Projeect 366 - Midsummer Romantic Mashup

Project 366 continues in 2017-18 with "Time capsules through the Musical Eras - A Continued journey through the Western Classical Music Repertoire". Read more here.

This mid-summer edition of Project 366 continues our look at Romantic composer time capsules, this time considering traditions other than French or German, though we will dwell a bit into Russian tradition, avoiding however Tchaikovsky who will get his own chapter in the Fall.

Giuseppe Verdi (c. 1813–1901)

Giuseppe Verdi was born in Italy in 1813, prior to Italian unification. Verdi produced many successful operas, composing over 25 operas throughout his career, and became known for his skill in creating melody and his profound use of theatrical effect. Additionally, his rejection of the traditional Italian opera for integrated scenes and unified acts earned him fame.

Biography - https://www.biography.com/people/giuseppe-verdi-9517249

List of his operas - http://www.giuseppeverdi.it/en/works/list-of-operas/

Listener Guide #209-210 - Toscanini's 1946 Broadcast of La Traviata

La Traviata, as conceived by Toscanini, is poignant and incisive – he truly lives the music and the story. It begins with the muted anticipation of the Prelude to Act One, through all the showstopper arias, and all the way to Violetta’s last breath. There may be better casts, there may be technologically superior recordings, but the overall result is nothing less than sublime! (Once or Twice a Fortnight – Feb. 6 2012) [Synopsis and Libretto]

(L/G 209 – Act 1, Act 2 Scene 1 - L/G 210 – Act2 Scene 2, Act 3)

(More Verdi at Listener Guides #45 and 97)

Ask anyone about Nordic classical music and a few names spring to mind: Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius. Their fame is undeniably deserved: both in their own way carved out their own distinct compositional style and helped put their respective homelands on the map, musically speaking. Other, slightly less well-known names may also enter the conversation: most likely the Dane Carl Nielsen or the Swede Wilhelm Stenhammar. Yet all these composers are united in how parts of their bodies of work have been somewhat neglected due to the popularity of a couple of their more famous pieces.

Listener Guide #211 - Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)

Composer Carl Nielsen is quoted as saying “Music is the Sound of Life”. This week’s podcast includes his clarinet concerto and his Sinfonia Espansiva. Nielsen wrote his Symphony No. 3 "Sinfonia Espansiva" between 1910 and 1911 following Nielsen's tenure as bandmaster at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Nielsen himself conducted the premiere of the work on February 28, 1912 with Copenhagen's Royal Danish Orchestra. (ITYWLTMT Montage # 276 – 06 Apr, 2018)

Listener Guide #212 - Sibelius, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo Berglund ‎– Symphony No. 4 & 7

When Sibelius was in his mid-40s, he thought he was going to die. His doctors had found a growth in his throat and after several operations his prognosis was still not good. He was a hard-living, hard-drinking cigar smoker. For a time, he gave it all up and wrote his dark, inward-looking, modern-sounding Symphony No. 4, a work that baffled not only many listeners but conductors as well. (Vinyl’s Revenge #36 – March 27, 2018)

(More Scandinavian Music at Listener Guides # 22, 37, 54, 62 and 76)

There once were two brothers – Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein. Both were pianists, composers and educators; Anton not only founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, the first music school in Russia, he was its first director but also recruited an imposing pool of talent for its faculty. Among its first pupils, a young and eager Peter Tchaikovsky. Once Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865, Rubinstein's brother Nikolai offered him the post of Professor of Music Theory at the soon-to-open Moscow Conservatory – the second institution of its kind in Imperial Russia, and the second founded and directed by the Rubinstein brothers.

Listener Guide #213- The St. Petersburg School

However, it would be inaccurate to purely equate the Russian Nationalist “St Petersburg School” with Conservatory and its close predecessor, the Russian Musical Society. Equally important is a group known in Russian as Moguchaya kuchka, which loosely translates to "Mighty Bunch" – we also know  the group under other names: the Mighty Five, The Mighty Handful or simply the Five - five prominent 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create distinct Russian classical music. Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin all lived in Saint Petersburg and collaborated from 1856 to 1870. (ITYWLTMT Montage #279 – 18 May 2018)

Listener Guide #214- Sheherazade

The famous suite by Rimsky-Korsakov portrays Sheherazade as a story-teller. The leitmotiv that represents Scheherazade (heard played by solo violin) morphs as stories of Sinbad the Sailor and the Story of the First Kalendar get rendered by the orchestra. The culminating movement depict a feast day in Baghdad and Sinbad's ship (6th voyage) is depicted as rushing rapidly toward cliffs and only the fortuitous discovery of the cavernous stream allows him to escape and make the passage to Serindib. (ITYWLTMT Montage # 124 - September 27, 2013)

Listener Guide #215- Rachmaninov – Symphony #1 and Piano Concerto #2

Though far from the composer's best work—he was but 23, and in the earliest stages of his career, at the time of its composition—the First Symphony is far from the unqualified failure suggested by its initial reception. It is, instead, a large, ambitious work that attempts to expand the bounds of the Russian symphony beyond the works of Tchaikovsky by incorporating music of the Russian Orthodox church. Because of the failure of the Symphony, Rachmaninov began to drink immoderately. By the end of 1899, he was an alcoholic whose hands shook, imperiling his keyboard career. (ITYWLTMT Montage #115 - July 25, 2013)

Listener Guide #216- John Field (1782-1837)

John Field was born in Dublin into a musical family, and received his early education there, in particular with the immigrant Tommaso Giordani. The Fields soon moved to London, where Field studied under Muzio Clementi. Under his tutelage, Field quickly became a famous and sought-after concert pianist. Together, master and pupil visited Paris, Vienna, and St. Petersburg. Field was very highly regarded by his contemporaries and his playing and compositions influenced many major composers, including Chopin, Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann. (ITYWLTMT # 264 - November 10, 2017)