P. I. Tchaikovsky, piano Concerto No 2 - Andante

Nikolai Rubinstein had been rather bitter when Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky made him listen to his first piano concerto, at Christmas 1874. On the occasion, the eminent pianist vilified the work even though he was later to become one of its most applauded performers. So when he received the first sketches of the second work for piano and orchestra on which Tchaikovsky had decided to venture six years later, maestro Rubinstein was extremely cautious, making very thoughtful and careful remarks.

And although relations had somewhat deteriorated, Tchaikovsky thought of rededicating his second concerto to Rubinstein, in recognition of the popularity the first one was enjoying thanks to the performances the talented Rubinstein was giving. He let his patroness Nadezhda von Meck know this, adding that although he was somewhat concerned about Rubinstein's opinion, he simply hoped that on this occasion the lapse of time between the first critical impression of the gifted pianist and the performance of the concerto would be shorter.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(1840 - 1893)

Looking for a suitable performer
But there was no such lapse. Rubinstein managed to give his opinion (closing his impressions with a respectful "but perhaps I am wrong"), thanked for the dedication, but was unable to perform the work, as he died soon after, in March 1881. In the ensuing search for a suitable Russian interpreter, the premiere had to be performed in New York by an American pianist in November of the same year. Four months later, the Russian premiere took place in March 1882, with a former disciple of Tchaikovsky at the piano, and in the conduction, Anton Rubinstein, former composition teacher of the maestro and brother of the acclaimed pianist and dedicatee of the work.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in G major, op 44

The work is unusually long, lasting about three-quarters of an hour for its complete performance. Initially, it was even longer, and Tchaikovsky himself had to agree to shorten it before its final publication in 1880.

2nd movement - Andante
The work is in three movements, structured in the typical manner (fast-slow-fast movements).
Presented here is the second, the slow movement, andante non troppo, a page full of serenity and beauty, in a rendition by the remarkable Russian pianist Boris Berezovski, accompanied by the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the Russian maestro Dmitri Liss.
The movement is opened by the cello, followed by the violin. The piano makes its entrance only at 3:20 minutes, with restrained drama.

Jan K.J. Neruda, Concerto for trumpet and string orchestra

 
The dates of birth and death of the today almost forgotten Czech composer Jan Krtitel Jiri Neruda (Germanized his names as Johann Baptiste Georg), remain so far wholly uncertain. It is assumed that he was born around 1708 in Bohemia – today part of the Czech Republic – and died in Dresden around 1780.

The Neruda family, of course, cultivated music. A brother of Jan, as well as one of his sons, were musicians. However, no relation exists with the cellist of the romantic era Alois Neruda, and neither is there with the poet of the XIX century Jan Nepomuk Neruda, from whom Neftalí Reyes, the Chilean poet, took his name to become Pablo Neruda.

Konzertmeister in Dresden
Jan Neruda studied violin in Prague while working as a violinist in a theater orchestra, where he remained until 1750 when he joined the Dresden court orchestra, becoming later its konzertmeister (its concertmaster, that is to say, the first violin). He was a notable court composer of the time. Along with sacred works, an opera, and several trio sonatas, he produced 18 symphonies and wrote 14 concertos for various instruments, including the most renowned, the Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major.

Concerto for trumpet and string orchestra in E flat major
The work, a little gem of the late baroque, was composed sometime in the period between 1740 and 1775. It was originally written for the instrument of the time known as "corno di caccia" (or in French, trompe de chasse), widely used by Bach and Haendel, whose mouthpiece was very similar to that of the modern trumpet, hence the work can be performed today without much difficulty using the modern instrument.

Movements
00        Allegro - In allegro sonata form, is very Mozart-like according to scholars, which at first seems odd but is not so strange since Mozart was almost 20 years old by the time Neruda may have finished the work.
06:37  Largo - Also in the key of E-flat, a lovely bit in the style of an aria da capo (A-B-A form).
12:29  Vivace - Written in ternary time signature, also in E-flat (I imagine because of the limitations of the original instrument), a flowing and powerful line.

The performance is by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Goiás, Brazil, conducted by Eliseu Ferreira. As a soloist, Heinz Schwebel.

Léo Delibes, Coppelia - Swanilde Waltz

The ballet Coppelia, by French romantic author Léo Delibes, was the first work in the history of this musical genre to feature a mechanical doll that comes to life as part of the plot. It is a light and amusing work, despite the fact that its plot is based, albeit loosely, on a rather sinister tale by German composer and writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann (The Sandman), which tells the story of a mysterious inventor, Doctor Coppelius, who has managed to build in his gloomy laboratory a life-size dancing doll, which he will baptize Coppelia. The illusion of reality caused by the scientist's creation captivates Frantz, a peasant who falls in love with the doll, abandoning his girlfriend and beloved in the real world, the beautiful Swanilde.

