 | This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from December 25, 2015. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast212 |
Today isn’t
a usual Podcast Vault post, as I am not proposing a new take or a filler
YouTube clip. I will refer you back to what I provided as
commentary when I originally issued the montage.
What I will
do instead is use this opportunity to do my “Year in Review”.
We will all
agree that 2020 is a forgettable year, dominated by the pandemic, the
public health emergency and the socio-economic impacts that followed. Speaking
for myself, I was fortunate that I could work from home, and that my immediate
family has (so far) avoided contracting the ‘Rona.
As far as
our activities are concerned, I kept going in the hope that my posts and shares
could serve as a momentary distraction to our daily concerns. In 2020, we
completed our Project 366 and launched with another daily podcast
series, this time focused on our Friday Blogs ad Podcasts. We are now nearly a
third of the way through that series, and are on track to publishing our 350th
montage next week (as we traditionally do for milestones, it will be an
extended montage that blows past our self-imposed 90-minute limit).
The series
will conclude on Tuesday August 31st with Montage #365, a “Fifth
Tuesday” quarterly release which will introduce our “anniversary series” for
the Tuesday Blog. Look for more on that when we get close!
The pace at
which we have been publishing new podcasts has been somewhat unpredictable ; we
have 16 montages planned between now and late August, which maps out to about 2
a month, though the timing is interweaved with our greater calendar. Please
consult the calendar (or subscribe to our podcasts) so you don’t miss anything!
As for the
Tuesday Blog, we will continue to publish them fortnightly with both YouTube
and Pod-O-Matic shares. As this year will be our 10th
anniversary of the Tuesday Blog, I plan to resurrect “classic” music
link/YouTube playlist shares and will interleave them with our Vinyl’s
Revenge and Cover 2 Cover series.
In the
Fall, we resumed providing some content on OperaLively – mostly in the form of
“Short Stories” that are coupled to already planned Daily Podcasts. I plan to
keep to that formula until the Fall, where we may provide more Opera
programming – as our collaboration with Luiz and his forum are also nearing the
10 year mark.
Before
sharing our “video favourites” (a running playlist of most of the single clips
we used throughout the year), I wanted to again thank our friends and followers
for their continued support and (too few) comments against our material. I’d
love to see more of you subscribe to our Podcasting channel, though I’m always
pleased to see you subscribe to our YouTube channel…
Happy Holidays to all
Pierre
Video Favourites Playlist - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6swnss9F7SEXDc9zpMAlTLn2Vmduc_qD | This is my post from this week's Tuesday Blog. |
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 | No. 349 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast349 |
Though he
was unfavourably reviewed by critics – many of whom saw his work as immoral –
German dramatist and writer August von Kotzebue was one of the most popular
writers of his time. IHe was politically conservative and cosmopolitan in
outlook and spoke out against the antisemitism of student nationalists.
He was
approached in 1812 by Beethoven, who suggested that Kotzebue write the libretto
for an opera about Attila, which was never written. Beethoven did, however,
produce incidental music for two of Kotzebue's plays, The Ruins of Athens
(Beethoven's opus 113) and King Stephen (opus 117).
Beethoven
write few works for the stage; in addition to his only opera (Fidelio) and the
incidental music to the aforementioned incidental music to Kotzebue’s two
plays, he left us his overture to Heinrich Joseph von Collin's tragedy
Coriolan, his ballet music The Creatures of Prometheus and the incidental music
to Goethe’s tragedy Egmont.
Today’s
montage features the music from Egmont and the Ruins of Athens, both featuring
sung numbers, as well as displaying some of Beethoven’s flair for pace and
drama.
Beethoven
wrote the incidental music for Egmont between October 1809 and June 1810.
Composed during the Napoleonic Wars when the First French Empire had extended
its domination over vast swathes of Europe, Beethoven had famously expressed
his great outrage over Napoleon Bonaparte's decision to crown himself Emperor
in 1804, furiously scratching out his name in the dedication of the Eroica
Symphony. In the music for Egmont, Beethoven expressed his own political
concerns through the exaltation of the heroic sacrifice of a man condemned to
death for having taken a valiant stand against oppression. The overture to Egmont
is well known, and so are som of the sung passages, Die Trommel gerühret and
Freudvoll und leidvoll.
