Gershwin: "An American in Paris"

Before he was 25 years old, George Gershwin had obtained a resounding success with the orchestral piece Rhapsody in blue, which premiered in February 1923 with the author as soloist. This was followed by four years of great success in his theatrical career, devoted to writing music for Broadway revues. On the "serious" side, he added the Piano Concerto of 1925, with similar success to the Rhapsody, and the Preludes for piano, the following year, equally applauded.

In Paris, 1928
The succession of achievements never seemed to end, but in 1927 he had to endure the small misstep of a satirical political comedy that turned out to be a failure. This perhaps reminded him of his friends and some critics who advised him to dedicate himself a little more to "serious music" and a little less to show business. Be that as it may, the following year Gershwin undertook a trip to Europe. Settling in Paris, he tried to persuade Ravel, Milhaud, and Prokofiev to give him lessons. Although pleasantly surprised, the masters refused. If Mr. Gershwin was concerned that his knowledge was purely intuitive, the masters felt that all that was enough.

A little trip to Vienna
Half confused, half flattered, Gershwin undertook a trip to Vienna. There he met Alban Berg. He did not ask him for lessons, as Berg, as soon as he met him, did everything he could to encourage him to continue on his own original path. Back in the French capital, Gershwin began to write his first and only programmatic work, the symphonic piece An American in Paris, released in December of 1928 with the New York Philharmonic, and which was received with thoughtless delight, a few months before the onset of the Great Depression.

George Gershwin (1898 - 1937)

An American in Paris, symphonic poem for orchestra

A light work, its music tries to suggest the Parisian journey of an American tourist, describing his impressions and moods: first, a walk accompanied by honking horns, then moments of self-absorption, a dialogue with someone (commissioned to violin and viola, 7:48), some homesickness (the blues, 8:42), a new dialogue perhaps with a countryman (the Charleston, 13:45). After the majestic recapitulation of the blues (15:50), the theme of the initial promenade resurfaces and others are repeated. The work concludes after a powerful coda.

The performance is by The Moscow City Symphony Orchestra, conducted by American maestro Hobart Earle.

Mozart, Piano Concerto No 12

By the end of 1782, twenty-six-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had set foot firmly in Vienna, ready to make a name for himself as an independent musician, after leaving the Salzburg court and his hated patron Colloredo in the middle of the previous year.

Disregarding the advice of his father Leopold, he had also married Constanze Weber, a somewhat sickly girl, six years his junior, who would bear him six children only two of whom would reach adulthood.

The production of piano concertos
So he was faced with the challenge of conquering Vienna, and at the same time supporting a family, ensuring his health and well-being. The solution to such a challenge came through a fruitful production of piano concertos, for which Mozart was the performer, conductor, and producer of the event in which he unveiled them.

Between the autumn of 1782 and 1786, he composed the non-negligible sum of fifteen piano concertos, an enormous production that began with concertos Nos. 11, 12, and 13, at the end of 1782, intended to be premiered in the 1783 "season".

In a letter to his father dated December 28, 1782, Mozart describes the character of these pieces thus:

"...they are a fair medium between the too easy and the too difficult; they are quite brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and of natural unfolding, without becoming trivial. From time to time, passages appear that only connoisseurs can appreciate, but these passages are written in such a way that even the less demanding can be satisfied, even if they do not know why."

Concerto No. 12, in A major, K 414
The second concerto of the above series, No. 12, is a light work in the sense that it is written for a small orchestra. Consequently, it could also be performed at a family evening by a keyboard and string quartet, thus extending Mozart's potential demand after its publication and thereby increasing his income. Constanze welcomed the idea.

Movements
Structured in the traditional way, fast-slow-fast movements, its parts are:

00       Allegro
11:03  Andante (The main theme is taken from an overture by Johann Christian Bach, Mozart's childhood friend and teacher).
19:35  Allegretto

The performance is by Russian pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, in the role of soloist and conductor.

 

Paganini, Violin Concerto No 4

None of Niccolo Paganini's six violin concertos was published during his lifetime. The famous violinist and composer from Verona used to take care of the orchestral parts zealously, to the point of providing the scores to the orchestra on the same day of the rehearsal. At the end of the session, he would carefully remove them, one by one, to deliver them again on the performance's day, when he would repeat the maneuver, and then take them with him. This attitude did not help much in the diffusion of his work, of course, but it happens that in a world with author's rights in its infancy, it was necessary to take care of the material that allowed him to live.

Living a good life
Paganini, actually, made a good living from his work. At a very young age, he left his father's home to launch out on his own as a virtuoso violinist. Soon his fame and talent allowed him to travel all over Europe, with public appearances that were eagerly awaited and attended with delirious enthusiasm, worthy of any rock star of our times. Besides the myth of the pact with the devil, it was also said that inside his instrument he had hidden the spirit of some trapped maidens who would sing for him.

