Erik Satie, "Embryons desséchés", pour piano

The clever and witty Erik Satie gained the recognition of his peers (or anything resembling it) when he was well into his forties. And here his colleague and friend Maurice Ravel had a unique role to play. In 1911 the author of the famous Bolero organized a monographic concert in Paris with works by Satie. It was the only occasion on which the Parisian public attended an evening entirely dedicated to pieces by the composer, the same one who twenty years earlier had astonished a few and baffled others with his now famous Gymnopédies.

From then on, his solo piano music gained great momentum. He had long since passed his "cabaret" stage, but he had not forgotten his sense of humor. During 1912-13 a series of humorous compositions came to light, which he titled in a somewhat outlandish way, adding comments to the score for the performer and, in passing, ignoring the bar division lines. From that period are, for example, Deux Preludes pour un Chien, Descriptiones Automatiques, and Embryons desséchés.

Embryons desséchés, pour piano ("Desiccated embryos")
Barely six minutes long, the piece is made up of three even more extravagantly titled sections, taken from the names of invertebrate beings that Satie came across in a school encyclopedia. But, there are no mentions here about embryos, desiccated or not.

Erik Satie, in 1820
(1866 - 1925)

What you do find are "quotations" to works by other authors.
The second piece contains a quotation from Chopin. In the "comments" for the performer, we read: "And then they all began to cry (quote from Schubert's famous mazurka)". As far as we know, Schubert never wrote a mazurka (let alone a famous one). The real quote is to the Interlude of the Funeral March (Sonata in B♭ minor), clearly not by Schubert but by Chopin, with which Satie toys for a couple of bars.

The "expression guides"
And as usual, the score is not lacking in "character indications" with which the author ousted the usual tempo and expression indications, replacing them with, say: Light as an egg - Like a nightingale with a toothache - Moderately, I beg you - A little bit warm, and the like.

Sections

00:00  d'Holothurie

02:13  d'Edriophthalma (3:02, the "quotation" from Chopin begins)

04:42  de Podophthalma

The rendition is by Ukrainian pianist Dina Pisarenko, during a break in the rehearsal/recording of another work, with orchestra.

Beethoven, Sonata violin & piano "Spring"

Beethoven wrote ten sonatas for violin and piano in the span of fourteen years, from 1798 to 1812, although nine of them were born during a much shorter period, from 1798 to 1803, the year the famous "Kreutzer" Sonata was published. Almost ten years elapsed, then, between this famous ninth sonata and the last, of 1812, thus completing the corpus of ten sonatas that in the chamber works of the master from Bonn are graciously placed in second place in importance, only surpassed by the string quartets.

Sonata No 5 was composed between 1800 and 1801 when the beginnings of deafness were starting to worry him. Even so, it is a quiet and fruitful period for the master, established in Vienna since 1792. Composed along with Sonata No. 4, it is contemporary with the Piano Concerto No. 3 and the First Symphony.

"Spring" Sonata
Published in 1801, it is dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries, Beethoven's generous patron and recurrent dedicatee of his work (the Seventh Symphony would be dedicated to him). Also known as the "Spring" sonata, together with the Kreutzer they are the only two sonatas to bear the title with which they became popular after the composer's death.

Sonata No. 5 in F major, opus 24 - Movements
Its first sketches date from around 1795, so the Mozartian influence in it is somewhat visible, or if you prefer, "audible", in all the sections that make it up. This is a four-movement structure that Beethoven would use for the first time in this genre, although it should be noted that the added scherzo lasts a minute and a bit longer. Its complete audition takes just over twenty minutes.

00:00   Allegro – The violin sings, generously lyrical, over a delicate piano accompaniment.

11:51   Adagio molto espressivo – A nostalgic melody, first introduced by the piano.

18:10   Scherzo: Allegro molto – Deliberately asynchronous moments between the two instruments.

19:32   Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo – Perhaps the most "Mozartean" of the movements.

The rendition is by German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and American pianist Lambert Orkis.

Chopin, "Tragic Polonaise", op 44

 
Although everybody wrote polonaises (there are those of Telemann, Mozart and Schubert, and the path will be continued by Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky) the most famous and outstanding ones are due to Chopin's inspiration. An important part of the Polish composer's life was occupied by the creation of works in the Polonaise form. The first was written at the age of seven; the last, in 1846, three years before his death. The one that concerns us today was written in 1840 and published in Paris the following year. It was once called "tragic polonaise" but such a calamitous epithet no longer seems necessary. After all, it is a dance. In addition, the year 1841 had begun one of Chopin's most fruitful periods.

A "mixed" polonaise
In spite of its name, it is a " compound " piece, that is, mixed, because in the most unexpected way Chopin inserts a tempo di mazurka in the very center of the piece. His friend Liszt will be pleasantly surprised by such an occurrence and will point this out in a review of its Paris audition. In his usual flowery style, he will note that: "... In the pages of the greatest composers we have seen nothing comparable to the impression produced by this passage, abruptly interrupted by a country scene, by a mazurka in an idyllic style, which has the fragrance of mint and oregano".

The Komar ladies
The work is dedicated to the youngest of the Komar sisters, prominent ladies of the Polish émigré community in Paris, and enthusiastic friends of art in all its forms. By this time, however, the sisters no longer had that surname. Ludmila, dedicatée of the Polonaise, is now Princess Ludmila de Beauvau, having just married Charles-Just de Beauvau-Craon. Her sister Delfina, although divorced from her Count Potocki, will still be recognized as Delfina Potocka. For her there will be also an attentive regard (she is his pupil): Chopin will dedicate to her his popular "Minute Waltz", in 1847.

