. Both – Bruch somewhat more compliant than Brahms – obeyed without question and obsequiously adopted his indications. Their works were premiered by Joachim and published with the dedication clearly marked.

This was not the case with Antonin Dvorak, who took two years to respond to the modifications Herr Professor Joachim had suggested for the Concerto in A minor that Dvorak had respectfully sent him in 1879.

Dvorak and Joachim
They had met the year before. After the meeting, Dvorak began work on a violin piece intended for Joachim. As had happened with Beethoven's violin concerto – practically rediscovered by Joachim in 1844 and thereafter turned into the well-known piece of our days – Dvorak doubted that there would be another violinist capable of revealing to the European musical scene a work with such effectiveness.

Dvorak, young (1841 - 1904)

Joachim's misgivings
Joachim had expressed interest in premiering the work. He would gladly do so, he said, but then added that as it was, the public would surely find it a bit coarse, "especially because of the orchestral accompaniment, which seems rather dense". He waited for a response for two years, after which Joachim invited the composer to a private premiere at the music school he directed. There, in the company of Dvorak's publisher, Joachim demanded a little more, this time encouraged by the publisher, who joined in the criticism.

Premiere, in the absence of Joachim
Dvorak, slightly exasperated, requested that the work be published immediately, to which the publisher finally agreed. The dedication to Joachim was maintained, but for the premiere another violinist had to be found, who unveiled it in Prague in October 1883. And although the work was soon as popular as Beethoven's concerto, Herr Professor Joachim never agreed to play it.

Concerto in A minor opus 53 - Movements

02:00  Allegro ma non troppo   - At its conclusion, it connects without pause with the second movement.

12:14  Adagio ma non troppo 

23:22  Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo   - A tribute to the composer's Czech musical heritage.

The rendition is by German violinist (and also pianist) Julia Fischer accompanied by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, conducted by David Zinman, on the occasion of 2014 BBC Proms. As an encore, Julia Fischer presents us with the third movement of Paul Hindemith's sonata in G minor.

Giuseppe Tartini, "The Devil's trill" sonata

Giuseppe Tartini, violinist and baroque composer, author of about 135 violin concertos and about 200 sonatas, is today known and remembered mainly for one sonata for violin and basso continuo, in G minor. Rather, for the sonata's last section, which incorporates a famous trill, popularly called "the devil's trill", a nickname originated in a legend that, allegedly, Tartini himself was responsible for forging and spreading.

Early years
Born in 1692 in Piran, then a city of the Republic of Venice, today part of Slovenia, being very young he was sent by his parents to follow the ecclesiastical career in a monastery. As soon as he could, however, he dropped out to enroll in the university of Padua to pursue studies of law and music, where he ended up being very popular as a swordsman. He married in 1710 a young girl somewhat younger who turned out to be the favorite of the bishop of Padua, who accused him of abduction, forcing him to hide in a convent.
It was there that he learned to play the violin.

Giuseppe Tartini (1602 - 1770)

A remarkable violinist
Exceptionally gifted for the instrument, in 1720 he assumed the position of principal violinist and chapel master of the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, and over the years he gained a wide and widespread reputation as one of the most notable violinists of the time. Retired in 1765, he remained at the basilica teaching until 1768, when a stroke left him severely disabled. He died in 1770, the same year as the birth of Beethoven eight months later.

Sonata for violin in G minor - "The Devil's trill"
As the astronomer Jerome Lalande tells in a travel book of 1765, Tartini himself would have told him about a dream he had while he remained hidden in the monastery, under the protection of the bishop:

“One night I dreamed I had made a pact with the devil for my soul. Everything went as I desired: my new servant anticipated my every wish. I had the idea of giving him my violin to see if he might play me some pretty tunes, but imagine my astonishment when I heard a sonata so unusual and so beautiful, performed with such mastery and intelligence, on a level I had never before conceived was possible. I was so overcome that I stopped breathing and woke up gasping. Immediately I seized my violin, hoping to recall some shred of what I had just heard; but in vain. The piece I then composed is without a doubt my best, and I still call it “The Devil’s Sonata,” but it falls so far short of the one that stunned me that I would have smashed my violin and given up music forever if I could but have possessed it.”

The sonata, published 28 years after Tartini's death, is in four movements. The last one contains the famously demanding passage (13:26) where the violinist trills while simultaneously playing arpeggiated triads.
The version offered here is for violin and piano. On violin, the South Korean artist Ko-Woon Yang. Her compatriot Chiharu Aizawa, at the piano.

