DOCSLIB.ORG

Richard Wagner / Arr. Franz Liszt Pierre Boulez Béla Bartók

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Richard Wagner / Arr. Franz Liszt Pierre Boulez Béla Bartók VIRTUAL FESTIVAL CONCERT #9 - Released July 31, 2020 RICHARD WAGNER / ARR. FRANZ LISZT “Liebestod” from Tristan and Isolde Andreas Haefliger piano PIERRE BOULEZ Sonatine for Flute and Piano Marina Piccinini flute / Andreas Haefliger piano BÉLA BARTÓK Duos for Two Violins, sz. 98 (selections) 36 Bagpipes 36a Változata (Variant of No. 36) 26 Teasing song 5 Slovakian song (1) 22 Mosquito dance 19 A fairy Tale 14 Pillow dance 33 Harvest song 27 Limping dance 42 Arabian song 35 Ruthenian Kolomejka 28 Sorrow 38 Romanian whirling dance Stephen Rose violin / Tessa Lark violin FRANZ SCHUBERT Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano in B-flat Major, D. 898 Allegro moderato Andante un poco mosso Scherzo: Allegro Rondo: Allegro vivace Benjamin Beilman violin / Ani Aznavoorian cello / Orion Weiss piano Concert was originally scheduled for July 24, 2020 RICHARD WAGNER / ARR. FRANZ LISZT PIERRE BOULEZ (1813–1883) (1925–2016) “Liebestod” from Tristan and Isolde (1856-59) Sonatine for Flute and Piano (transcribed by Franz Liszt, 1867) (1946, rev. 1948) SCMS premiere SCMS premiere Richard Wagner’s affair with Mathilde Wesendonck In an article appearing in The Atlantic magazine in bore two offspring, the richly expressive song 1995, composer David Schiff likened Pierre Boulez’s cycle, Wesendonck Lieder, and more famously, the career to that of many a mathematical genius, who emotionally wrenching music drama, Tristan und “had his great ideas in his early twenties, when he Isolde, a tale of unrequited love whose literary burst onto the Parisian musical scene as a radical sources extend back to medieval lore. The opera’s composer and a scathing polemicist who intended final great apotheosis, often excerpted for stand- to rewrite musical history of the 20th-century to alone performance, is the so-called Liebestod (“Love justify his own innovations.” The implication was that Death”). The rising passion and aching beauty of as he aged, he became less of a vital compositional this glorious excerpt from the complete opera has force, though his continued presence as a leading assured itself a permanent place in the orchestral conductor and charismatic icon maintains his repertoire, performed without the Heldensoprano. A undiluted fame to this day. number of pianists have transcribed various chunks of Wagner’s “music dramas” (as he called his operas) Even after death, Boulez remains a center-stage for the keyboard, including Franz Liszt. figure, stoutly defended by his admirers and strenuously assailed by those not enchanted by his Liszt’s piano transcription of the ravishing Liebestod music and audacious pronouncements about art, from Tristan und Isolde conveys the orchestral and music, and culture in general. There is even a website vocal grandeur of the original in full voice. Liszt, that invites people to destroy all recordings and of course, was as familiar with Wagner’s music as books about the still-controversial French musician. virtually anyone else at the time, no great surprise Boulez has magnetically attracted both fame and given his relationship as father-in-law to the notoriety. He has also, one might add, won more than composer of Tristan und Isolde. Perhaps more to 20 Grammy Awards as a composer and conductor. the point, Liszt composed scads of “paraphrases” on operatic scenes, in addition to his piano Boulez studied with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris reductions of Beethoven’s symphonies and myriad Conservatoire, from which he graduated in 1945. The other borrowings. If his piano version of, say, the following year he began studies in counterpoint with Prelude to Die Meistersinger illuminates Wagner’s René Leibowitz, who instructed Boulez in 12-tone aka magnificent counterpoint more cogently than in its serial technique. Boulez, more than almost anyone usual orchestral garb, the keyboard version of the else, extended the serialism of Anton Webern. A Liebestod revels in the music’s radiant chromatic year later he composed the Sonatine for Flute and harmony and luxuriant passion. (A bit of lesser known Piano, one of his earliest 12-tone compositions and trivia: Liszt created the famous ultra-chromatic chord a fiercely difficult work for a flutist daring to deal sequence that opens Die Meistersinger that has with its great challenges and for the listener as well. challenged musicologists for a century-and-a-half.) The renowned flutist Ransom Wilson opined, “It is so worth it,” Ransom said. “Like most people, I thrive on challenge. For me to play this piece, I have to be in the very best shape I can be, just to execute it. It’s a