Léo Delibes
At the time of its composition, Léo Delibes was 32 years old. He had studied at the Paris Conservatory, where he was a student of Adolphe Adams, author of another famous ballet, the peerless Giselle. After graduating, he worked as an organist, choir conductor, and piano accompanist, while also composing operettas without achieving particular brilliance. His fame and recognition came in 1870, with the premiere of Coppelia at the Paris Opera, on May 25 of that year, which was a resounding success.

Léo Delibes (1836 - 1891)

Coppelia and the war

The role of Swanilde was played on that occasion by a child prodigy, 16-year-old Giuseppina Bozzacchi, whose career as a dancer lasted only a few months, as she died of cholera the following year as a result of the epidemic unleashed after the siege of Paris, in the midst of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. The war also prevented a more prolonged enjoyment of the ballet's success, since the performances of the work had to be interrupted. But after the end of the confrontation, Coppelia became one of the most performed and applauded ballets of those years.

On a par with Tchaikovsky

It still is, to this day. According to connoisseurs, the music of Coppelia is on a par with that of Tchaikovsky's ballets, for its soul, color, sensitivity, and abundance of nuances. Coppelia is a ballet in three acts, but the actual story unfolds only in the first and second. And as with the endings of the Russian composer's Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, the third is a set of divertimentos, intended here in Coppelia to celebrate the happy reunion of Swanilde and Frantz. One of the most celebrated pieces is the well-known Swanilde's Waltz.

Mozart, Rondo in D major

Between 1786 and 1787 Mozart composed three rondos for piano. Written just past the age of thirty, they nevertheless correspond to a creative period of maturity, for only that can be said of an author who died at thirty-five. The works are simultaneous to the composition of two of his great successes in the opera genre: The Marriage of Figaro, of 1786, and Don Giovanni, of 1787, which certainly brought him economic benefits, but not enough. The publication of the rondos, short works for piano in which his pupils could venture, also had the purpose of restoring Wolfgang Amadeus' finances.

The Rondo Form

From baroque to classicism, the rondo musical form (derived from the French rondeau) maintained a continuous presence, first as part of baroque suites, and then in classicism as the last movement of the classical sonata (the third movement of Beethoven's Pathétique sonata is a clear example). But it was also developed by composers as an autonomous piece, as is the case of the one we are dealing with. Its structure is based on the repetition of a main theme that reappears and alternates with other subthemes, or variants, hence its name.

Rondo in D major, K. 485

Thanks to the catalog in which Mozart decided to record his works from 1784 onwards, we know with certainty that the rondo in D major, the first of the three mentioned, was completed on January 10, 1786. As was usual in those years, Mozart "borrowed" the main melody from a colleague, if not master, Johann Christian Bach, known in those years and today as "the Bach of London", whom Mozart met and visited twice when he was not yet ten years old.
The melody is joyful and elegant. After some modifications that give it another thickness, it reappears at times in its original form. A typical and charming classical rondo. It could not be less if it came out of Mozart's mind.

The rendition is by the Russian master Vladimir Horowitz, in 1987 in Vienna, at age 84.
(At the beginning, the maestro seems to practice a few chords to "warm up", or asks the audience to remain silent).

Wagner: Wedding March, from Lohengrin

It took Wagner almost a decade to gestate the opera Lohengrin, his third masterpiece after The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser. His first encounter with the medieval German myth had been in 1841 but it took him five years to figure out how to bring it to the stage. Then, two years later, in 1848, he finished composing the score.

Lohengrin
The story takes place in the tenth century and tells the vicissitudes of Elsa, unjustly accused of making her brother – then a child but a future duke – disappear. An enigmatic knight will arrive to protect her and eventually take her in marriage, as long as he never asks for her name. The knight, naturally, is Lohengrin, who like all knights of the Holy Grail, must remain anonymous while performing his good deeds. Lohengrin arrives in a boat, towed by a swan. In that same boat he will leave when Elsa, curious, asks for his name, thus ending the enchantment.

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1893)

The author in exile

Wagner was 35 years old when he finished the work. For some time he had begun to embrace political positions close to the left and a little more, going so far as to invite the renowned Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin to his home. Things did not go well, especially after the rebellion known as the Dresden Uprising in 1849, and as a result, Wagner had to go into exile.
Before leaving Dresden, he asked his friend Franz Liszt (whose daughter Cosima would later marry Richard, 24 years older) to ensure that Lohengrin was performed in his absence. So Liszt did, conducting the premiere of the work in Weimar, in August 1850.

Prelude to Act III - The Wedding March

The opera, a romantic piece and the closest to the author's "Italian opera", with a script in German by Wagner himself – like all his masterpieces –, is set in three acts and lasts no more and no less than four hours. The famous wedding march, performed at every wedding in the Western world, also called the Bridal Chorus and known in the English-speaking world with the colloquial title of Here Comes the Bride, marks the beginning of Act III, when Elsa and her anonymous knight, called by the chorus, enter the bridal chamber.

The rendition is by the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choirs, conducted by Janos Kovacs, at the Palace of Arts in Budapest.