Viva Verdi!

No. 168 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast168

pcast168- Playlist

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As part of our look at opera through this month, I plan to spend some time showcasing the works of a pair of operatic giants of the 19^th century: Richard Wagner representing the German tradition, and Giuseppe Verdi representing the Italian tradition. Missing is the French tradition – which could probably be suitably represented by either Jules Massenet or Charles Gounod. Maybe some other time…

Giuseppe Verdi was to opera in the Italian tradition what Beethoven was to the symphony. When he arrived on the scene some had suggested that effective opera after Rossini was not possible. Verdi, however, took the form to new heights of drama and musical expression. Partisans see him as at least the equal of Wagner, even though his style and musical persona were of an entirely different cast. In the end, both Verdi's popular vein—as heard in the operas Rigoletto, Il trovatore, and La traviata—and his deeper side—found in Aida, Otello, and Falstaff—demonstrate his mastery and far-reaching development of Italian opera.

Verdi has graced our pages earlier this year in the form of his Requiem Mass, and will come back next month when we pay tribute to Carlo Bergonzi – we also featured Verdi operas (Aida, Traviata and Trovatore) on Once or Twice a Fortnight.

For the moist part, the works I chose to underscore in today’s podcast feature both orchestral pages (like overtures) and arias from my personal collection. The first work featured, La forza del destino, opens with my very favourite Verdi overtire, and this is my very favourite performance, taken from a WWII-era documentary featuring the great Toscanini and his NBC Symphony. The recording integrated into the podcast isn’t of the best audio quality, but the performance is remarkable for how distinctly Toscanini singles out sections of the orchestra.

There are instances of Verdi operas that were either restaged or entirely redone for Parisian audiences. Jérusalem is a heavily revised version of Verdi's third opera, I Lombardi Alla Prima Crociata. Not only is the music rewritten substantially and the libretto different, but the text is in French. In the end, the work so pleased Verdi that he had the new version translated back into Italian! As it was the custom, Verdi included sometimes elaborate ballet sequences for Parisian use– the podcast includes the ballet scene from Jérusalem.

Many of the Verdi selections found here, including the highlights from Act I of La Traviata, come from a DECCA compilation called Viva Verdi! Issued as a 2 CD set for the centenary of Verdi’s death in 2001.

I think you will love this music too!

Opera Transcriptions

No. 167 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast167

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Our October programming on the Friday Blog and Podcast is entirely dedicated to opera, with some orchestral and sung selections planned for later podcasts, and even some complete operas. This week, however, we will explore the world of opera transcriptions for piano.

During the 19th century the piano transcription became popular for several reasons - the bourgeoisie grew in number and wealth, they were interested in symphonic and chamber music; the availability, quality, and affordability of attending ensemble music was not able to keep pace with this interest. Since recording technology would need another hundred years to catch up and that pianos were commonplace in the houses of wealthy people, piano transcriptions filled this gap with transcribers turning old and new popular works into arrangements involving one or two players.

Two of my earliest posts for OperaLively explored this very subject, with a particular look at transcriptions by Franz Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg who not only made their mark in this genre, but were also the two dominant virtuosi of their era. As I said in those posts, it is quite natural for them to have used opera as the seed for their inspiration, as these were popular “tunes” for the day, and thus a familiar point of departure for them to show off their talents – both as virtuosi and as musical thinkers.

The sources for these transcriptions include some the 19^th century’s prominent opera composers: Wagner, Rossini and Donizetti. I also inserted an excerpt of music from Glinka’s “A Life for the Tsar” (re-imagined by Balakirev). Other than Thalberg and Liszt, some of the transcribers include Moritz Moszkowski and  Henri Herz, who could also impress audiences with their own piano virtuosity.

As luck would have it, the works on today’s program were entrusted to a pair of great piano virtuosi of the 20^th century: Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet and American pianist Earl Wild. In both cases, these kinds of virtuoso showpieces found their way into their live recitals (as some of the audience reaction attests).

I think you will love this music too.

Programming - October 2014

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Monthly Theme

This month is "O" for October and for Opera here at ITYWLTMT with some opera-inspired blogs and posdcasts.