motivator for me.” SUMMER festival // Laid out in one continuous movement divided powerful breezes. Simultaneously, Hungary—like the into four sections using the same tone row, the rest of Europe—was reeling from the horrors of the Sonatine abounds in such recognizable 20th-Century Great War, struggling to establish a new system to fill techniques as flutter-tonguing by the flute, (at the vacuum created by the dissolution of the defunct times imitated by the piano), frequent dynamic and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bartók, too, grappled rhythmic changes within and between sections, plus with the challenge of coping with the cataclysmic many changes in meter, and fluctuating tempos—all changes about him, thrown into even higher relief by elements reflecting the strong influence of Anton his first marriage and subsequent divorce in August Webern. The eminent Belgian cognitive scientist 1923. His music from that period was dissonant, lean, Irène Deliège, deeply familiar with musical modernity, and acerbic and extended into the early 1930s. By noted that the premiere in 1947 met “with a great the last years of his life he had re-embraced a more many reservations, if not booing, and in consequence comfortable tonal vocabulary as exemplified by the the work was for a long time taboo to concert Concerto for Orchestra and Piano Concerto No. 3. organizers in Brussels.” Boulez revised the score in 1948, which led to a greater acknowledgement On commission from the German violinist and among critics, performers and audiences. teacher Erich Doflein, Bartók composed 44 Duos for Two Violins that combined dissonance and bitonality Given the challenges to even committed performers yet were designed to be playable by young students. of the composer, listeners coming to the Sonatine The work abounds in exciting rhythms and such for the first time will be forgiven for not grasping time-honored devices as canons and inversions its timbral nuances and other factors. The music and myriad other “tricks” aspiring violinists need has tendrils reaching back through Messiaen and to master. Though nominally pedagogical, Bartók Debussy, and even to the pointillistic landscapes of was too good a composer not to invest these short George Seurat, yet the overall language still seems appealing pieces with music drawn from his roots incredibly modern even though composed ca. 75 in Hungary and his vast knowledge of Central and years ago. Eastern European folk traditions. BÉLA BARTÓK FRANZ SCHUBERT (1881–1945) (1797–1828) Duos for Two Violins, sz. 98 (selections) (1931) Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano in Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2014 B-flat Major, D. 898 (1827) Most recent SCMS performance: Summer 2016 From 1904 through the end of the First World War, Bartók’s music was infused with Hungarian and other As a budding composer Franz Schubert enjoyed the Eastern European musical blood. In his own country, distinct advantage of growing up in a family whose he was known far more for his ethno-musicological favored pastime centered on in-home performance efforts than for his own compositions. The folk legacy of chamber music. At an age when most boys are was a deep wellspring that shaped his musical indulging in fantasies about heroic careers in the vocabulary. In the first two decades of the as yet military or what-not, young Franz was already an new century, Bartók also absorbed the sounds and adept on violin, viola, and piano, sang in the famed sensibilities of Debussy, strangely yet successfully Vienna Boys Choir, and actively composed a large melded with the exuberant orchestral palette of handful of string quartets. His teen years would give Richard Strauss. By 1920 or thereabouts, Bartok had rise to astonishingly affecting and mature Lieder sniffed the unmistakable fragrances of Stravinsky’s and half-a-dozen fluent, melodious symphonies that polytonalism and Schoenberg’s ardent serialism; promised bigger things to come. After a near-fatal his own music could not but be affected by these encounter with syphilis in 1822, his music tapped into JULY 31, 2020 // proGram notes the darker side of life, though he certainly was not so Schubert’s consummate song-writing genius comes death-obsessed to prevent his natural melodic gifts to the fore in the Andante un poco mosso where the from continuing to blossom in youthful radiance. cello “sings” the opening theme in response to the piano’s expressive accompaniment. Soon the violin If Schubert failed to achieve greatness in opera— and piano have their respective turns with the arioso his great unfulfilled wish—his last years brought main theme before the syncopated central section posterity a wealth of incomparable piano music, comes into focus. After several “false” beginnings, the “Great” C-Major Symphony, and a number of the recap proper begins with the piano stating a tune astonishingly beautiful chamber works. Among that similar, but not identical, to the opening theme of the ample cache of chamber music are his two piano movement. trios. The earlier of the pair, the bracing Piano Trio in B-flat Major, dates from the summer of 1827, though The third movement, an energetic Scherzo with a its first public performance had to wait until after the charming and popular Viennese waltz as Trio, clears composer’s death in November 1828 (there was a the palate for the buoyant finale.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • December 3, 2006 2595Th Concert
