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Post by jk on Dec 11, 2022 14:44:32 GMT -5
1760: Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–1787) was a renowned player of the viola da gamba and produced significant compositions for that instrument. And, he has more than one Bach connection (see the wiki). This is his two-movement Sonata No. 1, Op. 2 in C Major (WK 111) for harpsichord (or other keyboard), violin and violoncello: 1856: Mily Balakirev (1836 [1837, New Style]–1910) was the founding member of "The Mighty Handful", a quintet of Russian composers committed to a national style of classical music. A recluse after a nervous breakdown in 1871, his ensuing behaviour and beliefs alienated him from the musical society that had once embraced him. Balakirev wrote this sparkling Scherzo No. 1 at the tender age of 19, 15 years before his debilitating breakdown:
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Post by jk on Dec 12, 2022 15:02:48 GMT -5
1759: William Boyce (1711–1779) was an English composer and organist. Like Beethoven later on, he became deaf but continued to compose. He knew Handel, Arne, Gluck, Bach, Abel and a very young Mozart, all of whom respected his work. Heart Of Oak, with lyrics by the famous Shakespearean actor David Garrick, began life in 1759 as part of a multi-authored pantomime called Harlequin's Invasion, or A Christmas Gambol. That same year it became the official march of the Royal Navy: 1857: Julius Reubke (1834–1858) wrote this stunning Sonata on the 94th Psalm in C Minor for organ in his 23rd year. Already weak from the tuberculosis that would kill him mere months later, Reubke himself premiered the work on 17 June, 1857. Since its composition, this organ sonata has been considered one of the pinnacles of the Romantic repertoire. It begins very quietly, so please adjust the volume accordingly:
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Post by jk on Dec 13, 2022 3:44:24 GMT -5
This post is something of a provisional landmark, as the two works in question were written (or, in the first instance, published) a full century apart! Of course, 1708/1908, 1658/1958 and 1608/2008 will make mincemeat of each previous record. 1758: The fame of the German violinist, composer, conductor and music teacher Franz Ignaz Beck (1734–1809) rests on his 24 symphonies, all in three movements and among the most original and striking examples of the pre-Classical period. This Symphony in G Minor, Op. 1 is one of six published in Paris in 1758: 1858: Johann Strauss the Younger (1825–1899) has been dubbed "The Waltz King", and no wonder -- the dozens of classics he wrote have defined the genre for all time. This less familiar one, Abschied von St. Petersburg, Op. 210, is imbued with a genuine sense of sadness at its composer's enforced departure from the then Russian capital, his contract there having expired. Having to leave behind Olga Smirnitskaja, his "poetic love", evidently played a large part in his sorrow:
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Post by jk on Dec 14, 2022 5:06:39 GMT -5
1757: The Italian composer and performer Anna Bon (1738–after 1769) continues the St Petersburg connection of the previous post. She may well have been named after Anna, Empress of Russia, whose court at that city was included in the tour her musically active parents had made some time before. This Harpsichord Sonata in B-flat Major is the second in a group of six sonatas published as Opus 2, when Anna was eighteen or nineteen: 1859: Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888) was a French Jewish composer, whose virtuosic piano-playing gave him a reputation in Paris equalled only by his friends Chopin and Liszt. I recall in the mid 1960s he was treated as something of a weirdo, even after Raymond Lewenthal's sterling efforts on his behalf. Was it his surname, which admittedly has a histrionic ring to it? Or perhaps the apocryphal tale of his death (see the wiki)? The second of his Trois Menuets, Op. 51 is marked "Tempo debole", which translates as something like "unaccentuated beat":
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Post by jk on Dec 15, 2022 13:36:48 GMT -5
1756: The biggest claim to fame of the composer John Christopher Smith (born Johann Christoph Schmidt, 1712–1795) is his role as Handel's secretary, musical assistant and later amanuensis, when blindness prevented GFH from writing or conducting. Handel [ 1728] would bequeath to Smith the keyboard instruments in his Brook Street house as well as his manuscripts. From Smith's opera The Tempest, this is "Overture: Andante – Allegro": 1860: Ivan Petrovich Larionov (1830–1889) was a Russian composer, writer and folklorist. Born to a noble family in Perm, he studied music in Moscow. He is mostly remembered these days for "Kalinka", a frivolous ditty later famously transformed into a full-blown operatic aria by the "Red Army Choir" ( Alexandrov Ensemble):
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Post by jk on Dec 16, 2022 6:18:22 GMT -5
1755: Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) is one of the most prolific composers in history, at least in terms of surviving works (half of his over 3000 compositions have been lost). A multi-instrumentalist, he was almost completely self-taught in music and became a composer against his family's wishes. From his oratorio Der Tod Jesu, this is the aria "Singt dem göttlichen Propheten": 1861: Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) is best known for his collaboration with W.S. Gilbert on a string of operas, whose music and influence have endured until today (see here). Like the previous post, this one features incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest. Dating from his late teens, it was Sullivan's first major composition:
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Post by jk on Dec 17, 2022 5:22:17 GMT -5
1754: The London-born composer John Stanley (1712–1786) was a world-class organist and harpsichordist and an outstanding violinist to boot. Left nearly blind by a childhood accident, Stanley compensated for his disability with a formidable memory. If he had to accompany a new oratorio by Handel he would ask his sister-in-law to play it through just once, which was enough for him to commit it to memory! This is his Organ Voluntary in F Major Op. 7, No. 10: 1862: There was a time when our alarm clock was one of several CDs that had been programmed to play at the early hour in question. One CD featured organ music by César Franck (1822–1890), including this arresting Prelude, Fugue and Variation in B Minor, completed in 1862: Note the dramatic difference in style between these two organ pieces!
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Post by jk on Dec 18, 2022 9:10:14 GMT -5
1753: If information about the life of Carlo Tessarini (1690–c. 1766) is scant, his wiki includes what appears to be a complete list of his known compositions. From his opus 10, Contrasto armonico a tre violini e basso con sui rinforzi, this is "Contrasto Primo in A Major": 1863: Alice Mary Smith (1839–1884) wrote the first of her two symphonies in 1863 when she was 24. This review of the concert at which it premiered that same year comes from the Illustrated London News: "On the same evening, at the Hanover-square Rooms, the Musical society of London had a trial-performance of new orchestral compositions by members of the society. Several symphonies and overtures were performed by a full and excellent orchestra, which did them every justice. Amongst the most remarkable was a symphony in C minor by Miss Alice Mary Smith and a symphony in A minor by Mr. John Francis Barnett, both admirable compositions, which did honour to the talents of their authors. Miss Smith's symphony especially, coming from the pen of a young lady, was striking proof of the sound studies and high attainments of the female votaries of the art in this country. We trust that these symphonies will be brought before the public in the course of the ensuing season." [ Source]
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Post by jk on Dec 19, 2022 15:32:19 GMT -5
1752: It may surprise you to learn that the philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 –1778) was also a composer, whose music was a blend of the late Baroque and Galant styles. He belongs to the same generation of transitional composers as Gluck and C.P.E. Bach. From scene five of his one-act opera Le devin du village, this is Colin's aria "Je vais revoir ma charmante maîtresse": 1864: Josef Rheinberger (1839–1901) was a Liechtensteiner organist and prolific composer in all genres who lived in Bavaria for most of his life. He was also a distinguished teacher, his pupils including the likes of Wolf-Ferrari, Humperdinck, Richard Strauss and Furtwängler. From his Piano Concerto in A Flat, Op. 94, this is the third and final movement, "Allegro energico":
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Post by jk on Dec 20, 2022 4:44:31 GMT -5
1751: The composer and violinist Antoine Dauvergne (1713–1797) contributed in both capacities to the classical music at the court at Versailles. His one-act opera Les troqueurs (1753) had a major influence on the development of French opéra comique. This is the second movement, "Chaconne", from his Quatrième Concert de Simphonies in A Major, Op. 4: 1865: Elfrida Andrée (1841–1929), besides being a composer and conductor, was one of the first female organists to be officially appointed in Scandinavia, in her case at Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867. Her Piano Quintet in E Minor of two years earlier for piano, 2 violins, viola and cello has three movements, "Allegro molto vivace", "Andante maestoso" and "Allegro energico":
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Post by jk on Dec 21, 2022 8:48:12 GMT -5
1750: Nicolas Chédeville (1705–1782) was a French composer, musette player and musette maker. Born into a family of musicians, he became one of France's most celebrated musette players. Commonly used in French baroque music, the musette rapidly fell from favour after the French Revolution. From his opus 12, Les impromptus de Fontainebleau for (in this case) two musettes, this is "La table du roi": 1866: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) is a complex figure who cannot simply be written off as a reactionary. I find his music endlessly fascinating and always rewarding. From what I can gather, his Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, known as the "Organ Symphony", broadly divides into two movements of two sections each. The organ in the work's popular title plays in the second and fourth sections only. Another unusual feature is the use of a piano played both solo (in the third section) and quatre-mains (at the thrilling start of the fourth):
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Post by jk on Dec 22, 2022 5:25:39 GMT -5
1749: The composer and tenor Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–1759) is considered one of the two most important German composers of Italian opera of that time (the other being J.A. Hasse [see 1768]). It seems Graun's great-great-great-great-grandson was Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita. "Senza di te, mio Bene" is an aria from his three-act opera Coriolano: 1867: The music of the shorter-lived Hermann Goetz (1840 –1876) is one of lyricism and great clarity, and in general terms can be defined as quiet and introverted. It almost completely avoids spectacular effects but shows its composer's great mastery of compositional technique. From his four-movement Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, these are the last two, "Langsam" and "Lebhaft":
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Post by jk on Dec 23, 2022 3:17:59 GMT -5
1748: Besides being a prolific composer and an organist, Michel Corrette (1707–1795) authored some 17 instruction books (some now lost) for a multitude of instruments (and the human voice). They are said to give an enlightening picture of the playing techniques of his day. La Tourière is listed as the 18th of his 25 so-called concertos comiques: 1868: In the words of Claude Debussy [ 1899], Charles Gounod (1818–1893) represented the essential French sensibility of his time. Of his operas, Faust has always been the most popular, followed closely by Roméo et Juliette from the previous year. Gounod is one of a number of composers to set the story of Faust. This ballet music comes from Act 5:
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Post by jk on Dec 24, 2022 3:54:39 GMT -5
1747: Antoine Forqueray’s exceptional talents as a virtuoso on the viola da gamba led to his performing before Louis XIV at the age of ten. The king was so impressed that he arranged for Forqueray (1672–1745) to have music lessons at his own expense and seven years later named him musicien ordinaire de la chambre du Roy, a position Forqueray held until the end of his life. These Pièces de viole are performed here on two violas da gamba: 1869: The fact that Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) is often grouped with Bach and Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music attests to the esteem in which he is held. Brahms combines the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters with deeply Romantic motifs. While some contemporaries found his music to be overly academic, his contribution and craftsmanship were admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. A favourite Brahms work of mine is the Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53 for contralto, male chorus and orchestra. For me it conjures up a nocturnal landscape with the moon flitting in and out among the clouds:
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Post by jk on Dec 24, 2022 5:23:04 GMT -5
Yesterday evening I filled in the last of the names of composers going forward, up to the present time. Of course, I may make new discoveries or recall other favourites that I'd prefer but if I do, it won't amount to much. I've done enough juggling already, particularly to accommodate the "busy years".
It'll be fun trying to find dates for works by composers heading in the other direction, all the way to 1595 (and beyond). The further you go back, the scantier the information! I should "finish" by the end of May/beginning of June 2023. From then on it will be one entry a year, like my alternative BB timeline. I suppose I better start looking for ways of filling in my time after that -- a spot of gardening perhaps?
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Post by jk on Dec 25, 2022 4:37:39 GMT -5
1746: Francesco Geminiani (bapt. 1687–1762) was an Italian violinist, composer and music theorist. BBC Radio 3 once described him as "now largely forgotten, but in his time considered almost a musical god, deemed to be the equal of Handel and Corelli". Indeed, Handel accompanied him at the keyboard when Geminiani, a first-rate violinist, played his concerto for the court of George I in 1715. Tartini [ 1763] is said to have called Geminiani "Il Furibondo", the Madman, because of the expressiveness of his playing. This is his Concerto Grosso in D minor Op. 7, No. 2 from the set published that year: 1870: The Frenchman Henri Duparc's reputation rests firmly on a handful of mélodies (art songs). Duparc (1848–1933) destroyed most of his compositions after his health took a downturn in his late thirties. L'invitation au voyage sets a text by Charles Baudelaire. One of Duparc's seventeen mélodies, he wrote it in 1870 for voice and piano, orchestrating it twenty years later. I've sneakily used the orchestrated version quite simply because I prefer it!
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Post by jk on Dec 26, 2022 5:54:51 GMT -5
1745: Gennaro Manna (1715–1779) like his contemporary J.A. Hasse [ 1768] abandoned opera buffa in favour of opera seria, which put him in good stead with his contemporaries. His musical language includes elements of both the galant style and pre-classicism. "Cara ti lascio, addio" is from act two, scene five of his opera Lucio Vero ossia Il Vologeso: 1871: The wonderfully named William Shakespeare Hays wrote more than 350 songs, from lewd stuff to austere hymns. He may have sold as many as 20 million copies of his works, which also included three small collections of poetry. Will S. Hays wrote " The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane" in dialect for the minstrel trade:
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Post by jk on Dec 27, 2022 4:46:42 GMT -5
1744: The Englishman Thomas Arne (1710–1778) is best known for his patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!" That said, the lion's share of his work is taken up by music written for the stage. A Freemason, Arne was one of the first composers to appeal to the law over copyright issues, claiming that some of his theatrical songs had been printed and sold by a London firm. "Sleep, gentle Cherub! Sleep descend" comes from Act II of Arne's oratorio Judith, one of his comparatively few sacred works -- his Roman Catholic faith was at odds with the Church of England during his lifetime: 1872: Johan Svendsen (1840–1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Writing mostly for larger groups of instruments, Svendsen was celebrated for his skills in orchestration, as exemplified by his symphonic poem Carnival in Paris, Op. 9:
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Post by jk on Dec 28, 2022 6:18:03 GMT -5
1743: The keyboard-player and composer Johann Ludwig Krebs (bapt. 1713–1780) studied with Bach, who held him in high standing. Indeed, his proficiency on the organ in technical terms seems to have been second only to that of his teacher. Regrettably, Krebs failed to obtain a patron or a cathedral post, as his Baroque style was then being supplanted by the newer galant music style and the classical music era. From his Concerto in G Major ("in Italiänischen Gusto", WV 821), this is the opening "Allegro": 1873: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. My first major encounter with his works was on discovering the miniature score of the "Overture-Fantasy" Romeo and Juliet in the school library. I love many of Tchaikovsky's orchestral works but The Tempest, Op. 18, a Symphonic Fantasia after Shakespeare, is perhaps my favourite (it just happened to be the "filler side" of a mail-order double LP of his Manfred Symphony):
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Post by jk on Dec 29, 2022 5:05:35 GMT -5
1742: The flautist and oboist Francesco Barsanti (1690–1775) is known today primarily for his set of six solo sonatas for alto recorder (Op. 1). They show unusual knowledge of the recorder, great musical imagination and technical superiority in the genre. His ten concerti grossi (Op. 3) contain fugal elements and feature an interesting concertino group of horns and timpani with string accompaniment. Of these, this is the Concerto Grosso in D Major for 2 Horns, Timpani & String Orchestra, Op. 3 No. 4: 1874: Richard Wagner (1813–1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote the libretto as well as the music for his stage works. His influence has been far-reaching, spreading beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, the visual arts, theatre and even cinema. Wagner had his own opera house built exclusively for the performance of his own music. His 15-hour four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen was premiered there in 1876. From the last opera in the cycle, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), these are the first two orchestral interludes, "Dawn" and "Siegfried's Rhine Journey":
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Post by jk on Dec 30, 2022 3:52:15 GMT -5
1741: The Frenchman Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) was the greatest living composer of opera (replacing Lully) and for the harpsichord (alongside Couperin) in his home country. He also won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony (1722). From his Pièces de clavecin en concerts*, this is part two ("La timide: 1er Rondeau, 2e Rondeau") of the Third Concert in A Major: * (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%C3%A8ces_de_clavecin_en_concerts) 1875: The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) is the subject of one of my pet peeves. His symphonic cycle Má vlast (most often translated as "My Country") is in six movements but the only one ever played on the radio is the over-familiar Vltava (The Moldau). Much as I love this piece, there are five others, admittedly in degrees of listener friendliness. Recently, an enlightened Dutch classical music programme presenter went some way towards making amends by playing at least three of these, starting with the most likely candidate, Z českých luhů a hájů (the standard translation is "From Bohemia's Woods and Fields"):
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Post by jk on Dec 31, 2022 5:17:16 GMT -5
1740: Unico Wilhelm, Count van Wassenaer Obdam (1692–1766) was a Dutch nobleman who was a diplomat as well as a composer. While based at The Hague between 1725 and 1740, van Wassenaer wrote six Concerti Armonici (published in the latter year). Of these, No. 2 in B-flat Major was among the works that formed the basis for Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, works that were considered at the time to be by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: 1876: Léo Delibes (1836–1891) is best known to me from my youthful encounters at the piano with his ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876). These and other scores of his are considered by some to be the forerunners of 20th-century ballets by Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. Unfortunately, no one wants to tell me which numbers comprise this suite from Sylvia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9o_Delibes
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Post by jk on Jan 1, 2023 7:19:52 GMT -5
The stylistic gap continues to widen. Here are two very different sonatas to start off the New Year. 1739: Giovanni Battista Pescetti (c. 1704–1766) was an organist, harpsichordist and composer known primarily for his operas and keyboard sonatas. In 1739, he published a set of ten such sonatas entitled Sonate per gravicembalo, including this one in C minor: 1877: The German composer and conductor Franz Lachner (1803–1890) received first prize (out of 57 entries) in a competition held in Vienna in 1835 for best new symphony, his fifth ( Sinfonia passionata). A prolific composer, Lachner wrote in all genres. Of his sonatas for keyboard instrument, this is the opening "Allegro molto moderato" from his Organ Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 175:
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Post by jk on Jan 2, 2023 10:22:10 GMT -5
1738: Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745) "has of late been recognized as one of the most original composers of a musical epoch that was long thought to have been shaped by Bach and Handel" (author-composer Susanne Oschmann). The rediscovery of Zelenka's work after a century of neglect is attributed to Bedřich Smetana [ 1875], who rewrote some scores from the archives in Dresden and introduced one of the composer's orchestral suites in Prague's New Town Theatre festivals in 1863. This is Zelenka's Miserere in C Minor, ZWV57, whose six sections are entitled "Miserere I", "Miserere II", "Gloria Patri I", "Gloria Patri II", "Sicut erat" and "Miserere III": 1878: Pablo de Sarasate (1844–1908) may be the greatest Spanish violin virtuoso of all time. Of Sarasate's talents as performer and composer, George Bernard Shaw said that he "left criticism gasping miles behind him". The American painter James Whistler immortalized Sarasate in his 1884 portrait Arrangement in Black. Sarasate's own compositions are mainly show-pieces designed to demonstrate his exceptional technique, as exemplified here by Habanera y Malagueña:
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Post by jk on Jan 3, 2023 3:54:14 GMT -5
1737: The ill-starred Jean-Marie Leclair (1697–1764) was a renowned French Baroque violinist and composer who is considered to have founded the French violin school. Leclair successfully drew upon all of Europe's national styles; many suites, sonatas and concertos survive along with one known opera, Scylla et Glaucus. His murder remains unsolved. His Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 7 is unusual in that all its movements are in the same key: 1879: During his lifetime, Asger Hamerik (1843–1923) was considered the best-known Danish composer after Gade [ 1852], and one who was primarily influenced by Berlioz [ 1849], whose protégé he had been. His Requiem was his most successful work and the one Hamerik considered his best. His 41 opus numbers also include four operas and eight symphonies, seven of which have survived. This is his Concerto Romance in D Major for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 27:
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