Enrique Granados, "Valses poéticos"

"Youth everywhere is at home," wrote Enrique Granados in his Memoirs, little read but curiously, much quoted. Those were his first days in Paris. He had got lost and a parishioner took him home. The young Catalan pianist, nineteen years old, thus began, in September 1887, his brief but very profitable two-year stay in Paris. A very untimely illness deprived him of entering the Conservatory, but he studied privately with renowned Parisian pianists and music teachers. From those years are his acclaimed "Valses Poéticos" for piano, the first of his mature works.

A generous Spanish patron had brought about the miracle. A year earlier, after his father's death, Granados had found himself in need of a job as a café pianist in Barcelona. For one hundred pesetas a month, the young musician played from "two to four-thirty in the afternoon and nine to eleven-thirty at night" at the Café de las Delicias, later known as "Lion d'Or". But the café, already somewhat outdated, went from bad to worse and the pianist's position was eliminated.

Enrique Granados (11867 - 1916)

Paris and back to Barcelona
It was at that moment that the renowned businessman Eduardo Conde entered the scene, and hired Granados as his children's teacher for a generous salary, making him "the most expensive teacher in Barcelona".  Shortly thereafter, he convinced his mother that the young man should pursue studies in Paris. Two years later, Granados was back in Barcelona, having met the most representative French composers of the time, and consolidating his friendship with his compatriot Isaac Albéniz.

"Poetic waltzes", for piano

Even with what has already been pointed out, there are authors who cite its genesis in a period prior to the author's trip to Paris, when he was seventeen or eighteen years old. In any case, it is a series of seven elegant waltzes, preluded by an introduction, in four-quarter time, and closing with a colorful and ingenious coda that, surprisingly, leads to the literal and complete repetition of the first waltz.

00:00  Introducción

01:32  Melódico

03:25  Tiempo de vals noble

04:50  Tiempo de vals lento

07:02  Allegro humorístico

07:50  Allegretto (Elegante)

09:22  Quasi ad libitum (Sentimental)

11:00  Vivo - Presto

The rendition is by Spanish pianist Luis Fernando Perez. (The video includes information about Goyescas, which we assume the performer played before the Waltzes, data that the videos forgot to remove).

Charles Ives: "Central Park in the Dark", for orchestra

 
Charles Ives, a successful insurance agent, church organist, and composer in his spare time, was first taught by his father, a restless U.S. Army bandleader. Charles was barely ten years old when his father encouraged his interest in modern harmonies and polytonality. Anyone would think that being exposed to such experiences, little Charlie would have run away from music, terrified. Fortunately, this was not the case, and it was not long before the child was able to accompany his father in a bitonal duet. The father would sing a melody in a certain key and Charles, a future composer, would manage to sing the same melody in a different key. It became clear that Charles Ives would not follow a traditional path.

Author of symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas, as well as an insurance executive, the composer used to write during the commuter trains that took him to his offices in New York, without caring much about what the world thought of his music, clearly one of a difficult language. He sincerely thought so, we believe. But a review of his manuscripts, much later, showed that from 1920, the author began to falsify the dates of composition of the works, dating them at least twenty years earlier, to appear more pioneering than he was. There was no need. His music is today considered superb, intense, and an original that does not require any fraudulent revision.

Charles Ives (1874 - 1954)

Central Park in the Dark
The piece for orchestra was composed in 1906, conceived as a duo with his best-known work, An Unanswered Question. The idea of presenting the two works together is because both are based on the same experimental premise: the strings create a tenuous and stable atmosphere that remains in the background while the other instruments introduce contrasting, non-synchronous elements that will gradually accelerate.

Its original title is somewhat longer: A Contemplation of Nothing Serious or Central Park in the Dark in the Good Old Summertime. Slightly a long title. But the author himself takes care to explain what it all means:

"...the sounds of nature and events that could be heard thirty years ago, sitting on a bench in Central Park on a hot summer's night. The strings represent the sounds of the night and the silent darkness... interrupted by street singers.... [...] a carriage and a street band join the chorus [...] ...a fire engine... a horse... running away... walkers shout...[...] Darkness is heard again... and we return home."

However, the music that accompanied all this said nothing to some European critics of the time. Some went so far as to maintain that Ives was an amateur with no idea what he was doing. Today's thinking, on the other hand, at the turn of the 21st century, points out that Ives still has something to teach us today, and in terms of new ideas no less.