    For the convenience of concertgoers the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:00 pm. The use of cameras or recording equipment during the performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones, pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off. Please note that late entry or reentry of The Sixty-fifth Season of the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted. The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts “Sixty-five, but not retiring” National Gallery of Art Music Department 2,595th Concert National Gallery of Art Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw Washington, DC Shaun Tirrell, pianist Mailing address 2000B South Club Drive Landover, md 20785 www.nga.gov December 3, 2006 Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm West Building, West Garden Court Admission free Program Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) Sonata in F Minor, K. 466 (1738) Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) Ballade in F Major, op. 38 (1840) Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Funerailles (1849) Vallot d’Obtrmann (1855) INTERMISSION Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Sonata no. 2 in B-flat Minor, op. 36 (1913) The Mason and Hamlin concert grand piano used in this performance Allegro agitato was provided by Piano Craft of Gaithersburg, Maryland. Lento Allegro molto The Musician Program Notes Shaun Tirrell is an internationally acclaimed pianist who has made his In this program, Shaun Tirrell shares with the National Gallery audience his home in the Washington, dc, area since 1995. A graduate of the Peabody skill in interpreting both baroque and romantic music. To represent the music Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, where he studied under Julian Martin of the early eighteenth-century masters of the harpsichord (the keyboard and earned a master of music degree and an artist diploma, he received a instrument of choice in that era), he has chosen a sonata by Domenico rave review in the Washington Post for his 1995 debut recital at the Kennedy Scarlatti.
    [Show full text]
  • PROGRAM NOTES Franz Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 in a Major
    PROGRAM NOTES by Phillip Huscher Franz Liszt Born October 22, 1811, Raiding, Hungary. Died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth, Germany. Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major Liszt composed this concerto in 1839 and revised it often, beginning in 1849. It was first performed on January 7, 1857, in Weimar, by Hans von Bronsart, with the composer conducting. The first American performance was given in Boston on October 5, 1870, by Anna Mehlig, with Theodore Thomas, who later founded the Chicago Symphony, conducting his own orchestra. The orchestra consists of three flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, cymbals, and strings. Performance time is approximately twenty-two minutes. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first subscription concert performances of Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto were given at the Auditorium Theatre on March 1 and 2, 1901, with Leopold Godowsky as soloist and Theodore Thomas conducting. Our most recent subscription concert performances were given at Orchestra Hall on March 19, 20, and 21, 2009, with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist and Jaap van Zweden conducting. The Orchestra first performed this concerto at the Ravinia Festival on August 4, 1945, with Leon Fleisher as soloist and Leonard Bernstein conducting, and most recently on July 3, 1996, with Misha Dichter as soloist and Hermann Michael conducting. Liszt is music’s misunderstood genius. The greatest pianist of his time, he often has been caricatured as a mad, intemperate virtuoso and as a shameless and
    [Show full text]
  • THE VIRTUOSO UNDER SUBJECTION: HOW GERMAN IDEALISM SHAPED the CRITICAL RECEPTION of INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSITY in EUROPE, C. 1815 A
