Incidental Music to Sibelius King Christian II

The King Christian II Suite is a suite composed by Jean Sibelius in 1898. The concert suite is a selection from Sibelius's own incidental music—originally composed for the Scandinavian historical play King Christian II (written by his friend Adolf Paul). The original play deals with the love of King Christian II, ruler of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, for a Dutch girl, Dyvecke, a commoner. A complete performance of the suite takes about 25 minutes. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Robin Browning conducts the opening movement of the King Christian II Suite by Sibelius. Recorded Live at Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton, UK, December 2011 

Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (organ)

The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at what was probably the artistic peak of his career. It is also popularly known as the Organ Symphony, even though it is not a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where two sections out of four use the pipe organ. The composer inscribed it as: Symphonie No. 3 "avec orgue" (with organ). Of composing the work Saint-Saëns said "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again."

VIDEO:Saint Saëns Symphony No 3 in C minor, Op 78 Järvi

The composer seemed to know it would be his last attempt at the symphonic form, and he wrote the work almost as a type of "history" of his own career: virtuoso piano passages, brilliant orchestral writing characteristic of the Romantic period, and the sound of a cathedral-sized pipe organ. The symphony was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in England, and the first performance was given in London on 19 May 1886, at St James's Hall, conducted by the composer. After the death of his friend Franz Liszt on 31 July 1886, Saint-Saëns dedicated the work to Liszt's memory. The composer also conducted the French premiere in January 1887.

K 385 MOZART Symphony No 35 in D "Haffner"

Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782 and is also called the Haffner Symphony. It was commissioned by the Haffners, a prominent Salzburg family, for the occasion of Sigmund Haffner's ennoblement. The Haffner Symphony should not be confused with the eight-movement Haffner Serenade, another piece Mozart wrote on commission from the same family in 1776.

          WIKIPEDIA      




 Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782 and is also called the Haffner Symphony. It was commissioned by the Haffners, a prominent Salzburg family, for the occasion of Sigmund Haffner's ennoblement. The Haffner Symphony should not be confused with the eight-movement Haffner Serenade, another piece Mozart wrote on commission from the same family in 1776. The symphony is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in A, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in D and G, 2 trumpets in D, timpani, and strings. Mozart's choice of key for the Haffner Symphony is an aspect that catches one's attention. According to Cuyler, "the key of D major, which was so felicitous for the winds, served Mozart more often than any other key, even C, for his symphonies," including the Paris (No. 31) and Prague (No. 38) symphonies. The key is also indicative of the work's serenade origins as all of Mozart's orchestral serenades are scored in D major. Hence, it is not surprising that the Haffner Symphony was written in the key of D major. The symphony is in four movements: 1. Allegro con spirito, 4/4 2. Andante, 2/4 3. Menuetto, 3/4 4. Presto, 2/2. The Haffner Symphony usually runs somewhere around 20 minutes in length. A recording by George Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra (Sony SBK 46333) runs 19.11; one by Iona Brown with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Haenssler CD 94.003) is 21.09; and one by Sir Neville Marriner also with the same ensemble (Philips 420 486-2) runs 21.34. VIDEO:
 

MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No 1 in d Op 49

Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 was completed on 23 September 1839 and published the following year. The work is scored for a standard piano trio consisting of violin, cello and piano. The trio is one of Mendelssohn's most popular chamber works and is recognized as one of his greatest along with his Octet, Op. 20. During the initial composition of the work, Mendelssohn took the advice of a fellow composer, Ferdinand Hiller, and revised the piano part. The revised version was in a more romantic, Schumannesque style with the piano given a more important role in the trio. Indeed, the revised piece was reviewed by Schumann who declared Mendelssohn to be "the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of musicians."

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MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No 1 in d Op 49

VIDEO: Summer in Old Ljubljana Town. Imago Slovenije. International Young Artists Concert in Ljubljana, Slovenia. City Museum (Atrium). One of the best chamber trios in the world, Munich Artistrio performed: Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 

LISZT, Les préludes

Les préludes is the third of Franz Liszt's thirteen symphonic poems. It is listed as S.97 in Humphrey Searle's catalogue of Liszt's music. The music is partly based on Liszt's 1844/5 choral cycle Les quatre élémens (The Four Elements). Its premiere was in 1854, directed by Liszt himself. The score was published in 1856 by Breitkopf & Härtel, who also published the musical parts in 1865.[1] Les préludes is the earliest example of an orchestral work entitled "symphonic poem".
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VIDEO:Franz Liszt Les Preludes (symphonic poem) Georg Solti conductor
 