The performance is by the Budapest Bartok Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hungarian conductor Gergely Dubóczky. 

Tchaikovsky, "Eugenio Onegin", Polonaise

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was 37 years old when the unhappy idea of getting married popped into his mind. The chosen one (although rather the chosen one was him), nine years his junior, was Antonina Miliukova, a former pupil. As it is known, the marriage lasted two and a half months, although, better expressed, that was how long the life "as a couple" lasted. The master kept sneaking Antonina all that time, until he finally deserted the conjugal bed, for good.
The master had to resort to a rest cure. But he recovered:

"There is no doubt that for some months I have been a bit crazy, and only now, being fully recovered, have I learned to relate objectively to everything I did during my brief period of insanity. The man who in May came up with the idea of marrying Antonina Ivanovna, who during June wrote a whole opera as if nothing had happened, who in September ran away from his wife, who in November embarked for Rome and other such things; that man was not me, but another Pyotr Ilyich."

The opera he wrote "as if nothing had happened" is the most recognized and successful of the twelve he composed, Eugene Onegin, an opera in three acts based freely on the homonymous novel in verse by his compatriot Alexander Pushkin. A social and psychological portrait of Russia in the twenties in the nineteenth century.

Very briefly, the story goes like this:
Tatiana, a naive and dreamy girl, falls for the charms of the sophisticated Eugene Onegin when he goes on a visit to the countryside. Tatiana confesses her love to him, but Eugene rejects her. To make it clear, Onegin decides to flirt with Olga, Tatiana's sister, and fiancée of his best friend, Lensky. Enraged by this behavior, Lensky challenges his friend Onegin to a duel. The event ends with Lensky's death. (It is not superfluous to add here that the poet Pushkin died in a duel, in 1837, when he was just over 37 years old). Onegin disappears for a long time. Years later he meets Tatiana, already married, at a party with an old prince. Onegin sees her dancing a cheerful polonaise, more beautiful than ever. This time it is Tatiana who refuses.

Polonaise, from Eugene Onegin, opus 24
Premiered in 1879 in Moscow, the opera received a warm reception, which continues to this day.
As was customary in the lyric theater of the romantic nineteenth century, scenes of dancing and festivities were not to be missed. In the third act, Onegin reunites Tatiana at a party. The guests enjoy themselves dancing a lively polonaise. This polonaise became very popular and today it is customary to include it in the symphonic repertoire as an autonomous piece.

The Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by the Russian conductor Yuri Temirkanov.

Schumann, "Arabesque" for piano, opus 18

Probably a victim of the medical condition we know today as manic-depressive illness, Robert Schumann's life and work embody the quintessence of the romantic artist: the creation of art through suffering. The composer, somewhat reluctant to write long-term works, would display his best lyrical genius in songs and short piano pieces. The brilliant collection of miniatures Kinderszenen, from 1838, is a good example; there his extraordinary ability to translate states of the soul into music is manifested.

A year later, Schumann will leave Leipzig for Vienna, putting great distance between him and Clara Wieck, as a result of the old Wieck's rejection of their relationship. But from there he will communicate with Clara through letters and music. Arabesque opus 18 is part of that troubled connection.

Deep was the depression that assailed the maestro in Vienna. And not only sentimental. It was his teacher who was opposed to his daughter's marriage to a musician who was just starting out in a difficult art. Friedrich Wieck's fervent refusal reflected his faint-hearted expectations of his pupil's professional future. But Schumann, who never imagined himself as a second Beethoven or anything similar, managed in Vienna to create a handful of pieces of remarkable charm and grace, "delicate," he wrote, "for ladies." They are part of an intense work he developed parallel to the via crucis prior to his longed-for marriage to Clara, virtually inventing the brief, poetic romantic piece.

Arabesque, opus 18
Less than seven minutes long, this delicate piece "for ladies" makes no great demands on the performer. It is one of those unique pieces of music that, despite its low technical demands, manages to captivate the listener with its colorful and lively writing.

One might say that its title affirms that arabesques are present, but it is more of a metaphor. The little piece presents a modified rondo form (ABACA) with A, the main, lyrical theme, and two somewhat more intense sections, B and C. When the piece would seem to conclude with the last appearance of the initial theme, Schumann has a surprise in store, an exquisite intimate postlude provides the true closure.

La versión es del pianista chino Lang-Lang.

