This Week in Classical Music: October 31, 2021.  Tarquinia Molza.  Tarquinia Molza by all accounts was one of the most extraordinary women of the late Renaissance, a virtuosa, a courtier and intellectual.  She was born in Modena on November 1^st of 1542.  Her grandfather, Francesco Maria Molza, was one of the best-known poets of his generation (but also a libertine, who abandoned his family and died of syphilis).  Tarquinia married young, as almost everybody at that time, and was widowed by the age of 36.  She was famous as a singer: Francesco Patrizi, a writer, philosopher, and a very good friend of Molza’s gave a detailed description of her performances in his book L'amorosa filosofia.  Patrizi, who taught Molza the Greek language (she also knew Hebrew and Latin), even featured her in his philosophical treaties, disguised as Diotima, a character from Plato’s famous Symposium.  When singing, Molza usually accompanied herself on the viola bastarda, a viol, similar to the viola da gamba and traditionally used in virtuosic performances.  She also played the harpsichord and the lute.  Somewhere around 1583 she moved to the Este court of Ferrara, where she became a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess, Margherita Gonzaga-Este.  She knew many poets, philosophers, and musicians, who flocked to the Este court, and continued her friendship with Torquato Tasso whom she knew from her days in Modena.  Tasso dedicated one of his dialogues to Molza.

In Ferrara, Molza was involved with the court’s concerto delle donne, by all accounts an extraordinary group of female singers (you can read more about this remarkable ensemble here).  It seems that she didn’t sing with them but rather acted as a teacher and advisor.  In Ferrara Molza had an affair with Giaches De Wert, one of the many talented composers patronized by the Este court.  As a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess, she was considered nobility, while De Wert, though a well-known composer, was of a servant class.  Such a misalliance was unacceptable, and in 1589, when discovered, Molza was banned from Ferrara.  She eventually moved to Rome; in 1600 the Roman Senate bestowed on her an honorary citizenship.  Monza died in Modena on August 8^th of 1617.

Many of the best composers of the Renaissance spent some time (and sometimes a long time) in Ferrara, from Guillaume Dufay to Jacob Obrecht, Josquin des Prez and on.  During Molza’s time, Luzzasco Luzzaschi was the Duke’s favorite composer but he wasn’t the only one.  Giovan Leonardo Primavera composed madrigals based on Molza’s poetry.  Here’s one of his madrigals, Nasce La Gioja Mia, performed by The Tallis Scholars.

This Week in Classical Music: October 24, 2021.  Bernard Haitink.  Although it was bound to happen sooner rather than later – he was 92 after all, and slowing down, yet the news of Bernard Haitink’s death was a sad one.  Haitink, an unassuming man and great conductor, died in his home in London.  We were lucky to have heard him live many times, as, in the role of Principal Conductor, he led the Chicago Symphony for four years, from 2006 to 2010.  One memory is indelible, that of Mahler’s Symphony no. 6, in 2007.  Rarely did the Chicago Symphony play as beautifully, and rarely was the music presented with such poignancy and completeness.  He was offered the position of Music Director at Chicago but refused: his explanation back then was that he was too old, though we suspect that he just didn’t want to deal with the financial and social obligations that come with the title; he wanted to make music.

 Bernard Haitink was born in Amsterdam on March 4^th of 1929.  As a child he studied the violin but never played on a level that satisfied him.  In 1954-55 he took several conducting courses, and it became apparent that that was his true calling.  In 1957 he became Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.  In 1956 he was invited as a replacement for an ailing conductor to lead a performance of Cherubini’s Requiem with the Concertgebouw.  In a very telling episode, he first refused, saying that he wasn’t ready ready, even though he had already conducted the piece; fortunately, at the last moment he changed his mind.  The performance went very well, several engagements followed and in 1961 he was made the Principal Conductor of the Concertgebouw, the youngest ever.  He shared this position with the eminent German conductor Eugen Jochum till the latter retired in 1964, and then, on his own, till 1988.  At the same time, since 1964, he was the Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic.  He widely traveled with both orchestras, performing in the US and around the world.  While in England, he was also the Music Director of the Glyndebourne Festival (from 1978 to 1988) and the Royal Covent Garden Opera (from 1987 to 2002).  From 2002 to 2006 he was the Principal Conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle and Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Symphony.

Haitink’s discography is extensive: he recorded all symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Debussy and Ravel’s symphonic pieces and many more, but Mahler and Bruckner constituted the core of his repertory.

In his obituary, the New York Time quoted their former chief music critic Harold Schonberg who said that Haitink was “not one of the glamour boys on the podium… He does not dance, he does not patronize the best tailor on the Continent.”  It seems what Schonberg was implying that Haitink was the opposite of Herbert von Karajan.  We’ll miss Bernard Haitink dearly.