    THE VIRTUOSO UNDER SUBJECTION: HOW GERMAN IDEALISM SHAPED THE CRITICAL RECEPTION OF INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSITY IN EUROPE, c. 1815–1850 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Zarko Cvejic August 2011 © 2011 Zarko Cvejic THE VIRTUOSO UNDER SUBJECTION: HOW GERMAN IDEALISM SHAPED THE CRITICAL RECEPTION OF INSTRUMENTAL VIRTUOSITY IN EUROPE, c. 1815–1850 Zarko Cvejic, Ph. D. Cornell University 2011 The purpose of this dissertation is to offer a novel reading of the steady decline that instrumental virtuosity underwent in its critical reception between c. 1815 and c. 1850, represented here by a selection of the most influential music periodicals edited in Europe at that time. In contemporary philosophy, the same period saw, on the one hand, the reconceptualization of music (especially of instrumental music) from ―pleasant nonsense‖ (Sulzer) and a merely ―agreeable art‖ (Kant) into the ―most romantic of the arts‖ (E. T. A. Hoffmann), a radically disembodied, aesthetically autonomous, and transcendent art and on the other, the growing suspicion about the tenability of the free subject of the Enlightenment. This dissertation‘s main claim is that those three developments did not merely coincide but, rather, that the changes in the aesthetics of music and the philosophy of subjectivity around 1800 made a deep impact on the contemporary critical reception of instrumental virtuosity. More precisely, it seems that instrumental virtuosity was increasingly regarded with suspicion because it was deemed incompatible with, and even threatening to, the new philosophic conception of music and via it, to the increasingly beleaguered notion of subjective freedom that music thus reconceived was meant to symbolize.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Aspects of Thuringia
    Historical aspects of Thuringia Julia Reutelhuber Cover and layout: Diego Sebastián Crescentino Translation: Caroline Morgan Adams This publication does not represent the opinion of the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung. The author is responsible for its contents. Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen Regierungsstraße 73, 99084 Erfurt www.lzt-thueringen.de 2017 Julia Reutelhuber Historical aspects of Thuringia Content 1. The landgraviate of Thuringia 2. The Protestant Reformation 3. Absolutism and small states 4. Amid the restauration and the revolution 5. Thuringia in the Weimar Republic 6. Thuringia as a protection and defense district 7. Concentration camps, weaponry and forced labor 8. The division of Germany 9. The Peaceful Revolution of 1989 10. The reconstitution of Thuringia 11. Classic Weimar 12. The Bauhaus of Weimar (1919-1925) LZT Werra bridge, near Creuzburg. Built in 1223, it is the oldest natural stone bridge in Thuringia. 1. The landgraviate of Thuringia The Ludovingian dynasty reached its peak in 1040. The Wartburg Castle (built in 1067) was the symbol of the Ludovingian power. In 1131 Luis I. received the title of Landgrave (Earl). With this new political landgraviate groundwork, Thuringia became one of the most influential principalities. It was directly subordinated to the King and therefore had an analogous power to the traditional ducats of Bavaria, Saxony and Swabia. Moreover, the sons of the Landgraves were married to the aristocratic houses of the European elite (in 1221 the marriage between Luis I and Isabel of Hungary was consummated). Landgrave Hermann I. was a beloved patron of art. Under his government (1200-1217) the court of Thuringia was transformed into one of the most important centers for cultural life in Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Late Romantic Period 1850-1910 • Characteristics of Romantic Period
    Late Romantic Period 1850-1910 • Characteristics of Romantic Period o Emotion design over intellectual design o Individual over society o Music increased in length and changed emotion often in the same piece • Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) o French composer o Known for writing for large orchestras, sometimes over 1000 musicians o An Episode in the Life of an Artist (Symphonie Fantastique) • Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow. • Richard Wagner (1813-1883) o German composer and theatre director o Known for opera – big dramatic works • Built his own opera house in order to be able to accommodate his works • Subjects drawn from Norse mythology o Lohengrin – Bridal Chorus o Die Walkure • Franz Liszt (1811-1886) o Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist o Used gypsy music as basis for compositions o Created modern piano playing technique o Invented the form of Symphonic Poem or Tone Poem Music based on art, literature, or other “nonmusical” idea One movement with several ‘ideas’ that move freely throughout the piece o Hungarian Rhapsody No.
