RACHMANINOFF Isle of the Dead

Isle of the Dead, Op. 29, is a symphonic poem composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, written in the key of A minor. He concluded the composition while staying in Dresden in 1908. It is considered a classic example of Russian late-Romanticism of the beginning of the 20th century. The piece was inspired by a black and white reproduction of Arnold Böcklin's painting, Isle of the Dead, which Rachmaninoff saw in Paris in 1907. Rachmaninoff was disappointed by the original painting when he later saw it, saying, "If I had seen first the original, I, probably, would have not written my Isle of the Dead. I like it in black and white." WIKIPEDIA | WIKIPEDIA BIO

 VIDEO: Leonard Slatkin leads Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead, Op. 29. Originally aired October 21, 2012
 

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Capriccio Espagnol

Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34, is the common Western title for a five movement orchestral suite, based on Spanish folk melodies, composed by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1887. Rimsky-Korsakov originally intended to write the work for a solo violin with orchestra, but later decided that a purely orchestral work would do better justice to the lively melodies. The Russian title is Каприччио на испанские темы (literally, Capriccio on Spanish Themes).

  RIMSKY-KORSAKOV...|... WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Rimsky Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol Op 34 Berliner Phil Dir Zubin Mehta YouTube

Ravel - Ma mere l'oye, Mother Goose Suite

1912 photo of Joseph Maurice Ravel (French: 7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) 


 Ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose; "Oye" is correctly capitalized, being a proper name) is a musical work by French composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel originally wrote Ma mère l'Oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children, Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7. Ravel dedicated this work for four hands to the children (just as he had dedicated an earlier work, Sonatine, to their parents). Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony premiered the work at the first concert of the Société Musicale Indépendante on 20 April 1910. In 1911 Ravel orchestrated the five-piece suite, and in this form it is most frequently heard today. Later the same year he also expanded it into a ballet, separating the five initial pieces with four new interludes and adding two movements at the start, Prélude and Danse du rouet et scène. The ballet premiered on 29 January 1912 at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris. The piece was transcribed for solo piano by Ravel's friend Jacques Charlot the same year as it was published (1910); the first movement of Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin was also dedicated to Charlot's memory after his death in World War I. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Myung-Whun Chung Feb 25, 2010
 

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3

 The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 composed in 1909 by Sergei Rachmaninoff has the reputation of being one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire. Rachmaninoff composed the concerto in the peaceful setting of his family's country estate, Ivanovka, completing it on September 23, 1909. Contemporary with this work are his First Piano Sonata and his tone poem The Isle of the Dead. The concerto is respected, even feared, by many pianists. Josef Hofmann, the pianist to whom the work is dedicated, never publicly performed it, saying that it "wasn't for" him. Gary Graffman lamented he had not learned this concerto as a student, when he was "still too young to know fear". Due to time constraints, Rachmaninoff could not practice the piece while in Russia. Instead, he practiced it on a silent keyboard that he brought with him while en route to the United States. The concerto was first performed on November 28, 1909 by Rachmaninoff himself with the now-defunct New York Symphony Society with Walter Damrosch conducting, at the New Theater (later rechristened the Century Theater). It received a second performance under Gustav Mahler several weeks later, an "experience Rachmaninoff treasured." WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: Olga Kern , joven rusa ganadora de la Medalla de Oro del Concurso International de Piano Van Cliburn 2001

Rachmaninov Cello Sonata g op 19

 Sergei Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19, a sonata for cello and piano, was completed in November 1901 and published a year later. Rachmaninoff disliked calling it a cello sonata because he thought the two instruments were equal. Because of this, it is often referred to as Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano. Most of the themes are introduced by the piano, while they are embellished and expanded in the cello's part. He dedicated it to Anatoliy Brandukov, who gave the first performance in Moscow with the composer at the piano, on 2 December 1901. Rachmaninoff seems to have made some last-minute alterations after the premiere, as he wrote the date "12 December 1901" on the score. The sonata was overshadowed by the huge success of his Piano Concerto No. 2, which premiered on 27 October 1901.


VIDEO:  Sergei Rachmaninov sonata for cello and piano in g minor, Op.19 1.Lento, Allegro moderato 0:03 2.Allegro moderato 13:43 3.Andante 20:11 4.Allegro mosso 26:50 Natalia Gutman (cello) Viacheslav Poprugin (piano)

 

R STRAUSS Don Quixote, Op. 35

Don Quixote, Op. 35, is a tone poem by Richard Strauss for cello, viola and large orchestra. Subtitled Phantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters (Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character), the work is based on the novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. Strauss composed this work in Munich in 1897. The premiere took place in Cologne on 8 March 1898, with Friedrich Grützmacher as the cello soloist and Franz Wüllner as the conductor.The score is 45 minutes long and is written in theme and variations form, with the solo cello representing Don Quixote, and the solo viola, tenor tuba, and bass clarinet depicting the comic Sancho Panza. The second variation depicts an episode where Don Quixote encounters a herd of sheep and perceives them as an approaching army. Strauss uses dissonant flutter-tonguing in the brass to emulate the bleating of the sheep, an early instance of this extended technique. Strauss later quoted this passage in his music for Le bourgeois gentilhomme, at the moment a servant announces the dish of "leg of mutton in the Italian style". All of the "episodes" are taken directly from the Cervantes novel.

