The land we know today as Finland was absorbed into the Russian Empire in 1809 with the decorous name of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Ninety years later, in 1899, irrepressible nationalist winds forced Russia to impose strict censorship on the small nation's press. As a result, in November of the same year, the Finnish press organized a fundraising gala in Helsinki, which was in reality a subterfuge to drum up support for a free press.
The gala ended ceremoniously with the performance of a recently created work by Jean Sibelius. For the occasion, the work was presented with careful innocence under the title "Music for the Press Ceremony". Composed of six tableaux and an overture, the work ended with the piece entitled "Awakening of Finland". Such was the reception given to this sixth tableau that Sibelius revised it the following year, transforming it into an independent tone poem which he retitled straight and simply "Finlandia".
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Finlandia, a tone poem
Premiered as an autonomous work on July 3, 1900, the tone poem revealed to the world the poetic mastery of Sibelius, becoming the starting point of a rapturous nationalist feeling, of which the composer was an outstanding protagonist.
From then on, Finlandia became the second national anthem practically. However, due to censorship, the work was presented in those years under the most diverse titles, which ranged from the cautious Nocturne to the more daring Heroic Sentiments, or The Awakening of the Finnish Spring. This was a mandatory practice until Finland achieved independence after the First World War.
The superb rendition is by the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas, conducted by maestro César Iván Lara. Its most celebrated passage is presented at 4:00 minutes; first in a reverent atmosphere; by the end, it will turn into a powerful statement of victory.
In February 1784, Mozart took an impressive turn from his carefree and mischievous nature and set about making a complete record of his works, which he called "List of All My Works" in all seriousness and application. However, he did not intend to burn the midnight oil on the project, as he planned to complete it around 1800, by which time it would be duly "updated".
The solo piano piece Fantasia in C minor (K. 475) entered the catalog on May 20, 1875.
These are years in which Mozart, despite the success achieved with The Abduction from the Seraglio in 1782, focused on the production of piano concertos and the development of his career as a pianist. In 1785, precisely, the concertos Nos. 20, 21, and 22, no more and no less, saw the light of day.
Fantasia in C minor, K 475
It was published that same year as a set (opus 11) with a sonata (the sonata in C minor, KV 457), a completely different genre if one thinks of the improvisatory character that every "fantasia" is supposed to have. This led to thinking that the latter's mood served in some way as an introduction to the sonata, both pieces forming an integral work. Today they are considered independent pieces, and in that light, they are part of the repertoire of contemporary pianists.
The Atmosphere
Unlike the plurality of sensations (pathos, joy, abandonment) evoked by its namesake,in D minor, from 1782, the Fantasia in C minor, beginning in a beautiful adagio tempo, is characterized by maintaining, in general, a somewhat somber and perhaps even gloomy atmosphere. In line with the rest of Mozart's fantasias, it demands from the interpreter a translucent virtuosity.
An exquisite version is the one delivered here by the remarkable Hungarian pianist Zoltan Kocsis, who passed away in Budapest 6 years ago. Maestro Kocsis, in addition to developing an extraordinary career as a virtuoso, also successfully tackled conducting, composition and pedagogy. This modest blog pays here a heartfelt tribute to him.
Claude Debussy wrote his two books of Piano Preludes between the end of 1909 and the first months of 1913. Both collections consist of twelve preludes, presenting at the time the editorial novelty that the delicate descriptions with which they are known today were placed by Debussy at the end of the pieces and not at the beginning, as was usual. Perhaps the purpose was that these brief and somewhat picturesque descriptions would work as a reflection, a second thought inspired by the music and not the other way around.
La fille aux cheveux de lin is the description Debussy added to the end of Prelude No 8, from Book I. A mere two pages of delicate, superbly designed music that, in terms of popularity, are on a par with the renowned Moonlightfrom the Bergamasque Suite from 1890, or the symphonic poem Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun from 1894.
The Innocence or the Candor Debussy took the title from the homonymous poem by his compatriot Leconte de Lisle, one of his Chansons écossaises that outlines the image of a flaxen-haired girl, which the aesthetics of the time associated with innocence, or candor. Very much in tune with this portrayal, Debussy's piece is surprising for its melodic and harmonic simplicity, far removed from his own style for the time and rather close to the character of his early compositions.
(Among these youthful compositions, there is a melody with the same title, never published, dedicated to Madame Vasnier, a soprano with whom Debussy was romantically attached between 1880 and 1884, and to whom he dedicated about twenty songs, all inspired by poems of French authors).
The first public performance of the piece took place, along with the rest of the preludes from Book I, in London on June 2, 1910.
The superb version presented here is by the German pianist Katharina Treutler.
Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, called "Leningrad", is a work brought to completion in wartime and premiered in the most heroic manner imaginable. On June 22, 1941, German troops invaded Russia as part of a plan conceived the previous year, "Operation Barbarossa". By the end of July, the capital Leningrad (i.e. St. Petersburg, then and now) was completely surrounded. The city's siege lasted precisely 872 days, from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944. It was the longest siege of a city in history and the most costly in terms of civilian and military lives.
Although it is possible that Shostakovich had begun composing the symphony before the invasion, the fact is that when the siege began he was working there, in Leningrad, as a professor at the Conservatory (he was a fireman there during the siege). There he finished the first three movements. Months later, he and his family were evacuated, completing the symphony in Kuibyshev, the provisional capital, on December 27, 1941. Its premiere took place there on March 5, 1942. Astoundingly, five months later, it premiered in the besieged city.
A year after the siege, the only remaining orchestra in the city, the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, was inactive because a number of its members had been wounded or were dead. So when its conductor called its members for the exceptional rehearsal of a new Shostakovich Symphony, only fifteen showed up. Most of them were starving: the wind players fainted after the first few notes. Musicians had to be brought in from the front. The first rehearsals did not last an hour, due to general exhaustion. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe bombing did not stop.
Shostakovich, a fireman in Leningrad
Music for the enemy ranks
Under these incredible conditions, with only one rehearsal of the complete work achieved only that morning, the Symphony was performed in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic on August 9, 1942. Through loudspeakers installed throughout the city in the direction of the enemy ranks, it could also be heard by German soldiers (and Finns, who also took part in the siege).
[A comprehensive article on the conditions, preparations and logistics involved in this incredible performance can be found here.]
Written in the key of C major, the Symphony is nearly 80 minutes long, and consists of four movements: Allegretto / Moderato (poco allegretto) / Adagio / Allegro non troppo.
The First Movement is presented here, with Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, which we assume will have disappeared, or at least, changed its name.
First Movement - Allegretto The first movement opens with a sweeping, resolute theme that plays an important and prominent part in the Symphony. An ensuing group of themes radiates a relaxed, carefree warmth. In lieu of a development section, Shostakovich instead gives us a protracted orchestral crescendo on a theme over an insistent rhythmic pattern. He called this the “invasion theme,” and, initially, it was interpreted to represent the German invasion of Russia. But Shostakovich was clear about its double meaning – “I was thinking of other enemies of humanity when I composed the theme.” It begins innocently, non-threateningly, soft and seemingly in the distance, and becomes increasingly ominous and terrifying as it gains in volume and proximity. It is one of the most remarkable passages in Shostakovich’s symphonic output; at its climax – distorted, tremendous, horrific – the composer brings back the opening theme, a gesture of defiance and heroism in the face of the invasion. (This paragraph, taken from LA Phil site).
Just as the French Suites of the baroque master are only French because they were published under the title Suites pour le clavecin, the English Suites are not English either. The origin of the title is a complete enigma. They were never published during Bach's lifetime, but a handwritten copy once existed with the inscription "fait pour les Anglois". Then speculations began, ranging from a wrong interpretation of what was written (someone understood "Anglois" where it could say something else) to the possibility that they were indeed written for an anonymous English nobleman who would have requested them to Bach during a visit to Köthen. The debate continues.
The Six "English" Suites
The group of six keyboard suites was likely composed in the 1720s, shortly before the French Suites, and possibly in Köthen where the master served as Kappellmeister from 1717 to 1723. Speculation aside, they must have been composed for the private use of pupils, relatives, and acquaintances. Whoever did read "Anglois" may also have read "Angoisses", griefs, given the difficulty of many of its movements.
The dances, or movements
Like the "French" suites, the six "English" suites maintain the traditional structure, with their four movements, or dances: allemande - courante - sarabande - gigue, to which are added, between the sarabande and the gigue, a variable number of supplementary movements such as a minuet, a gavotte, bourré, or an aria. The difference is that in the "English" Bach incorporated a prelude, at the beginning (as expected), which will no longer appear in the later French suites.
It is the section that is often played as an encore after a performance. Its great technical complexity lends itself to the performer's brilliance.
Prelude from the English Suite No. 2 in A minor
Just over four minutes of a remarkable exercise in counterpoint. The outstanding rendition is by a beautiful and very young Martha Argerich, in a 1969 recording. The video, badly edited, starts late, missing a couple of notes at the beginning, but it is still very worthwhile.