Alban Berg, Violin Concerto - "To the memory of an angel"

In February 1935, the last year of his life, the Austrian composer Alban Berg was commissioned to compose a concerto for violin and orchestra. The request came from Louis Krasner, a Russian-American violinist who would later build a notable career performing first auditions of the works of his contemporary colleagues. The commission offered was no small sum. But at the time, the fifty-year-old Berg was working intensively on his opera Lulu and, rigorous and methodical as he was, he rejected the proposal. However, Krasner had touched on a sensitive point. For dodecaphonic music to reach a broad audience, he had said, there was nothing better than giving it to them in a friendly format, a concerto. The maestro had doubts. A deep tragedy would finally convince him.

Now we must talk a little about Alma Mahler. Gustav's widow married the famous architect Walter Gropius in 1915. The relationship, from which a daughter, Marion, was born, ended in 1920. Despite the brevity of the bond, Alban Berg built a solid friendship with the couple, adding to it a great affection for little Marion, who was four years old at the time of their separation.

Alma Mahler, Gropius and Marion (1918)

The tragedy
Berg's doubts were dispelled when he learned that spring that eighteen-year-old Marion Gropius had died of polio on April 22. Absorbing all the creative energy that such a tragedy could inspire, he resolved to compose a musical memorial, to honor little Marion. "Before this terrible year is over," he wrote to Alma, "you will be able to hear a score which I will dedicate 'to the memory of an angel' and which encapsulates what I feel and cannot express today." Leaving aside the last act of his opera Lulu (which he will fail to finish), the maestro devoted himself with all his strength to the composition of the violin concerto.

"To the memory of an angel"
Alban Berg usually needed about two years to compose a work of a certain scale. This time, although his health was not the best, he only needed four months. On August 11, the concerto was finished. On the first page of the manuscript, he wrote: "To the memory of an angel", as he had promised. The dedication was extended, of course, to the violinist Krasner, who premiered it the following year in Barcelona. Alban Berg did not get to hear it. He passed away on December 24, 1935.

Violin Concerto
The work, Berg's only concerto for solo instruments, is developed according to the principles of dodecaphonic music that the composer learned from his teacher Arnold Schoenberg. Yet it has become the composer's most popular work, and the most programmed on stage. And despite its daring combination of tonal and atonal language, it is also his most accessible work.

Movements:
There are two, although each includes another section that is played without interruption. According to Berg told his biographer, in the first movement he tried to translate the girl's character traits into musical characters. The second is somewhat less pastoral, perhaps nightmarish, depicting the catastrophe of death. The work ends without fuss. It is not easy to find another work in which the silence that follows the last bars is as important as the one "heard" here.

00:00  Andante - Allegretto
11:37  Allegro - Adagio

The German violinist of Russian origin, Alina Pogostkina, is accompanied by the Gothenburg Symphony under the baton of the German conductor David Afkham.

Mozart, Concerto No 7, for three pianos

Of course, a concerto for three pianos is an unusual orchestral ensemble. Even more so if the work is intended to be performed at home, in a family atmosphere. But well into the eighteenth century, this was not that unusual. We know that in the homes of the aristocracy and the rising bourgeoisie, having a piano in the living room was a symbol of status and more. Naturally, if the nobleman or high bourgeois had achieved a comfortable financial situation, adding another piano raised his status a little higher. A third piano raised him to magnificent heights. This is what we imagine must have happened over time at Countess Lodron's home in Salzburg.

As was usual with Mozart, a good number of his piano concertos were written for specific performers. In his Vienna maturity, he wrote them for himself. In Salzburg, he intended them for his pupils, or, alternatively, for himself and his sister Nannerl. These are concertos that could be accompanied by a small group of strings, so they were perfectly suitable for an evening at home.

Concerto No. 7 for three pianos, in F major, K 242
The concerto for three pianos was composed in 1776 for Countess Antonia Lodron of Salzburg and her two daughters, all three of whom we assume were Mozart's pupils. The copy given to the family by the maestro contains the following dedication, written in his own handwriting:

"To Her Excellency, Her Ladyship, Countess Lodron, and to her daughters, Their Lordships the Countesses Aloysia and Giuseppa."

The parts for each of the three pianos are carefully elaborated according to the abilities and experience of each performer. Two of these parts are of moderate difficulty. The third, on the other hand, demands very modest skills as it was intended for the youngest of the sisters.

In the opinion of some scholars, Concerto No. 7 does not constitute a significant contribution to the maestro's concert production. But some believe that Mozart may have been the only composer capable of writing works intended to shine with modest performers. And the latter does not mean at all that the work is unimaginative or simple.

What there is no doubt about is that its performance does not demand the participation of great virtuosos. For this reason, it is pleasantly surprising that three great masters have been "concerted" in the video presented here.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro
09:04  Adagio
16:50  Rondeau. Tempo di Menuetto

The performance is by the maestros Georg Solti, Andras Schiff, and Daniel Barenboim. It occurs to us that Solti was left in charge of the piano intended for the youngest of the countesses since he must also conduct.

Beethoven, Sonata No 12 - "Funeral March"

For thirty years, Beethoven and Franz Schubert lived in the same city, Vienna. It is unknown whether they ever met. If they had, they would have exchanged entirely opposite views on access to the publication of their works. While the young Franz would have difficulties with his publishers, at the turn of the century the Bonn-born master wrote in a letter that "I do not sign a contract with them [his publishers], I set my own conditions and they pay me". These are good years for Beethoven, he is thirty years old and a celebrity in Vienna. And very productive. In addition to finishing the First Symphony, in 1801, an annus mirabilis, he writes four sonatas. At times he feels discomfort in his ears, but nothing to worry about.

The group of four sonatas includes the renowned Moonlight and Pastoral. It begins with the lesser-known Sonata No. 12, opus 26, which according to some authors would be the last of his classical period and according to others the first of his middle period. There is no doubt that the master is exploring new territories: the sonata has four movements, they are played without interruption, they are all written, unusually, in the same key -A flat-, and the third movement contains a Funeral March, just like Chopin's "Funeral" Sonata. And if all this didn't add up, none of the four movements is written in "allegro de sonata" form (that which takes a theme, develops it and then recapitulates it) even though the piece is a sonata.

Sonata No 12, opus 26, in A flat major - Movements

00:00 Andante con variazoni
One more novelty. The usual allegro of the first movement has been replaced by a theme and variations, five in all. The only known antecedent of this innovation is due to W.A. Mozart, present in the Sonata K331, that of the famous Turkish March.

09:12 Scherzo. Allegro molto
After the variations, the maestro follows the usual classical sequence of fast-slow-fast movements. The second movement, then, is a scherzo, marked allegro molto. Here we meet again a young Beethoven, very agile.

11:55 Marcia fúnebre sulla morte d'un Eroe. Maestoso andante
Funeral march. As expected, there has been a lot of speculation about it, but Beethoven left no trace of who that eroe might have been. Very popular among the Romantics (even today, perhaps: it is the movement we remember most), it was the only Beethoven sonata that Chopin played in public. Its outspoken popularity, moreover, led the master to write an arrangement for wind and brass, which was performed at his funeral.

18:27 Allegro
Against all odds, the funeral march will lead into a brilliant allegro, a brief but impetuous movement in ABA form (A theme, B theme, A theme), with a somewhat dramatic but never too serious B theme. The left hand does not rest in its perpetual motion figurations. A simple coda leads to a finale in which, diminuendo after diminuendo, the sound seems to evaporate.

The performance is by maestro Daniel Barenboim.

Stravinsky, Tango, for piano

Shortly after the Russian master Igor Stravinsky left Europe in 1939 to settle in sunny and joyful California, he began to experience financial problems. The royalties which, until then, had assured him regular income in France, were not available in this promising new world. He blamed this, through negligence, on his former partner Sergei Diaghilev, with whom he had known success and fame in Paris after The Firebird and The Rite of Spring premieres. Faced with financial uncertainty, Stravinsky wrote several short works with the explicit purpose of making some money. Tango, for piano, is one of them.

Two years earlier the maestro had lost his eldest daughter to tuberculosis. The following year, months before the outbreak of the Second World War, his wife and then his mother died. But the maestro did not take long to get back on his feet. At the beginning of 1940, shortly after giving some famous lectures at Harvard University, he married the former Russian ballerina Vera de Bosset, with whom he had maintained a parallel relationship for many years. Soon after, Stravinski and his new wife were settled in Hollywood. The war was still raging in the old world. At the end of the conflict, both took American citizenship.

Tango, for piano
Although somewhat free rhythmically, the atmosphere of the dance is unmistakable in its three minutes of extension. A light but charming piece that does not hide the lightness of its genesis. As the consummate pianist he was, Stravinsky will have amazed audiences. But he went a step further. Seeking maximum return, he tried transcribing it to different orchestral combinations, including jazz band. Finally, he topped off with two arrangements for chamber orchestra and one for violin and piano.