CHOPIN Allegro de concert Op 46

Frédéric Chopin's Allegro de concert, Op. 46, is a piece for piano, published in November 1841. It is in one movement and takes between 11 and 15 minutes to play. The principal themes are bold and expressive. It has a curious place in the Chopin canon, and while its history is obscure, the evidence supports the view, shared by Robert Schumann and others, that it started out as the first movement of a projected third piano concerto, of which the orchestral parts are either now non-existent or were never scored at all. There is no evidence that Chopin ever even started work on the latter movements of this concerto. Chopin published his two piano concertos in 1830. That same year he wrote that he was planning a concerto for two pianos and orchestra, and would play it with his friend Tomasz Napoleon Nidecki if he managed to finish it. He worked on it for some months but he had the greatest difficulty with it, and this work never eventuated; however, he may have used ideas from it in later works. There seems to be no record of its first public performance at all. (Claude Debussy played it at the Paris Conservatoire in July 1879.[9]) The work received one of its rare public performances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the early 1980s as the opening work for a 'quasi orchestral' solo piano recital by British pianist Mark Latimer

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VIDEO: Christmas Concert on deceber 8th 2010 at Carlos Gomes Theater, Blumenau, Brazil. I played Chopin's Allegro de Concert op.46, a relatively unknown and rarely played masterpiece of the composer, as a celebration for his 200th birthday. I didn't have much time to practice it, so there are some issues that I surely intend to enhance in the future. But, for now, that's what I got. I hope you enjoy it. Comments welcome, as always! 

Double Concerto for Violin and Piano in D minor, Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn born in Hamburg in 1809 and died in 1847 in Leipzig. The concerto was composed in 1823 for violin and piano soloists and string orchestra. Known as Mendelssohn's Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor this work is not one of Mendelssohn’s most well-known works and composed when he was 14, still young on the verge of becoming an established soloist, conductor and composer. Its first two public performances were given 134 years apart. It was not published until many years later in Leipzig by Deutscher Verlag für Musik, in 1966. Written in three-movement form (Allegro-Adagio-Allegro molto) and represents an unusual concerto pairing. It is without opus number and not to be confused with the later piano concertos or the Violin Concerto Op. 64.



 VIDEO: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor. Salón de Actos de la Facultad de Derecho - Buenos Aires - Argentina August 29th, 2009 Ciclo "Grandes Conciertos" Orquesta de Cámara FM 100.3 "Cultura Musical" Conductor: Alfredo Corral Violin: Julieta Astudillo Piano: Natalia González Figueroa
 

Mozart, Piano Concerto No 2 in Bb K 39

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began his series of preserved piano concertos with four that he wrote at the age of 11, in Salzburg: K. 37 and 39-41. The autographs, all held by the Jagiellonian Library, Kraków, are dated by his father as having been completed in April (K. 37) and July (K. 39-41) of 1767. Although these works were long considered to be original, they are now known to be orchestrations of sonatas by various German virtuosi. The works on which the concertos are based were largely published in Paris, and presumably Mozart and his family became acquainted with them or their composers during their visit to Paris in 1763–64. By using movements from the sonatas of other composers, the young Mozart seems to have begun to learn how to cope with the structural problems of composing in the piano concerto form. No. 2 (K. 39) in B flat major The concerto is scored for strings, piano (or harpsichord), and pairs of oboes and horns, as above. The movements are: Allegro spiritoso Andante staccato Molto allegro The first and third movements are again from Raupach (Op. 1, No. 1), whilst the slow movement is based on the opening movement of Johann Schobert's Op. 17, No. 2, a composer admired by Mozart

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VIDEO: Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, K. 39 Murray Perahia, English Chamber Orchestra 1984
 

Mendelssohn, Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor

The Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor was composed by Felix Mendelssohn at the age of thirteen. It has three movements, Allegro–Andante–Allegro, and performance duration is approximately 22 minutes. Mendelssohn wrote this violin concerto for Eduard Rietz (eldest brother of Julius Rietz), a beloved friend and teacher who later served as concertmaster for Mendelssohn's legendary performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion, which has been thought to have resurrected Bach in the public image. When Mendelssohn died, his widow gave the manuscript of the long forgotten concerto to Ferdinand David, another close friend of Mendelssohn's and a leading violinist of the period, who in fact had premiered his Violin Concerto in E minor. Yehudi Menuhin, the violin virtuoso and former prodigy himself, was first shown the manuscript of the concerto in the spring of 1951 in London by Albi Rosenthal, an amateur violinist and rare books dealer who had heard Menuhin in his first concert in Munich. He instantly found an interest in the concerto and bought the rights to it from members of the Mendelssohn family residing in Switzerland, which he held for the rest of his life. This was not the first time he resurrected a concerto, for as a teenager he had premiered the "lost" Robert Schumann Violin Concerto in the USA. Menuhin edited the concerto for performance and had it published by Peters Edition.


