J.E. Gardiner (SDG
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“Music-Making in a Joyous Sense”: Democratization, Modernity, and Community at Benjamin Britten's Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts
“Music-making in a Joyous Sense”: Democratization, Modernity, and Community at Benjamin Britten's Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts Daniel Hautzinger Candidate for Senior Honors in History Oberlin College Thesis Advisor: Annemarie Sammartino Spring 2016 Hautzinger ii Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Historiography and the Origin of the Festival 9 a. Historiography 9 b. The Origin of the Festival 14 3. The Democratization of Music 19 4. Technology, Modernity, and Their Dangers 31 5. The Festival as Community 39 6. Conclusion 53 7. Bibliography 57 a. Primary Sources 57 b. Secondary Sources 58 Hautzinger iii Acknowledgements This thesis would never have come together without the help and support of several people. First, endless gratitude to Annemarie Sammartino. Her incredible intellect, voracious curiosity, outstanding ability for drawing together disparate strands, and unceasing drive to learn more and know more have been an inspiring example over the past four years. This thesis owes much of its existence to her and her comments, recommendations, edits, and support. Thank you also to Ellen Wurtzel for guiding me through my first large-scale research paper in my third year at Oberlin, and for encouraging me to pursue honors. Shelley Lee has been an invaluable resource and advisor in the daunting process of putting together a fifty-some page research paper, while my fellow History honors candidates have been supportive, helpful in their advice, and great to commiserate with. Thank you to Steven Plank and everyone else who has listened to me discuss Britten and the Aldeburgh Festival and kindly offered suggestions. -
Spring/Summer 2016
News for Friends of Leonard Bernstein Spring/Summer 2016 High-brow, Low-brow, All-brow Bernstein, Gershwin, Ellington, and the Richness of American Music © VICTOR © VICTOR KRAFT by Michael Barrett uch of my professional life has been spent on convincing music lovers Mthat categorizing music as “classical” or “popular” is a fool’s errand. I’m not surprised that people s t i l l c l i n g t o t h e s e d i v i s i o n s . S o m e w h o love classical masterpieces may need to feel reassured by their sophistication, looking down on popular culture as dis- posable and inferior. Meanwhile, pop music fans can dismiss classical music lovers as elitist snobs, out of touch with reality and hopelessly “square.” Fortunately, music isn’t so black and white, and such classifications, especially of new music, are becoming ever more anachronistic. With the benefit of time, much of our country’s greatest music, once thought to be merely “popular,” is now taking its rightful place in the category of “American Classics.” I was educated in an environment that was dismissive of much of our great American music. Wanting to be regarded as a “serious” musician, I found myself going along with the thinking of the times, propagated by our most rigid conservatory student in the 1970’s, I grew work that studiously avoided melody or key academic composers and scholars of up convinced that Aaron Copland was a signature. the 1950’s -1970’s. These wise men (and “Pops” composer, useful for light story This was the environment in American yes, they were all men) had constructed ballets, but not much else. -
Recordings of Mahler Symphony No. 4
Recordings of Mahler Symphony No. 4 by Stan Ruttenberg, President, Colorado MahlerFest SUMMARY After listening to each recording once or twice to get the general feel, on bike rides, car trips, while on the Internet etc, I then listened more carefully, with good headphones, following the score. They are listed in the survey in about the order in which I listened, and found to my delight, and disgust, that as I went on I noticed more and more details to which attention should be paid. Lack of time and adequate gray matter prevented me from going back and re-listening all over again, except for the Mengelberg and Horenstein recordings, and I did find a few points to change or add. I found that JH is the ONLY conductor to have the piccolos play out adequately in the second movement, and Claudio Abbado with the Vienna PO is the only conductor who insisted on the two horn portamenti in the third movement.. Stan's prime picks: Horenstein, Levine, Reiner, Szell, Skrowaczewski, von Karajan, Abravanel, in that order, but the rankings are very close. Also very good are Welser- Most, and Klemperer with Radio Orchestra Berlin, and Berttini at Cologne. Not one conductor met all my tests of faithfulness to the score in all the too many felicities therein, but these did the best and at the same time produced a fine overall performance. Mengelberg, in a class by himself, should be heard for reference. Stan's soloist picks: Max Cencic (boy soprano with Nanut), in a class by himself. Then come, not in order, Davrath (Abravanel), Mathes (von Karajan), Trötschel (Klemperer BRSO), Raskin (Szell), Blegen (Levine), Della Casa (Reiner), Irmgard Seefried (Walter), Jo Vincent (Mengelberg), Ameling (Haitink RCOA), Ruth Zeisek (Gatti), Margaret Price with Horenstein, and Kiri Te Kanawa (Solti), Szell (Rattle broadcast), and Battle (Maazel). -
Benjamin Britten in the Music Culture of the Soviet Union in the 1960S (To the 100Th Anniversary of the Composer's Birth)
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 14 [Special Issue - July 2013] Benjamin Britten in the Music Culture of the Soviet Union in the 1960s (to the 100th Anniversary of the Composer's Birth) Alexander Rossinsky Department of Art Altai State University Russia Ekaterina Vorontsova Department of History Altai State University Russia Abstract The period of the 1960-s was difficult and controversial. Former allies of the anti-Hitler coalition turned to be on different sides of the acute ideological struggle which nearly led to the world war. Tremendous work was carried by artists, musicians who united disparate peoples into the community calling for the universal values. The central place in such the sphere of music belongs to one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, Benjamin Britten. Together with the Soviet musicians he pushed the world back from the sharp ideological confrontation. Keywords: B.Brittten, P.Pears, USSR, M.Rostropovich, G.Vishnevskaya, D.Shostakovich, symphonic and chamber music. The events unfolding in the world, which had survived the most destructive war in the history of human civilization, were dramatic and characterised by multi-vector directions of their development. The countries that joined the anti-Hitler coalition in the 40s, in the 60s were experiencing the peak of their ideological hostility, teetering on the verge of unleashing the third world war. At the same time, the Soviet Union, headed the unpredictable and highly controversial leader Nikita Khrushchev, pursued a policy of flirtations with liberalism in an attempt to overcome the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin and remove the notorious “Iron Curtain”, which for decades had protected the USSR from Western influence. -
To Download the Full Archive
Complete Concerts and Recording Sessions Brighton Festival Chorus 27 Apr 1968 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Festival Belshazzar's Feast Walton William Walton Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Baritone Thomas Hemsley 11 May 1968 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Festival Kyrie in D minor, K 341 Mozart Colin Davis BBC Symphony Orchestra 27 Oct 1968 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Philharmonic Society Budavari Te Deum Kodály Laszlo Heltay Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra Soprano Doreen Price Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Walker Tenor Paul Taylor Bass Brian Kay 23 Feb 1969 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Philharmonic Society Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op.125 Beethoven Herbert Menges Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra Soprano Elizabeth Harwood Mezzo-Soprano Barbara Robotham Tenor Kenneth MacDonald Bass Raimund Herincx 09 May 1969 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Festival Mass in D Dvorák Václav Smetáček Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Soprano Doreen Price Mezzo-Soprano Valerie Baulard Tenor Paul Taylor Bass Michael Rippon Sussex University Choir 11 May 1969 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Festival Liebeslieder-Walzer Brahms Laszlo Heltay Piano Courtney Kenny Piano Roy Langridge 