The rendition is by the Israeli pianist Einav Yarden.

Schubert, four-hand piano / Rondo in A

On March 26, 1828, eight months before his death, Franz Schubert was honored in Vienna by his circle of friends with a concert devoted entirely to his music, and for the artist's benefit. It was the first and the last. Almost simultaneously, Niccolo Paganini began his concert marathon in the capital of the Habsburg Empire. Beginning three days after the tribute to Schubert and ending on July 24, the violinist stuffed the Viennese with fourteen recitals. The press did not tire of singing the praises of the "Paganini phenomenon", but dedicated only a couple of lines to his fellow countryman Franz Schubert.

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

The tribute concert had been a great success, even though a large part of the audience was not familiar with the composer's works. A similar apathy had been the trend among music publishers until not so long ago. It was only in about 1822 that publishers began to show a somewhat waning interest in publishing the little master's music. The response of the publisher Peters to a letter from Franz's friends requesting the publication of some of his pieces is famous: "My interest is focused on already established artists... the mission of revealing new talents is for someone else...".

Domenico, a gentle publisher
But in 1828, Schubert had long had a publisher: the Artaria House. The master had learned to deal with such circumstances, and also with his precarious health, very weakened as a result of syphilis contracted seven years earlier. Against all odds, that last year saw the birth of some of his best works: the last three Piano Sonatas, the Fantasy in F minor, and the remarkable and famous Serenade, among others. Domenico Artaria, the publisher, then felt the need to request a small work for piano four hands... the fortepiano, recently introduced in the salons of the rising bourgeoisie, was crying out for a piece for the enjoyment of the family.

Rondo in A major, D 951
Commenced in June of that year, Schubert's last work for piano four hands was published the month after his death, under the title "Grand Rondo".
The work does not soar to great heights but neither does it reveal a melancholy mood, which might have been expected. In its twelve-minute length, Schubert returns to a period when he wrote little gems for himself and his friends, to simply enjoy them in a pleasant evening. For the same reason, the work does not present insurmountable difficulties for either the performers or the listener.

The rendition is by the great Argentine maestros Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim.

Paul Lincke: "Berliner Luft" March

At the age of ten, almost every day, the German composer Paul Lincke watched from the window of his house in the center of Berlin the parade of troops marching to the rhythm of military bands. One day, he simply decided to join in: "As soon as I heard the music booming, I announced to my mother that I was coming down. Leaping, I gained the street. I waited for the soldiers to approach and marched enthusiastically to the steady beat of the music toward the Unter den Linden station."

It will be precisely a march, Berliner Luft (Berliner Air), that allows his name to appear even today in the Berliner Philharmoniker's handbills.

Regarded as the founder of Berlin operetta – just as Strauss Jr. was for Vienna, or Offenbach in Paris – the composer was born in Berlin in November 1866. As was to be expected, his first contact with music was in a band, that of the city of Wittenberge, where his mother sent him after finishing high school. There he played the bassoon, although he also learned violin and piano. But he did not pursue a career as a band musician. He would soon shine as a bassoonist and songwriter in various vaudeville theaters in his hometown. Later, as a mature musician, he served for two years at the Folies Bergère in Paris.

On his return, in 1899, he premiered his greatest success, the operetta Frau Luna (Lady Moon), which narrates a singular adventure: the story of a group of prominent Berliners who travel by hot-air balloon to the moon. Five years later, in 1904, he premiered a burlesque in two acts, Berliner Luft, to which belongs the homonymous march, today the unofficial anthem of Berlin, and which every year serves as the closing of the Berlin Philharmonic's performance on the Berlin open-air stage known as the Waldbühne.

Berliner Luft March
It is customary for the conductor to occasionally leave the podium and take the place and instrument of one of the musicians. Kurt Masur has been seen on the timpani. This time, it is Gustavo Dudamel who exchanges places with the first violin.

Berliner Philharmoniker, at Waldbühne, Berlin, July 2017.

Debussy, La Mer - Trois Esquisses Symphoniques

In 1901, Claude Debussy premiered Nocturnes, his first work for orchestra in three sections. Although the work was well received by his fellow musicians, it did not elicit much enthusiasm from the public. But the composer was satisfied with the spirit of his peers to attempt a new project in a similar format two years later.