    [Show full text]
  • Bruckner Side 2
    SAVE Discover rarely-encountered symphonic 25% masterworks at every American Symphony SUBSCRIBE to the Orchestra concert. For concert updates, American Symphony Orchestra return the postage paid card below, or call (212) 868-9ASO(9276). 40th Anniversary Season and Save! ALL 4 CONCERTS: $66 to $150 for the best remaining First Tier, Main Floor and Aisle Seating in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center BUSINESS REPLY MAIL NEW YORK NYNEW YORK 10138-1079 W 39TH ST STE 1101 333 INC AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA FIRST-CLASS MAILFIRST-CLASS PERMITYORK, NY NO. 9496 NEW CALL NOW 212-868-9ASO (9276) for details and prices! WILLPOSTAGE BY BE PAID ADDRESSEE 1 Friday, January 10, 2003 8:00pm BRUCKNER’S JOURNEY Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 1 (Vienna version; 1865/89) Anton Bruckner Mass No. 3 in F minor, “Great” (1868/90) 2 Sunday, February 9, 2003 3:00pm THE ROMANTIC SOUL: LORD BYRON IN MUSIC William Sterndale Bennett Parisina, Op. 3 (1835) Franz Liszt Tasso (1854) Robert Schumann Manfred, Op. 115 (1849) 3 Friday, March 14, 2003 8:00pm MUSICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY Franz Lehár A Vision: My Youth (1907) North American Premiere Alfred Schnittke Viola Concerto (1985) Kim Kashkashian, viola UNITED STATES NO POSTAGE NECESSARY Josef Suk Symphony No. 2, Op. 27 “Asrael” (1906) IF MAILED IN THE 4 Friday, April 11, 2003 8:00pm THE CIRCLE OF SHOSTAKOVICH Gavriil Popov Symphony No. 1 (1934) Sergei Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 53 (1931) Gary Graffman, piano Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 6, Op. 54 (1939) The American Symphony Orchestra is proud to be a part of Lincoln Center Presents Great Performers.
    [Show full text]
  • Program Notes
    Program for Richard Fountain “Liszt van Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies” Episode Seven Sonata in D major, Op. 10, no. 3………………………..….Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) I. Presto II. Largo e mesto III. Menuetto: Allegro IV. Rondo: Allegro Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36……….................................Ludwig van Beethoven Transcribed for piano solo by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) I. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio II. Larghetto III. Scherzo: Allegro IV. Allegro molto Program Notes Beethoven’s symphonies have been cornerstones of classical music for many, many decades, and today performances and recordings have become so ubiquitous that musicians frequently take them for granted. However, in the years after Beethoven’s death these works still needed conductors to champion them and guide orchestras through the composer’s expanded vocabulary of technical and musical challenges. Liszt’s role as such a champion, both as conductor and as transcriber, is a surprising corner of musical history. As the original touring virtuoso in the 1830’s, Liszt performed versions of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh symphonies as part of his immense repertoire, presenting these masterworks to audiences from the British Isles to Iberia and Russia. Many of these audiences otherwise would not have had the opportunity to hear a Beethoven symphony performed, since the only orchestras of recognizable quality were in the great musical centers of the time such as Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and Leipzig. After Liszt retired from the concert stage, he settled in the relatively small rural town of Weimar to direct the court orchestra. In addition to premiering and championing many of the great operas of the early 19th century, Liszt repeatedly and persistently programmed and conducted Beethoven’s symphonies, becoming known as a definitive interpreter.
