Camille Saint-Saëns, Introduction and Rondo capriccioso

The French romantic composer Camille Saint-Saens, born in Paris in 1835, as well as a child prodigy, was a lucky being. Although he was predicted to endure meager health, he managed to live up to 86 years, an unusual occurrence for the time.
Camille had learned to read at age three. As a true child prodigy, he made his first public presentation at age five and at ten he gave his first piano recital. This, in the field of music, of course. But Camille was a multifaceted guy. In adolescence, he became interested in botany and archeology. Then he became a mathematical expert. Later, as an adult, he became interested in numerous subjects: acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theater and ancient instruments.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921)

A philosopher, a poet, and an astronomer
He also wrote a philosophical work, where he argued that art and science would replace religion. He was a poet, too. As if all this were not enough, he was a member of the Astronomical Society of France, where he gave some lectures on astronomical mirrors. Then he made for himself a telescope according to its own specifications. His passion for astronomy may have taken him a little far because as a grown-up he used to plan his concerts according to astronomical events, such as the next solar eclipses.

A prolific musician
All these occupations did not prevent him from becoming the author of more than three hundred musical works, including operas, orchestral music, chamber music, concertos for various instruments and orchestra, piano transcriptions from various authors, plus sacred and choral music. Among the music for violin and orchestra, stand out his two Concertos, Havanaise and the Rondó capriccioso.

Introduction and Rondo capriccioso
In 1859, when he was just fifteen years old, another child prodigy, a prodigy of violin, Pablo de Sarasate, had asked Saint-Saëns for the composition of a concerto for that instrument, a request that Camille complied with the publication of his Concerto No. 1 in A minor. Quite pleased with Camille's work, four years later Pablo tried again and asked for another piece for violin and orchestra, if possible in a style evoking the spirit of Spanish dance, a very fashionable trend among French romantics of the time (Edouard Lalo, Georges Bizet, to name but a few). Saint-Saens fully complied with the request and the result is the beautiful piece Introduction and Rondó capriccioso in A minor, premiered by Sarasate in Paris in 1867.

The rendition is by the impetuous Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic, led by Estonian conductor Neeme Jarvi. Surprisingly, the piece begins with the Introduction; in the minute 1:35 it starts to take off to give way to the agile rondo.

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Verdi, Rigoletto, Aria "Caro Nome"

Quite a few difficulties had Giuseppe Verdi to overcome before the premiere of his opera Rigoletto at Teatro La Fenice, in Venice, in 1851. The play on which it is inspired belongs to Victor Hugo. With the title Le Roi s'amuse, the play staged a cynical and immoral seductive king. For that reason, it had been banned in France for twenty years and would continue for another thirty. Although it was the very Teatro La Fenice that had asked Verdi for a new play, it seemed difficult to perform it in Venice, due to Austrian censorship.

With great caution, Verdi and his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, moved to Busetto, Verdi's hometown, to work out of sight and ears of the censors. It didn't help much because three months before the premiere, censorship got there in letter format:

"The military Governor of Venice, il Signore Gorzowsky, deplores that the poet Piave and the famous musician Verdi have failed to choose another field to make their talents emerge than that of the disgusting immorality and obscene triviality of the libretto entitled La maledizione [its working title]. His excellence has thus arranged absolutely veto the representation ... and be advised to refrain from any further insistence on this."

Joining wisdom with goodwill, Giuseppe and his librettist decided to make some changes to the libretto. Starting with the title, which was changed to Rigoletto (from French rigoler - laugh), then the king of France became a duke who governs Mantua (a duchy that no longer exists), and, going beyond, the Duke became part of the Gonzaga family, a family no one remembered because had been extinguished in Italy many years ago. The censor approved the representation.

Caro nome
The aria belongs to scene II of Act I. The deceived girl (there is always one), named Gilda, daughter of court jester Rigoletto, has just met a formal, circumspect and respectful young man in the church, whom she falls in love with and who has identified himself as a student, a poor student, to be precise. Actually, he is the cynical and evil duke. Gilda sings recalling the false name he has told her: Gualtier Maldé. Caro nome (dear name), she says, to top it off.
The Russian soprano Ekaterina Bakanova sings, in a performance in Austria for the Opera Festival of St. Margarethen, where, it is seen, no expenses were spared.

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George Gershwin, Three Preludes

When George Gershwin was born in America, in 1898, the great northern country was beginning to emerge as a powerful and expansionist power. It had just taken Spain's last possessions in the Caribbean and the Philippines and was on its way to becoming the great imperialist power of the twentieth century. The country was settling territorially, and at the same time, thousands of emigrants were approaching North America due to the shock wave of the Industrial Revolution in the European continent.

Coming from St. Petersburg, the Gershovitz family arrived in the promised land in the second half of the 19th century, and soon after, in an understandable desire for integration, they Americanized their last name by changing it to Gershwin. His children will be George and Ira, the first one would be a musician and pianist, and the later, lyricist of his younger brother's songs.