Completed in 1905, the orchestral work La Mer had its premiere in October of that year. This time, the composer's work was not well received by either the public or the critics. Two circumstances had conspired. To the clumsy performance of that evening (according to reviews of the time) was added the bitterness generated among Parisians by Debussy's relationship with Emma Bardac, which had led his abandoned wife, his "green-eyed Gaby", to attempt suicide two days before the premiere.

First sketches
The first sketches of La Mer were elaborated in August 1903 in the Burgundy region. Its three movements intended to illustrate musically the magnificent force of the sea, its tumultuous swell, and also its seductive calm, were completed in March 1905, but not in front of a majestic ocean but before the simple shores of the English Channel, in the south of England, where the sea, in the words of the master, "folds and unfolds with British correctness".

Debussy (1862 - 1918)

The Great Wave
As he later pointed out, Debussy took more inspiration from pictures and paintings depicting the sea than from the circumstance of being located in its vicinity. The master was smitten by "The Great Wave", Hokusai's famous engraving, and did not hesitate to ask his publisher to reproduce it on the cover of the printed score.

Three Symphonic Sketches - Trois Esquisses Symphoniques 
Although the work contains three symphonic movements that would properly qualify it as a symphony, Debussy added to its descriptive title the subtitle "Three Symphonic Sketches" precisely so that the work would not be known as an orthodox symphony, nor as a symphonic poem. In line with the rejection of all formalism, it is speculated that the composer thus managed to emphasize the originality of the work while avoiding association with any other genre.

Satie (1866 - 1925)

The critics
However, as we noted initially, the reviews were not favorable at the premiere. There were even admirers of Debussy's work who were disappointed on the occasion. The commentator of the newspaper Le Temps even noted that he could not hear the sea. Nor did he see or smell it, he said - which was certainly too much to ask.
Erik Satie, a friend of Debussy, best expressed the audience's feelings, though in his particular style. At the end of the evening, he would have said to the master: "My dear friend, there is a particular moment that I found impressive: between half past ten and a quarter to eleven".

Significance
But the disenchantment did not last long. It only took a couple of years for the Parisian public to become enchanted, and later, for the rest of the world, until today. More than a hundred years later, La Mer is considered one of the great orchestral works of the twentieth century, proving the master right. The work does not describe the sea (if it did, we would be before a symphonic poem, without appeal), it "portrays" it symbolically, we are before a piece of music "invented in the image of the sea, a mobile, unpredictable, and free element".

The three sketches:
00:00  De l'aube à midi sur la mer - evokes the awakening of the sea and the welcoming of the sun.
10:06  Jeux de vagues - on the gentle and permanent swaying of the waves.
17:44  Dialogue du vent et de la mer - two antagonistic forces in continuous struggle, the sea and the wind.

Paavo Järvi conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

C.H. Reinecke, Concerto for Flute

Assessing his own significance as a composer, the German author Carl Heinrich Reinecke, with an unusual candor for a romantic artist (even of late romanticism), once confessed: "I cannot but agree with those who call me an epigone" (i.e., a continuator, a lesser follower of the one being followed). Posterity has proved him right, unfortunately. Of his enormous catalog, which reaches 288 opus numbers, few works are today properly part of the standard repertoire. His Concerto for flute and orchestra is one of those valuable exceptions.

Born in Altona, Hamburgo, in 1824, the composer showed early talent. As a teenager, he was a competent orchestral violinist, and before the age of twenty, he was touring northern Germany as a skilled pianist. He did not achieve a reputation as a great virtuoso, but Franz Liszt held him in high esteem, making him the teacher of his daughter Cosima (Richard Wagner's future wife).

In 1860 he was appointed conductor of the famous Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipzig and shortly afterward he was giving composition lessons at the Conservatory, where he remained until 1902. In his later years, he gave up public performances but continued to compose until the end of his days.

C.H. Reinicke (1824 - 1910)

His vast catalog includes six operas and operettas, three symphonies, numerous overtures, and abundant chamber music. He also wrote four piano concertos (one less than Beethoven), as well as concertos for violin, cello, harp, and flute. Of the latter, the concertos for flute and harp, it has been said that they are among his best compositions. And of the Flute Concerto in D major, one scholar has noted that it constitutes "an important contribution to the genre".

Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, in D minor, opus 283
Written in 1908, just two years before his death, this is the last of his works in the concerto genre for soloist and orchestra. Arranged in the usual three movements, its little more than 20 minutes appeal to a more "classical" than "romantic" orchestra, in the sense that, in the absence of moments of great exaltation, the trombones, for example, or the tuba, can be dispensed with.

As scholars remark, in line with his passionate reverence for the classics, Carl Reinecke constructed fluid, decorous, elegant, and scrupulously crafted music.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro molto moderato
09:30  Lento e mesto
16:00  Moderato

The rendition is by the young Genoa-born artist Sébastian Jacot.

Anton Bruckner, Symphony No 4, "Romantic" Symphony - Finale

Bruckner, a "folksy" composer
Anton Bruckner was a rather peculiar composer. A first-rate organist, he became a meticulous composer after the age of 37, an advanced age if we remember that Mozart died at 35. In his thirties, aware of his weaknesses in harmony and counterpoint, he decided to take a correspondence course with a renowned pedagogue (the pedagogue in Vienna, Bruckner in Linz). Six years later, he repeated the procedure to refine his knowledge of orchestration.
As a result of this distance learning, by the age of forty, he enjoyed a name for himself. He took up the position of professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, but his simple, folksy, and "unworldly" spirit had not changed. Before the premiere of the Fourth Symphony in 1880, after an encouraging rehearsal, he put a few coins in the hand of the conductor, the very aristocratic Hans Richter, inviting him to celebrate with a beer.

Born in Ansfelden, Austria, in 1824, the eldest of eleven children of a schoolmaster and organist, Anton Bruckner is the author of masses, motets, choral works, and the nine symphonies for which he is best known, monumental, rigorous works of elaborate contrapuntal writing, according to scholars. In 1865, the author attended the premiere of Tristan and Isolde, an experience that transformed him into a fervent admirer of Wagner, until the end of his days. However, the influence, or the "Wagnerian" component of his later work, is still a matter of debate.

Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896)

A fervent Catholic
Bruckner never married, but the Catholic, apostolic and Roman orientation of his religious spirit was not an obstacle for him to develop the curious habit of proposing marriage to blossoming girls who then rejected him, provoking in him an inexplicable annoyance. As the years went by, his imperfection in seduction increased, in parallel with other "eccentricities" that astonished his acquaintances and that today we understand as obsessive-compulsive behaviors. As a result of a crisis, in 1867 he had to enter a sanatorium where he stayed for three months.
But he lived thirty years more. The maestro died in Vienna, in October 1896, with his Ninth Symphony finished in its first three movements.

Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, "Romantic" - Mov 4
It is the only one of his symphonies to which the composer gave a title, which should be understood in the sense that it points to a medieval "romance", such as Lohengrin, or Wagner's Siegfried.
Numerous versions are in existence. The original version dates from 1874 but was never performed or published during the master's lifetime. From that date, Bruckner revised it again and again, until the last modifications in 1887. The opinion of a couple of students was not alien to such a hustle and bustle, who argued the need to make the maestro's music more "friendly" to the listener.

The work has four movements and a total length of about an hour.
Therefore, we present here the coda of the last movement, Finale, in its 1880 version, and marked by the author as "Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell", something like "moved, but not too much", which has become one of the most successful symphonic endings.

The Romanian maestro, Sergiu Celibidache, conducts the Münchner Philharmoniker, 1983.

Beethoven, "Diabelli Variations"

Born in 1781 near Salzburg, Anton Diabelli was a musician of limited creativity but with great skills as an impresario. As a young man, he also pursued ecclesiastical studies which he did not complete due to unmanageable circumstances, such as Napoleon's handing over to the State the monasteries where he intended to study. Thus it was that in 1803 he settled in Vienna intending to pursue a career in music, for he had already composed, after all, half a dozen masses. In the capital of the empire, he taught piano and guitar and composed simple pieces for the delight of the rising bourgeoisie, but his main source of income was his work as a copyist and proofreader for local publishing houses.

Capri & Diabelli Publishers
By 1817 he had set up his own company, and the following year he formed a partnership with Pietro Cappi, a well-known art dealer, and engraver. The lusty firm Capri & Diabelli made its first publication in December 1818; before long it was known as a purveyor of folk dances and arrangements of opera pieces for the amateur market. In order to balance the catalog and reach a wider market, in 1819 Diabelli began to send a waltz of his own to the most prominent Austrian composers for them to devise a variation based on it. The compilation was to be published for the benefit of the families of soldiers who had fallen in the recent wars.

