Project 366 - Dates on the musical calendar for October 2019

Project 366 continues in 2019 with "Dates on the Musical Calendar". Read more here.

Highlights

• Oct 1st – Happy Birthday Vladimir Horowitz (1903) (Guide #225)
• Oct 9 – Happy Birthday Camille Saint-Saëns (1855) (Guide #307)
• Oct 31 –Hallowe’en (Guide #310)

The remainder of the month will continue our retrospective look at Part 1 of the Project, with listener guides dedicated to chamber, orchestral and vocal music. Worth noting, we will sample the complete Brahms symphonies. Our additional guides feed into that overall arc – Schubert’s Great C Major symphony (Guide #306), more concertos (Guide # 308) and Opera Potpourri excerpts (Guide #309)

Listener Guides

Listener Guide #306 - Schubert Symphony No. 9 ("The Great") (Tate)

Both Beethoven’s and Schubert’s Ninth symphonies are indicative of how forward-looking these two geniuses were; these are mammoth works, double the length (and breadth) of what their teachers and contemporaries dared to put to paper. In fact, for many years, Schubert’s Ninth was deemed “too difficult” and “unplayable”. Ten years after Schubert's death, and under the able direction of  Felix Mendelssohn and his Leipzig orchestra, the “Great C Major” symphony was finally premiered. To this day, it is considered a major piece of the symphonic repertoire – whether we view it as late Classical or early Romantic.  (Vinyl’s Revenge # 29 - 27 June 2017)

 

 

Listener Guide #307 – Organ and Orchestra

Camille Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony is probably the most played of his symphonies, and certainly the most famous work in its genre. The London Philharmonic Society commissioned the Symphony No. 3 from Saint-Saëns, who conducted its first performance in London on May 19, 1886. Although he lived until 1921, Saint-Saëns would not compose another symphony. He later explained: "With it I have given all I could give. What I did I could not achieve again." (ITYWLTMT Montage #46 - March 9, 2012)

Listener Guide #308 – A Montage of Second.. Concertos

My #2 Obsession features four second concertos, for three different instruments: the horn, the violin and the piano. Works by Richard Strauss, Szymanowski, Liszt and Saint-Saëns. (ITYWLTMT Montage #92 - February 15, 2013)

Listener Guide #309 - Great Voices from the (not so distant) past

For another listener guide  leveraging some of Sean Bianco’s “Opera Potpourri” podcasts, I thought I would share some more great moments from singers in recordings from after 1950. (Once or Twice a Fortnight – 28 June 2015)

Listener Guide #310 – Scary Classics

For Hallowe'en, we should take this opportunity to consider some musical selections that are "appropriate" for the circumstances. Works by Bach, Beethoven, Dukas and others. (ITYWLTMT Montage # 210 – 30 October 2015)