https://archive.org/details/Pcast090
pcast090- Playlist
===================================================================== English Commentary – le commentaire français suit
For February, I confess that I am having a relapse of one of my numerical obsessions. After my "number 1" obsession and Music by the Numbers (this past June), time now for my "number 2" obsession, featuring works that have in common the number two.
Today's montage looks at "second" works, or "number twos" from different composers, eras and forms. Let's begin by a couple of "second rhapsodies". Both Debussy and Gershwin had their "first rhapsodies" featured last year. Debussy's first rhapsody (for clarinet) was followed later by a second, this time for saxophone. The work, originally set for saxophone and piano, was later set for orchestra at first by Debussy himself, and finished in 1919 by Roger Ducasse.
Gershwin's Second Rhapsody stems from the time he turned his activities towards Hollywood and film. Originally designed as a "rhapsody in rivets", it is reminiscent of the skyscrapers of his native New-York. The work follows in many ways the same format as the Rhapsody in Blue, though without the same emphasis on jazz and blues.
Walter Buczynski received a commission by the then Montreal International Piano Competition for the so-called "set piece" that all contestants in the final round had to perform. Canadian pianist Hung-Kwan Chen won the award that year for the best interpretation of that piece, and the performance of Lyric II in today's podcast is from the gala concert that typically caps off such competitions.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed four overtures or suites, and his second and third suites are among his most played works for orchestra. The second suite features the flute predominantly and in particular in its most famous section, the badinerie.
The remainder are shorter selections by Canadian composer Reginald Godden (which, if I am not mistaken, was part of the opening credits to the old PBS anthology series Mystery!), Sir Edward Elgar (his less heard Pomp and Circumstance March no. 2), and two "danceable" works that require a some additional explanation.
When Stravinsky was working on his homage ballet The Fairy's Kiss (Le baiser de la fée), he revisited some of the great ballet music by Tchaikovsky (in the same way he's looked at Pergolesi's music for Pulcinella). In the course of that process, he reconstructed (from memory, I believe) Tchaikovsky's famous pas de deux sequence from Sleeping Beauty, and the result is, well, a hybrid between modern and classical sounds.
Shostakovich dusted up the old Vincent Youmans fox-trot Tea for Two, giving it a distinct Shostakovich twist in a short orchestral nugget he simply called Tahiti Trot.
I think you will love this music too!
=====================================================================
Commentaire françaisJe souffre une rechute d'une de mes obsessions numérologiques: après mes obsessions avec le numéro 1 et notre numérologie musicale du mois de juin dernier, c'est maintenant une crise de mon obsession muméro 2 en février. Soyez donc prçets à "souffrir" de pièces qui ont en commun le chiffre 2.
Le montage d'aujourd'hui jette un regard particulier à des pièces de compositeurs, époques et genres variés qui ont en commun le chiffre deux ou qui sont des "sedondes" pièces d'ine séquence. Dans cette catégorie on retrouve la deuxième marche Pomp and Circumstance d'Elgar, la deuxième ouverure (ou suite) de Bach (avec sa fameuise badinerie pour flûte) et d'autres oeuvres qui méritent des propos supplémentaires.
J'ai retenu une paire de deuxièmes rhapsodies: celle de Debussy (pour saxophone) avait une orchestration inachevée, chose qui fut complétée posthumememtn (en 1919) par Roger Ducasse. La Second Rhapsody de Gershwin (moins populaire que sa pièce fétiche, Rhapsody in Blue) a un caractàre Hollywooduen, et se veut plus impressioniste (avec son évocation des gratte-ciels New-Yorkais) qu'une étude du jazz ou du Blues.
Deux pièces canadiennes: de Reginald Godden, ses petites "sweets" (jeu de mots, sweet voulant dire bonbon), et de Walter Buczynski, la pièce imposée du concours de piano International de Montréal de 1984, extrait du concert des lauréats du même concours.
Après avoir rendu hommage au maître Intalien Pergolesi dans son ballet Pulcinella, Igor Stravinski rend hommage aux ballets de Tchaikovski dans Le baiser de la fée. Afin de se faire la main, Stravinski prépara (de mémoire, si je ne m'abuse) une version poiur petit orchestre du faneux Pas de deux du ballet La Belle au Bois Dormant - un son hyriude qui marie à merveille le classique et le moderne.
Chostakovich termine notre montage avec sa version très personnelle (et coquette) du classique des salles de danse Tea for Two.
Bonne écoute!
No comments:
Post a Comment