Anton Diabelli (1781 - 1858)

By 1823, fifty composers had sent the publisher their contribution. Among them, to name but a few, were Schubert, Moscheles, Kalkbrenner, Hummel, Czerny (including the latter's eleven-year-old pupil Franz Liszt, thanks to the good offices of his teacher). One variation per composer, with the exception of Beethoven who sent thirty-three.

At the time he received the waltz, Beethoven was working on the composition of the Missa Solemnis... and was not very interested. But after a while, the idea of an encyclopedic work on the technique of the variations aroused his enthusiasm. When the Mass was finished in 1822, he completed the formidable set of variations and sent them to Diabelli, who published them as the master's Opus 120, also forming the first volume of the compilation for profit. The remaining fifty authors were grouped in Volume II.

The Diabelli Waltz
Initially, Beethoven not only disapproved of the piece but described it as being as musical as a "cobbler's patch". To some scholars, the qualification seems appropriate if one looks at its structure of "musical sequences repeated one after the other, each time modulated at similar intervals." This is undoubtedly true, but opinions on the musical value of this sequence vary over a wide range. For the most benevolent, this is a wholesome, graceful piece, devoid of any affectation or sentimentality. At the other extreme, there is nothing here but banality, a "beer hall waltz"... To form your own opinion, nothing better to pay full attention to the theme, in the video below.

33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, C Major, Opus 120
Here, however, there are no two opinions. The experts are unanimous in their enthusiasm for the work's grandeur. Hans von Büllow called it "a microcosm of Beethoven's genius". Another sees in it a mixture of "heavenly serenity, wild passion and noble majesty". It has also been compared to the Goldberg Variations for its grandeur, depth and stylistic and emotional calibre.
However, for the ordinary listener, this inspired mastery has proved difficult to assimilate. Its sheer length requires extreme concentration sustained over time, hence publishers and even performers have tried to rearrange or manipulate the work in order to make it "lighter" to the ear. But such lightness would only succeed in weakening a masterpiece which, in any case, is the result of an enormous effort of the intellect, considering the extreme simplicity of the original theme.

Published in Vienna in 1823 by Capri & Diabelli, the work is dedicated to Antonie Brentano, once noted as one of the probable "Immortal Beloved" of an earlier period in the master's life. The complete work lasts about an hour.

The rendition is by the young Mexican maestro Gavin Arturo Gamboa.

 

Saint-Saëns, "Bacchanal", from Samson and Delilah

Camille Saint-Saëns, composer, pianist, organist, inspired teacher, and promoter of the music of his contemporaries, was also a seasoned traveler and talented writer. To all this, he also added a zealous dedication to various disciplines such as astronomy, archeology, philosophy, and even the occult sciences. However, when in 1867, in his thirties, he presented to a small group of listeners the project for his second opera (the first, then still unperformed), the small audience refused to believe that the maestro could successfully bring to the stage a subject of an openly biblical nature.

The work of dissent, Samson and Delilah, an opera in three acts, is indeed based on an episode from the Old Testament, specifically chapters 13 to 16 of the Book of Judges, which tells the story of a conflict between the Hebrews and the Philistines, taking place in Gaza, no less.
Saint-Saëns' original idea was to create an oratorio. It was his librettist, very occasional by the way (the young husband of "a relative of mine" who wrote verse) who convinced him of its theatrical potential.

But the idea had to wait, until 1875, when the maestro presented the First Act in a concert that excited no one. Franz Liszt, a fervent admirer of the project, declared his public support, and Saint-Saëns finally managed to finish it in 1876. Thanks to the good offices of the Hungarian master, the complete work could be premiered in Weimar the following year. But until then, the Parisians remained cold and distant. It was not until 1892 that the Paris Opera staged the complete show, which gradually won its audience until it became the longest-lived of the thirteen operas composed by the master.

The Bacchanal
The bawdy celebration with origin in the festivities in honor of the god Bacchus (or Dionysus) is located at the beginning of Act Three. In the temple, the Philistines prepare a celebration in gratitude for the capture of the Hebrew leader, who is none other than Samson, whose hair, the source of his power, has been cut off by the sensual Delilah. The Philistines indulge in a frenzied dance, unaware that Samson's hair is growing back, so he will soon regain his power and finally destroy the temple with his arms. But in the meantime, the Philistines celebrate, and dance.
Sinuous melodic lines of an "oriental", or "exotic" character, accompanied by lush percussion, drive the dance, which lasts just under seven minutes.

The performance is by the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas, under the baton of Venezuelan conductor Dietrich Paredes.