Haendel, "Largo", from opera "Xerxes"

Georg Friedrich Haendel settled definitively in London in 1712. He was then 27 years old and remained there building a prolific career as a composer and entrepreneur, until his death in April 1759. He had to overcome many ups and downs and setbacks in his role as an impresario but nevertheless managed to become the leading exponent of English opera of his time.

A fruitful composer
Although they were not always well received by the public, in the thirty years between 1710 and 1740, the prolific German composer wrote no less than 40 operas. Even after the resounding failure in 1737 of his third foray as a trainer of opera companies, he had the courage to compose a couple of operas of Italian style. The most famous of them is a sort of comedy, whose protagonist is the king of Persia, Xerxes, and from whom the opera takes its name.

Xerxes, the opera
Its premiere, in 1738, was a commercial failure. Xerxes only reached five performances. The work confused audiences and critics in different ways. Some considered it an opera buffa, others a farcical comedy, and one colleague even added that it seemed to be the product of a "sick mind".

All in all, the work incorporates one of the most famous arias written by Haendel, the famous Ombra mai fu ("There was never a dearer, lovelier, sweeter shade," the verse continues), popularly known as Largo de Xerxes, even though it is a larghetto and not a largo.

Song in the shade of a tree

The aria belongs to the first scene of Act I. King Xerxes sings in rapture in the shade of a tree, that of a Platanus orientalis, by the way. Originally written for a soprano castrato, today it is generally sung, if male, by a countertenor, if female, by a contralto or mezzo-soprano. There are also countless versions for different instruments.

We present here an outstanding version by the German countertenor Andreas Scholl, whose timbre reveals to us a miracle, the miracle of the human voice.

Chopin, Étude opus 10 No 4

In a letter written in the autumn of 1829, Chopin mentioned to a friend that he had just finished composing an etude "in my own style". Indeed, the author, then nineteen years old, would take distance from the compositions in the genre coming from the pen of his predecessors, with the production of his 24 Études divided into two volumes, Opus 10 (dedicated to Franz Liszt) and Opus 25 (dedicated to Marie d'Agoult, Franz's friend during those years).

Beyond dexterity
Both published in Paris, the first volume in 1833 and the second in 1837, Chopin's Etudes are much more than a set of technically demanding piano pieces aimed at achieving the indispensable dexterity on the instrument. On the contrary, the author's "own style" generated 24 pieces of inexhaustible melodic and harmonic beauty, full of colors, textures, and diverse moods. To these are added three studies without opus number published in 1840.

Etude Opus 10 No 4
Written in the key of C sharp minor, marked presto con fuoco (very fast, fiery), it is one of the most difficult of Opus 10, and perhaps of the entire work, despite its short duration. Nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish in it four sections. After introducing the first theme, the piece progresses rapidly to a second, brief theme at 0:20. The first theme returns at 0:30, and then at 1:15, progressing to the climax at 1:31, followed by the coda, with significant momentum. The piece ends with two dramatic chords, fortissimo.

The rendition is by the outstanding Chinese pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu.

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No 2

The Conquest of Vienna
Sometime after settling permanently in Vienna in November 1792, Beethoven realized that in order to captivate the Viennese public he had not only to show himself as the skilled pianist he was but also as a composer, even if he was in his early stages –if that could be said of the twenty-two-year-old master. To this end, he had to gather a good number of compositions, either wholly new or unheard by a broad audience, to face the stage on which his debut before the Viennese public was to take place.

1795, the year of his debut
So along with his aspiration to become a master of counterpoint – for which he took classes with Haydn and other masters – Beethoven collected for three years his own works in various genres – solo piano, piano with accompaniment, strings, songs, and piano concertos – with the determination to approach the conquest of Vienna from all possible sides.
The maestro's debut took place one Easter weekend, on Sunday, March 29, 1795, at the Burgtheater in Vienna, which was available for instrumental concerts because the Catholic faith of the Habsburgs did not allow theatrical performances during Lent. On the occasion, he presented one of his Piano Concertos.

Bust made on a mask
during his lifetime

Beethoven Piano Concerto nº 2, in B-flat major, Op. 19 

It is still debated today whether the "new concerto" presented on the occasion was No. 1 or No. 2, although most opinions are in favor of the latter, composed many years before the "first", between 1787 and 1789. At least this was the case with respect to its first two movements because for the 1795 performance Beethoven rewrote the final movement, a modification arising from his studies with Haydn. Three years later, for a performance in Prague, the composer revised the work again, writing another finale for the occasion, finally discarded because the version published in 1801 and the one that has come down to us is the one heard in Vienna in 1795, according to the most reliable testimonies.

Although considered by scholars (an opinion joined by Beethoven himself) as a rather weak and conventional work, clearly tributary of Haydn and Mozart, it contains as a whole a sense of drama and contrasts that clearly announces the magnificent master of the later concertos. Surely, its beautiful Adagio must have made a deep impression on the audience attending that Easter Sunday.

Movements:
00        Allegro con brio
15:28   Adagio
25:10   Rondo. Molto allegro
Encore:
(34:51  "Bailecito", from the pianist and composer Carlos Guastavino)

Arriaga: "Los Esclavos Felices" - Overture

On February 27, 1806, exactly 50 years after Mozart's birth, the composer Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga was born in the Basque city of Bilbao, Spain. He was called "the Spanish Mozart" due to his precocious musical intelligence and, of course, to the aforementioned coincidence, in addition to his premature death. The young musician did not reach the age of twenty, dying of a lung infection ten days earlier.

At the Paris Conservatory
At the age of fourteen, Arriaga was already a skilled violinist, although it is not certain whether his technical abilities were an innate skill or the result of the teachings of some unknown maestro he may have had in Bilbao.
What is certain is that at the age of fifteen he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory to continue his violin studies, and acquire the necessary knowledge in counterpoint and harmony. Two years later, he won the second prize in the Conservatory in fugue and counterpoint, and soon after he became an assistant instructor of a harmony course. He was seventeen.

J. C. de Arriaga (1806 - 1826)

His works
It is not surprising then that at the age of eighteen he had already composed three string quartets, and had begun to dabble in vocal and choral music. His Stabat Mater is one of his most successful large-scale works. His last two years of life were devoted to finishing his extensive Symphony in D major.

Of course, his musical production was scarce, and this resulted in his oblivion for almost eighty years, until at the end of the 19th-century scholars noticed this great musical promise that simply did not give its full potential.

Opera "Los Esclavos Felices" (The Happy Slaves)
Among his early works, those that justly earned him the title of a child prodigy, stands out an opera in two acts, entitled Los Esclavos Felices, composed and produced in Bilbao when the author was only thirteen years old. When the work came to the knowledge of his teachers at the Conservatory, they could only point out that the young Arriaga had composed "a Spanish opera full of original ideas and harmonic richness without having any knowledge of harmony".

With a clear Italian influence and tributary of the purest Viennese classicism, the Overture is presented here (7:30 min) in a performance by the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, from Madrid. 

César Frank, Sonata for violin and piano

Covering their heads with a Phrygian cap, César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck and his fiancée and former student Eugénie Desmousseaux crossed the streets of Paris on February 22, 1848, to arrive safe and sound at the church where they would be married. The Phrygian cap was intended to successfully circumvent the barricades and bonfires that the rioters had installed throughout the city to force the downfall of Louis Philippe I, also called "the king of the barricades" because through them he came to the throne and because of them he had to abandon it.

The origins
Born in Liege, Belgium, in December 1822, César Franck, together with his brother Joseph, arrived in Paris in 1835 when he was only thirteen years old at the hand of his father, who aspired that his two offspring would be recognized there as great virtuosos in the way Liszt and Paganini already were. It was not too much to ask since at least César was coming from successful but brief tours in which he had given undeniable samples of his extraordinary ability with the piano.

The father's aspirations

Like many other fathers in the history of music (Leopold Mozart being the most conspicuous), Franck's father subjected his son to exhausting workdays. After entering the Paris Conservatory, he imposed upon him the composition of at least one work a year so that he could perform it in public, thus facilitating the recognition of his talent among Parisian musical circles. This ambition did not bear the fruits his father expected, and after ten years the composer decided to rebel, abandoning his father's tutelage and forming his own family by marrying the aforesaid Eugene amidst the liberal and workers' revolt of February 1848.

César Franck (1822 - 1890)

Church organist

The years to come were sullen. With little production and relegated to the role of piano accompanist, as well as organist of a couple of churches in Paris, Franck and his family led an obscure and lackluster life for ten years. Then, in 1858 he was offered to take charge of a modern and grandiose organ in the church of St. Clotilde, a post in which he performed with pleasure and commitment until the end of his days.

The rebirth

It was the beginning of the rebirth of his life as a musician, when he finally saw the doors of the concert halls open and the period in which his masterpieces came to light began. Among them, the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue of 1885, the Symphonic Variations of 1886, and the beautiful Sonata for violin and piano of 1887 stand out.

The maestro

In the twilight of his life, César Franck produced music as never before, perhaps trying to make up for the lost time. This time he did bear fruit, mainly as a maestro, becoming the musician who would initiate the incorporation of French music into the great European tradition. Through D'Indy, Chausson, Dukas, and many other disciples or followers, this would culminate at the end of the century or the beginning of the next with the appearance of the illustrious figures of Debussy and Ravel.

Sonata for violin and piano in A major

It was composed as a wedding present for his friend the Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaÿe, who played it during the wedding celebrations and later became its main disseminator. The piece is a superb synthesis of three features the composer cultivated with ardor in the last stage of his career: the Viennese classical tradition, the "cyclical form" (the main theme reappears, conveniently varied, in each movement, a form that some have postulated as his invention) and the composer's very rich, characteristic and very personal harmonic language.

Movements:

00        Allegretto ben moderato

06:11   Allegro

14:30  Recitativo - Fantasia. Ben moderato - molto lento

21:46  Allegretto poco mosso

The rendition is by Dutch violinist Frederieke Saeijs and Georgian pianist Nino Gvetadze.