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Friday, March 25, 2016

You can listen to the Classical Music Almanac Podcast Daily here.

Birthdays

Arturo Toscanini

In 1867 Arturo Toscanini was born in Parma, Italy. He was a conductor as well as one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory. He was at various times the music director of La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Later in his career he was appointed the first music director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937–54), and this led to his becoming a household name (especially in the United States) through his radio and television broadcasts and many recordings of the operatic and symphonic repertoire. 1

Béla Bartók

In 1881 Béla Bartók was born in the small town of Nagyszentmiklós, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but is now in Romania. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Liszt are regarded as Hungary’s greatest composers. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology. 2

Haydn Wood

In 1882 Haydn Wood was born n the Yorkshire town of Slaithwaite. When he was three years old his family moved to the Isle of Man, an island which was often a source of inspiration for the composer. In 1897, at the Royal College of Music, he studied violin with Enrique Fernández Arbós and composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. In 1901, he was soloist at a special concert commemorating the opening of the Royal College of Music’s Concert Hall. The concert was attended by Joseph Joachim (who had heard him play before) and Pablo de Sarasate. They were so impressed that they sent him to Brussels for study with the renowned teacher César Thomson.[1] He then embarked on a world tour, accompanying the Canadian soprano Dame Emma Albani, and they continued their association for a further eight years. From 1913 to 1926, he toured extensively with the soprano Dorothy Court whom he married in 1909. He also gained considerable success from his works, particularly his songs. From 1939, he served as a director of the Performing Right Society. On the occasion of his 70th birthday he was given a full concert dedicated to his music by the BBC. He died in a London nursing home on 11 March 1959, two weeks before his 77th birthday. Haydn Wood was a prolific composer of orchestral music, including 15 suites, 9 rhapsodies, 8 overtures, 3 concertante pieces and nearly 50 other assorted works, including 180 individual songs. His orchestral pieces were primarily of the “light music” style; a well known piece of his is the three-movement Fantasy-Concerto. Another is his London Landmarks Suite, particularly “Horse Guards, Whitehall”. In 1916, he composed the popular song “Roses of Picardy” for his wife. After a time writing popular music, Wood began to write musical comedy; his best-known piece of this genre is the musical play Tina. The tone poem Mannin Veen (pub. 1933, Manx for “Dear Isle of Man”) was based on four Manx folk tunes, and is one of two works written originally for wind band by Wood. The work is also occasionally performed in its orchestral version. 3

Natalie Clein

Happy birthday Natalie Clein! A a British classical cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist, She started playing the cello at the age of six, and studied with Anna Shuttleworth and Alexander Baillie at the Royal College of Music where she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship. She has also studied with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Clein came to prominence after winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1994 with her performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto. She was the first British winner of the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Warsaw, playing the Shostakovich Sonata and Elgar’s concerto. Her other awards include the Ingrid zu Solms Cultur Preis at the 2003 Kronberg Academie and the Classical BRIT Award for Young British Performer of 2005. Clein made her concerto debut at The Proms in August 1997, performing the Haydn Cello Concerto in C major with Sir Roger Norrington and the National Youth Chamber Orchestra of Great Britain. In 1999 she was invited as one of the first artists to join the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. She is also a regular chamber musician with such musicians as Julius Drake, Charles Owen and Kathryn Stott, as well as the Belcea Quartet, Jerusalem Quartet, Takács Quartet, and the Nash Ensemble. Clein has collaborated with author Jeanette Winterson on a performance piece which utilises Bach’s Goldberg Variations in conjunction with Winterson’s text. Clein played at the ceremony of Winterson’s wedding to Susie Orbach in 2015. She has also worked with choreographer and dancer Carlos Acosta. Clein released an all-Kodály recording in 2009 on Hyperion Records. Previously, she recorded for EMI Classics where her debut recording, a recital disc of Brahms and Schubert cello sonatas with Charles Owen was released in October 2004 on the EMI ‘Classics for Pleasure’ imprint and her recording of the Chopin and Rachmaninov Cello Sonatas with Charles Owen was released on 25 September 2006. Her EMI recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto, in honour of the 150th anniversary of Elgar’s birth, was released in September 2007. Clein joined the professorial staff at Trinity College of Music, London in September 2009. She plays on the “Simpson” Guadagnini cello (1777).

Premieres

In 1911 Claude Debussy conducted the premiere of his orchestrated version of Children’s Corner in Paris.

In 1943 Edward Joseph Collins was the soloist fro the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 in b performed by the Chicago Symphony with Frederick Stock conducting.

On This Day in Classical Music

In 1886 Charles Villiers Standford made his concert debut as the conductor of the Bach Choir.

In 1901 Serge Koussevitzky made his debut as the principal double-bass in the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra.

In 1906 Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss met for the first and only time.

In 1938 Prokofiev conducted the Boston Symphony in the American premiere of his Peter and the Wolf.

In 1944 a special concert celebrating the 75th birthday of Henry Wood was held at Royal Albert Hall featuring the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. On the program were pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Elgar, Strauss and Wagner.

Recommended Listening

Claude Debussy’s Children’s Corner performed by the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alejandro Pinzón.

  1. Wikipedia contributors, “Arturo Toscanini,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arturo_Toscanini&oldid=707669894 (accessed March 23, 2016).
  2. Wikipedia contributors, “Béla Bartók,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=B%C3%A9la_Bart%C3%B3k&oldid=709391741 (accessed March 23, 2016).
  3. Wikipedia contributors, “Haydn Wood,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Haydn_Wood&oldid=705015777 (accessed March 23, 2016).
  4. Wikipedia contributors, “Natalie Clein,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natalie_Clein&oldid=703088456 (accessed March 23, 2016).