Three Preludes

George Gershwin (1898 - 1937)

The three short pieces known as Preludes – which should be understood as a unique work – were released in 1926, a year after the premiere of the Piano Concerto. They immediately became an indisputable success, because they perfectly fit with the "simultaneistic" atmosphere that proclaimed the integration of jazz with serious music, a task that, in the opinion of his contemporaries, George Gershwin was the one in a position to carry out. This had been outright illustrated with his 1924 Rhapsody in blue.

The rendition is by Krystian Zimerman. Each of these three preludes does not last more than two minutes. In the video, the rest are applause between prelude and prelude. The second prelude, a slow and melancholic melody, allows a blues to act as an adage in this little masterpiece of which, incidentally, transcriptions have been made for orchestra, one of them, emerged from Arnold Schönberg's invention.

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Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, mov I

In the household of the Rimski-Korsakov, in the small town of Tihvin, 120 miles east of Saint Petersburg, all the family was fond of music. The mother of the future composer Nikolai played the piano a little and the father a little less. An uncle who lived with the family liked to walk around the rooms singing popular songs. Despite all this, in 1850, little Nikolai began serious musical studies at age six with a much older neighbour who made him know the first musical rules. Then a governess would come and then the daughter of a neighbour who put him in touch with Beethoven's works.

The family, somewhat aristocratic, had a military background. An uncle of Nikolai was admiral of the Russian imperial fleet. His older brother, also a sailor, sent letters from the Far East that excited the child's imagination with the mysteries and adventures of the sea and the matters of navigation. And there being no other musicians in Tihvin who encouraged the boy to pursue a musical career, in 1856 he left the town and arrived in St. Petersburg to join the Imperial Russian Navy.

Midshipman Rimski-Korsakov, in 1864

The future composer left the naval school in 1862 as a midshipman and was assigned to a frigate that was preparing for a long cruise. However, throughout his training as a sailor, Nikolai never abandoned his musical studies, which disgusted his older brother who constantly scolded him for being more interested in music than in the marina.
Mili Balakirev, future member, as Rimski, of the Five mighty (Balakirev, Musorgsky, César Cui, Rimski and Borodin) had encouraged him to write music while he was not on the open seas. He did so producing in these conditions at least one symphony. Perhaps Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov is the only musician in the world been taught "under the wing" of a military institution.

Symphonic Suite "Scheherazade", opus 35 - First movement
Composed during the summer of 1888, the suite is a work in four movements inspired in some way in One Thousand and One Nights. Or at least that was the first intention if we look at the guidelines that originally headed each movement. In a second edition, the author suppressed them because, according to his own confession, he only intended to show some oriental scenes and so orientate the listener's fantasy. Nevertheless, these indications are kept up to date in handheld programs.
The first movement of the suite is entitled: "The Sea and Sinbad's ship." A musical motif is maintained throughout the work: the voice of Scheherazade, represented by the solo violin.

The rendition is by the Leipziger Gewandhausorchester, led by the German conductor Kurt Masur.

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Beeethoven, Arrau and the Moonlight Sonata

Ludwig van Beethoven settled down in Vienna in 1793, at a privileged moment. That was, at least, the feeling of some of his contemporaries. Mozart had just left his throne when dying two years earlier in the same city at thirty-five. Therefore, as soon as Count Waldstein learned of Beethoven's trip to Vienna, he sent a letter to young Ludwig, aged 23, suggesting him to study with Haydn, still alive, so that he "inherited the spirit of Mozart."

But Beethoven was not willing to inherit anyone's spirit. Moreover, with both personalities in antipodes, Haydn's teaching could not work. The same was true with other teachers. The exception was Antonio Salieri, alleged poisoner of the one whose spirit was desirable to inherit. Beethoven studied with the Italian teacher until 1802; subsequently, he was always willing to make use of his advice.

In 1801, being still a disciple of Salieri, maestro Beethoven was already a personality in Vienna and lived according to the comforts of a bourgeois home, thanks to his own effort and also to the patronage of some friends: Prince Lichnowsky, to whom he would dedicate the Pathetic sonata, "has sent me a commission of 600 florins," he said in a letter that year.

But his health was fragile. In the same letter, he noted that "my sense of hearing has progressively weakened." Later he confesses to being living a hermit's life: "for almost two years I have tried to avoid all company, simply because I cannot tell people that I am deaf."

Anyway, 1801 was the year he wrote the sonata that, from then to the present time, has obtained the greatest favour from the public: the Sonata No 14, Op 27 No 2, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata.

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2: "Sonata quasi una fantasia”
The complete sonata is presented here, its three movements, in the rendition by the maestro Claudio Arrau (born in Chillán, Chile, in 1903 and passed away in Austria, in 1991, when he was on his way to give a recital in an Austrian city). The video is a little gem, as noted by a good number of comments on YouTube. The most enthusiastic exhorts young teachers to observe and understand, listening to Arrau, "the true meaning of the art of playing the piano."

Movements:
00:00  Adagio sostenuto
06:54  Allegretto
09:22  Presto agitato