Richard Strauss, "Also sprach Zarathustra"

"Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) is one of the seven tone poems composed by the musician born in Munich in 1864, Richard Strauss. Written between the years 1895-1896, it is the freest and more fantastic, and according to some, the most elaborate and difficult, perhaps due to its association with the complex work of the same name by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, on which it is freely based.

A "programmatic" support
After its premiere in Frankfurt under the author's conducting, a heated debate arose that yet was less due to the music than to the complicated program that Strauss developed as a support for the understanding of a programmatic nature work. In this case, a piece of music created under the suggestion of the moods caused by reading a literary text.

On that occasion, Strauss asked to include the following text in the concert hand program:

"First movement: Dawn. Man feels the power of God. Religious wandering. But he continues to yearn. He plunges into passion (second movement) and does not find peace. He turns to science and tries in vain to solve the problems of life with a fugue (third movement). Pleasant melodies sound and he becomes an individual. His soul rises, while the world sinks beneath him. "

Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)

To be frank, it seems like a joke. But the work became part of the universal repertoire since its premiere, until today. The complete work typically lasts about 40 minutes and is divided into nine sections, which Strauss named in consonance with certain chapters of the philosopher's book.

A very brief fanfare... and a "funky version"
The first section, Introduction, or Sunrise, a fanfare less than two minutes long, was featured in Kubrick's 2001 film, A Space Odyssey, which favored its awareness by a wide audience.

On a pianissimo ostinato entrusted to the double basses, the theme is exposed by the trumpet. After traversing between major and minor modes, the piece ends with a spirited and spectacular tutti in C major, which then shuts down to leave the organ alone for a couple of seconds.

The rendition is by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by the Spanish director Juan José Mena.
(Below. a "funky" version).

A "funky" version
Eumir Deodato, Brazilian musician and arranger born in 1943 in Rio de Janeiro who lives in the United States since the mid-seventies, surprised the American audience in 1974 with a great "funky" arrangement of the Introduction to Richard Strauss' work, which earned him that year the Grammy Award for Best Pop / Instrumental Performance.

Some recognition is needed to be made, as well, to the author of the video presented here. Some images from space brilliantly accompany these spectacular ten minutes of music created by Deodato from a piece of classical music, in which jazz, blues, gospel, elements of African tradition coexist... that is, "funky" music.

Dvorak, Romance for violin and orchestra

 
Following the amorous path traced eighty years earlier by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak was forced to set his eyes on the younger sister of Josefina Cermakova, his first love, after she did not respond to his requests despite the great effort Antonin put into it. The younger sister was named Anna and, although she was always aware of her status as a consolation prize, she ended up marrying Antonin, enchanted about her life, in 1873.

The couple conceived nine children and were immensely happy, despite the fact that during the years 1876-77 they had to face an ordeal. In the span of two years, the couple lost three of their children: one before birth, another in an accident and a third from smallpox.

A special movement
Three years earlier, Dvorak had composed an F minor string quartet that was never released. Shortly after, he published a version for violin and piano that did not obtain the recognition of the general public. In spite of everything, Antonin recognized in the quartet's second movement a great intrinsic value. Therefore, in the midst of the pain imposed by the loss of his children, he devoted himself in those same years to rebuilding the movement, endowing it with individuality and unique personality. for he was firmly convinced that he had written a major work, which should be preserved. It is the origin of the Romance.

Romance for violin and orchestra in F minor, opus 11
The work is built on two main ideas. The first, a simple melody, a song, presented at first by the violins and then freely elaborated by the soloist (1:45). The second motif is a romantic melody, somewhat less elaborate than the first (3:40). Then comes a short, more dramatic midsection that allows the soloist to show his virtuosity (4:50). But soon he returns to the serenity of the first motive. The piece takes the major mode when the second motif reappears, after which a brief coda will lead to the serene closure.

The rendition is by the Slovenian violinist Tanja Sonc, accompanied by the Slovenian Philharmonics conducted by the Canadian director Kery-Lynn Wilson.

Chopin's funeral, Prelude No 4

 
According to an eyewitness, Frédéric Chopin died without suffering, between three and four in the morning of October 17, 1849. On the third day of his death, after the sculptor Clésinger took casts of his face and left hand, the autopsy was carried out by extracting the heart that will later be placed on a column in the Church of the Holy Cross, in Warsaw, thus fulfilling the express wish of the composer, made to his sister Ludwika.

The body of the "great artist Chopin" – as it was designated by Débats magazine in an article published following his death – was embalmed and then dressed and laid out again on his bed. Surrounded by flowers, he was exposed to his friends, admirers, and onlookers to say goodbye. The admirers would parade for days through the apartment of Place Vendôme, the last residence of the Polish master.

The Funeral
It was not held until October 30. The funeral ceremony began at eleven in the morning, and at noon, the coffin was carried aloft by the side aisle and placed on a high catafalque, to the sounds of its own funeral march and in the presence of the three thousand people who were taking part the Madeleine Church. Then the orchestra and choir of the Conservatory's Concert Society sang Mozart's Requiem, which had not been heard in Paris since the return of Napoleon's ashes in 1840.

Before starting the journey to the Pére Lachaise cemetery, the organist of La Madeleine dismissed Frédéric's body by playing some of his preludes, including a "plaintive, galvanized with startles, almost desperate melody". It is Prelude N ° 4 in E minor, one of the 24 Preludes of opus 28, completed in Mallorca ten years before, and which we present here in the rendition of the Chinese pianist Eric Lu.

At the grave, there were no speeches. The handful of Polish earth that Frédéric had received from his friends when he left Poland and which he kept until then in a silver goblet, was simply dropped on the coffin.

Telemann, Don Quixotte Burlesque Suite

 
The composer Georg Philipp Telemann, the most significant representative of the North German school during the first half of the 18th century, was capable of writing a four-part motet with the same ease an ordinary person writes a letter. At least, this is what his young friend Handel — four years younger than Telemann — told him, whom he met in Leipzig when, under family pressure, Telemann began law studies that he would soon abandon.

A self-taught musician
Born in 1681 in Magdeburg, a city in western Germany, on the banks of the Elbe, Georg Philipp came from a family with a strong Protestant tradition, several of whose members had been pastors. His first training was humanistic and very broad: when he was just a boy, he wrote verses in Latin, German and French. His musical training, on the other hand, has a weak base in the period in which he had to attend the cathedral school where he attended the teachings of a composer of ecclesiastical music and also a keyboard course which, interestingly enough, lasted exactly fourteen days.

The fact remains, however, that at the age of ten Georg Philipp played the flute, violin and other instruments with mastery. On the basis of the direct study of the scores of the great composers of the time, the young Telemann soon began to compose his own pieces. 

Georg P. Telemann
(1681 - 1767)

An extensive catalog
Throughout his life, the catalog of this self-taught composer was going to acquire gigantic dimensions, far surpassing, for example, the work of Vivaldi. He cultivated all kinds of genres: operas, religious cantatas and psalms, passions, oratorios, profane cantatas, and much more, to which a large number of pieces of vocal and instrumental music is added.

A great naturalness distinguishes Telemann's music, which allows it to easily reach a wide audience. The composer argued that the musician who wanted to reach a large audience should write better than one who addresses a select minority. A good example of this maxim is represented by the suite inspired by Don Quixote.

Don Quixotte Burlesque Suite
During his last years, Telemann was strongly attracted by the spirit of Cervantes's work, to the point that it served as inspiration for an opera and, from it, a Suite for string orchestra and basso continuo, known as Don Quixotte Burlesque.

Light in character, almost humorous, the Suite includes seven movements or sections:

00:00  Ouverture
03:55  Le reveille de Quixotte (The awakening of Don Quixote)
06:58  Son attaque des moulens a vent (The attack on the windmills)
08:44  Les soupirs amoureux apres la Princesse Dulcinèe (Sighs of love for Dulcinea)
12:38  Sanche Panche berné (Sancho Panza disappointed)
14:22  Le galop de Rosinante alternat, avec sequent (The gallop of Rocinante)
16:59  La couché de Quixotte (Don Quixote's dream)

The rendition, performed with period instruments, is by the New York Baroque Incorporated chamber group.

Rossini, The Barber of Seville - Overture

 
When, in 1816, the Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello learned that an opera entitled Almaviva, ossia L'inutile precauzione, was about to be premiered at the Argentina theater in Rome, he had no hesitation in gathering his cohort of adherents and attending en masse at the work premiere with the sole and express purpose of causing excesses and turning the premiere into a failure from which its author, Gioacchino Rossini, could never recover.

The truth is that Paisiello was right in behaving that way. Almost forty years ago, he had premiered an opera also based, like Rossini's, on a libretto that emerged from Beaumarchais's comedy, Le Barbier de Séville ou la Précaution inutile. The work had been widely accepted in its time. So, Paisiello regarded as a personal affront that the young Rossini, an author of "Muslim works", dared to compose a new version of the opera that had made him famous, even when he offered it with another title.

Gioachino Rossini (1792 - 1868)

An ill-fated premiere
And indeed, the first performance, on February 20, 1816, did nothing but make things easier to provoke the brawl. The premiere was full of errors and mistakes that provoked mockery and blunders from the audience, unwittingly joining to the unruly spirits of Paisiello supporters. It is even said that at a certain moment, even a cat took the stage.

However, Paisiello and his entourage were likely the main responsible for the failure, since the second performance, a few days later, was a high success, and has continued so until today, to the point that The Barber of Seville exhibits nowadays the accolade of being the most performed opera in the world.

A "borrowed" overture
The work was composed in three weeks, forcing Rossini to make use not only of arias from other operas. The overture presented here borrowed, with some orchestration changes, the overture from a previous opera, Aureliano en Palmira, which had not been well received in its time. Rossini, entirely rightly, considered that the overture was of such quality that it could not be tied to a minor work. It had to be re-released.

The rendition is by the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra conducted by the Italian maestro Maurizio Benini.