Carnaval, Mardi Gras, Carnaval

No. 332 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast332

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When w think of Carnivals, our mind goes immediately to the warm streets of Rio and, like its cousin in New Orleans, a last big party before the Lenten season. Here in Canada, we think more of Winter Carnivals that occupy most of the month of February – the most frequented being Winterlude here in Ottawa (during which skating the frozen Rideau Canal and enjoying Beaver Tails are de rigueur, and of course the Grand Daddy of all Winter Carnivals, that of Québec City, its ice buildings and its sympathetic Bonhomme Carnaval.

Indeed, the title for this week’s montage comes from the refrain of the official Carnival theme song written by Pierrette Roy in 1956:

Carnaval, Mardi Gras, Carnaval

À Québec c'est tout un festival

Carnaval, Mardi Gras, Carnaval

Chantons tous le joyeux Carnaval.

The works that constitute this week’s montage share the carnival theme, be it Schumann’s delightful short vignettes that constitute his popular Carnaval, to Respighi’s tone poem Roman Festivals performed by his great champion Toscanini and his NBC Symphony.

To complete the montage, shorter works by Liszt (one of his Hungarian Rhapsodies set for orchestra), Debussy (transcribed by Ravel) and a Carnival Overture by Biohemian-Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz.

I think you will love this music too.