25 Jan 1970 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Philharmonic Society Requiem Fauré Laszlo Heltay Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra Soprano Maureen Keetch Baritone Robert Bateman Organ Roy Langridge 09 May 1970 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Festival Mass in B Minor Bach Karl Richter English Chamber Orchestra Soprano Ann Pashley Mezzo-Soprano Meriel Dickinson Tenor Paul Taylor Bass Stafford Dean Bass Michael Rippon Sussex University Choir 1 Brighton Festival Chorus 17 May 1970 Concert Dome Concert Hall, Brighton Brighton Festival Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra in C minor Beethoven Symphony No. -
ENGLISH MUSIC for STRINGS Britten • Bliss • Bridge • Berkeley
SUPER AUDIO CD ENGLISH MUSIC FOR STRINGS Britten • Bliss • Bridge • Berkeley Sinfonia of London JOHN WILSON Hampstead, mid-1930s piano,athomeEastHeathLodge, Blüthner Bliss,athislatemother’s Arthur Photographer unknown / Courtesy of the Bliss Collection, with thanks to the late Trudy Bliss English Music for Strings Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976) Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 (1937) 23:37 for String Orchestra To F.B. A tribute with affection and admiration 1 Introduction and Theme. Lento maestoso – Allegretto poco lento – 1:31 2 Adagio. Adagio – 1:52 3 March. Presto alla marcia – 1:05 4 Romance. Allegretto grazioso – 1:31 5 Aria Italiana. Allegro brillante – 1:11 6 Bourrée Classique. Allegro e pesante – 1:17 7 Wiener Walzer. Lento – Vivace – Lento – Vivace – [ ] – Vivace – Lento – Tempo I – Lento – Tempo I – Lento – Tempo vivace – 2:05 8 Moto Perpetuo. Allegro molto – 1:00 9 Funeral March. Andante ritmico – Con moto – 3:49 10 Chant. Lento – 1:39 11 Fugue and Finale. Allegro molto vivace – Molto animato – Lento e solenne – Poco comodo e tranquillo – Lento – Più presto 6:34 3 Frank Bridge (1879 – 1941) 12 Lament, H 117 (1915) 3:47 for String Orchestra Catherine, aged 9, ‘Lusitania’ 1915 Adagio, con molto espressione – Poco più adagio Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903 – 1989) Serenade for Strings, Op. 12 (1938 – 39) 13:01 in Four Movements To John and Clement Davenport 13 I Vivace 2:09 14 II Andantino 3:52 15 III Allegro moderato 3:11 16 IV Lento 3:48 4 Sir Arthur Bliss (1891 – 1975) Music for Strings, F 123 (1935) 23:56 Dedicated -
Billy Budd Composer Biography: Benjamin Britten
Billy Budd Composer Biography: Benjamin Britten Britten was born, by happy coincidence, on St. Cecilia's Day, at the family home in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England. His father was a dentist. He was the youngest of four children, with a brother, Robert (1907), and two sisters, Barbara (1902) and Beth (1909). He was educated locally, and studied, first, piano, and then, later, viola, from private teachers. He began to compose as early as 1919, and after about 1922, composed steadily until his death. At a concert in 1927, conducted by composer Frank Bridge, he met Bridge, later showed him several of his compositions, and ultimately Bridge took him on as a private pupil. After two years at Gresham's School in Holt, Norfolk, he entered the Royal College of Music in London (1930) where he studied composition with John Ireland and piano with Arthur Benjamin. During his stay at the RCM he won several prizes for his compositions. He completed a choral work, A Boy was Born, in 1933; at a rehearsal for a broadcast performance of the work by the BBC Singers, he met tenor Peter Pears, the beginning of a lifelong personal and professional relationship. (Many of Britten's solo songs, choral and operatic works feature the tenor voice, and Pears was the designated soloist at many of their premieres.) From about 1935 until the beginning of World War II, Britten did a great deal of composing for the GPO Film Unit, for BBC Radio, and for small, usually left-wing, theater groups in London. During this period he met and worked frequently with the poet W. -
Season 2013-2014
27 Season 2013-2014 Thursday, March 27, at 8:00 Friday, March 28, at 2:00 The Philadelphia Orchestra Saturday, March 29, at 8:00 Donald Runnicles Conductor Tal Rosner Video Artist Janine Jansen Violin Britten Four Sea Interludes, Op. 33a, from Peter Grimes I. Dawn II. Sunday Morning III. Moonlight IV. Storm Video and animation by Tal Rosner Video co-commissioned by the New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy; the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association; The Philadelphia Orchestra Association; and the San Francisco Symphony Britten Violin Concerto, Op. 15 I. Moderato con moto— II. Vivace— III. Passacaglia: Andante lento (un poco meno mosso) Intermission Pärt Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten First Philadelphia Orchestra performances Mozart Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 (“Linz”) I. Adagio—Allegro spiritoso II. Andante III. Menuetto—Trio—Menuetto da capo IV. Presto This program runs approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes. Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details. 228 Story Title The Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Griffin The Philadelphia Orchestra community itself. His concerts to perform in China, in 1973 is one of the preeminent of diverse repertoire attract at the request of President orchestras in the world, sold-out houses, and he has Nixon, today The Philadelphia renowned for its distinctive established a regular forum Orchestra boasts a new sound, desired for its for connecting with concert- partnership with the National keen ability to capture the goers through Post-Concert Centre for the Performing hearts and imaginations of Conversations. -
18 Contemporary Opera and the Failure of Language
18 CONTEMPORARY OPERA AND THE FAILURE OF LANGUAGE Amy Bauer Opera after 1945 presents what Robert Fink has called ‘a strange series of paradoxes to the historian’.1 The second half of the twentieth century saw new opera houses and companies pro- liferating across Europe and America, while the core operatic repertory focused on nineteenth- century works. The collapse of touring companies confined opera to large metropolitan centres, while Cold War cultural politics often limited the appeal of new works. Those new works, whether written with political intent or not, remained wedded historically to ‘realism, illusion- ism, and representation’, as Carolyn Abbate would have it (as opposed to Brechtian alienation or detachment).2 Few operas embraced the challenge modernism presents for opera. Those few early modernist operas accepted into the canon, such as Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, while revolu- tionary in their musical language and subject matter, hew closely to the nature of opera in its nineteenth-century form as a primarily representational medium. As Edward Cone and Peter Kivy point out, they bracket off that medium of representation – the character singing speech, for instance, in an emblematic translation of her native tongue – to blur diegetic song, ‘operatic song’ and a host of other conventions.3 Well-regarded operas in the immediate post-war period, by composers such as Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc and Douglas Moore, added new subjects and themes while retreating from the formal and tonal challenges of Berg and Schoenberg. -
Serious Music Is a Dead Art. the Vein Which for Three Hundred Years Offered a Seemingly Inexhaustible Yield of Beautiful Music Has Run Out
“Serious music is a dead art. The vein which for three hundred years offered a seemingly inexhaustible yield of beautiful music has run out. What we know as modern music is the noise made by deluded spectators picking through the slagpile.” - Henry Pleasants 1955 Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and György Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna, works utilising components of traditional and sacred music, defy Pleasant’s belief in the ‘death’ of serious music and thus render his comment irrational. Both pieces hold hymnal qualities and cleverly use parts to complement one another – not unlike the creators of ‘beautiful music’ from previous eras. The Dies Irae section of Britten’s War Requiem is predominantly for choir and brass (other parts are used, but not as markedly). These groups are stylistically quite different; the brass is fanfaric and emblematic of the bugle calls of warfare – alluding to the Requiem’s conceptual basis – while the choir sings a traditional Dies Irae hymn from the traditional Latin text. Britten has not, however, created these sections to be contrasting. The tension evident throughout the piece, as expressed through the brass’s heavy motifs and the sharpness of vocal quality, is uniform and seamlessly connects disparate parts. Britten uses conventional tonality to drive the energy of the piece, with harmonies often in thirds and fifths to clearly state the chordal nature of the Requiem. The use of motifs in this piece enables it to retain interest regardless of the similarities in sound between instruments. In brass sections, the trumpets, trombones and horns all have individual motifs that are played at varying degrees of dynamic and expressive energy and the continuation of these is able to lead into the vocal parts with ease. -
