JS Bach, Concerto for three harpsichords

 
On the afternoon of December 15, 1832, three young pianists of no more than twenty-two years took the stage at the Paris Conservatory. They were the Hungarian Franz Liszt, his friend Frédérik Chopin, who had just arrived from Warsaw, and the German pianist Ferdinand Hiller. The program included, along with music by various composers, the Concerto in D minor for strings and three harpsichords, composed nearly a hundred years ago by Johann Sebastian Bach. After his death in 1750, Bach had fallen into near oblivion and his reputation as a composer openly declined, before the emergence of a new style, classicism. The homage of the three pianists thus joined the admiration previously professed by Mozart and later Beethoven who had no doubt to point out Bach as "the true father of harmony".

The new times - the mismatch
The fact is that in the last two decades of the Baroque master's life, tastes had gradually begun to change, and Johann Sebastian, true to himself, had not known how to suited to or had not wanted to. According to Anna Magdalena Bach, his second wife, once heard him say that "since I write for my own pleasure, I cannot get angry because my art does not appeal to everyone". But this attitude caused him some troubles. Around the same period of composition of the concerto for three harpsichords, a close relative – his cousin and also a musician – dedicated only 39 lines to him in a monumental dictionary of music that he was making at that time.

"Old Bach"
None of his contemporaries could have been unaware that Bach was a genius, but in his later years the general judgment was that he was a bit "old fashioned". He was a genius but from the past. A question that was not difficult for him to verify by observing how the public began to prefer the works of his musical sons over his own.

In 1747, three years before his death, the maestro was invited to Berlin by Frederick of Prussia. The sovereign informed his courtiers of the arrival of the master with the following phrase: "Gentlemen, extraordinary news: old Bach has just arrived in Berlin." The singular announcement clearly shows what, enthusiasm aside, Bach was in those years even for a great admirer like Frederick the Great: old Bach.

That is why, almost a hundred years later, Liszt, Chopin and Hiller rush to pay homage to him.

Concerto for three harpsichord, strings and continuo, in D minor, BWV 1063
Old Bach would compose concertos for one, two, three and four keyboards. Scholars agree in dating the composition of this one, one of the two concertos for three harpsichords, before 1733. The work is supposed to be written for the exercise of Bach's many children to assist their formation, and of course, thus receiving their cooperation at frequent family evenings. It is also not excluded that the oldest sons, Wilhelm Friedrich or Carl Philipp Emanuel, have even taken part in its composition.

The work is in three movements:

- Allegro

- Alla Siciliana (4:57)

- Allegro (8:51 atacca)

Netherlands Bach Society with the soloists Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Siebe Henstra, and Menno van Delft,

Beethoven and Count Waldstein

Despite having sponsored the young Beethoven's first trip to Vienna to meet Mozart, the Prince-Elector of Bonn — named Maximilian Francis, patron of Ludwig at the time — did not show, on Beethoven's return, any particular favouritism for the musician, who at his seventeen wanted to acquire a greater technical base by studying with the old masters who at that time were standing out in Vienna.

Back to Bonn - court organist
According to tradition, Mozart would have listened to him and prophesied that Beethoven would "make people talk". But the trip lasted just two months because upon learning of the death of his mother, Ludwig had to return to Bonn where he will remain for the next five years, waiting for the elector prince offered his support again, in a hypothetical second trip. Until this happens, Maximilian Francis will assign Ludwig a salary of 170 florins for his performance as the second organist of the court.

The Breuning
During this extended period, Ludwig succeeded in forging valuable friendships, including that of an intelligent and distinguished widow, Mrs. von Breuning. She welcomed him into her home as a music teacher to two of her four children. Thus, Ludwig will find a second home, more welcoming even than his own, not counting the interest his student Eleonora aroused in him.

Count von Waldstein
Through the circle of friends of the refined lady, young Beethoven will easily find well-off students. But his most beneficial contact came in 1778, when Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, a member of the Viennese aristocracy and music lover, settled in Bonn. The count readily joins Mme Breuning's circle, hears Beethoven and becomes his devoted admirer, the first aristocrat of a long future list.