Khachaturian, "Spartacus" – Adagio

Inside the party headquarters and with a tenacity worthy of a better cause, comrade Mikhail Mikhailovich was taking pains to discover among hundreds of crotchets and eighth notes the bourgeois and counterrevolutionary character of Aram Khachaturian's music. By his side, Vassily Vasilievich was trying to do the same with other scores of the composer.

As he was about to invite his comrade to take a break, Mikhail Mikhailovich was surprised by Vassily Vasilievich's jubilant exclamation:

–Here it is! I've got it!

Mikhail Mikhailovich left his desk and hurried over to Vassily Vasilievich's, who victoriously brandished the autograph pages of the composer's last work. Indeed, in measures 34 to 57, it was possible to appreciate, even for a child, the composer's marked bourgeois tendencies.

Mikhail Mikhailovich felt pity. He had known Khachaturian since his entrance to the Moscow Conservatory in 1929 and had always thought him a nice guy.

Aram Khachaturian was twenty-six years old at the time. Born in Armenia, he was the youngest of five children and his love of music began by hearing his mother sing and listening to street musicians. Five years after his entrance to the Conservatory, he graduated and began an ascending career in the field of symphonic music and ballet, to which he incorporated ancestral motifs of Armenian folk music.

The comrade

Khachaturian joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1943. And there he was quietly until 1948 when he had the ill-fated idea of composing a symphonic poem without dedications. That was when Mikhail and Vassily came into the picture. As a result of their diligence, Shostakovich and Prokofiev also fell from grace. Along with them, Khachaturian had to incriminate himself as "formalist" and "anti-popular".

Aram Khachaturian (1903 - 1978)

The atonement

But soon after Stalin's death – coupled with the fact that the three composers were already recognized worldwide – they were vindicated. The three authors returned to the stage, literally, and in glory and majesty.

Comrade Khachaturian resumed his work composing dozens of symphonies, concertos and ballets, as well as numerous soundtracks for films, while his music was requested by directors such as Kubrick to be included in his films —the Adagio of his ballet Gayane is part of the soundtrack of 2001 Space Odyssey.

"Spartacus" Ballet

In 1954, during an informal conversation with friends that included Mikhail Mikhailovich and Vassily Vassilievich, now elderly and close friends of Aram, an idea arose for a ballet that would pay homage to the struggle of the proletariat against the Tsarist regime. The story of the slave Spartacus against his Roman oppressors was a perfect fit. Aram set to work and at the end of the year, he received the Lenin Prize for his ballet Spartacus.

The premiere took place in Leningrad in 1956. Two years later, with a change of choreography, it was performed at the Bolshoi Theater. From that date until today it remains one of the best known and most prominent works of Aram Khachaturian, also constituting a milestone in the history of ballets with a male protagonist, a role in which the Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta has stood out remarkably.

The Adagio of Act II is presented below, a performance by the Bolshoi Ballet, choreographed by Yuri Gregorovich, with Carlos Acosta as Spartacus and Nina Kaptsova as his smitten Phrygia.

Johann Christian Bach, Piano Concerto in E flat

A large number of musicians have had their parents, good amateurs or even talented professionals, as mentors in the profession. But none to the extent experienced by Johann Christian Bach and three of his brothers. All four were sons of the illustrious father of harmony, Johann Sebastian Bach, and it was from him, no more and no less, that they received their first lessons, to continue as adults a musical career on the basis of their own merits. Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena contributed to continuing the lineage in equal parts, in a span of twenty-five years. The former, mother of Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel; the latter, mother of Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian.

Johann Christian

When Bach senior died in 1750, the youngest of the musician brothers, Johann Christian, fifteen years old, was sent to Berlin to live and continue his studies with his half-brother Carl Philip Emanuel, who at the age of 36 was already firmly established there. Determined to specialize in opera, Johann Christian later traveled to Italy where his first three works were such a success that his talent reached the ears of the kings of England, who called upon him as a composer of operas for the new King's Theater.

Johann Christian Bach
(1735 - 1782)

The "Bach of London"

Queen Sophie Charlotte, a twenty-year-old german, was delighted with the engagement of this young fellow countryman, with whom she could speak in her own language and long for her homeland. It was also a happy time for Johann Christian (before a new impresario took over the theater and terminated the contract). He was the music tutor of the queen and her children, but he also had to accompany the king whenever he felt like playing the flute. And as a grand finale, in 1764 he had the privilege of meeting an eight-year-old musician, Wolfgang Amadeus, when the Mozart family visited London on one of their tours, and on whom he would later exert a powerful influence.

Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra in E-flat major
Author of an extensive oeuvre that combines opera, sacred music, symphonies, and chamber music, Johann Christian Bach was one of the first harpsichord masters who knew a pianoforte and wrote music for the instrument. Of a total of 26 keyboard concertos, the concerto in E flat, opus 7 No. 5, is one of those that received the title of "piano concerto".

Movements

Written around 1770, it is structured in the traditional "classical" style, in three movements: fast - slow - fast:

00:00  Allegro di molto

06:09  Andante

11:48  Allegro

The performance is by the British orchestra The Hanover Band, with period instruments.

Soloist and conductor, Anthony Halstead.

A. Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man

In order to make an important and moving contribution to the war effort during World War II, the English conductor and composer Eugene Goossens called upon several American composers for the composition of a fanfare (a short composition written for brass instruments) that would open every concert of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the 1942-1943 season. Goossens was then serving as the orchestra's musical director and his intention was to replicate the experience carried out during the First War, with British composers.

The reception
Goosens' initiative was warmly welcomed by eighteen American composers who responded by contributing an equal number of compositions. Goosens had suggested ingenious titles such as "fanfare for the soldiers", or "for the airmen" and others of similar inventiveness.

Copland's contribution

Goosens was pleasantly surprised with the work proposed by the Jewish composer of Russian origin, Aaron Copland, who had studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1921 and had been closely acquainted with the compositions of Stravinski, Darius Milhaud, and others. He had also become a great admirer of French literature, particularly that of André Gide, a future Nobel Prize winner.

Coplan entitled his work "Fanfare for the common man".

Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)

Fanfare for the Common Man

Out of the eighteen works that opened the concerts of that season, Copland's splendid title is the only one that has not passed into oblivion. In addition to being part of the traditional orchestral repertoire, it has been the subject of countless rewrites and quotations by various popular groups, the first in 1977 by the British rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan would continue to recreate the piece, freely, opening their shows with it, as in its genesis.

Copland himself, after the war, adopted the work as the introduction to the fourth movement of his Third Symphony.

The work, a must in any festive ceremony of our days, is written for four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and gong.

The performance is by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by James Levine.

Tchaikovsky and Antonina - A story

In March 1877, the brilliant Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky received a letter from a stranger in which she expressed her deep admiration for his work. Other, increasingly passionate letters followed. The 37-year-old composer already had a well-established career, so letters from admirers did not drive him crazy: receiving them had become an almost daily occurrence.

Piotr Ilich and Antonina, in 1877,
during their "honeymoon"

Pyotr Ilyich, a sensitive nature
With a tendency to depression and subject to recurrent nervous breakdowns, Pyotr Ilyich did not, however, dare to contact the stranger. And it was not a matter of fearing gossip, for the Moscow society in which he lived in those years had long been commenting sotto voce, sometimes acrimoniously, on some of the master's behavior, deemed scandalous. The author who that same year was going to give the Russian bourgeoisie and aristocracy the most popular ballet in history, Swan Lake, was one step away from seeing his virility openly questioned.

Antonina
That is why he finally took the plunge. Pyotr Ilyich ended up meeting Antonina Miliukova, who turned out to be a young, moderately educated 28-year-old woman with pleasant features and an easy smile.
Pyotr Ilyich then took the other step. Just four months after receiving the first letter from his unknown admirer, Antonina and Pyotr Ilyich were married. The composer took Antonina as his wife and, in passing, as a retaining wall against the advance of rumors that encouraged the suspicion of an improper sexual inclination.

The denouement
The decision had disastrous results. For two endless months, Pyotr Ilyich was not able to approach the marriage bed, he had no strength for it and the marriage ended right there. They decided to separate, without grudges.
The composer fell into a depression of such magnitude that he almost committed suicide. Antonina, in turn, went back to sending letters to other celebrities to whom she lied, as did to Piotr Ilich, about her noble origin, and with whom she always ended up falling in love. Antonina did her part too and ended her days in an asylum for the mentally ill.

Violin Concerto - First movement
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto was composed in March of the following year, exactly one year after Antonina's first letter, in a lakeside resort in Switzerland, where he had fled to recover from depression. The work, in three movements, was initially rejected even by great virtuosos who considered that it presented insurmountable difficulties for the time.

The first movement lasts about 20 minutes. [Complete concerto with a listening guide, here]. The abridged version presented here is from the 1947 film Carnegie Hall, featuring one of the most remarkable violinists of the 20th century, Lithuanian master Jascha Heifetz, who plays himself in the film.

Le Concert
The more recent French-Russian film, Le Concert, does the same and presents as its final scene a mixture of the first and third movements, with a somewhat disastrous orchestra (responding to the plot) that happily ends up taking hold.

Tchaikovsky, Romanza F minor, for piano

 
Nine years before making the fatal blunder of marrying Antonina Milyukova, the young 28-year-old author Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was on the verge of making the same mistake, organizing for himself a rehearsal of the disaster of his own life. Fortunately, on the occasion it was the fiancée herself who thwarted the plans, by the simple means of abandoning her fiancé to marry another.

A prima donna

It was 1868 when Tchaikovsky met the Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt, five years his senior, who was then on tour in Russia as part of an Italian lyric company. They met at a palace party and seemingly became infatuated with each other. Something more Artôt on Piotr Ilich than this one on her, because in the course of the friendly relationship prior to the vital decision it was Désirée who was sending the daily letters and invitations, while Piotr Ilich thought that it was better to see each other only once in a while.

A life together...

By the end of 1868, however, they both began to think seriously about marriage. But Désirée's mother, who was traveling with the artist and had an eagle eye, did not take long before she learned of the composer's sexual preferences. She did not approve of the liaison and convinced her daughter that it was not good for her career to become engaged to a novice composer. For his part, Tchaikovsky, unlike nine years later, began to glimpse that engagement to a prima donna was not the best way to prevent the steady advance of rumors and gossip.

Désirée Artôt (1835 - 1907)

Désirée switches her mind

The decision was postponed. They arranged to meet in the summer of 1869, in Paris. But the meeting did not take place. In September of that year, on the way to Paris from Warsaw where the company had gone after leaving Russia, Désirée married a Spanish baritone, seven years her junior and a member of the lyric company. Tchaikovsky learned of this through third parties. As he would later say, she was the only woman he ever loved. The Romanza in F minor is dedicated to her.

Romanza in F minor, opus 5

Composed in November 1868, the short piano piece will be added to the young composer's creative corpus, which by that time included a cantata, an overture, a symphonic poem, a symphony, and two operas. Years later, Tchaikovsky would destroy the symphonic poem and the two operas, and renounce the cantata, the overture, and the symphony. But the Romanza in F minor will remain unscathed to such a phenomenal degree of self-criticism. Today, with its sentimental melody and simple three-part structure, it is one of the Russian composer's most performed solo piano works.

The performance is by Iranian-born American pianist Sara Daneshpour.

Georges Bizet, Suites from "Carmen"

Despite entering the Paris Conservatory before the age of ten, winning the first prize in solfège just six months later, being awarded first prize in piano at the age of 14 and, finally, obtaining the coveted Prix de Rome at 19, the French composer Georges Bizet often found it difficult to have his works performed. And on the occasions when he managed to overcome the obstacles during his short life, his works generally received a cold reception.

So it was the case, for example, with the 1862 opera Ivan IV, based on the life of Ivan the Terrible, which was only staged for the first time in 1946! Furthermore, on the occasions the first reception was favorable, as happened with La Jolie Fille de Perth of 1867, some financial difficulties of the organizers forced the performances to be canceled after only 18 stagings.
It seemed to be the fate of Georges Bizet.

Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875)

Carmen
And the case of his masterpiece and final work Carmen was no different, although in this case the difficulties could be anticipated, due to the drama's subject matter, starring a strong-willed gypsy and not a fragile maiden. (The performance of the protagonist was described by one critic as "the very incarnation of vice"). First performed, after the usual delays, on March 3, 1875, it had a hesitant reception, although after a while it began to meet with public approval. But Bizet did not get to know it. He died three months after the premiere, before his 37th birthday, convinced that he had conceived a new failure.

Carmen Suites
Some years after Georges Bizet's death, his close friend and collaborator Ernest Guiraud made two compilations of arias, preludes, and interludes from the opera, making up two orchestral works that he called Suite N°1, published in 1882, and Suite N°2, from 1887. Each of the suites is made up of six pieces. The version presented here is a "mix" of both suites and contains only four pieces, three of them from the first suite, and the famous Habanera, from Suite No. 2.

00      Preludio - In the opera, it came after the overture.

3:52  Aragonesa - Introduction to Act IV. This piece and the previous one make up the first "piece" of Suite No. 1.

6:58  Habanera  - Carmen's aria from Act I; included in Suite No. 2.

9:28  Los toreadores  - taken from the Prelude to Act I and the March of the Toreadors from Act IV.

The performance is by the youth ensemble Symphony Orchestra and Mixed Choir of the Kranj High School, Slovenia, conducted by its director, also Slovenian, Nejc Bečan.