Project 366 - Dates on the Musical Calendar for April 2020

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

Highlights

• 1-Apr    April Fool’s Day [Guide #20]
• 6-Apr    "Don´t be frightened, Mr. Gould is here..." (OTD 1062) [Guide #76]
• 10-Apr  Good Friday [Guide #169]           
• 11-Apr  Easter Vigil [Guide #51]
• 12-Apr  Easter [Guide #203]
• 20-Apr  Four-Twenty [Guide #187]
• 22-Apr  Earth Day [Guide #269]

This month’s “musical dates” include the conclusion of our Lenten Listener Guides (culminating with the three-day period starting on Good Friday), four complete operas (Beethoven’s Fidelio, Thomas’ Mignon, Wagner’s Tristan and Leoncavallo’s (not Puccini’s) version of La Bohème (Guides 334 and 335). And a few stage works including Debussy’s seculat cantata La demoiselle élue (Guide #332). Among some new “filler” listener guides, I added three Mendelssohn concertos (Guide #333) and a selection of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies in their original piano form (Guide #336).

Your Listener Guides

Listener Guide #332 - In Memoriam - Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Claude Debussy died a century ago, but his music has not grown old. Bound only lightly to the past, it floats in time. As it coalesces, bar by bar, it appears to be improvising itself into being—which is the effect Debussy wanted. After a rehearsal of his orchestral suite “Images,” he said, with satisfaction, “This has the air of not having been written down.” In a conversation with one of his former teachers, he declared, “There is no theory. You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law.” (ITYWLTMT Montage # 297 - 30 Nov 2018)

Listener Guide #333 - Felix Mendelssohn: Concertos

Felix Mendelssohn composed eight concertos, for solo piano, violin and combinations thereof. In addition to the E Minor violin concerto we can add the two piano concertos (opp. 25 and 40) as part of the “mature” works in the genre by Mendelssohn. The violin concerto in D Minor from 1823 is probably the best-known of the “early” Mendelssohn concertos. (ITYWLTMT Podcast #183 - 30 Jan 2015)

Listener Guide #334 & 335 – La Bohème (Leoncavallo)

Puccini wasn’t the only composer to attempt a work on Henri Murger's novel Scènes de la vie de bohème. In February 1893, two Milan newspapers announced that two operas were to be composed on the subject of La bohème, one by Leoncavallo and one by Puccini. Ruggero Leoncavallo, best known as the composer of Pagliacci, first considered composing the opera, and offered a libretto that he had written to Puccini, who refused because he supposedly was considering another subject. Puccini then employed Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa to provide him with their version, which reached the stage in 1896, while Leoncavallo’s version debuted in the following year. Although Leoncavallo’s version was well received at its premiere, it shortly was totally eclipsed by Puccini’s work. (Once or Twice a Fortnight – 15 Oct 2016)

L/G 334 (Acts 1 and 2) - 

L/G 335 (Acts 3 and 4) - 

Listener Guide #336 - Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies (original piano version)

As Liszt toured Europe as a piano virtuoso, notably in the late 1830’s, he returned to his native Hungary where he re-encountered the folk tunes of his youth, and from there the Hungarian Rhapsodies are finally hatched. All the works bear dedications to important Hungarians of the day (Szerdahelyi, Teleki, Festetics, Kázmér Esterházy, Mme Reviczky, Apponyi, Orczy, Augusz, Egressy), or to musicians with Hungarian interests (Joachim, Ernst, von Bülow). (ITYWLTMT Podcast #177 - 12 Dec 2014)