Polonaise in F sharp minor, opus 44

Three clear sections, preceded by a fiery crescendo, are distinguished in the piece:

00:20   The polonaise proper, martial, haughty, provocative.

03:00   A long episode in triple eighth notes, which seems to simulate a drum roll.

04:35   In the middle, the unforeseen mazurka, inserted by Chopin in the heart of a vehement piece. Thanks to his genius, this interlude will lead to the resumption of the introduction (7:50) and the first rhythmic theme (8:01).

In Liszt's words, the piece ends "with a somber murmur that leaves the soul caught in a blanket of disconsolation." Hence, perhaps, the tragic connotation mentioned at the beginning.

The rendition, immaculate, is by the Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin.

Haydn: Concerto for Trumpet and orchestra

The trumpeter Anton Weidinger, a member of the Vienna court orchestra at the end of the 18th century, did not feel comfortable with the instrument of that time, which was not capable, for example, of producing the sounds of a chromatic scale, the one including semitones. Faced with such a severe limitation, he devoted several years to finding a solution, achieving in 1792 the invention of a trumpet with keys that allowed it to produce semitones. Though the new device reduced the quality of its timbre, the instrument could sing melodiously, as well as a clarinet or a flute.
A friend of Joseph Haydn, Weidinger asked the old Austrian master to compose a concerto to try out his new instrument.

Concerto for trumpet and orchestra
By that time Haydn had ceased to serve in the palaces of the Esterházy family (with whom he remained for 30 years). And his last efforts were devoted to the production of great choral works (The Creation oratorio, among them) rather than the elaboration of pieces for solo instrument. However, he felt intrigued by Weidinger's request, and by the autumn of 1796, he had finished composing the Concerto for trumpet and orchestra in E flat major, the only concerto that the maestro composed for this instrument, and at the same time, the first one written for a trumpet capable of playing chromaticism.

Premiere and reception
A diligent instrumentalist, trumpeter Weidinger spent four years practicing his invention with minor works until he felt capable of tackling the novel contribution to the repertoire that emerged from Haydn's inventiveness. And so the master's most celebrated solo concerto was premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on March 22, 1800, with Weidinger on trumpet, as expected. It was a successful premiere. However, the manuscript was never published during the composer's lifetime. Nor was it later. It disappeared for decades, until it was rediscovered in the late 19th century by a trumpeter of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Its first recording dates only from 1938).
Weidinger's invention was surpassed as early as 1813, with the invention of the three-piston trumpet, the germ of the current trumpet in use in symphony orchestras.

Movements

Brilliantly orchestrated, the concerto fully serves the new technical capabilities of the instrument, in its three movements: in the Allegro, with a new stock of notes in the low register; in the second movement, it exposes its lyrical and expressive potential; in the last movement, it allows the soloist to display all his skill with the new technical effects.

00:00  Allegro

06:41  Andante

09:48  Finale. Allegro

The rendition, superb, is by jazz trumpeter (and much more, as it turns out) Wynton Marsalis, very young, accompanied by the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by the brilliant film music composer John Williams.

S. Revueltas, "Sensemayá", a tone poem

 
A song to kill a snake
 "Sensemayá" is a symphonic poem by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas inspired by some verses of Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén, which bear that title accompanied by the apostille "canto para matar una culebra" (song to kill a snake). Originally written for chamber ensemble in 1937, a year later the author transcribed the work for wind and string orchestra with the participation of no less than fourteen percussion instruments. A paradigm of rhythmic complexity, it is the author's most performed work worldwide and a highlight of his musical production, to which he dedicated only the last ten years of his short life.

United States and Mexico
In fact, Revueltas began to compose "seriously" at the age of thirty. Born in 1899 in a municipality in the state of Durango, he began his violin studies at the age of eight, and as a teenager, he completed his musical training in violin and composition in the United States. Before committing himself to musical creation, he visited Mexico on multiple occasions offering recitals until 1929, when his fellow countryman Carlos Chávez invited him to take over the position of the assistant conductor in the Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, recently created by Chávez and of which he was its director.

Silvestre Revueltas (1899 - 1940)

A musician and intellectual
He remained in that position until 1935, when both artists broke up. Revueltas, a musician and intellectual, defender of the rights of musicians and workers, chose to create his own orchestra, which had a short life. He would then intensify his activity as a composer, although without much effort to disseminate it: during his life he published very little, practically nothing. At his death, he was virtually unknown outside Mexico. His last years were marked by discouragement and consequent dipsomania that led him to spend time in sanatoriums.

Pablo Neruda
Now considered one of the most original musicians of the 20th century, Silvestre Revueltas died poor and forgotten. But not for everyone. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda attended the funeral ceremony and read there a poem dedicated to him that would later become part of his monumental Canto General. The "minor oratorio" – that is what Neruda called it – ends with these words:

"Ahora son las estrellas de América tu patria
y desde hoy tu casa sin puertas es la Tierra"

(Now the stars of America are your homeland / and from today your house without doors is the Earth)

The work
From 1930 onwards, Silvestre Revueltas produced more than ninety percent of his catalog, which includes orchestral pieces, vocal, chamber, and theater music. Also, around 1935 he successfully ventured into music for the cinema (Mexican, naturally).
He is the author of six symphonic poems, the last of them, Sensemayá, a little less than seven minutes long, and which for its effectiveness in musically illustrating a ceremony (the Cuban rite of killing a snake) has been compared to what Stravinski achieved with respect to pagan Russia with The Rite of Spring.

Hobart Earle conducts the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, in July 2012, with an illustrative introduction.