Count Waldstein (1762 - 1823)

To Vienna, for good
On the death of Emperor Joseph II, in 1790, Count Waldstein invited Beethoven to compose a funerary ode, which is not finally represented due to the difficulties it entailed for the musicians. That same year, passing through Bonn on his way to London, Haydn listened to Beethoven and invited him to Vienna to take him as a pupil on his return. After Count Waldstein spoke to the precise people, on November 2, 1792, at six in the morning, Beethoven left for Vienna, from where he will never return.

His travel notebook — in the style of Chopin when he left Warsaw — received fourteen greetings and beatitudes, including one from Eleonora and one from a single aristocrat, Count Waldstein, who wrote:

"Dear Beethoven! You go to realise a long-desired wish: the genius of Mozart is still in mourning and weeps for the death of its disciple. (...) By incessant application, receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands. Bonn, October 29, 1792. Your sincere friend, Waldstein"

Unfortunately, sincere friend Waldstein had a wretched life. Obsessed with creating his own army to fight the Napoleonic forces, he squandered his fortune and his wife's in such an undertaking. Aware of this, Beethoven dedicated to him the Sonata for piano opus 53, composed in 1804. The count, dismissed as a servant of the Empire, would die twenty years later in a home for the destitute, on the outskirts of Vienna. On the day of his death, a letter arrived informing him of the death of his elder brother — and that he was now to inherit the family fortune.

"Waldstein" Sonata, or "Aurora" Sonata, opus 53

Sonata No. 21 in C major, called "Waldstein" and also known as "Aurora", is performed here by Chilean maestro Claudio Arrau, on the occasion of the 1977 Beethovenfest, which is held in Bonn every year. At the time, maestro Arrau was 74 years old.

Originally, the sonata was in three movements but following comments suggesting that the sonata was too long, Beethoven eliminated the second movement, replacing it with a short introduction (12:20) at the final movement (15:55). The movement removed became later the famous Andante Favori, much sought after by the audience in the evenings of the time (and hence its name, suggested by Karl Czerny).

Handel, Messiah - Halleluyah Chorus

After collecting selected texts from the Bible and concocting a few psalms here and there, the English landlord Charles Jennens sent a libretto of his own in July 1741 to the London-based German opera composer, Georg Friedrich Handel. Based on it, he had to compose an oratorio in English: a song and a reflection on the relationship between man and God. Also, it would address the mystery of Redemption.

It was not the first time that the wealthy landowner had been a contributor to Handel, but this time he was quite confident in the success of the venture. And so he lets a friend know: "I hope [Handel] will lay out his whole Genius & Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other subject. The Subject is Messiah".

The oratorio - A new niche
Four years earlier, Handel had faced the failure of his third venture as a composer-entrepreneur. He still would write some Italian operas, but on the advice of friends and acquaintances, he had already been putting some distance from the Italian lyric genre, entering the field of the oratorio in English. Therefore, the libretto he received from Jennens fell into his lap.

G.F. Handel (1685 - 1759)

Premiere in a charity function
According to his own notes, the composer began work on The Messíah oratorio on August 22, 1741, and had it completed 24 days later. However, Handel's most famous oratorio could not be premiered in London with its original title and had to wait for the composer to travel to Ireland to be premiered in 1742 at the New Music Hall in Dublin as a charity performance in favour of convicts and sick people of all kinds.

On his return to London, to alleviate the criticism arising from the use of a sacred theme in an environment that had little or nothing to do with the liturgy, the title had to be changed to Sacred Drama. Its reception, while warm, was far from awakening the fervour that it will reach years later.

The Hallelujah Chorus
The oratorio is made up of three sections, in which choirs, recitatives and arias alternate. The famous Hallelujah chorus, which the author had already used in less elaborate versions in two previous compositions, is sung at the end of the second part.

Although the oratorio is not properly a sacred story, it is customary to represent it for Easter, or Christmas. This is not the case in the video presented here, in which the Canadian choral group Niagara Chorus bursts into a food center on any given day in November – thanks to a flashmob – to surprise the dozens of carefree customers with eighteenth-century music while they enjoy their contemporary burgers and fries.

Saint-Saëns, Danse Macabre

The multi-faceted and gifted intellectual and musician Camille Saint-Saëns composed his first piano piece when he was just over four years old. But that did not make that he lay to rest on his laurels. At seven he was already delighting a wide audience in family concerts. Such a promising beginning prompted him to momentarily abandon his studies of Latin, Greek, literature and other sciences to devote himself exclusively to music —a very wise decision that led him to give his first public concert at the Salle Pleyel, in Paris, at the age of ten.

