Bizet - L'Arlésienne Suite No. 1 & Suite No. 2

 The incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne (usually translated as 'The Girl from Arles') was composed by Georges Bizet for the first performance of the play on 1 October 1872 at the Vaudeville Theatre (now known as the Paramount Theatre). It consists of 27 numbers (some only a few bars) for voice, chorus, and small orchestra, ranging from short solos to longer entr'actes. Bizet himself played the harmonium backstage at the premiere performance. Bizet wrote several folk-like themes for the music but also incorporated three existing tunes from a folk-music collection published by Vidal of Aix in 1864: the Marcho dei Rei, the Danse dei Chivau-Frus, and Er dou Guet. The score achieves powerful dramatic ends with the most economic of means. Still, it received poor reviews in the wake of the premiere and is not much performed nowadays in its original form. The play itself was not successful, closing after only 21 performances. It had been staged as a last-minute replacement for another play, which had been banned by the censors, and the audience was less than favourably disposed to the new play. The incidental music has survived and flourished, however. It is most often heard in the form of two suites for orchestra, but has also been recorded complete. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: Georges Bizet: L'Arlésienne Suite No. 1 & Suite No. 2 / Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor · Orquesta Sinfonica Valencia / Recorded at Palau de la Musica, Valencia, 12 December 2012.

 

Dvorak American Suite in A, Op. 98

The American Suite in A major (Czech: Suita A dur), Op. 98b, B. 190, is an orchestral suite written in 1894–1895 by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Dvořák initially wrote the Suite in A major for piano, Op. 98, B. 184, in New York between February 19 and March 1, 1894. He orchestrated it in two parts more than a year after his return to the United States and immediately before his departure for Europe. The piano version was performed soon after its composition, but the orchestral version waited some years. The orchestral version of the American Suite was first played in concert in 1910 and not published until 1911, seven years after Dvořák's death in 1904. WIKIPEDIA VIDEO:
 

Strauss Alpine Symphony

 An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie), Op. 64, is a tone poem written by German composer Richard Strauss in 1915. Though labelled as a symphony by the composer, this piece forgoes the conventions of the traditional multi-movement symphony and consists of twenty-two continuous sections of music. The story of An Alpine Symphony depicts the experiences of eleven hours (from daybreak just before dawn to the following nightfall) spent climbing an Alpine mountain. An Alpine Symphony is one of Strauss's largest non-operatic works in terms of performing forces: the score calls for about 125 players in total. A typical performance is about 50 minutes duration. This piece was the last tone poem written by Strauss, a genre which gained the composer popularity in the late 1880s and 1890s with works such as Don Juan (1888), Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks (1895), Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896), Don Quixote (1897), and A Hero's Life (1897–98). By the time of An Alpine Symphony's composition, however, Strauss had turned his attention away from the genre of tone poems and had become well-established as one of the period's greatest operatic composers. Though one of Strauss's lesser-performed works (for a number of reasons, including the great number of musicians required), the piece is popular enough that in 1981 a recording of An Alpine Symphony made with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic became one of the first compact discs to be pressed. WIKIPEDIA

 VIDEO: BBC PROMS 2012 London - Royal Albert Hall Bernard Haitink conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Strauss's An Alpine Symphony Eine Alpensinfonie - Op. 64, is a tone poem by German composer Richard Strauss in 1915
 

Vivaldi Sinfonia in B minor «Al Santo Sepolcro», RV 169

 Antonio Vivaldi's Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro in B minor, RV 169, is one of two pieces he composed bearing the subtitle "al Santo Sepolcro," the other being a Sonata in E flat major, RV 130. Both works are scored for two violins, viola, and continuo, although it is generally accepted that the Sinfonia may be played by either orchestral or chamber forces. There are many chapels in Italy that are called "al Santo Sepolcro" (of the Holy Sepulchre), but given the provenance of the undated Vivaldi manuscript in Turin, it may have been written for a chapel incorporated as part of the Sacro Monte complex in nearby Varallo, Italy. Built in 1491 by Franciscan monk Bernardo Calmì,

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Strauss: "Also sprach Zarathustra" op.30

Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (Thus Spoke Zarathustra or Thus Spake Zarathustra) is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical novel of the same name. The composer conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt. A typical performance lasts half an hour. The work has been part of the classical repertoire since its first performance in 1896. The initial fanfare – titled "Sunrise" in the composer's program notes – became particularly well-known after its use in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: L'Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma Direttore d'orchestra: Antonio Pappano

Brahms Academic Festival Overture

Op. 80, by Johannes Brahms, was one of a pair of contrasting concert overtures — the other being the Tragic Overture, Op. 81. Brahms composed the work during the summer of 1880 as a musical "thank you" to the University of Breslau, which had awarded him an honorary doctorate the previous year. Initially, Brahms had contented himself with sending a simple handwritten note of acknowledgment to the University, since he loathed the public fanfare of celebrity. However, the conductor Bernard Scholz, who had nominated him for the degree, convinced him that protocol required him to make a grander gesture of gratitude. The University expected nothing less than a musical offering from the composer. "Compose a fine symphony for us!" he wrote to Brahms. "But well orchestrated, old boy, not too uniformly thick!" WIKIPEDIA

VIDEO: NZSO performing at the recent Brahmissimo concert series

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 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

Haydn Symphony No 30 C major Alleluia

The Symphony No. 30 in C major, Hoboken I/30, is a symphony by Joseph Haydn composed in 1765. It is nicknamed the Alleluia Symphony because of Haydn's use of a Gregorian Alleluia chant in the opening movement. The work is scored for flute, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, trumpets, timpani, and strings with continuo. The use of timpani in this symphony remains an unresolved matter. In his cycle, for example, Antal Dorati omits them. Several more recent performances, however, have included timpani. WIKIPEDIA


VIDEO: Haydn Symphony No 30 C major Alleluia, HRT Symphony Orchestra

 

RESPIGHI: Violin Concerto in A minor ("Concerto all'antica"), P. 75

There are more than two Respighi violin concertos... the unfinished A major, the A minor all'antica and the Gregoriano (P40 1903, unfinished; P75 of 1908, P135 of 1921) (also the Leggenda P036 and Humoreske P045 of 1902 (both pub. by Ricordi), and the Poema autunnale - also not a concerto, in name- of 1925, pub.1926). This Violin Concerto in A minor ("Concerto all'antica"), P. 75 had its premiere in 1908, a date which gives Respighi the status of forerunner among the neo-classicist composers of the twentieth century. The Concerto all'Antica is an original work conceived in line with the Baroque concerto grosso in mind, but it lacks a strongly individual character, and the work has failed to become part of the repertoire. - Notes partially from description by Hector Bellman. 
 The meaning of the term all'antica when applied to art and architecture, is that which 'imitates the style of the ancients.

 
 VIDEO: Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Concerto all'antica per violino e orchestra (P. 75) (1908). I. Allegro II. Adagio non troppo [12:45] III. Scherzo, Vivace tempo di Minuetto [21:30] Andrea Cappelletti, violino Philharmonia Orchestra diretta da Matthias Bamert.

 

CHOPIN Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante

Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major, Op. 22, was composed by Frédéric Chopin between 1830 and 1834. The Grande polonaise brillante in E-flat, set for piano and orchestra, was written first, in 1830-31. In 1834, Chopin wrote an Andante spianato in G, for piano solo, which he added to the start of the piece, and joined the two parts with a fanfare-like sequence. The combined work was published in 1836, and was dedicated to Madame d'Este.

WIKIPEDIA



 VIDEO: LANG LANG / 郎朗 (pf) EDWARD GARDNER (con) BBC Symphony Orchestra 10 September 2011 Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 74: Last Night of the Proms 


 VIDEO: Evgeny Kissin - Chopin Andante Spianato e Grande Polonaise Brilliante Op.22 

LISZT Annees de Pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage)

A suite for solo piano by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886), which is in part a revision of his earlier work "Album d'un voyageur". The title "Années de pèlerinage" refers to the Bildungsroman "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and there are numerous other literary allusions throughout the suite. Liszt wrote the following introduction to all three "Années de pèlerinage" suites: Années de pèlerinage (French for Years of Pilgrimage) (S.160, S.161, S.163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, Album d'un voyageur, his first major published piano cycle, which was composed between 1835 and 1838 and published in 1842. Années de pèlerinage is widely considered a masterwork and summation of Liszt's musical style. The third volume is notable as an example of his later style. Composed well after the first two volumes, it displays less showy virtuosity and more harmonic experimentation. The title Années de pèlerinage refers to Goethe's famous novel of self-realization, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, and especially its sequel Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (whose original title Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre meant Years of Wandering or Years of Pilgrimage, the latter being used for its first French translation). Liszt clearly places the work in line with the Romantic literature of his time, prefacing most pieces with a literary passage from writers such as Schiller, Byron or Senancour, and, in an introduction to the entire work.                        WIKIPEDIA


VIDEO: Pianist: André Laplante

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

                                                          WIKIPEDIA         

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! 

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
 

Beethoven Piano Sonata No 23 in f op. 57 appassionata

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (colloquially known as the Appassionata, meaning "passionate" in Italian) is among the three famous piano sonatas of his middle period (the others being the Waldstein, Op. 53 and Les Adieux, Op. 81a); it was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. The first edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna. Unlike the early Sonata No. 8, Pathétique, the Appassionata was not named during the composer's lifetime, but was so labeled in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hand arrangement of the work. One of his greatest and most technically challenging piano sonatas, the Appassionata was considered by Beethoven to be his most tempestuous piano sonata until the twenty-ninth piano sonata (known as the Hammerklavier). 1803 was the year Beethoven came to grips with the irreversibility of his progressively deteriorating hearing.

                                               WIKIPEDIA                  

VIDEO: Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57 ("Appassionata")- Piano Performed by Jun Asai

 

Albeniz Asturias

Asturias (Leyenda), named simply Leyenda by its composer, is a musical work written by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. It was originally written for the piano and set in the key of G minor. It was first published in Barcelona, by Juan Bta. Pujol & Co., in 1892 as the prelude of a three-movement set entitled Chants d'Espagne. The name Asturias (Leyenda) was given to it posthumously by the German publisher Hofmeister, who included it in the 1911 "complete version" of the Suite española, although Albéniz never intended the piece for this suite. Despite the new name, this music is not considered suggestive of the folk music of the northern Spanish region of Asturias, but rather of Andalusian flamenco traditions. Leyenda, Hofmeister's subtitle, means legend. The piece is noted for the delicate, intricate melody of its middle section and abrupt dynamic changes.         WIKIPEDIA          

"Asturias (Leyenda) from Suite española, Op. 47, No. 5" by John Williams