Project 366 - Dates on the Musical Calendar for December 2019

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

December is Holiday Season, as evidenced by most of the highlighted dates

Highlights

• 
  
• December 22^nd - FP of Beethoven's Symphonies 5 and 6 (Guide #180)
• December 24 - Christmas Eve (Guide #50)
• December 25 - Christmas Day (Guide # 318)
• December 26 - Boxing Day (Guide # 227)
• December 31 - New Year's Eve (Guide # 65)

As we work through Part 1 of the Project, we encounter “the trifecta” which is a good opportunity to add a few “threesomes” as filler guides (Guides 315 and 316) and provide complete Scott Slapin’s rendering of J.s S. Bach’s works for solo violin (and solo flute) performed on the viola (Guide #317). As a “bonus” holiday selections, we added Amahl and the Night Visitors (Guide #63) and Debussy’s delightful “Toy Box” (Guide #319). Finally, notice a few Beethoven Listener Guides, in keeping with the Beethoven Year.

Your Listener Guides

Listener Guide # 315 - Three Scandinavian Symphonies

Jean Sibelius wrote seven symphonies; and his Third Symphony represents a turning point in Sibelius's symphonic output. His First and Second symphonies are grandiose Romantic and patriotic works. The Third, however, is a good-natured, triumphal, and deceptively simple-sounding piece which hardly foreshadows the more austere complexity of his later symphonies. The Sibelius is flanked by a pair of symphonies by the early-romantic Swedish composer Franz Berwald. (Once Upon the Internet #55 – 17 January 2017)

Listener Guide # 316 - Afro-American Opera

If Porgy and Bess is without a doubt the most well-known opera that deals with African Americans, there are many other works that have African American subject matters in the stage repertoire, and I chose to assemble three of them in this Listener Guide. Works by Scott Joplin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. (ITYWLTMT Podcast #209 - 11 Sep. 2015)

 

Listener Guide # 317 - J.S. Bach: Sonatas for Solo Violin

The complete set of solo violin works by J.S. Bach consists of three sonatas da Chiesa (or church sonatas), in four movements, and three partitas (or partias), which are “dance suites”. The set was completed by 1720, but was only published in 1802 by Nikolaus Simrock in Bonn. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, and they are frequently performed and recorded. (Once Upon theInternet #38 – 9 June 2015)

Listener Guide # 318 - Christmas

This Christmas playlist programs titles from both the French (Canadian) and English repertoires. Some of the "stand alone" classics come from Adolphe Adam (Minuit, Chrétiens, which is known in English as O Holy Night), Frederick Delius (his charming sleigh ride) and Corelli's Christmas Concerto. Bemjamin Britten and Ralph Vaighan-WIlliams both provide variations based on a pair of well-known carols: God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen and Greensleeves. Marcel Dupre also adapted a well-known French carol for organ. (ITYWLTMT Podcast #212 - 25 Dec 2015)

 

Listener Guide # 319 – Child’s Play

Kids and Toys are what Christmas is about. This Listener Guide proposes some music that is appropriate for young (and young at heart) music lovers. There are three main ideas that intermingle in this montage: children, children’s tales and (of course) toys. (ITYWLTMT Podcast #85 - 21 Dec 2012)