    [Show full text]
  • Rehearing Beethoven Festival Program 4, Christopher Taylor
    CONCERTS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 2020-2021 Friends of Music (RE)HEARING BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL Part Four: Christopher Taylor, Piano December 17, 2020 ~ 8:00 pm The Library of Congress Virtual Event We are grateful to the thoughtful FRIENDS OF MUSIC donors who have made the (Re)Hearing Beethoven festival possible. Our warm thanks go to Allan Reiter and to two anonymous benefactors for their generous gifts supporting this project. Conversation with the Artist Join us online at https://loc.gov/concerts/christopher-taylor.html for a conversation with the artist, and find additional resources related to the concert, available starting at 10am on Thursday, December 17. Facebook Chat Want more? Join other concert goers and Music Division curators after the concert for a chat that may include the artists, depending on availability. You can access this during the premiere and for a few minutes after by going to facebook.com/pg/libraryofcongressperformingarts/videos How to Watch Concerts from the Library of Congress Virtual Events 1) See each individual event page at loc.gov/concerts 2) Watch on the Library's YouTube channel: youtube.com/loc 3) Watch the premiere of the concert on Facebook: facebook.com/libraryofcongressperformingarts/videos Videos may not be available on all three platforms, and some videos will only be accessible for a limited period of time. The Library of Congress Virtual Event December 17, 2020 — 8:00 pm Friends of Music (RE)HEARING BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL Part Four Page 4) Christopher Taylor, piano 1 (RE)HEARING BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL Welcome to the (Re)Hearing Beethoven Festival, a series of unique concerts pre- sented virtually by Concerts from the Library of Congress.
    [Show full text]
  • Hans Christian Andersen and His Social Reception in Austria
    Hans Christian Andersen and his Social Reception in Austria Sven Hakon Rossel Professor, University of Vienna Abstract This article documents Hans Christian Andersen’s gradual development from being a young unknown Danish writer to becoming socially accepted and acknowledged as an integral part of Austrian social and artistic life. The point of departure is his second novel Kun en Spillemand (Andersen, 1837/1988; Only a Fiddler) of which two chapters are set in Vienna. This process of so-called acculturation, i.e. the appropriation of various social, psychological and cultural elements of the country visited, begins with Andersen’s first stay in Austria in 1834 – the first of altogether six visits – and finds its climax in 1846, when he is invited to give a reading of his fairy tales at the imperial castle in Vienna. It is noteworthy that this process to a large degree was the result of a planned strategy on Andersen’s behalf. Before arriving in Vienna, he procured letters of recommendation and upon arrival he systematically made friends with the city’s most important artistic and intellectual personalities. Another strategic move, of course, was to choose Vienna as a partial setting for his most successful novel in the German-speaking world. Introduction: Only a Fiddler In Hans Christian Andersen’s second novel, Kun en Spillemand (Andersen, 1837/1988; Only a Fiddler), a Bildungsroman like his other five novels, one of the characters, a Danish physician living in the Austrian capital Vienna, compares Austria with Denmark and arrives at this conclusion: The inhabitants of Vienna possess so much, both that which is good and that which is petty- minded, they have this in common with the inhabitants of Copenhagen, the difference being that the Viennese possess more liveliness.
    [Show full text]
  • Wagner Biography
    GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG Composer Biography: Richard Wagner Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 – February 13, 1883), German composer, conductor, theatre director of operas, is considered one of the most important figures of nineteenth-century music. Wagnerʼs music is still widely recognized today, accompanying celebrations with the ever-present Wedding March (Bridal Chorus) from the opera Lohengrin and the Ride of the Valkyries from the opera Die Walküre, which has been used in movie soundtracks to great effect. Richard Wagner was born at No. 3 (The House of the Red and White Lions), the Brühl, in the Jewish quarter of Leipzig, the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife Johanna Rosine, the daughter of a baker. He enrolled at the University of Leipzig in 1831, taking composition lessons with the cantor of Saint Thomas Church, Christian Theodor Weinlig, who arranged for the composerʼs first work, his Piano Sonata in B-flat to be published. In 1833, Wagner's older brother Karl Albert managed to obtain for Richard a position as choir master in Würzburg. At the age of 20, Wagner composed his first complete opera Die Feen, which was not performed until after the composerʼs death. His reputation grew as the composer of works such as Der fliegende Holländer (1843), Tannhaüser (1845), and Lohengrin (1850), which were broadly in the romantic vein of Weber and Meyerbeer. Wagner's compositions are notable for their complex texture, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the elaborate use of leitmotifs: musical themes associated with individual characters, places, ideas or plot elements.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Music Nineteenth-Century Music and Romanticism
    N ineteenth-Century Music and Romanticism 6Jeff Kluball and Elizabeth Kramer 6.1 OBJECTIVES 1. Demonstrate knowledge of historical and cultural contexts of nineteenth- century music, including musical Romanticism and nationalism 2. Aurally identify selected genres of nineteenth century music and their associated expressive aims, uses, and styles 3. Aurally identify the music of selected composers of nineteenth century music and their associated styles 4. Explain ways in which music and other cultural forms interact in nineteenth century music in genres such as the art song, program music, opera, and musical nationalism 6.2 KEY TERMS AND INDIVIDUALS • 1848 revolutions • Exoticism • Antonín Dvořák • Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel • art song • Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy • Augmented second • Francisco de Goya • Bedřich Smetana • Franz Liszt • Beethoven • Franz Schubert • Caspar David Friedrich • Fryderyk Chopin • chamber music • Giuseppe Verdi • chromaticism • idée fixe • concerto • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • conductor • John Philip Sousa • drone • leitmotiv • Eugène Delacroix • lied Page | 160 UNDERSTANDING MUSIC NINETEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC AND ROMANTICISM • Louis Moreau Gottschalk • soirée • Mary Shelley • sonata • mazurka • sonata form (exposition, • nationalism development, recapitulation) • opera • song cycle • program symphony • string quartet • Pyotr Tchaikovsky • strophic • Richard Wagner • symphonic poem • Robert and Clara Schumann • Symphony • Romanticism • ternary form • rubato • through-composed • salon • V.E.R.D.I. • scena ad aria (recitative, • William Wordsworth cantabile, cabaletta) 6.3 INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT This chapter considers music of the nineteenth century, a period often called the “Romantic era” in music. Romanticism might be defined as a cultural move- ment stressing emotion, imagination, and individuality. It started in literature around 1800 and then spread to art and music.
    [Show full text]
  • Franz Liszt Reproduction from the Original Oil Painting, 1837–39 Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Acc
    CHECKLIST Liszt in Paris: Enduring Encounters August 29 through November 16, 2008 Ary Scheffer (1795–1858) Franz Liszt Reproduction from the original oil painting, 1837–39 Klassik Stiftung Weimar, acc. no. LGE/01351 Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Seven Brilliant Variations, for the Piano Forte, to a Theme of Rossini, op. 2 London: T. Boosey & Co., [1825?] First English edition PMC 2036; The Mary Flagler Cary Music Collection Variations on preexisting themes—particularly those taken from operas—were popular during the nineteenth century and frequently cultivated by virtuoso performer-composers. These instrumental works were conceived as a means of displaying a performer’s (rather than a composer’s) skill, brilliance, artistry, and technical prowess. The adolescent Liszt based these variations on the theme “Ah come nascondere la fiamma,” from Rossini’s 1819 opera Ermione. Years later Liszt would compose a virtuosic piece based on the overture to Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. [Playbill for a concert at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, England, 2 June 1827] [London: W. Rey, 1827] James Fuld Collection After arriving in Paris in 1823, Liszt and his father made three visits to England (1824, 1825, and 1827). This playbill documents Liszt’s appearance at Covent Garden on 2 June 1827. The featured artist at the end of the first part, Master Liszt performed a fantasia. Such works were of an improvisatory character, introducing familiar tunes that served as themes to be varied and embellished. In this case, Liszt chose the popular melody Rule Britannia. For many years the young virtuoso had already proven most adept at improvising on tunes suggested to him on the spot.
    [Show full text]