An amazing recital
On the occasion, accompanied on a second piano by an Italian maestro, both a Mozart concerto and a Beethoven concerto were performed, as well as pieces by Hummel, Handel and Bach. At the end, he offered the audience to give an encore with any of the thirty-two Beethoven sonatas that, by the way, he knew by heart. The audience almost threw the room down with applause and the news of this incredible concert spread through the newspapers throughout Europe, even reaching an echo in the press in the United States. Three years later, he entered the Paris Conservatory to study organ and composition. There was no other choice.

Camille Saint-Saëns
(1835 - 1921)

Maturity and Danse Macabre 
Before the age of twenty, with two symphonies to his credit, Camille will have earned the admiration and support of Liszt, Berlioz,
Gounod and Rossini, among others.
By 1875, at the age of forty, his intense creative rhythm had paid off enormously, covering all fields of music and all possible instrumental and vocal combinations.
This is the year that marks the great triumph of his third tone poem, Dansa Macabre, which will earn him even more notoriety, making him the most internationally recognized French composer of his time.

The work
In a waltz rhythm and scarcely seven minutes long, the work is
based on a poem by Henri Cazalis, which describes Death playing the violin before the graves, and at whose call the skeletons come to dance for him. Twelve bells announce the beginning of the work. Death then bursts in with a violin somewhat distorted in pitch to create a ghostly atmosphere. At minute 2:47, the xylophones enter to mimic the beating of the bones when dancing and at the end (7:02), the oboe announces the new day with the crowing of the rooster, calling the dancing skeletons back to their graves.

The excellent animation belongs to a Mr Henderson who in the credits, unfortunately, assigns the work to Liszt, perhaps mistaken for a piece by the Hungarian author with a similar name: Totentanz. Camille's piece ends at minute 7:45, with two chords of little enhancement, dominant and tonic (like tangos). What you hear next is the song Destroying Angel, by the English band Sneaker Pimps.

And as there is room for everyone in the vineyard of the Lord, the video has received various and opposing comments on Youtube, from the most enthusiastic greeting to the label of gross stupidity, including the claim that the dancing skeletons seem to be gay. As for me, I loved it.

Ottorino Respighi, "Notturno"

Ottorino Respighi is one of those musicians who in his time gave a huge boost to music without having been monumental figures themselves like the great masters. Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1879, he took his first steps in the art of music at the hands of his father, a piano teacher. Then he will enter the Liceo Musicale in his hometown, where he will study violin, viola and composition. A year after receiving his diploma in 1899, he traveled to Russia to perform as a principal violist at the Imperial Russian Theater in Saint Petersburg, where he met Rimsky-Kórsakov, of whom he was also a student.

First violin and composer
During the first decade of the twentieth century, Ottorino stood out primarily as a performer, forming part of a famous quintet in which he took the position of the first violin. In the second decade of the century, he added composing to his activity as a performer. 

Florence
In 1913, when his compositions began to attract attention, he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, in Florence, a position he held for a short time, although he will remain in the city for the rest of his days.

Ottorino Respighi (1879 - 1936)

The stigma
For a long time, Respighi's work was considered music of little value, even vulgar, strident and indebted to other minds. Furthermore, his most recognized work, the trilogy of "Roman" symphonic poems – which stands out as I Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome), a remarkable composition for its surprising orchestral effects – was associated with Mussolini's fascism, accusing Ottorino, in passing, of support the fascist regime.
The truth is that the composer, in addition to being shy, was not interested in politics at all. His world was simply made up of music alone. However, the celebrations for the centenary of his birth, in 1979, faced strong political opposition. It has only been since 1986, for the commemoration of the 50 years of his birth, that things have begun to change, leading the composer and his music to an honored place.

An early work - Six pieces for violin and piano
Ottorino Respighi was also a musicologist. In this vein, he studied in depth Italian musicians from the 16th to the 18th centuries, rescuing compositions by authors such as Marcello, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, and publishing their works, as well. For this reason, some of his early compositions are strongly influenced by baroque authors, or are perhaps tinged with a late romanticism. This is the case, in our opinion, of the Notturno, from his Six Pieces for Violin and Piano, published between 1901 and 1906, later transcribed for solo piano.

Notturne, for piano solo, in the rendition (audio only) of the Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan.