Ernesto Lecuona, the greatest composer the island of Cuba has ever given to the world, was at the height of his fame when his single song "Siempre en mi corazón" – part of the soundtrack of the eponymous film – was in close competition for an Oscar award for best song in 1942. He did not get it, but it mattered little to the author because his zarzuela Maria la O and the song Siboney had been applauded all over the world for more than ten years.
A fruitful composer However, such pieces, famous in their time, are a tiny part of the composer's output born in Guanabacoa, a suburb of Havana, in 1895. The versatile and prolific creator of Malagueña is the author of about 400 songs, 37 orchestral works, eleven movie soundtracks, numerous zarzuelas, ballets, and even an opera. To all this must also be added more than 170 pieces for solo piano.
Ernesto Lecuona (1895 - 1963)
The native music
This last sphere is where Lecuona stands out to this day with vernacular brilliance. Highly valued as an interpreter of Liszt, Chopin, or Gershwin, the Cuban composer brought Afro-Cuban rhythms to the concert hall that were absent from the traditional stages until the end of the 19th century. Following in the footsteps of Ignacio Cervantes and others, Lecuona made it possible for local motifs and rhythms to occupy a space of their own, signaling with his work that Cuba and its music were also beyond the walls of Havana's elegant salons.
"Y la Negra Bailaba!"
The production of piano pieces occupied Lecuona mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. From those years are the eternal Comparsa and the unsurpassable rhythmic gem "¡Y la Negra Bailaba!"
The latter is presented here in a rendition by Cuban maestro Gabriel Urgell Reyes. It begins with two bars in charge of the left hand only, a common feature of many of Lecuona's piano pieces, a hallmark that, in a recital, allowed them to be immediately identified.
Better known today for the musical personalities with whom he was associated than for himself, the Italian musician Antonio Salieri nevertheless enjoyed wide recognition as a conductor and opera composer in Vienna and Paris during the 1770s and 1780s.
Of course, none of this was picked up by the 1984 film Amadeus, which, according to legend, decided to feature him as Mozart's alleged poisoner, albeit in a comedy tone. The truth is that among the many illustrious pupils Salieri took in – Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Czerny –, there was one by the name of Franz Xavier Mozart, a son of Wolfgang Amadeus. Then as now, no one is taught by someone who has poisoned his father.
Early years Born in Legnago, today in the province of Verona, Italy, in 1750, Antonio Salieri received his first lessons from his older brother, and at the age of 18 he composed his first opera, La Vestale, now lost and probably not a major success. But he recovered in 1771 with Armida, which for the 21-year-old Antonio Salieri was a great step forward, since it secured him a prominent position among the musical circles of Vienna, where he had arrived in 1766, under the guidance of Florian Gassmann, the court composer.
Antonio Salieri (1750 - 1825)
A prominent figure Upon Gassmann's death in 1774, he assumed his position as well as that of director of the city's Italian Opera Company. This was followed by an increasingly successful career in Milan, Venice, and Paris. From then until 1790 Salieri would live his best years; he is one of the most prominent figures in musical Europe and occupies a social position that none of his talented contemporaries, including Mozart, could ever attain. There was, therefore, no need to poison anyone.
Piano Concerto in C major Primarily a composer of operas, Antonio Salieri wrote a modest number of instrumental works. These include two piano concertos. The C Major Concerto, composed in 1773, is presented here. Gallant in style, its movements are:
00Allegro maestoso 08:58Larguetto 16:00 Andantino
The rendition is by South Korean pianist Heeguin Kim, accompanied by the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Yongho Choi.
One of the few romantic musicians born in a golden cradle, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy received from his banker father in 1829 a gift that any artist of the 19th century – and of any other century – would have eagerly envied. The twenty-year-old had already shown enough signs of talent so his father thought it appropriate for him to fulfill the dream of every artist of the time, to travel to Italy. And since the family's financial well-being could afford a little more, Mendelssohn Sr. financed Felix's travels all over Europe, back and forth, for three years.
On the way
The first visit was to England, where he conducted his own works, gaining the total admiration of the English. Then, it was Scotland, where he will take inspiration for his Scottish Symphony. In 1830, after spending a few months in different cities of Austria, he arrived in Venice on October 9. After a brief but intense visit to Florence, he jumped to Rome, where he settled for several months, meeting Hector Berlioz who was there enjoying his Grand Prix de Rome scholarship. They did not become close friends, but Mendelssohn would later invite Berlioz to conduct the Symphonie Fantastique in Leipzig.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847)
On his return
After a short visit to Naples and Pompeii in the company of friends, he will be on his way back in 1831. On his way to Switzerland, he crossed Italy again, visiting Florence, Genoa, and Milan.
Mendelssohn had been working on his first piano concerto since the previous year. So, besides exercising on the way his extraordinary gifts for painting, he took the opportunity to premiere the concerto, with him at the piano, during a short stay in Munich.
In the middle of December, he was settled in Paris. There he met Chopin and Liszt. With the first one he will become a great friend. As for the second, he will be pleasantly surprised when he witnesses the reading at first sight that the Hungarian master will make of his First Piano Concerto.
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in G minor
With very short dimensions, less than 20 minutes, the concerto was premiered in Munich in a benefit concert on October 17, 1831, with great success. However, it was Liszt who later, in Paris, made it truly famous.
It is organized in the traditional manner, fast-slow-fast movements, which follow one after the other without pause.
Movements:
00 Molto allegro con fuoco. A very fast and fierce movement. A fanfare (small brass section) at 6:35 precedes the andante, without pause.
6:50 Andante. In total contrast to the first movement, its tenderness becomes almost melancholy. With the four simple chords that end the movement, Yuja Wang takes the opportunity to show off his poise by brilliantly and astonishingly naturally achieving the piano's diminution in volume from piano to pianissimo.
12:18 Presto - Molto allegro vivace. It is also introduced by a fanfare, clearly reminiscent of the famous motif of the Fifth Symphony, three short notes and a long one. It is an exuberant, enthusiastic and lively rondo.
Yuja Wang is accompanied by the Verbier Festival Orchestra conducted by the German maestro Kurt Mazur.
At the same time that the Viennese public held him in the highest esteem as the most prestigious composer of the capital of the Empire, Ludwig van Beethoven was becoming hopelessly deaf, when the nineteenth century had not yet completed its first decade. The year 1808 marks his last public performance as a soloist, conducting from the piano an improvised orchestra for the premiere of the Concerto No. 4 in G major.
Napoleonic forces had invaded Vienna in 1805 and would do so again in 1809. Perhaps intuitively, Viennese people were enjoying an intermezzo of relative peace when the marathon session of December 22, 1808, was scheduled for the new but unbelievably chilly Theater an der Wien, run by the impresario and former Mozart librettist Emanuel Schikaneder.
On the same day, a concert was scheduled at the Burgtheater in aid of a foundation of musicians' widows. Therefore, Beethoven had to struggle to put together an orchestra to accompany him in a concert for his own benefit (as well as that of Schikaneder and the musicians), with a program that only included works of his own authorship.
Bust of Beethoven made from a life mask
A marathon evening
But the evening did take place, and Beethoven premiered there the Fifth and Sixth symphonies, the Choral Fantasy, the Mass in C major, and the Piano Concerto No. 4. As usual, the program also included an Italian Scena for female voice. The Viennese audience, perhaps aware of the historical hiatus, endured the relentless cold with nobility during the evening's four long hours.
Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 4 in G major
Composed in 1806-07, the concerto had a private performance well before its public premiere, in March 1807, at the home of Prince von Lobkowitz, one of Beethoven's noble friends. It is dedicated to his pupil, also a friend and patron, Archduke Rudolf of Austria, whom the composer favored with numerous dedications, among others, the Emperor Concerto, the Triple Concerto, and several sonatas.
The oblivion
Although at the time critics regarded it as the most admirable, personal, and complex concerto Beethoven had ever composed, the work was long forgotten until a year before his death when Felix Mendelssohn performed it on his last visit to London in 1846. Today, it is an essential part of the standard repertoire of piano concerto literature.
The rendition is by the Chilean maestro Claudio Arrau, accompanied by the Bavarian Broadcast Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein, in Munich, 1976. It must have been impressive to have witnessed the effusive mutual recognition between the two great masters, what we can see at the end of the video.
Movements:
00Allegro moderato - Unusually, the theme is introduced by the piano, a theme rhythmically close to the famous motif of the Fifth Symphony.
21:22Andante con moto - Soloist and orchestra dialogue in this simple and straightforward movement, yet full of contrasts.
27:01Rondo. Vivace - Joyful and optimistic, it is taken without pause after the Andante.
The baroque violinist and composer Arcangelo Corelli, born and died in the Papal States, today Italy, was a fortunate man from the cradle to the grave. Born into a wealthy family, he studied violin with the best teachers, and at the age of 17, he entered the Philharmonic Academy in the city of Bologna, where he had moved from his native Fustignano. He then traveled to Rome where he emerged as one of the most outstanding violinists, joining the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, who had settled there after abdicating the throne, to Corelli's good fortune.
The patrons After the queen's death, one patron after another succeeded the other, with no compromise on salaries or the kindness of the lodging. His last patron was the young Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, recipient of the office by the grace of his uncle Pope Alexander VIII. Ottoboni and Corelli became great friends. An admirer of his music, Ottoboni favored him with even more generous stipends, which was entirely fair because Corelli was already a great celebrity, enjoying fame throughout Europe. Not many musicians in history have enjoyed such a lucrative and profitable relationship with their patrons. Permanently housed in their palaces, at the end of his life, Corelli became rich. So, at his death, he earned a place in the Pantheon in Rome.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713)
The concerto grosso and the publishing industry Creator of the concerto grosso, according to some, and a wise precursor according to others, Arcangelo Corelli was able to add to his talent and good star the historical circumstance that while he was composing, the music publishing industry was emerging and flourishing in Europe, mainly in Venice, and later in Holland and Germany. This explains why in the course of his life Corelli saw a large part of his work published and disseminated internationally. It was not very extensive but enough so that after his death his scores were available to musicians and composers for a long period, thus encouraging the subsequent transformations in the field of concerto grosso by Vivaldi, Haendel or Bach.
Corelli's concerto grosso Corelli's contribution to the development of the form was rather cautious, without delving into the exploration of its possibilities. In his concerti grossi, the two blocks into which the ensemble of instruments had begun to split, concertino and ripieno, are very well balanced. The concertino, of course, acts as a unit carrying the melody, usually very brief; then the rest of the orchestra (the ripieno) enters to reaffirm the material presented by the small group, but the latter never adopts the character of a cohesive group opposed to the rest of the orchestra as a collective protagonist, as it will happen later, in the work of later baroque composers.
Concerti grossi Opus 6, No 8 - Christmas Concert The twelve concerti of opus 6 were published posthumously in Amsterdam in 1714. The most popular, to this day, bears the number 8. Commissioned by Cardinal Ottoboni, it has become known as the Christmas Concerto – it bears the entry "fatto per la notte di Natale". It is written for a concertino of two violins and cello, in dialogue with a larger group of strings and basso continuo, the ripieno.
The traditional fast-slow-fast-slow sequence of movements is here turned upside down by Corelli. Thus, for example, the third movement, adagio (4:17), incorporates a lively allegro passage.
The best-known section, Pastorale, is the last (10:38), and, unusual for the time, it is approached without a pause.
The rendition is by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by Dutch maestro Ton Kupman.