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VIDEO: M. Argerich G. Kremer Mendelssohn Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings in D Minor I. Allegro

 

Liszt, Mephisto Waltz

The Mephisto Waltzes are four waltzes composed by Franz Liszt in 1859-62, 1880–81, 1883 and 1885. Nos. 1 and 2 were composed for orchestra, and later arranged for piano, piano duet and two pianos, whereas 3 and 4 were written for piano only. Of the four, the first is the most popular and has been frequently performed in concert and recorded. Associated with the Mephisto Waltzes is the Mephisto Polka, which follows the same program as the other Mephisto works. Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke (The Dance in the Village Inn) is the second of two short works he wrote for orchestra. While the work preceding it, Midnight Procession ("Der nächtliche Zug"), is rarely given (though both works have been recorded together), the waltz has been a concert favorite, with its passion, sensuality and dramatics generating an emotional impact. James Huneker described the work's "langourous syncopated melody" as "one of the most voluptuous episodes outside of the Tristan score." The Mephisto Waltz No. 1 is a typical example of program music, taking for its program an episode from Faust, not by Goethe but by Nikolaus Lenau (1802–50). The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau, appears in the printed score... The waltz was conceived as both an orchestra and a piano work. Three versions, orchestral (S.110/2), piano duet (S.599/2) and piano solo, (S.514), all date more or less from the same period (1859–62). The piano duet version is a straightforward transcription of the orchestral version, while the solo piano version is an independent composition. Liszt dedicated the piece to Carl Tausig, his favourite pupil. The orchestral version also has an alternate, softer ending which, while not as rousing as the usual coda, some critics argue is closer to the intent of Lenau's tale. While this ending is not often heard in the concert hall, both Fritz Reiner and James Conlon have recorded it. He also provided two extra passages for the piano solo version. It is not known when Liszt wrote these extra passages, but it was a habit of his later years to make alterations while teaching his works to his pupils.

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VIDEO: Boris Berezovsky Live from 29th Festival International de Piano de La Roque d'Anthéron, 17th August 2009.

 

Respighi, The Birds (Gli Uccelli)

The Birds (Italian: Gli uccelli) is a suite for small orchestra by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. Dating from 1928, the work is based on music from the 17th-century and represents an attempt to transcribe birdsong into musical notation, and illustrate bird actions, such as fluttering wings, or scratching feet. The work is in five movements: "Prelude" (based on the music of Bernardo Pasquini) "La colomba" ("The dove"; based on the music of Jacques de Gallot) "La gallina" ("The hen"; based on the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau) "L'usignuolo" ("The nightingale"; based on the folksong "Engels Nachtegaeltje" transcribed by recorder virtuoso Jacob van Eyck) "Il cucù" ("The cuckoo"; based on the music of Pasquini) The suite was used for the ballet of the same name, with choreography by Cia Fornaroli, first performed at Sanremo Casinò Municipale on 19 February 1933; with choreography by Margarita Walmann at the Colòn Theatre, Buenos Aires, on 27 February 1940; and by Robert Helpmann, with design by Chiang Yee, by the Sadler's Wells Ballet at the New Theatre, London on 24 November 1942.

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VIDEO: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performs under Louis Lane. 

Sibelius, The Swan of Tuonela

photo by RON COHEN At My Window.com

The Swan of Tuonela (Tuonelan joutsen) is an 1895 tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It is part of the Lemminkäinen Suite (Four Legends from the Kalevala), Op. 22, based on the Kalevala epic of Finnish mythology. The tone poem is scored for a small orchestra of cor anglais, oboe, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trombones, timpani, bass drum, harp, and divided strings. The cor anglais is the voice of the swan, and its solo is perhaps the best known cor anglais solo in the orchestral literature. The music paints a gossamer, transcendental image of a mystical swan swimming around Tuonela, the island of the dead. Lemminkäinen, the hero of the epic, has been tasked with killing the sacred swan; but on the way, he is shot with a poisoned arrow and dies. In the next part of the story he is restored to life.

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VIDEO: "Lemminkäinen suite Op.22 No.2 : Tuonelan joutsen [The Swan of Tuonela]" by Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis

 

Ravel, Alborada del gracioso from Miroirs

Miroirs is a suite for solo piano written by French composer Maurice Ravel between 1904 and 1905. First performed by Ricardo Viñes in 1906, Miroirs contains five movements, each dedicated to a fellow member of the French avant-garde artist group, Les Apaches. Around 1900, Maurice Ravel joined a group of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians referred to as Les Apaches or "hooligans", a term coined by Ricardo Viñes to refer to his band of "artistic outcasts". To pay tribute to his fellow artists, Ravel began composing Miroirs in 1904 and finished it the following year. Movements 3 and 4 were subsequently orchestrated by Ravel, while Movement 5 was orchestrated by Percy Grainger, among others. Alborada del gracioso ("Morning Song of the Jester"). Dedicated to Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, Alborada is a technically challenging piece that incorporates Spanish musical themes into its complicated melodies.

VIDEO: "Alborada del gracioso" de Maurice Ravel Valery Gergiev Orquesta Filarmónica de Rotterdam
 

Respighi Pines of Rome

Pines of Rome (Italian: Pini di Roma) is a symphonic poem written by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi in 1924. It is the second orchestral work in his "Roman trilogy", preceded by Fountains of Rome (1917) and followed by Roman Festivals (1926). Each of the four movements depicts pine trees in different locations in Rome at different times of the day. The premiere took place at the Augusteo, Rome under the direction of Bernardino Molinari on 14 December 1924.

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VIDEO: Gimnazija Kranj Great Christmas Concert 2013. Postcards from Italy. Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra performed Ottorino Respighi Pines of Rome. Performance in Gallus Hall, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Conductor maestro Nejc Bečan; Concert master: Nina Pirc.

K 459 Mozart Piano Concerto No 19 in F

The Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, KV 459 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was written at the end of 1784: Mozart's own catalogue of works records that it was completed on 11 December (works surrounding it in the Köchel catalogue are KV 458, the "Hunt" quartet and KV 464, the fifth of the Haydn set). It is occasionally known as the "second coronation concerto" on account of Mozart playing it on the occasion of the coronation of Leopold II in Frankfurt am Main in October 1790. The autograph is held by the Jagiellońska Library, Kraków. The first edition was produced by Johann Andre of Offenbach in 1794, and Breitkopf & Härtel produced an edition in 1800. Like most of Mozart's concertos it is in three movements: The concerto was written for Mozart to perform himself: Hutchings calls it "athletic", combining grace with vigour. It is scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings.

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VIDEO: Mozart Piano Concerto No 19 in F Major K. 459 Radu Lupu - Piano David Zinman - Conductor Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie

Mendelssohn Symphony No 5 Reformation

The Symphony No. 5 in D major/D minor, Op. 107, known as the Reformation, was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. The Confession is a key document of Lutheranism and its Presentation to Emperor Charles V in June 1530 was a momentous event of the Protestant Reformation. This symphony was written for a full orchestra and was Mendelssohn's second extended symphony. It was not published until 1868, 21 years after the composer's death – hence its numbering as '5'. Although the symphony is not very frequently performed, it is better known today than it was during Mendelssohn's lifetime. The key of the symphony is stated as D major on the title page of Mendelssohn's autograph score. However, only the slow introduction is written in D Major, whereas the main theme and the cadence setting of the first movement are in D minor. The composer himself referred to the symphony on at least one occasion as in D minor.             WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No 5 D major minor 'Reformation' S. Baudo OSI
 

Liszt Mephisto Polka S 217

The Mephisto Polka (S217) is a piece of program music written in folk-dance style for piano by Franz Liszt in 1882-83 and dedicated to Lina Schmalhausen, one of his students. She is remembered as one among the closest and most ardently devoted of Liszts followers, frequently attending to and assisting in the many needs of the aged master whose health was in rapid decline. The work's program is the same as that of the four Mephisto Waltzes, written between 1859 and 1885 and based on the legend of Faust, by Nikolaus Lenau. This work appears the simplest and technically least challenging of all the Mephisto dances. Tonally, it is also mildest. However, the simplicity in notation disguises the true character of the music. The most haunting touch is at the end, when the piece simply stops with a solitary F natural sounding, then dying out... Wikipedia

VIDEO: S Richer plays Liszt Mephisto Polka