Niccolo Paganini (1782 - 1840)

Violin Concertos 
According to today's scholars, it was a virtuosity lacking in content. That is why few of his works are performed today. And of his six violin concertos, it has been said that it is only one with some variations. A bit overstated, but there is some truth in it, for it was impossible for the master with a busy schedule to come up with something completely new every time. Besides, "his audience" enthusiastically attended his concerts to hear the great virtuoso of the time working wonders with the instrument, not necessarily to hear works at first hearing.

Violin Concerto No. 4
And of course, for those familiar with Violin Concerto No. 1, the similarities that Violin Concerto No. 4 has with it are obvious (and also with No. 2). But as has already been said, Paganini lived off his audience. He knew what they liked, and he acted accordingly.

The work was composed during a tour of Germany between 1829 and 1830 after the triumphant debut he had achieved in Vienna in 1828 with the three previous concertos.

Movements

00        Allegro maestoso  -  The orchestra exposes the main themes, as usual. At minute 3:32 the solo violin makes its appearance.

17:23  Adagio flebile con sentiment  - Lyrical and light (flebile), with an overtly Italian character.

24:13  Rondo galante - Andantino gaio   -  At 32:06, the rondo gives way to a joyful andantino (gaio). Brilliant ending.

The version (audio only) is by Italian maestro Salvatore Accardo and The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit.

Édouard Lalo, Spanish Symphony

Deeply satisfied with Pablo de Sarasate's performance of his 1873 Violin Concerto, the French composer of Spanish descent Édouard Lalo decided to dedicate to him a piece that would pay homage to "the Spanish spirit" and, incidentally, to his friend's compatriots and his own ancestors. Thus, he added an objective element to the widespread and firm vocation of those years to make music with some degree of "exoticism", which drew mostly on Spanish airs. The result was the work for violin and orchestra that Lalo entitled Sinfonía Española, premiered with Sarasate as soloist in February 1875, a month before the opera Carmen, by Bizet, was to be staged.

The author
Born in Lille, in the north of France, in 1823, Édouard Lalo left his father's home at the age of sixteen with the clear determination of becoming a musician, avoiding the military career for which his father had been preparing him.

Settling in Paris in 1839, he studied violin at the Paris Conservatory, and composition, privately. For many years, as a composer, his work was of secondary importance, although he actively participated in the impulse that some circles were trying to give to French chamber music, a genre for which he felt especially prepared, and for which he created a work that was well received in his time.

Edouard Lalo (1823 - 1892)

The recognition

But it was not until the 1870s that Lalo gained massive recognition after Camille Saint-Saëns in 1871 promoted the foundation of the Societé Musicale de Paris, an association aimed at promoting contemporary composers by providing them with a space for the premiere of their works. Saint Saëns' idea brought benefits to authors such as César Franck, Massenet, Fauré, and of course, Lalo. Thanks to the Societé Musicale, Lalo was able to venture with greater dedication and confidence into orchestral music, giving as a result, only in the 1870s, the aforementioned Violin Concerto, the Cello Concerto and the Spanish Symphony.

Spanish Symphony for violin and orchestra - Movements
Rather than a symphony, the work is today considered a concerto, or rather a suite, for violin and orchestra. Its parts are as follows, although the intermezzo is sometimes omitted:

00        Allegro non troppo
08:05  Scherzando - Allegro molto 
12:44  Intermezzo - Allegro non troppo
19:10  Andante
25:44  Finale - rondo

The performance is by L'Orchestre National de France conducted by Cristian Macelar, with Augustin Hadelich on violin.

Puccini, Turandot - aria "Nessun dorma"

Although without surpassing the popular appeal of Brindisi from La Traviata or La donna è mobile from Rigoletto, the aria Nessun Dorma from the opera Turandot by Puccini has lately become the workhorse of aspiring celebrities in every America's got talent contest held anywhere in the Western world.

The modern popularity of the piece is mainly due to the Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti who, despite rarely performing it on stage, from a 1972 recording accompanying the coverage of the 1990 World Cup soccer championship in Italy, turned it into the famous aria with which non-professional singers try to win the main prize and, subsequently, be launched to fortuitous stardom.

Turandot
The aria belongs to the third and last act of Turandot, the last work that Giacomo Puccini approached and left unfinished because he died while working precisely in the third act. For its posthumous premiere, in April 1926, the conductor Arturo Toscanini stopped the work at the last bar written by Puccini and, addressing the audience, murmured "here the maestro died".

The work was completed by the composer Franco Alfano. Still, Puccini had already written the famous aria, entrusted to the co-star, Calaf, the prince whose name is unknown to Turandot, the protagonist.

Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924)

The aria
The play is set in Peking, a millenary China. Princess Turandot, as beautiful as cold and distant, has decided to behead any suitor who cannot answer to three riddles of her invention. Calaf successfully overcomes the test, but the princess backs out. Calaf proposes to Turandot that she guess his name. If she succeeds she can roll his head, if not, she must marry him.
Turandot orders that no one sleeps in Peking until she finds out the name of the daring suitor. Calaf assures that no one will be able to find out, that only Turandot will know it when he "says it over his mouth", at dawn, victorious: All'alba vinceró.

The concert version is by Luciano Pavarotti, in Los Angeles, 1994.