This Week in Classical Music: November 25, 2024. A Busy Week. This week is full of interesting anniversaries, but unfortunately, we’re distracted by other things to give the composers and musicians born this week the attention they deserve. Therefore, we’ll limit ourselves to a simple list. Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian who became the most important composer of the early French Baroque, was born in Florence on November 28th of 1632. He was a favorite of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and Molière’s friend.
Anton Stamitz, a son of Johann Stamitz and a brother of Carl Stamitz, all prominent composers, was born in Německý Brod, Bohemia, on November 27th of 1750. The family lived in Mannheim, where the father was instrumental in making the court orchestra into one of the best ensembles in Europe. Anton played in this orchestra (he was a virtuoso violinist). Here is his Concerto for Two Flutes & Orchestra in G major; Shigenori Kudo and Jean-Pierre Rampal are the flutes; Josef Schneider conducts the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra.
The great Italian master of the bel canto opera, Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo on November 29th of 1797. He wrote about 70 operas; among his best are Anna Bolena, L'elisir d'amore, Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor. Maria Callas brought Anna and Lucia to life like very few have done, before or after.
Ferdinand Ries was a minor composer, Beethoven’s pupil, friend, secretary and copyist, and, importantly, the person who commissioned Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Like his teacher, Ries was born in Bonn, on November 28th of 1784.
Three Russian composers were also born this week, all in November: Anton Rubinstein, on the 28th, in 1829, Sergei Taneyev, on the 25th, in 1856, and Sergey Lyapunov, on the 30th, in 1859. Rubinstein was not just a composer but also a brilliant pianist, second only to Liszt, and conductor. In 1862 he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, the first one in Russia (his brother, Nikolai Rubinstein, also a pianist, composer and conductor, founded the Moscow Conservatory in 1866). Taneyev was Nikolai Rubinstein’s pupil at the Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky’s close friend (Tchaikovsky dedicated the symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini to Taneyev). Lyapunov wrote, among other things, Twelve Transcendental Etudes (études d'exécution transcendente). Here’s the second of these etudes, "The Ghosts' Dance," played by Florian Noack.
And speaking of etudes of transcendental difficulty, Charles-Valentin Alkan, a French virtuoso pianist and composer, wrote many of them (Alkan was born in Paris on November 30th of 1813). Marc-André Hamelin, one of the most technically capable pianists of our time, is one of the few who can give Alkan’s music its due. Alkan, a French Jew, had an unusual and interesting life and we’ll dedicate a separate entry to him.
Busy Week, November 2024
This Week in Classical Music: November 25, 2024. A Busy Week. This week is full of interesting anniversaries, but unfortunately, we’re distracted by other things to give the composers
and musicians born this week the attention they deserve. Therefore, we’ll limit ourselves to a simple list. Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian who became the most important composer of the early French Baroque, was born in Florence on November 28th of 1632. He was a favorite of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and Molière’s friend.
Anton Stamitz, a son of Johann Stamitz and a brother of Carl Stamitz, all prominent composers, was born in Německý Brod, Bohemia, on November 27th of 1750. The family lived in Mannheim, where the father was instrumental in making the court orchestra into one of the best ensembles in Europe. Anton played in this orchestra (he was a virtuoso violinist). Here is his Concerto for Two Flutes & Orchestra in G major; Shigenori Kudo and Jean-Pierre Rampal are the flutes; Josef Schneider conducts the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra.
The great Italian master of the bel canto opera, Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo on November 29th of 1797. He wrote about 70 operas; among his best are Anna Bolena, L'elisir d'amore, Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor. Maria Callas brought Anna and Lucia to life like very few have done, before or after.
Ferdinand Ries was a minor composer, Beethoven’s pupil, friend, secretary and copyist, and, importantly, the person who commissioned Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Like his teacher, Ries was born in Bonn, on November 28th of 1784.
Three Russian composers were also born this week, all in November: Anton Rubinstein, on the 28th, in 1829, Sergei Taneyev, on the 25th, in 1856, and Sergey Lyapunov, on the 30th, in 1859. Rubinstein was not just a composer but also a brilliant pianist, second only to Liszt, and conductor. In 1862 he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, the first one in Russia (his brother, Nikolai Rubinstein, also a pianist, composer and conductor, founded the Moscow Conservatory in 1866). Taneyev was Nikolai Rubinstein’s pupil at the Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky’s close friend (Tchaikovsky dedicated the symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini to Taneyev). Lyapunov wrote, among other things, Twelve Transcendental Etudes (études d'exécution transcendente). Here’s the second of these etudes, "The Ghosts' Dance," played by Florian Noack.
And speaking of etudes of transcendental difficulty, Charles-Valentin Alkan, a French virtuoso pianist and composer, wrote many of them (Alkan was born in Paris on November 30th of 1813). Marc-André Hamelin, one of the most technically capable pianists of our time, is one of the few who can give Alkan’s music its due. Alkan, a French Jew, had an unusual and interesting life and we’ll dedicate a separate entry to him.