 VIDEO: Performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. This is a live performance from 1991

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Revueltas - Sensemayá

"Sensemayá" is a poem by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén. Guillén's poem evokes a ritual Afro-Caribbean chant performed while killing a snake. It inspired an orchestral work of the same title by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. It is one of Revueltas's most famous compositions. Revueltas first set the poem to music in Mexico City in 1937, originally for small orchestra. In 1938, he expanded it into a full-scale orchestral work. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: Hobart Earle conducts the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of "Sensemayá" in the Odessa Opera House (July 2012)

Rosas-Cadenas Over the Waves

José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January 1868 – 9 July 1894) was a Mexican composer and violinist. Most of Rosas's compositions—among them "Sobre las Olas" ("Over the Waves")—were issued by Wagner y Levien and Nagel Sucesores in Mexico City. In the late 1880s, Rosas is reported to be a member of a military band, and in 1891 he worked in Michoacán. In 1892–93 he was around Monterrey before joining an orchestra in 1893 for a tour through the USA. During this tour the group played also at the World Columbian Exposition World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. In 1894 he went for a several-month tour to Cuba with an Italian-Mexican ensemble, where he came down with major health problems, having to stay behind in Surgidero de Batabanó. As a result of spinal myelitis, he died there at the age of 26. Fifteen years later, in 1909, his remains were brought back to Mexico. VIDEO: Central Military Band of the Russian Ministry of Defence.

 

Juventino Rosas - Vals sobre las olas Over The Waves

José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January 1868 – 9 July 1894) was a Mexican composer and violinist. Rosas was born in Santa Cruz, Guanajuato, later renamed Santa Cruz de Galeana, Guanajuato, and still later into Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas. Rosas began his musical career as a street musician, playing with dance music bands in Mexico City. In 1884-85 and 1888 he matriculated into the conservatory, both times leaving it without taking any examination. WIKIPEDIA BIO Rosas was one of the best known Mexican composers of salon music, the composer with the highest number of editions abroad and of sound recordings, the first of them released in 1898. Rosas's best known work is "Sobre las Olas" or "Over the Waves". It was first published in Mexico in 1888. It remains popular as a classic waltz. The music was used for the tune "The Loveliest Night of the Year", which was sung by Ann Blyth in MGM's film The Great Caruso. It remains still popular with country and old-time fiddlers in the United States. The 1950 film Over the Waves was based on his life. The waltz "Sobre las Olas" (or "Over the Waves") is the best-known work of Rosas. It "remains one of the most famous Latin American pieces worldwide", according to the "Latin America" article in The Oxford Companion to Music.  WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Conductor: Robert Stolz Orchestra: Berliner Symphoniker

Revueltas, La Noche de los Mayas

Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican composer of classical music, a violinist and a conductor. Revueltas wrote film music, chamber music, songs, and a number of other works. His best-known work is the film score for La Noche de los Mayas, although some dissenting opinions hold that it is the orchestral work Sensemayá. In any case, it is Sensemayá that is considered Revueltas's masterpiece.WIKIPEDIA BIO

VIDEO: Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México Director: Enrique Bátiz
 

RESPIGHI Metamorphoseon modi XII

Metamorphoseon, a theme and variations on a lovely modal subject that resulted from that miraculous series of Koussevitsky/Boston Symphony commissions in the late 1920s and early 1930s Composition Year 1930, Rome. The title, Metamorphoseon, implies magical changes. These are to be found in the twelve variations, numbered ‘Modus I -XII’ The word ‘mode’ in this instance is used instead of the more usual ‘variation’. Dedicated to the Boston Symphony Orchestra on the 50th anniversary of its foundation.



VIDEO: Philharmonia Orchestra, Geoffrey Simon theme and variations for orchestra P 169

Respighi - Concerto in modo misolidio

Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo, first student and later wife of Respighi, was a scholar of Gregorian chant and had introduced her husband to the mysteries of the Roman Gradual. Respighi was quick to realize the potential of these melodic music, and tried to translate them into a modern idiom that was appealing to a broad audience. For the Concerto in modo misolidio, Respighi used the song Viri Galilaei for the first movement, a hallelujah to the slow central and a Kyrie to the tumultuous final 'Passacaglia'. The concert was performed for the very first time at Carnegie Hall in New York on the evening of Dec. 31, 1925, by the composer at the piano with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony under Willem Mengelberg. Despite the warm success, Olin Downes expressed reservations about the validity of the concert. Other notable performances in Berlin and Amsterdam with Respighi soloist, in Rome with Carlo Zecchi, did not spare the concert fate ungrateful, and for decades this beautiful composition was forgotten. In the nineties, Jeoffry Tozer and Edward Downes they made a good read on a disc released by Chandos. More recently, Olli Mustonen has recorded for Ondine, and Sandro Ivo Bartoli has published a reading along with the Toccata (another forgotten masterpiece by Respighi) Home Dutch Brilliant Classics.

 

VIDEO: Ottorino Respighi - Concerto in modo misolidio Francesco La Vecchia Conductor - Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma - Desirèe Scuccuglia (Pianoforte) 

RESPIGHI Rossiniana

Respighi revisited this source of musical delights a few years later when he created an orchestral suite he called Rossiniana. Complete in 1925, this time Respighi treated the original material more freely, being unbound by the limitations of a ballet libretto. It is a very colorful score (typical of Respighi) in which Rossini's music seems to be absorbed into the more modern style of Respighi. The four movements are: " Capri e Taormina (Barcarola e Siciliana)"; "Lamento"; "Intermezzo"; and "Tarantella 'Puro sangue'." VIDEO: Ottorino Respighi: Rossiniana, original music by Rossini arranged for orchestra, P. 148 Parts 1 and 2 JoAnn Falletta / Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

RESPIGHI Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No 3

Ancient Airs and Dances (Italian: Antiche arie e danze) is a set of three orchestral suites by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. In addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, Respighi was also a notable musicologist. His interest in Italian music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries led him to compose works inspired by the music of these periods. Suite No. 3 was composed in 1932. It differs from the previous two suites in that it is arranged for strings only and somewhat melancholy in overall mood. It is based on lute songs by Besard, a piece for baroque guitar by Ludovico Roncalli, and lute pieces by Santino Garsi da Parma and additional anonymous composers.WIKIPEDIA VIDEO: O. Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances Suite III. Complete Music "Respighi: Ancient Airs And Dances, Suite No.3, [P. 172] - 1. Italiana" by Boston Symphony Orchestra

Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 2

Ancient Airs and Dances (Italian: Antiche arie e danze) is a set of three orchestral suites by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. In addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, Respighi was also a notable musicologist. His interest in Italian music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries led him to compose works inspired by the music of these periods. Suite No. 2 was composed in 1923. It was based on pieces for lute, archlute, and viol by Fabritio Caroso, Jean-Baptiste Besard, Bernardo Gianoncelli, and an anonymous composer. It also includes an aria attributed to Marin Mersenne. WIKIPEDIA

Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances

Ancient Airs and Dances (Italian: Antiche arie e danze) is a set of three orchestral suites by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. In addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, Respighi was also a notable musicologist. His interest in Italian music of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries led him to compose works inspired by the music of these periods. Suite No. 1 was composed in 1917. It was based on Renaissance lute pieces by Simone Molinaro, Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei) and additional anonymous composers.

VIDEO: Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 1

Respighi ~ Fantasia slava in G minor for Piano & Orchestra ...

Ottorino Respighi’s Fantasia Slava, P. 50 is a work for piano and orchestra composed in 1903 that is often referred to in Respighi literature as the “G Minor Fantasy.” or Slavic Fantasy. It may reflect something of Respighi's stay in St Petersburg and the brief period of study with Rimsky-Korsakov. The Fantasia opens with a typically Slav melody, before the entry of the solo piano. Dance elements appear, in interplay between piano and orchestra, with more histrionic material and passages of pianistic display, over which the spirit of Rachmaninov sometimes hovers.
VIDEO: A piano concerto (essentially), composed in 1903 by the great Italian master... Performing are Konstanin Scherbakov, on piano with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Howard Griffiths.
 

RESPIGHI Adagio con Variazioni

The Adagio con Variazioni spans Respighi's evolution as a composer. In 1902 he studied briefly with Bruch in Berlin, before returning to Russia for work as an orchestral viola player. He also had a few lessons there with Rimsky-Korsakov, which proved highly influential on Respighi’s orchestration. He composed many works at that time, including a cello concerto. That concerto was not published, but in 1921 he returned to the cello work and revised its middle movement as the Adagio con Variazioni. Classical in formal conception, Romantic in expressive execution, the work was dedicated to the cellist Antonio Certani, Respighi’s old Bolognese friend and chamber music colleague.

 

VIDEO: Misha Maisky, Violoncello Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov