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Chicago Symphony Orchestra, classical, classical music, composers, English composers, opera, orchestra, philharmonic, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Russian composers
Sunday, March 27, 2016
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Birthdays
In 1851 Vincent d’Indy was born in Paris. He was born into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and Louis Diémer. From the age of 14 he studied harmony with Albert Lavignac. At age 19, during the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the National Guard, but returned to musical life as soon as the hostilities were over. The first of his works he heard performed was a Symphonie italienne, at an orchestral rehearsal under Jules Pasdeloup; the work was admired by Georges Bizet and Jules Massenet, with whom he had already become acquainted. On the advice of Henri Duparc, he became a devoted student of César Franck at the Conservatoire de Paris. As a follower of Franck, d’Indy came to admire what he considered the standards of German symphonism. In the summer of 1873 he visited Germany, where he met Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. On 25 January 1874 his overture Les Piccolomini was performed at a Pasdeloup concert, sandwiched between works by Bach and Beethoven. Around this time he married Isabelle de Pampelonne, one of his cousins. In 1875 his symphony dedicated to János Hunyadi was performed. That same year he played a minor role – the prompter – at the premiere of Bizet’s opera Carmen. In 1876 he was present at the first production of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle at Bayreuth. This made a great impression on him and he became a fervent Wagnerite. In 1878 d’Indy’s symphonic ballad La Forêt enchantée was performed. In 1882 he heard Wagner’s Parsifal. In 1883 his choral work Le Chant de la cloche appeared. In 1884 his symphonic poem Saugefleurie was premiered. His piano suite (“symphonic poem for piano”) called Poème des montagnescame from around this time. In 1887 appeared his Suite in D for trumpet, 2 flutes and string quartet. That same year he was involved in Lamoureux’s production of Wagner’s Lohengrin as choirmaster. His music drama Fervaal occupied him between 1889 and 1895. Inspired by his own studies with Franck and dissatisfied with the standard of teaching at the Conservatoire de Paris, d’Indy, together with Charles Bordes and Alexandre Guilmant, founded the Schola Cantorum de Paris in 1894. D’Indy taught there and later at the Paris Conservatoire until his death. Among his many students were Isaac Albéniz, Leo Arnaud, Joseph Canteloube (who later wrote d’Indy’s biography), Pierre Capdevielle, Jean Daetwyler, Arthur Honegger, Eugène Lapierre, Leevi Madetoja, Albéric Magnard, Rodolphe Mathieu, Darius Milhaud, Cole Porter, Albert Roussel, Erik Satie, Georges-Émile Tanguay, Otto Albert Tichý, Emiliana de Zubeldia and Xian Xinghai. Xian was one of the earliest Chinese composers of western classical music. See: List of music students by teacher: A to B#Vincent d’Indy. Few of d’Indy’s works are performed regularly today. His best known pieces are probably the Symphony on a French Mountain Air (Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français, also known as Symphonie cévenole) for piano and orchestra (1886), and Istar (1896), a symphonic poem in the form of a set of variations in which the theme appears only at the end. Among d’Indy’s other works are other orchestral music (including a Symphony in B♭, a vast symphonic poem, Jour d’été à la montagne, and another, Souvenirs, written on the death of his first wife; he later remarried), chamber music, including two of the most highly regarded string quartets of the latter nineteenth century (No. 2 in E major, Op. 45, and No. 3 in D-flat, Op. 96), piano music (including a Sonata in E minor), songs and a number of operas, including Fervaal (1897) and L’Étranger (1902). His music drama Le Légende de Saint Christophe, based on themes from Gregorian chant, was performed for the first, and possibly last, time, on 6 June 1920. His comédie musicale had its premiere in paris on 10 June 1927. His Lied for cello and orchestra, Op. 19, was recorded by Julian Lloyd Webber and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier in 1991. As well as Franck, d’Indy’s works show the influence of Berlioz and especially of Wagner. D’Indy helped revive a number of then largely forgotten early works, for example, making his own edition of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’incoronazione di Poppea. His musical writings include the co-written three-volume Cours de composition musicale (1903–1905), as well as studies of Franck and Beethoven. D’Indy died where he was born, in Paris. 1
In 1927 Mstislav Rostropovich was born in Baku. He was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered to be one of the great cellists of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enlarged the cello repertoire more than any cellist before or since. He gave the premieres of over 100 pieces, forming long-standing friendships and artistic partnerships with composers including Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Henri Dutilleux, Witold Lutosławski,Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Norbert Moret, Andreas Makris and Benjamin Britten. Rostropovich was internationally recognized as a staunch advocate of human rights, and was awarded the 1974 Award of the International League of Human Rights. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya and had two daughters, Olga and Elena Rostropovich. 2
Happy birthday Maria Ewing. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she is the youngest of four daughters. Her mother, Hermina M. (née Veraar), was Dutch, and her father, Norman I. Ewing, was an American of Sioux Native American, Scottish, and African-American ancestry. She studied in Cleveland, Ohio and New York City. Ewing made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1976 in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Her first European performance was at La Scala, Milan as Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Her repertoire includes Carmen, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Salome, Marie in Berg’s Wozzeck and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Ewing is particularly well known for her sensitive interpretation of the title role in Richard Strauss’s Salome, where Oscar Wilde’s stage directions for the original play specify that, at the end of the so-called Dance of the Seven Veils, Salome lies naked at Herod’s feet. Ewing appeared fully nude at the end of this sequence, in contrast to other singers who have used body stockings. She also sang and appeared in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Ewing’s discography includes video versions of Salome and Carmen and audio versions of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Pelléas et Mélisande. She has also recorded concert music by Ravel, Berlioz and Debussy and programs of popular American song. She played Rosina in a Glyndebourne production of Il barbiere di Siviglia (1982), available on DVD. Ewing has also sung jazz in live performance, including appearances with the band Kymaera at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. In 1982, she married the English theatre director Sir Peter Hall. The marriage ended in 1990; during this period of her life she was formally styled “Lady Hall.” Their daughter is the actress Rebecca Hall. Ewing makes her home near her birthplace. 3
Premieres
In 1897 Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 was premiered in St. Petersburg, conducted by Alexander Glazunov. It did not go well, for numerous reasons – Glazunov was not an accomplished conductor, he didn’t particularly like (or understand) Rachmaninoff’s music, there was insufficient rehearsal time (two other pieces were also premiered on the same program) and it is rumored that Glazunov was inebriated during the performance.
In 1914 Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 2 (A London Symphony) was premiered at the Queen’s Hall in London.
In 1917 Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine was premiered at the Monte Carlo Opera.
In 1925 Edward Joseph Collins’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in Eb was premiered by the Chicago Symphony with Frederick Stock conducting and Collins as soloist.
On This Day in Classical Music
In 1806 Mozart’s opera La Clemenza di Tito would be the first of his operas to be performed in London.
In 1808 Joseph Haydn made his last public appearance at a performance of his oratorio The Creation in Vienna. It was conducted by Antonio Salieri and it is noted that Beethoven was in the audience.
In 1883 Gabriel Fauré married Marie Fremiet. It would turn out to be an unhappy marriage.
In 1943 a group of Russian composers sent a telegram to Sergei Rachmaninoff’s home in Beverly Hills, California congratulating him on his 70th birthday. It would turn out to be premature – he died the next day, four days short of his birthday.
In 1958 CBS Laboratories announced the invention of a new stereophonic long-playing record.
In 1978 the Emerson String Quartet made its debut performance, in New York.
Recommended Listneing
- Wikipedia contributors, “Vincent d’Indy,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vincent_d%27Indy&oldid=708786063 (accessed March 25, 2016).
- Wikipedia contributors, “Mstislav Rostropovich,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mstislav_Rostropovich&oldid=709804014 (accessed March 25, 2016).
- Wikipedia contributors, “Maria Ewing,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maria_Ewing&oldid=711787303 (accessed March 25, 2016).