Love Is Come Again Monteverdi Choir Gardiner Love Is Come Again Music for the Springhead Easter Play
Love is come again Monteverdi Choir Gardiner Love is come again Music for the Springhead Easter Play Monteverdi Choir English Baroque Soloists John Eliot Gardiner ‘This personal selection of music for Easter from the 11th to the 20th centuries tells the story of the Resurrection and Christ's appearances to his disciples. It is based on my experience of compiling and directing the music for a mimed Easter play, performed in village churches in Dorset every year between 1963 and 1984, the brainchild of my mother, Marabel Gardiner, to whose memory this recording is dedicated.’ 2 John Eliot Gardiner Marabel Gardiner aged 19 in Florence, 1926; 3 her production notes for the Springhead Easter Play, 1964 The Crucifixion Mary Magdalene at the tomb 1 The Seven Virgins 2:14 7 Eheu! They have taken Jesus 2:55 Trad., Herefordshire Thomas Morley 1557/8-1602 Angharad Rowlands soprano 8 But Mary stood without the sepulchre 3:53 2 O vos omnes 3:52 Heinrich Schütz 1585-1672 Carlo Gesualdo 1566-1613 Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christi Hugo Hymas Evangelist 3 Woefully array’d 7:44 Gareth Treseder, Ruairi Bowen Jesus William Cornysh 1465-1523 Charlotte Ashley, Angharad Rowlands Alison Ponsford-Hill soprano Mary Magdalene Matthew Venner alto Peter Davoren tenor 9 Bless’d Mary Magdalene 0:57 Christopher Webb bass Trad., English Easter Morning 4 Dum transisset Sabbatum 8:11 John Taverner c.1490-1545 5 Love is come again 2:00 Trad., French 6 Surrexit pastor bonus 5:59 Jean L’Héritier c.1480-1552 4 The Road to Emmaus The Lake Side 10 And behold two of them went that day 2:16 15 Peter saith, I go a-fishing 2:48 Wipo of Burgundy c.995-c.1048 (attrib.) after Jean Tisserand d.1494 Victimae paschali laudes O filii et filiae Hugo Hymas tenor Peter Davoren tenor 11 Abendlied 3:39 16 Kyrie eleison 1:16 Josef Gabriel Rheinberger 1839-1901 Missa Orbis factor 12 Alleluia. -
Mass in C Minor Performances of Two Academy of St Martin Fine Choral Works from in the Fields Two Masters of the Baroque Era
CORO CORO Vivaldi: Gloria in D Fauré: Requiem Bach: Magnificat in D Mozart: Vespers Harry Christophers Elin Manahan Thomas MOZART The Sixteen Roderick Williams Harry Christophers Resounding The Sixteen Mass in C minor performances of two Academy of St Martin fine choral works from in the Fields two masters of the Baroque era. “…the sense of an ecstatic movement towards cor16057 cor16042 cor16057 Paradise is tangible.” the times Handel: Messiah Barber: Agnus Dei 3 CDs (Special Edition) An American Collection Carolyn Sampson Barber, Bernstein, Catherine Wyn-Rogers Copland, Fine, Reich, Mark Padmore del Tredici Christopher Purves “The Sixteen are, as “…this inspiriting new usual, in excellent form performance becomes here. Recording and a first choice.” remastering are top- notch.” Gillian Keith the daily telegraph notch.” cor16062 cor16031 american record guide Tove Dahlberg Harry Christophers Thomas Cooley To find out more about CORO and to buy CDs visit Handel and Haydn Society Nathan Berg www.thesixteen.com cor16084 ne of the many delights of being of your seat” suspense that one feels in the exquisite ‘Et incarnatus est’ and it OArtistic Director of America’s is well worth that risk. One can never achieve this degree of concentration and oldest continuously performing arts total immersion in the music whilst in the recording studio; whatever mood is organization, the Handel and Haydn set, subconsciously we always know we can have another go at it. Society, is that I am given the opportunity to present most of our concert season at I feel very privileged to take this august Society towards its Bicentennial; yes, the Handel and Haydn Society was founded in 1815.