Here’s the third movement of Mahler’s Symphony no. 6, which he recorded live in 2007 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

This Week in Classical Music: October 17, 2021.  The Italians.  Three Italian composers were born this week: the Renaissance-era Luca Marenzio, who was born on October 18^th of 1553, Baldassare Galuppi, born on the same day but a century and a half later, on October 18^th of 1706, and Luciano Berio, one of the most interesting composers of the second half of the 20^th century, on October 24^th of 1925.  Take a look at the entry about Marenzio here, Galuppi – here, and one of our takes on Berio here.  It is said that Galuppi was the most successful and richest composer of the mid-18^th century.  His fame and money came mostly from his operas – he wrote more than 100 of them (we think that his sacred music is of much higher quality).  He was called the father of comic operas (he wasn’t the first one to write opera buffa, but his were more popular), but practically none of them are staged these days.  The comic opera Il filosofo di campagna, based on the libretto by Carlo Goldoni, was extremely popular throughout Europe.  Here’s the cheerful overture.  Francesco Piva leads the Italian group Intermusicale Ensemble.

Franz Liszt was also born this week, on October 22^nd of 1811.  Staying with the Italian theme, here is Sonetto 47 del Petrarca, from Années de pèlerinage: Italie.  Lazar Berman recorded it in 1977.

Finally, the great Jewish-Hungarian-American conductor, Georg Solti was born (as György Stern) on October 21^st of 1912.  His first significant position was that of the music director at the Bavarian State Opera; he was then hired at the Frankfurt Opera and, in 1961, became the music director of the Covent Garden Opera.  Only later did he develop his career as a symphony conductor.  Solti recorded 45 complete operas, and even though his Wagner recordings are most famous (his recording of Der Ring des Nibelungen was voted the greatest recording ever made, twice: once by the Gramophone magazine in 1999, and the second time by professional music critics in a poll conducted by the BBC, in 2011) some of his Italian operas are also extremely good.  Here is Io vengo a domandar grazia mia Regina, from Act II of Don Carlo.  Carlo Bergonzi is Don Carlo, Renata Tebaldi – Elizabeth.  Sir Georg Solti conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

This Week in Classical Music: October 11, 2021.  Evgeny Kissin.  Evgeny Kissin, one of the greatest pianists of his generation, turned 50 yesterday.  Kissin has been dazzling the public for almost 38 years, since the time when, at the age of 12, he gave a performance at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (performing at the Great Hall is the Russian equivalent of performing at the Stern Auditorium of the Carnegie Hall: an honor and acknowledgement of the performer’s talent).  Kissin was born in Moscow on October 10^th of 1971.  At the age of six he went to the Gnessin music school, where his teacher was Anna Cantor.  Cantor, who died on July 27^th of this year, remained his only teacher.  Kissin and Cantor were uniquely close; she traveled with him and lived her last years in his home in Prague.  Recognized as a child prodigy in the Soviet Union, Kissin started his international career at the age of 14.  In 1987 he first played in what was then West Berlin; a year later, to great acclaim, he played Tchaikovsky’s First piano concerto under the direction of Herbert von Karajan.  In 1990 Kissin played his debut American concert in New York, performing both of Chopin’s piano concertos with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta.  A week later he gave a recital at the Carnegie Hall.  In 1997 he made history by playing the first ever piano recital at the Proms in the Royal Albert Hall.  Kissin has played with all major orchestras, all major conductors; he also played chamber music with many leading musicians of the day.  His concerts are always sold out.

Kissin’s playing combines phenomenal technique with interpretive depth.  There is no affectation in his performances.  His repertoire is broad, but he’s best know for his Romantics, from Chopin, Schubert and Schumann to Rachmaninov.  Kissin also writes poetry and prose and does so in Russian and, surprisingly,, in Yiddish.  After leaving Russia, Kissin, who has Russian, British and Israeli citizenships, has lived in New York, London, and Paris.  He nowlives in Prague with his wife and three children from her previous marriage.

Kissin has a broad discography and is well represented on all streaming services.  Here’s something of a rarity, Schubert’s Piano Sonata no. 17 in D major D. 850.  This live recording was made in Verbier in 2014.

This Week in Classical Music: October 4, 2021.  Johann Joseph Fux.  The great German composer of the early baroque, Heinrich Schütz was born this week in Köstritz, a town in Thuringia, on October 8^th of 1585 (we’ve written about him here and here).  Also, Giuseppe Verdi was born on October 9^th of 1813 and Camille Saint-Saëns, on the same day in 1835.   Both are very popular (Verdi being a much bigger talent), and we’ve featured them many times.  One composer who somehow escaped our attention is another German, Johann Joseph Fux.  While Schütz was enormously influential as composer, Fux is more famous for his theoretical opus Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps to Mount Parnassus).  It shouldn’t be confused with Carl Czerny’s Gradus ad Parnassum, a collection of study piano pieces familiar to most pianists.  Fux’s Gradus is completely a different thing, and we’ll get to it in a minute.

Fux was bon in 1660 (the exact date isn’t known) in a village outside of Graz, in Austrian Styria.  He probably studied music in Graz, and later served as organist in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.  It seems that around that time he visited Italy and was influenced by Arcangelo Corelli and Bernardo Pasquini.  Fux moved to Vienna in 1690 and several years later was hired as the court composer to the Emperor Leopold I.  Leopold was a music lover, a patron and composer himself: some of his music survives, for example, an ordinary mass titled Missa angeli custodis and the Requiem Mass for his first wife (here on YouTube).  Love for music ran in Leopold’s Habsburg family: his father, Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, was also a music benefactor and composer; 100 years later, Joseph II would become Mozart’s patron.  Leopold thought highly of Fux and in 1715 made him the Hofkapellmeister, the leader of Wiener Hofmusikkapelle, an ancient musical institution established in 1498; abolished in 1922, it was the predecessor of the Vienna Boys’ Choir.  At the Hofmusikkapelle Fux was assisted by Antonio Caldara, a well-known Italian opera composer.  When Leopold I died in 1705, his son Joseph became the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, and, upon Joseph’s death, the title went to Leopold’s other son, Charles, who ruled as Charles VI.  Both continued to employ Fux, who lived in Vienna the rest of his life, dying in 1741.  As the court composer, Fux was required to write masses and other church music; he also composed operas, oratorios and Tafelmusik (Table music), music for feasts and banquets.  Here is Fux’s Overture in D major, No. 4, performed by the Freiburger Barockorchester.

Back to Gradus ad Parnassum: Fux wrote it in 1725, in Latin, but soon after it was translated into German, French and English.  The first part of the book talks about intervals and their relations to number.  But it’s the second half that made it famous: it presents the theoretical discussion of counterpoint, instructions on how to write sacred music and other musical techniques.  It’s written in the form of a dialogue, with one person, the teacher, representing Palestrina, and another, the student, Fux himself.  A copy of Gradus ad Parnassum was in Johan Sebastian Bach’s personal library.  Haydn used it to teach himself counterpoint and later recommended it to his student, Beethoven.  Mozart had an annotated copy.  The book was used continuously from the day it was published and is still used and cited today. 

This Week in Classical Music: September 27, 2021.  Pianists and a Singer.  October 1^st is a big day for the pianists: Vladimir Horowitz was born on that day in 1903, and Vera Gornostayeva in 1939.  Horowitz is world-famous, we’ve written about him on several occasions (for example, here), but still cannot quite come to terms with his art.  Somehow, Horowitz managed to combine a sublime touch and bombast, the most incisive interpretation with showmanship, very often in the same recording.  There are some pianists, like Arthur Rubinstein, who sound flawless to us, even if during their long careers they had changed the way they played some pieces (which Rubinstein, for one, certainly did).  Horowitz is not like that: you listen to him and sometimes cringe: why so fast, why this blur, where’s the music?  And the next moment everything is perfect, and you start thinking that maybe the mayhem he created several bars ago had some reason behind it.  In any event, here’s Vladimir Horowitz playing Chopin’s Scherzo no. 1.  This recording was most likely made in 1951.  By the way, Chopin was only 21 when he wrote this Scherzo.

In the same entry we referred to above, we mentioned Vera Gornostayeva, a fine Russian pianist and teacher.  Here she plays, in recital, Chopin’s Waltz in C-Sharp Minor op.64, no.2.  It’s very well played, even if there’s no Horowitz’s fire in it.  We’re not sure about the date of the recording, it’s probably from the 1970s.

The French composer Paul Dukas was also born on October 1^st, in 1865.  He’s known for one composition only, his brilliant orchestral piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  Dukas was born in Paris into a Jewish family.  He started composing at the age of 14, went to the Paris Conservatory at 16.  To his great disappointment, despite several attempts he failed to win the coveted Prix de Rome.  Dukas was very critical of his own compositions and destroyed most of the scores.  He was very influential as a music critic; he also extensively wrote about history, philosophy, and politics.  Here’s one of Dukas surviving compositions, Variations, Interlude et Finale sur un thème de Rameau.  It’s performed by the pianist Marco Rapetti.

Fritz Wunderlich is one of our all-time favorite singers.  We just missed his birthday: he was born on September 26^th of 1930.  As a Lied tenor, he’s incomparable (you can listen to Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin or Schumann’s Dichterliebe in our library).  He was also wonderful in Mozart’s operas.  Here’s Il mio tesoro from Act 2 of Mozrt’s Don Giovanni. Herbert von Karajan leads the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra.