Thursday, December 3, 2015
Births
Nicolo Amati
In 1596 Nicolo Amati was born in Cremona, Italy. He was the fourth son of Girolamo Amati and the grandson of Andrea Amati, the founder of the Amati Family of violin makers. Of all the Amati Family violins, those of Nicola are often considered most suitable for modern playing. As a young man his instruments closely followed the concepts of his father’s, with a relatively small model and high arching rising nearly to a ridge in the centre of both the front and back. Starting in 1630 he gradually began to show signs of originality, which by 1640 were expressed in what is now known as the ‘Grand Amati’ pattern. Well curved, long-cornered, and strongly and cleanly purfled, these instruments represent perhaps the height of elegance in violin making, and were characterized by mathematically derived outlines and transparent amber-colored varnish. Nicola Amati also made important contributions to the world of violin making not just by what he made, but by whom he taught. Initially having no sons to carry on the family business as was traditional at the time, Nicola Amati was one of the first to take apprentices from outside his family into his workshop. Andrea Guarneri, who eventually founded the Guarneri Family of violin makers, was a pupil of Nicola. Also at least one Antonio Stradivari label, dated 1666, reads, “Alumnus Nicolais Amati” – student of Nicolò Amati. but it has always been controversial whether he was an actual apprentice of Nicola Amati or merely considered himself a student and admirer of his work. Other documented pupils of Nicola include Matthias Klotz, Jacob Railich, Bartolomeo Pasta, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Giacomo Gennaro, andand Giovanni Battista Rogeri. Nicolò’s son, Hieronymus II (often referred to in English as Girolamo) (1649–1740), was the last of his line to achieve distinction. The Latin forms of the first names, Andreas, Antonius, Hieronymus, and Nicolaus, were generally used on the violin labels, and the family name was sometimes Latinized as Amatus. Violinists who play Nicola Amati violins include Thomas Bowes. 1
Anton Webern
In 1883 Anton Webern was born in Vienna, Austria. Along with his mentor Arnold Schoenberg and his colleague Alban Berg, Webern comprised the core among those within and more peripheral to the circle of the Second Viennese School, including Ernst Krenek and Theodor W. Adorno. As an exponent of atonality andtwelve-tone technique, Webern exerted influence on contemporaries Luigi Dallapiccola, Křenek, and even Schoenberg himself. As tutor Webern guided and variously influenced Arnold Elston, Fré Focke, Philipp Herschkowitz, René Leibowitz, Humphrey Searle, Leopold Spinner, and Stefan Wolpe. Webern’s music was the most radical of its milieu in its rigorous and resolute apprehension of twelve-tone technique. His innovations in schematic organization of pitch, rhythm, register, timbre, dynamics, articulation, and melodic contour; his eagerness to redefine imitative contrapuntal techniques such as canon and fugue; and his inclination toward athematicism, abstraction, concision, and lyricism all greatly informed and oriented post-war European, typically serial or avant-garde composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, Henri Pousseur, and György Ligeti. In the United States, meanwhile, Webern’s music was very fruitfully reintroduced to Igor Stravinsky by Robert Craft; and it attracted the interest of Milton Babbitt, although Babbitt ultimately found Schoenberg’s twelve-tone techniques more useful than those of Webern. During and shortly after the post-war period, then, Webern was posthumously received with attention first diverted from his sociocultural upbringing and surroundings and, moreover, focused in a direction apparently antithetical to his participation in German Romanticism and Expressionism. A richer understanding of Webern began to emerge in the later half of the 20th century, notably in the work of scholars Kathryn Bailey, Julian Johnson, and Anne Schreffler, as archivists and biographers (e.g., Hans and Rosaleen Moldenhauer) regained access to sketches, letters, lectures, audio recordings, and other articles of and associated with Webern’s estate. 2
Nino Rota
In 1911 Nino Rota was born in Milan, Italy. He is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti. He also composed the music for two of Franco Zeffirelli‘s Shakespeare films, and for the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola‘s Godfather trilogy, receiving the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974). During his long career Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, especially of music for the cinema. He wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979—an average of three scores each year over a 46-year period, and in his most productive period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s he wrote as many as ten scores every year, and sometimes more, with a remarkable thirteen film scores to his credit in 1954. Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten operas, five ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, the best known being his string concerto. He also composed the music for many theatre productions by Visconti, Zeffirelli and Eduardo De Filippo as well as maintaining a long teaching career at the Liceo Musicale in Bari, Italy, where he was the director for almost 30 years. 3
José Serebrier
Happy 76th birthday José Serebrier! Born on this day in 1938 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He first conducted an orchestra at the age of eleven, while at school. The school orchestra toured the country, which meant he was able to notch up over one hundred performances within four years. He graduated from the Municipal School of Music in Montevideo at fifteen, having studied violin, solfege, and Latin American folklore. Subsequently, he studied counterpoint, fugue, composition and conducting with Guido Santórsola, and piano with his wife, Sarah Bourdillon Santórsola. The National Orchestra, known as SODRE, announced a composition contest. Within two weeks, Serebrier had composed his “Legend of Faust” overture. It won. To his huge disappointment he was not allowed to conduct it, because he was only fifteen. The premiere was given to Eleazar de Carvalho, who later that same year became his conducting teacher at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home. He was awarded a United States State Department Fellowship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, with Vittorio Giannini. Later he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, and with Pierre Monteux. His first symphony, written at the age of 17, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski, as the last minute substitute for the Ives Fourth Symphony, which proved still unplayable at the time. The recording of that Stokowski performance was recently released on CD. Another recording of this work was recently released by Naxos, with the composer conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. His New York conducting debut with the American Symphony Orchestra was at Carnegie Hall in 1965. At the time, Ives’ Fourth Symphony had been considered so difficult that it was performed using three conductors at its premiere in 1965, almost 50 years after its composition. Stokowski, Serebrier and a third conductor performed it this way. A few years later Serebrier conducted it on his own. He made his recording debut with the work, and Hi-Fi News wrote of it: “Serebrier’s recording of the Ives Symphony is one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the Gramophone”. He has had very many conducting posts, including principal guest conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra during the 1982–83 season. He was offered the post of Chief Conductor, but since he doesn’t accept such positions he agreed to the title of Principal Guest Conductor. Leopold Stokowski named Serebrier Associate Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for five years until going to Cleveland at George Szell’s invitation. Serebrier married American soprano Carole Farley in 1969. They have made a number of recordings together. Serebrier’s Third Symphony and his “Fantasia for strings” are amongst his most popular works. His style is energetic, colourful and melodic. One of his most unusual works is “Passacaglia and Perpetuum Mobile for accordion and chamber orchestra”. His music is published mainly by Peermusic New York and Hamburg, and also by Peters Edition, Universal Edition Vienna, Hal Leonard, Kalmus, Boosey & Hawkes. All of his works have been recorded on various labels. BIS Records recently released Serebrier’s Flute Concerto with Tango, which they commissioned for flutist Sharon Bezaly. Serebrier tours the world with a number of orchestras. He has made several tours with the Russian National Orchestra, to South America and China. His first international tour was with the Juilliard Orchestra to 17 countries in Latin America. He has toured with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Americas YOA, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and numerous others. 4
Premieres
In 1712 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings premiered at the Moscow Conservatoire.
In 1908 Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 premiered in Manchester, England.
In 1913 Franz Schmidt’s Symphony No. 2 was premiered in Vienna.
In 1925 George Gershwin’s Concerto in F premiered at Carnegie Hall. Gershwin was the soloist with the New York Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch.
In 1926 William Walton conducted the premiere of his Suite No. 1 from Facade in London.
In 1931 Edward Joseph Collins’ Piano Concerto No. 2 was premiered by the Chicago Symphony with Frederick Stock conducting and the Collins as soloist.
In 1934 William Walton’s Symphony No. 1 – the first three movements – premiered in London.
In 1942 Aram Khachaturian’s ballet Gayaneh premiered in Molotov.
In 1943 Howard Hanson conducted the Boston Symphony in the premier of his Symphony No. 4 (“Requiem”) This work would awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1944.
In 1949 Ferde Grofé conducted Hollywood Bowl orchestra in the premier of his “Death Valley” Suite, at Desolation Canyon, California.
In 1953 the musical Kismet – based on the tunes of Alexander Borodin – opened on Broadway.
Also in 1953 Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 4 was premiered in Moscow by the Beethoven Quartet.
In 1954 William Walton’s opera Troilus and Cressida premiered in London’s Covent Garden.
Also in 1954 Samuel Barber’s oratorio Prayers of Kierkegaard for soloists, chorus and orchestra was premiered by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting.
In 1958 Colin McPhee’s Nocturne for orchestra was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and The Symphony of the Air.
In 1963 Aaron Copland’s ballet Dance Panels premiered in Munich.
In 1992 John Harbison’s Oboe Concerto, was premiered with soloist William Bennett and the San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt conducting.
On This Day in Classical Music
In 1721 Johann Sebastian Bach marries Anna Magdalena Wilcke (his first wife had died the year before) who would give him thirteen children (six of which survived to adulthood).
In 1787 Domenico Cimarosa arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia to take up his duties as the Maestro di Cappella in Catherine the Great’s court.
In 1810 Chappell & Co. Music Publishing House is opened by Samuel Chappell in partnership with music professors Francis Tatton Latour and Johann Baptist Cramer.
In 1818 Ludwig van Beethoven’s nephew Karl runs away from his home to go back to his mother. Beethoven had custody of Karl after his brother died. Beethoven apparently reported him to the police and then sent him off to boarding school.
In 1837 Clara Wieck gives her first piano recital in Vienna.
In 1924 Benito Mussolini eulogized Giacomo Puccini at his funeral in Milan.
- Wikipedia contributors, “Nicola Amati,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nicola_Amati&oldid=668622734 (accessed December 2, 2015).
- Wikipedia contributors, “Anton Webern,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anton_Webern&oldid=692388972(accessed December 2, 2015).
- Wikipedia contributors, “Nino Rota,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nino_Rota&oldid=689500052 (accessed December 2, 2015).
- Wikipedia contributors, “José Serebrier,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jos%C3%A9_Serebrier&oldid=662853745 (accessed December 2, 2015).