May 24, 2010

Once again we fell behind in our attempts to commemorate great composers: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his younger contemporary and friend Anatoly Lyadov were born on May 7 and May 10, respectively. Two French composers, Jules Massnet and Gabriel Fauré’s were born on the same day, May 12. Another Frenchman, Éric Satie, like Lyadov a master of miniatures, was born on May 17. And Richard Wagner, who wrote famously long operas, was born on May 22. These composers are so different in every respect that it would be all-but impossible to create a coherent playlist, so we’ll do just a few representative pieces. The cellist Patrick Jee plays Melodie, Op. 42, No. 3 by Tchaikovsky, followed by the pianist Nadejda Vlaeva who performs Lyadov’s Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 57, No. 1. Then the flutist Martha Councell plays Morceau de Concours by Fauré. The soprano Patrice Michaels sings Éric Satie’s song Les fleurs. And finally, the young violinist Elizabeth Woo plays an arrangement of Wagner’s Albumblatt. To listen, click here.

May 17, 2010

An exciting young Bulgarian pianist named Anna Petrova recently played in Chicago, and we have a live recording of the event. Anna was born in Plovdiv but moved to New York in 2005 to study at the Manhattan School of Music, first with Horacio Gutiérrez and then André-Michel Schub. Anna performed as both a recitalist and orchestra soloist in her native Bulgaria, as well as Serbia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Right now she’s in Brussels, competing in the semi-final round of the prestigious 2010 Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition. We wish her luck. No matter what happens at the competition, Anna has already proven to be a very interesting musician. You can judge by yourself by listening how she plays Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau, from Book 1 and Poissons d’or, from Nook 2 of Images, and Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme of Corelli. To listen click here.

May 10, 2010

Welcome to the new and improved Classical Connect! Our changes should make it easier for you to navigate the site and, hopefully, improve your overall experience. The main difference is in the way you can now browse the site – either by musical instrument, composer or performer. We trust you’ll find it more intuitive. We also introduced a Help page describing the more complicated functionality of the site. You can find a link to it on the left-hand column or here. We spelled out the benefits of joining the site, and look forward to more of you doing just that. If you have any questions, please send us a note.

These are all mostly cosmetic changes. In terms of the content, we started a partnership with the Millennium of Music, the longest running and, in our opinion, best early-music program. We’ll tell you more about it in the weeks to come; in the mean time, enjoy some of the programs that were already uploaded.

May 3, 2010

We don’t feature voice as often as we’d like, which is why we’re especially pleased to present the mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. A graduate of the Julliard and the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Cooke has been acclaimed for her performances in opera, as a soloist with orchestra and song recitals. Her 2009-10 season includes engagements with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas’s San Francisco Symphony, and the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe.  She also sings the role of Meg in Falstaff with the Seattle Opera, and the role of Medea in Jason with Chicago Opera Theater.

We’ll hear Ms. Cooke in a contrasting set of songs. First, Hector Berlioz’s Au cimitière, from Les Nuits d'été, which will be followed by Maurice Ravel’s cycle Cinq mélodies populaires Grecques. We’ll finish with two songs from William Bolcom’s set of Cabaret Songs: Blue and Amor. To listen, click here.

April 26, 2010

Sergei Prokofiev, one of the most important composers of the 20^th century, was born this week, on April 25, 1891. By his mid-20s he was already well-known as a composer and pianists: his first piano concerto was written in 1910, the violin concerto – in 1915. Prokofiev left Russia shortly after the revolution. He spent most of his subsequent 17 years in the US and then France before returning to the Soviet Union in 1935. Despite all the difficulties (his wife was arrested as a “spy” and he was often criticized in the official press as a “formalist”), he wrote some of his best music in the late 1930s and the 40s: piano sonatas 6 through 9, which were championed by Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, a cello sonata that was first performed by the young Rostropovich, along with operas, ballets and symphonies. He died the same day as Stalin, March 5, 1953. His death wasn’t announced till three days later.

We’ll open the Prokofiev playlist with his youthful Sarcasms, Op. 17, played by the pianist Milica Jelača Jovanović. We’ll continue with Five Melodies for violin & piano, Op. 35 bis, performed by Ilya Kaler (Violin) and Eteri Andjaparidze (Piano). Following that, the pianist Vakhtang Jordania plays Sonata No. 8 in B-flat Major, Op. 84. We’ll conclude with Jeffrey Biegel soloing in the Third Piano concerto in C Major op. 26. To listen click here.

April 19, 2010.

We were playing catch up celebrating several birthdays when tragic events forced us to focus on Poland and its contribution to the world of classical music. In the mean time, yet another birthday of a great composer has passed: Sergei Rachmaninov was born on April 1, 1873. So today we’ll play some music we planned to present earlier, along with some Rachmaninov. We’ll start with Pablo Sarasate, the Spanish violinist and composer; his Playera is performed by Albert Markov. The Hungarian Béla Bartók was one of the greatest composers of the 20^th century. He was often inspired by regional folk music, both Hungarian and Romanian. We’ll hear a rather unusual performance: Michel Tirabosco is a virtuoso player on Pan Pipes. He’ll perform Six Romanian Popular Songs accompanied by the guitarist Antonio Dominguez. Some day we’ll dedicate a program to Sergei Rachmaninov. But today, as a token, we’ll play his Prelude Op. 32, No. 5, in G Major in Jeffrey Biegel’s interpretation. To listen, click here.