• 3 October – Opera Tramscrptions – Jorge Bolet and Earl WIld are on deck with virtuoso piano transcriptions of opera passages by Liszt, Thalberg and others. http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2014/10/opera-transcriptions.html
• 10 October – Viva Verdi! – Verdi opera arias, overtures and other gems. http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2014/10/viva-verdi.html
• 17 October – Wiener Operette – Lehar, Kalman and Johann Strauss II are featured with selections from some of their beloved operettas. http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2014/10/wiener-operette.html
• 24 October – Richard Wagner – Wagner opera arias, overtures and other gems. http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2014/10/richard-wagner.html
• 31 October – Opera on Broadway – Gian Carlo Menotti's short operas The Telephone and The Medium, performed by the original Broadway casts. http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2014/10/opera-on-broadway.html

Pierre’s Tuesday Blog

• 7 October  - Pierre’s Podcast Vault Selection of the Month. Our montage from July 2011 features  "Cowboy Classics". The montage is presented on our Pod-O-Matic Channel until October 31. http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/1727-cowboy-classics.html
• 14 October – Once Upon the Internet – Rossini's sonatas a quattro, downloaded from MP3.COM. http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/1729-rossini-six-sonatas-quartet.html
• 21 October – Vinyl's Revenge features Edo de Waart in a 1981 Philips release of Wagner overtures. http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/1731-wagner-overtures-tannh-user.html
• 28 October – La Chronique du Disque – Our "regular" edition, featuring recent acquisitions featuring tracks by Handel, Prokofiev and Oliver Jones. http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/1734-la-chronique-du-disque.html

Once or Twice a Fortnight

Expect a tandem post of the Operetta podcast and Placido Domingo sings the title role in Andrea Chenier by Giordano.

NOTE: Since OTF posts do not get published on set dates, make sure to visit OperaLively regularly or …

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Franz Schubert Dressed to the Nines

No. 166 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast166

pcast166- Playlist

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We close our September look at ninth symphonies with Schubert’s “Great C Major” Symphony.

The Schubert symphony catalog suggests there are about a dozen or so works that were either published as symphonies, or were composed and never made it past sketch form. Through the years, the numbering on Schubert's symphonies has repeatedly shifted because of discrepancies between Schubert's notations on his scores and the evidence from research into printing practices and paper production during his lifetime; so it is not uncommon to encounter references to the Great C Major as the seventh rather than the ninth.

According to franzpeterschubert.com, the Great C Major Symphony (some will argue his greatest composition) was never heard by the composer, because the Viennese musicians considered it unplayable. After Schubert's death, his older brother Ferdinand showed the manuscript of the symphony to Schumann, who became a champion for the unknown work. Again, orchestras in Vienna and Paris claimed the work was too long and unwieldy even to tackle in rehearsal. Schumann therefore took it to his friend Mendelssohn, who was the conductor of the famed Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, and Mendelssohn agreed to perform the work with his own orchestra. When, however, he attempted to perform it in London in 1844, despite extensive cuts the musicians refused.

Schubert profoundly revered Beethoven, and perhaps his greatest tribute to Beethoven was his resolve to write a grand symphony with the breadth and profundity of his predecessor's; and his Symphony No. 9 was the result. Today its length and the physical as well as musical hurdles it poses for musicians are no longer novel; but it remains immensely challenging in performance. Schubert was particularly gifted at writing beautiful lines for the French horn, and it is the French horn's majestic motive from the slow introduction that becomes the recurring theme of the first movement. Well after Schubert's death, the theme's grandeur and sense of space, together with the sheer length of the Symphony, helped to earn it the nickname the "Great C Major"

In fact, the nickname was first applied by a music publisher to distinguish the work from Schubert's shorter and less ambitious 6th Symphony, the "Little C Major." But the name aptly describes both Schubert's evident intent in writing the work, and the stature of the final composition.

Today’s performance is taken from a Schubert cycle featuring Riccardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic - the descendent of the orchestra that refused to perform the work in public in Schubert’s lifetime. This Schubert cycle includes excerpts from the incidental music to the play Rosamunde, which I have added as filler to today’s montage.

The premiere performance of Rosamunde took place on December 20, 1823 at the Theater an der Wien. After only one more performance, it disappeared forever from the repertoire of the theatre. The press was quite critical of the text of Rosamunde, subjecting it to such scathing comments as this: 'an inutterably insipid work'. As regards the composer, at least, we read: 'Herr Schubert's composition shows originality, but unfortunately bizarrerie as well. The young man is in the process of developing; we hope that it goes well ..'. The overture was a rehash of his music for the melodrama Die Zauberharfe, which explains why we see that name associated with the work on record jackets…

I think you will love this music too.