The Ruins
of Athens was a play commissioned to August von Kotzebue for the dedication of
a new theatre at Pest. Perhaps the best-known music from The Ruins of Athens is
the Turkish March, a theme that has claimed a place in popular culture. The
overture and the Turkish March are often performed separately, and the other
pieces of this set are not often heard.
In 1822 the
play was revived for the reopening of Vienna's Theater in der Josefstadt with a
revised libretto by Carl Meisl, for which Beethoven wrote a new overture, now
known as The Consecration of the House, Op. 124, and added a chorus
"Wo sich die Pulse" (WoO 98).
The music
for The Ruins of Athens was reworked in 1924 by Richard Strauss and Hugo von
Hofmannsthal in 1926.
I think you will love this music too!
| This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from June 8, 2012. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/7And11 |
This week’s
we take out a montage from the podcast vault that dates from early 2012 that
features a work by our birthday boy, Ludwig van Beethoven.
The Piano
Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, was completed in 1811. It is commonly referred to
as the Archduke Trio, because it was dedicated to Archduke Rudolph of Austria,
himself an amateur pianist and a patron, friend, and composition student of
Beethoven. Beethoven dedicated a total of fourteen compositions to the
Archduke, who dedicated one of his own to Beethoven in return.
Although
the "Archduke Trio" is sometimes numbered as "No. 7", the
numbering of Beethoven's twelve piano trios is not standardized, so that in
some sources the Op. 97 trio may be shown as having a different number,
if any.
The use of
the number 7 is significant today, as all the works on the playlist harbor
number 7 or 11 – a reference to games of chance and spirituality.
The
fundamental bet in craps is the pass line bet, which is a bet for the shooter
to win. If the come-out roll is 7 or 11, the bet wins. But there’s more…
The number
7 symbolizes spirituality and spiritual evolving, spiritual awakening and
enlightenment. This number also symbolizes knowledge, faith, education,
learning, studying, teaching, deep understanding of things, psychic abilities,
healing, inner guidance and wisdom, intuition, empathic abilities, philosophy
and mysticism.
The number
1 symbolizes initiative, beginning point, new beginnings, new projects, new
endeavors, success, intuition, progress, moving forward, ambition, pursuing
your goals, inspiration, determination, confidence, leadership, and making your
reality with your thoughts and expectations.
Eleven is
made up of two ones, but also the Master Number 11 symbolizes illumination and
enlightenment, teaching, idealism, consciousness, mysticism, prophesy, visions,
enthusiasm, creativity and inspiration.
And you
thought we were shooting craps!
As filler
today, keeping to the 7-11 theme, a concerto grosso by Giuseppe Valentini – his
opus 7, number 11.
I think you
will (still) love this music too.
| This is my post from this week's Tuesday Blog. |
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| No. 348 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast348 |
The
Beethoven catalogue has many trio combinations: string trios (violin, viola and
cello), wind trios (two oboes and cor anglais), trios for piano, clarinet and
cello but the most well known are for the standard piano trio (piano, violin
and cello). For that specific combination, he composed at least seven trios,
two series of variations as well as a few stand-alone movements. From his first
collection (his opus 1), I retained is trio no. 1, from the original
configuration of the Beaux Arts Trio.
The ten
Beethoven sonatas represent the most important body of work for violin and
piano. The Beethoven violin sonatas do not quite span his whole life’s work, as
do the piano sonatas or string quartets for instance. His last example is from
1812, whist he was still just managing to perform in public and a full 15 years
before his death. As always with this unique genius, the standard across the
cycle is unwaveringly superb, often touching absolute greatness. There is no
weak sonata – but then we would be amazed were we to find one. They give a
particular insight into Beethoven as a young man, full of confidence as
composer and pianist, and blazing a trail for a new way forward. I retained the
sonata no. 2, performed by Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer.
Beethoven
inherited the string-quartet tradition from his predecessors and shaped it into
something unsurpassed in virtuosity, invention, and expressiveness. He wrote 16
string quartets, and they reveal his evolution as a composer and a man. It’s
all there: earthy wit (yes, Beethoven could crack a joke), volatile temper (his
fury was state of the art), and personal sorrow (he had plenty to weep about).
On today’s montage, I retained no. 3, performed by the 1950’s lineup of the
Budapest String Quartet.
I think you will love this music too.
