Recent anniversaries. We missed several of them in the last couple of weeks and would like to catch up. Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré were both born on May 12, Massenet in 1842 and Fauré three years later. (Doesn't Fauré sound much more contemporary? Massenet is so firmly planted in the 19th century French Romanticism, while Fauré influenced so much of the 20th century music). Here is Meditation from Massenet's opera Tais; it's performed by the flutist Katherine DeJongh with Yoko Yamada-Selvaggio on the piano. As for Faure, we selected his famous song, Après un rève, in a viola arrangement. It's performed (on the 1615 Amati "La Stauffer" viola) by Anna Serova, who is accompanied by Jenny Borgatti, piano. Click here to listen.
The wonderfully eccentric French composer Erik Satie was born on May 17, 1866. A friend of Debussy and Ravel, and later of the Dada artists, he's mostly famous for his brief pieces for piano, Gymnopédies and Gnossiene. Here's his Gnossiene No. 2, played by the pianist Tania Stavreva.
While some of Satie's pieces barely run a minute, some of the operas of Richard Wagner, who was born on May 22, 1813, run longer than 5 hours (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, depending on the conductor, takes about five and a half hours to perform). Although we love Wagner, our selection might be considered blasphemous by the Wagnerian purists: it's Ride of the Walküre, from the opera Die Walküre played by The Fauxharmonic Orchestra, Paul Henry Smith conducting. From Wikipedia: "The Fauxharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra made up of digital orchestral instruments, some including the Vienna Symphonic Library conducted by Paul Henry Smith using a Wii remote controller instead of a baton and a Wii balance board instead of a podium, both of which are programmed to modify the sounds in real time in response to the acoustics of the hall and the demands of the music." We think this performance is a lot of fun; listen to it here.
The French composer Jean Françaix was born on May 23, 1912. Françaix once said that his goal of is to "give pleasure." That he certainly does. Here is his charming Tema con variazioni. It's performed by the clarinetist István Kohán and Noémi Kanizsár is on the piano.
And last but not least of the recent anniversaries, Isaac Albéniz was born on May 29, 1860. His Cordoba, Op. 232, No. 4 is played by the Russian pianist Dmitry Paperno. To listen, click here.
May 30, 2011
Recent anniversaries. We missed several of them in the last couple of weeks and would like to catch up. Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré were both born on May 12, Massenet in 1842 and Fauré three years later. (Doesn't Fauré sound much more contemporary? Massenet is so firmly planted in the 19th century French Romanticism, while Fauré influenced so much of the 20th century music). Here is Meditation from Massenet's opera Tais; it's performed by the flutist Katherine DeJongh with Yoko Yamada-Selvaggio on the piano. As for Faure, we selected his famous song, Après un rève, in a viola arrangement. It's performed (on the 1615 Amati "La Stauffer" viola) by Anna Serova, who is accompanied by Jenny Borgatti, piano. Click here to listen.
The wonderfully eccentric French composer Erik Satie was born on May 17, 1866. A friend of Debussy and Ravel, and later of the Dada artists, he's mostly famous for his brief pieces for piano, Gymnopédies and Gnossiene. Here's his Gnossiene No. 2, played by the pianist Tania Stavreva.
While some of Satie's pieces barely run a minute, some of the operas of Richard Wagner, who was born on May 22, 1813, run longer than 5 hours (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, depending on the conductor, takes about five and a half hours to perform). Although we love Wagner, our selection might be considered blasphemous by the Wagnerian purists: it's Ride of the Walküre, from the opera Die Walküre played by The Fauxharmonic Orchestra, Paul Henry Smith conducting. From Wikipedia: "The Fauxharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra made up of digital orchestral instruments, some including the Vienna Symphonic Library conducted by Paul Henry Smith using a Wii remote controller instead of a baton and a Wii balance board instead of a podium, both of which are programmed to modify the sounds in real time in response to the acoustics of the hall and the demands of the music." We think this performance is a lot of fun; listen to it here.
The French composer Jean Françaix was born on May 23, 1912. Françaix once said that his goal of is to "give pleasure." That he certainly does. Here is his charming Tema con variazioni. It's performed by the clarinetist István Kohán and Noémi Kanizsár is on the piano.
And last but not least of the recent anniversaries, Isaac Albéniz was born on May 29, 1860. His Cordoba, Op. 232, No. 4 is played by the Russian pianist Dmitry Paperno. To listen, click here.