Tags
Berlioz, classical music, composers, opera, orchestra, philarmonic
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Birthdays
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Happy 86th birthday Nikolaus Harnoncourt, born on this day in 1926 in Berlin. He is particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble, Concentus Musicus Wien, in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement. Around 1970, Harnoncourt started to conduct opera and concert performances, soon leading renowned international symphony orchestras, and appearing at leading concert halls, operatic venues and festivals. His repertoire has since widened to include composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2001 and 2003, he conducted the Vienna New Year’s Concert. Harnoncourt is also the author of several books, mostly on subjects of performance history and musical aesthetics. 1
Henryk Górecki
In 1933 Henryk Górecki was born in Czernica, Poland. According to Alex Ross, no recent classical composer has had as much commercial success as Górecki. Górecki became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during the post-Stalin cultural thaw. His Webernian-influenced serialist works of the 1950s and 1960s were characterized by adherence to dissonant modernism and drew influence from Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Kazimierz Serocki. He continued in this direction throughout the 1960s, but by the mid-1970s had changed to a less complex sacred minimalist sound, exemplified by the transitional Symphony No. 2 and the hugely popular Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs). This later style developed through several other distinct phases, from such works as his 1979 Beatus Vir, to the 1981 choral hymn Miserere, the 1993 Kleines Requiem für eine Polka and his requiem Good Night. His name remained largely unknown outside Poland until the mid-to late 1980s, and his fame arrived in the 1990s. In 1992, 15 years after it was composed, a recording of his Third Symphony, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs—recorded with soprano Dawn Upshaw and released to commemorate the memory of those lost during the Holocaust—became a worldwide commercial and critical success, selling more than a million copies and vastly exceeding the typical lifetime sales of a recording of symphonic music by a 20th-century composer. As surprised as anyone at its popularity, Górecki said, “Perhaps people find something they need in this piece of music […] somehow I hit the right note, something they were missing. Something somewhere had been lost to them. I feel that I instinctively knew what they needed.” This popular acclaim did not generate wide interest in Górecki’s other works, and he pointedly resisted the temptation to repeat earlier success, or compose for commercial reward. Apart from two brief periods studying in Paris and a short time living in Berlin, Górecki spent most of his life in southern Poland. 2
Premiers
In 1846 Heckor Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust was premiered in Paris, France.
In 1890 the first prat of Berlioz’s Les Troyens premiered in Karlsruhe, Germany. This was 20 years after he died and 30 years after he composed it.
In 1906 Gabriel Faure’s Dolly Suite premiered in Monaco.
This Day in Classical Music
In 1786 Mozart completed his Symphony No. 38 in Vienna.
In 1847 the Drury Lane Theatre opened in London under the administration of Hector Berlioz. The first production was Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
In 1940 President Harry Truman responds to Paul Hume’s critique of his daughter’s recital. He wrote:
Mr Hume:
I’ve just read your lousy review of Margaret’s concert. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are an “eight ulcer man on four ulcer pay.”
It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful. When you write such poppy-cock as was in the back section of the paper you work for it shows conclusively that you’re off the beam and at least four of your ulcers are at work.
Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!
Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you’ll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ancestry.
- Wikipedia contributors, “Nikolaus Harnoncourt,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nikolaus_Harnoncourt&oldid=686094088 (accessed December 5, 2015).
- Wikipedia contributors, “Henryk Górecki,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henryk_G%C3%B3recki&oldid=691230496 (accessed December 5, 2015).
The Classical Stream 