Episodios

  • An Italian Western (for English horn)

    An Italian Western (for English horn)
    Sep 25 2020
    “Spaghetti Western” is a nickname given a genre of Italian films from the 1960s, most famously directed by Sergio Leone, and often starring Clint Eastwood as the taciturn, gun-toting anti-hero. “Spaghetti Western” is also the title of a Concerto for English horn written by the American composer Michael Daugherty that received its premiere performance on today’s date in 1998 at a Pittsburgh Symphony concert conducted by Mariss Jansons. “Just as Leone’s films redefined the Western genre from an Italian perspective,” writes Michael Daugherty, “I redefine the European concerto … within an American context. In my ‘Spaghetti Western,’ the English horn soloist is the ‘Man with no Name,’ moving through a series of sun-drenched panoramas, barren deserts, and desolate towns of the Wild West, … [one of ] the gun-slinging characters who haunt the landscape.” Daugherty gave ITALIAN titles to his three-movement concerto: “Strade Vuote” (Empty Streets), “Assalto all’oro” (Gold Rush), and “Mezzogiorno di fuoco” (Noon of Fire). And since Clint Eastwood was unable to play the English horn for the Pittsburgh Symphony premiere, Harold Smoliar removed the cigar from his parched, suntanned lips, adjusted his poncho, and took up his English horn for the performance.
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    2 m
  • Adolphus Hailstork's “Amazing Grace”

    Adolphus Hailstork's “Amazing Grace”
    Sep 24 2020
    On today’s date in 1875 one of the greatest musical match-makers of all time died in Spartanburg, South Carolina. His name was William Walker, an American Baptist shape note singing master, who published several collections of traditional shape note tunes. Now, “shape note” refers to a simple musical notation designed for communal singing, and in his 1835 collection entitled “Southern Harmony,” Walker married a shape-note tune known as “New Britain” to a hymn text titled “Amazing Grace” written by an Anglican clergyman and abolitionist named John Newton. Walker’s collection was a best-seller in the 19th century, and two centuries later, “Amazing Grace” has become one of the best-known and best-loved hymns of our time. In 2011 a new orchestral fanfare based on “Amazing Grace” by the African-American composer Adolphus Hailstork was published and subsequently recorded by the Virginia Symphony–appropriately enough, since Hailstork has served as professor of music and Composer-in-Residence at both Virginia's Norfolk State and Old Dominion Universities, and in 1992 was named a Cultural Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to this Fanfare, Hailstork’s works range from choral and chamber pieces to symphonies and operas.
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    2 m
  • Higdon's "An Exaltation of Larks"

    Higdon's "An Exaltation of Larks"
    Mar 1 2023
    Synopsis

    English is a quirky language, take for example the way English labels groups of birds – it can be quite idiosyncratic and even poetic: “A conspiracy of ravens,” “A trembling of finches.”

    For composers, birdsong has always exerted great fascination and has been a source of inspiration, but on today’s date in 2006, bird nomenclature was the inspiration for a new string quartet that received its premiere in Tucson at a concert sponsored by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music.

    The new work was by the American composer Jennifer Higdon, who explains: “The first time someone told me that a collection of larks is called an ‘Exaltation’, I immediately thought, ‘What a sound an exaltation of larks must make!’ This prompted my imagination to run wild – in a composerly-fashion – thinking of thousands of birds flying and singing wildly, with extraordinary energy and intensity. How to capture the beauty of the idea of exalting and singing? A string quartet seemed perfect!“

    Higdon’s new quartet, titled An Exaltation of Larks was given its 2006 premiere by the Tokyo String Quartet, but it was perhaps inevitable that its first recording was made by – who else? – the Lark Quartet.

    Music Played in Today's Program

    Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) – An Exaltation of Larks (Lark Quartet) Bridge 9379
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    2 m
  • Mackey's “Stumble to Grace"

    Mackey's “Stumble to Grace"
    Sep 23 2020
    On today’s date in 2011, the Saint Louis Symphony under David Robertson premiered a new piano concerto by the American composer Steven Mackey. The soloist was Orli Shaham, Robertson’s wife, to whom the new work was dedicated. The new concerto had an odd title, “Stumble to Grace,” which Mackey explained: “There is a narrative running through the piece … the piano is all thumbs … as it stumbles in its first entrance, playing naïve and awkward plinks and plunks. By [the end], the piano plays sophisticated, virtuosic and, at times, graceful contrapuntal music—a fugue, in fact … “The inspiration … came from observing my now two-and-a-half year old toddler learning to become human … I wanted to open my compositional process to incorporate some of the whimsy and exuberance that he brings to his exploration of the world.” Mackey concludes, “A preoccupation with one’s children is common among most new parents but this seemed particularly appropriate … for a piece written for Orli Shaham. She and her conductor husband, David Robertson, have twins less than a year older than my son and we’ve had play dates and shared narrations about new parenthood.”
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    2 m
  • "Tombeaux" by Ravel and Daugherty

    "Tombeaux" by Ravel and Daugherty
    Feb 28 2023
    Synopsis

    These days fallen American soldiers are often honored in silence, as their photos, names, ages, and hometowns are flashed on the TV screen during news programs.

    During World War I, the French composer Maurice Ravel served as an ambulance driver, and saw many soldiers die. He wanted to honor some of his fallen comrades, namely Jean Cruppi, Jean Dreyfus, the brothers Pierre and Pascal Gaudin—who were both killed by the same German artillery shell, Lieutenants Jacques Charlot and Gabriel Deluc, and Captain Joseph de Marliave.  Being a composer, Ravel chose music rather than silence to honor his war dead and wrote a suite of piano pieces he titled Le tombeau de Couperin — a joint tribute to his fallen comrades and a famous 18th century French composer.

    The resulting suite was premiered in 1919 by the great French pianist Marguerite Long, who was also Captain Marliave's widow. That same year, Ravel orchestrated four movements of his suite, and this orchestral version of Le Tombeau received its first performance in Paris on today’s date in 1920.

    When criticized for composing a light-hearted, albeit reflective work, rather than a somber one, perhaps more appropriate for such somber topic, Ravel replied: "The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence."

    Music Played in Today's Program

    Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) Le tombeau de Couperin Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Hugh Wolff, conductor. Teldec 74006
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    2 m
  • Bernstein gets a "Presidential" title

    Bernstein gets a "Presidential" title
    Sep 22 2020
    It’s something of a parlor game for historians of the American presidency to constantly reappraise the status of past occupants of the Oval Office. For example, some recent historians have given President Dwight D. Eisenhower higher marks than others for his political accomplishments in the White House. But not even Eisenhower’s most vocal admirers would credit his administration with a particularly ardent passion for the fine arts. In the spring of 1960, conductor Leonard Bernstein performed a concert in Washington D.C. attended by President Eisenhower, who thanked Bernstein with these words, “I liked that last piece you played; it’s got a tune. I like music with a tune, not all of them arias and barcarolles and things.” Bernstein never forgot the phrase. In fact, he even titled one of HIS last pieces “Arias and Barcarolles.” Originally written in 1988 for vocal soloists and piano four-hands, one of Bernstein’s protégés, the Chinese-born composer Bright Sheng, orchestrated the work with Bernstein’s approval, and that version of “Arias and Barcarolles” premiered on today’s date in 1989. “Arias and Barcarolles” is a semi-autobiographical song-cycle dedicated to Bernstein’s friends and family, a sometimes humorous, sometimes touching summing-up of Bernstein’s life and career.
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    2 m
  • Timely music by Beethoven and Leroy Anderson

    Timely music by Beethoven and Leroy Anderson
    Feb 27 2023
    Synopsis

    On this date in 1814, Ludwig van Beethoven conducted the premiere performance of his Symphony No. 8 in F Major. As the scherzo movement of his new symphony, Beethoven recycled a tune he originally used as a musical salute to Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the inventor of the metronome. For a time, Maelzel was Beethoven's friend and sometimes collaborator on concerts and various mechanical projects.

    Beethoven used Maelzel's metronomes to add precise, if sometimes debatable, tempo markings to some of his earlier works. Some conductors choose to ignore these metronome markings, since they came after the fact of composition and at a time when Beethoven was increasingly deaf. In fact, in addition to metronomes, the versatile Maelzel also supplied the Beethoven with ear trumpets—the 19th-century version of hearing aids.

    Perhaps Beethoven was using one of those ear trumpets when someone asked him why his Seventh Symphony was more popular in Vienna than his Eighth. "Because the Eighth is so much better," he growled in reply.

    Closer to our own time, the American composer Leroy Anderson, who lived from 1908 to 1975, immortalized the tick-tock of a mechanical timekeeper in his piece entitled The Syncopated Clock. Leroy Anderson was a master of the musical miniature, creating dozens of witty pieces with titled like Plink, Plank, Plunk, Bugler's Holiday, and Fiddle Faddle.

    Music Played in Today's Program

    Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) Symphony No. 8 in F, Op. 93 Berlin Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan, conductor. DG 429 036

    Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) The Syncopated Clock St. Louis Symphony; Leonard Slatkin, conductor. BMG/RCA 68048
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    2 m
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