Historic Musical Bits: Wieniawski – Violin Concerto No. 2 in d minor op. 22 Isaac Stern and Philadelphia Orchestra-Eugene Ormandy: conductor-1957

Isaak Stern plays Wieniawski-Violin Concerto No. 2 in d minor op. 22 

Kanaal van viool7

Isaac Stern: violin-Philadelphia Orchestra–Eugene Ormandy: conductor-1957

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English: Henryk Wieniawski (10 July 1835 – 31 March 1880) was a Polish composer and violinist. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22, by the Polish violin virtuoso, Henryk Wieniawski, may have been started in 1856, but the first performance did not take place until November 27, 1862, when he played it in St. Petersburg with Anton Rubinstein conducting. It was published in 1879, inscribed to his dear friend Pablo de Sarasate.

The work is in three movements:

1. Allegro moderato in D minor/F major

2. Romance: Andante non troppo in B flat major

3. Allegro con fuoco – Allegro moderato (à la Zingara) in D minor/D major

Both main elements of the first movement, its sombre, restless first subject, and its lyrical pendant (begun by a solo horn) are discussed freely and subject to dazzling embellishments by the solo violin. This movement includes a demanding variety of technique, including chromatic glissandi, double stops, arpeggios, sixths, octaves, thirds, chromatic scales, and artificial harmonics, not to mention a myriad of bowing techniques. The beat is based on a 4/4 or common time. The first movement uses a half-sonata form where the orchestral coda after the exposition transitions into the second movement instead of a development section.

The slow movement, a Romance, follows without a break. It is based on a lilting tune in 12/8 time and rises to an impassioned central climax.

A rhapsodic passage marked Allegro con fuoco and mainly a solo cadenza, leads to the finale, a dashing rondo in the gypsy style, which quotes the first movement’s subsidiary theme in the course of its second and third episodes. The final movement implements a 2/4 time, which allows the violinists to emphasize certain notes in the beginning of some measures.

Wieniawski’s second Violin Concerto remains one of the greatest violin concertos of the Romantic era, memorable for its lush and moving melodies and harmonies.

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for solo violin and an orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones (alto, tenor and bass), timpani, and strings.

References

• Golding, Robin (1991). Wieniawski: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen. Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg, pp. 1-2.

Saint of the Day for Monday, January 5th, 2015: St. John Neumann

Saint of the Day for Monday, January 5th, 2015

St. John Neumann

This American saint was born in Bohemia in 1811. He was looking forward to being ordained in 1835 when the bishop decided there would be no more ordinations. It is difficult for us to imagine now, … continue reading

More Saints of the Day

St. John Neumann St. Apollinaris Syncletica St. Cera St. Charles of Sezze St. Convoyon St. Emiliana St. Gaudentius St. Genoveva Torres Morales St. Gerlac Bl. Jacques Ledoyen

St. John Nepomucene Neumann St. Lomer Bl. Marcelina Darowska Martyrs of Egypt St. Paula St. Roger St. Syncletica St. Syncletica of Alexandria St. Talida

Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt (Suites No.1 and No.2): make music part of your life series

Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt (Suites No.1 and No.2)

eddysun55

Published on Jul 30, 2013/30,351 views

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843–1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use and development of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions put the music of Norway in the international spectrum, as well as helping develop a national identity, much like Jean Sibelius and Antonín Dvorák did in Finland and Bohemia.

Suite Nr. 1 op.46 (1888):

(00:00) 1. Morning Mood
(04:03) 2. The Death of Åse
(08:35) 3. Anitra’s Dance
(11:55) 4. In the Hall of the Mountain King

Suite Nr. 2 op.55 (1891):

(14:06) 1. The Abduction of the Bride. Ingrid’s Lament.
(19:06) 2. Arabian Dance
(24:00) 3. Peer Gynt‘s Homecoming (Stormy Evening on the Sea)
(26:55) 4. Solveig’s Song

this day in history: Czechoslovakia Gains Independence (1918)

Czechoslovakia Gains Independence (1918)

With the end of World War I came the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Its Czech and Slovak-speaking territories—Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and part of Silesia—formed Czechoslovakia. Benefiting from a liberal, democratic constitution and the inheritance most of the Austro-Hungarian Empire‘s industry, the new republic seemed to have a bright future. With its antagonistic and nationalistic ethnic elements, however, the new state was far from being a stable unit. What was the “Velvet Revolution“? More… Discuss

Make Music Part of our Life Series: Dvořák: Symphony No.8 – Harnoncourt/WPh(2004Live) A great playlist

[youtube.com/watch?v=r4WGBzmklf4&list=RDsXMRimMFV7M]
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
Symphony No.8 in G major, op.88
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Wiener Philharmoniker
Musikverein, Vienna, 26 9/2004

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Symphony No. 8
by Antonín Dvořák
Title page of the autograph score
Key	G major
Catalogue	Op. 88 B. 163
Style	Romantic
Composed	26 August 1889 – 8 November 1889 – Vysoká u Příbramě
Dedication	Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts
Published	1890
Movements	4
Premiere
Date	2 February 1890
Location	Prague
Conductor	Antonín Dvořák
Performers	Orchestra of the National Theatre

The Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163, is a symphony by Antonín Dvořák, composed in 1889 at Vysoká u Příbramě, Bohemia, on the occasion of his election to the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts. Dvořák conducted the premiere in Prague on 2 February 1890. In contrast to other symphonies of both the composer and the period, the music is cheerful and optimistic

The symphony is in four movements:

1. Allegro con brio (G major)
2. Adagio (C minor)
3. Allegretto grazioso – Molto vivace (G minor)
4. Allegro ma non troppo (G major)

The work is scored for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo)*, 2 oboes (1st doubling english horn)*, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings.^[1]

The orchestration of piccolo and English Horn is unusual in this symphony. The piccolo only sustains a long note in unison with the flute at the exposition of the 1st movement and the English Horn only plays a short, but exposed phrase during the second recapitulation of the main “bird call” theme, also in the 1st movement. In some editions the 2nd oboe doubles on English horn rather than the 1st oboe as indicated in most scores.

 

Related articles

• Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, in E minor, “From The New World”: Karajan – Vienna Philarmonic
• Antonín Dvořák’s Humoresque

Smetana, Kubelik:Great Compositions/Performances: Ma Vlast (From Bohemia’s Fields and Meadows, 4/6)

[youtube.com/watch?v=jCRFe07Aot0]
Smetana, Kubelik: Ma Vlast (From Bohemia‘s Fields and Meadows, 4/6)
IV: Z Ceskych Luhu a Haju (From Bohemia’s Fields and Meadows)
Bedrich Smetana, composer
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Kubelik
Studio Recording, 1952 (Mercury Living Presence)

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• Love Of Homeland Shown In Music
• Bedřich Smetana – Má Vlast – VyŠehrad: This post goes to Miss. Stacy Alexander, but the entire World is invited too!
• Bedrich (Bedřich) Smetana-Vltava(Ma vlast)
• Patriotic music: What is Britain’s equivalent of Ma Vlast?
• Fabulous Compositions/composers: Smetana Ma Vlast – Moldau

FABULOUS COMPOSITIONS/COMPOSERS: SMETANA MA VLAST – MOLDAU

 

Statue of Bedřich Smetana by the Vltava river (Photo credit: Jorge Lascar)

Má vlast (Czech pronunciation: [maː vlast], meaning”Mycountry/homeland”) is a set of six symphonic poems composed between 1874 and 1879 by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. While it is often presented as a single work in six movements and – with the exception of Vltava – is almost always recorded that way, the six pieces were conceived as individual works. They had their own separate premieres between 1875 and 1880; the premiere of the complete set took place on 5 November 1882 in Prague, under Adolf Čech, who had also conducted two of the individual premieres.

 

In these works Smetana combined the symphonic poem form pioneered by Franz Liszt with the ideals of nationalistic music which were current in the late nineteenth century. Each poem depicts some aspect of the countryside, history, or legends of Bohemia.

 

Vltava [DIE MOLDAU]

 

The Vltava in Prague

 

Vltava, also known by its German name Die Moldau (or The Moldau), was composed between 20 November and 8 December 1874 and was premiered on 4 April 1875 under Adolf Čech. It is about 12 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor.

 

In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia’s great rivers.^[2] In his own words:

 

The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer’s wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night’s moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John’s Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Labe (orElbe, in German).

 

 

The piece contains Smetana’s most famous tune. It is an adaptation of the melody La Mantovana, attributed to the Italian renaissance tenor Giuseppe Cenci (also known as Giuseppino),^[3] which, in a borrowedMoldovan form, was also the basis for the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah. The tune also appears in major in an old folk Czech song Kočka leze dírou (“The Cat Crawls Through the Hole”), and Hanns Eislerused it for his “Song of the Moldau”.
Related articles

• Czechoslovakia Today
• Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral
• Smetana Overture to ‘The Bartered Bride’
• Riverside Rimjob

 

Frantisek Ignac Tuma (1704-1774) Sinfonia in b flat major

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
František Ignác Antonín Tůma (Kostelec nad Orlicí, Bohemia,
October 2, 1704 – Vienna, January 30, 1774) was an important Czech composer of the Baroque era. Born in Kostelec nad Orlici, Bohemia, he lived the greater part of his life inVienna, first as director of music for Count Franz Ferdinand Kinsky, later filling a similar office for the widow of Emperor Karl VI. He was an important late-baroque composer, organist, gambist and theorbist.

Tůma’s music belongs stylistically to the late Baroque. His sacred works, which were known to Haydn and Mozart, were noted by his contemporaries for their solidity of texture and their sensitive treatment of the text as well as for their chromaticism. His instrumental music includes trio and quartet sonatas, sinfonias and partitas, mostly for strings and continuo; some of them were clearly intended for orchestral use.

Among his sacred works we find some 65 masses, 29 psalms and 5 settings of the Stabat Mat

 

Slavonic Dance No. 2, Op. 46 Antonin Dvorak (and the Lesser Traveled Road…A perfect marriage!)

“Lesser Traveled Road’-oil painting (my Art Collection)

This song is performed by the “Berlin Festival Orchestra”, and Composed by Antonin Dvorak. He was a Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. His works include operas, symphonic, choral and chamber music. His best-known works include his New World Symphony, the Slavonic Dances, “American” String Quartet, and Cello Concerto in B minor.

Dvorak was commissioned by the publisher Simrock to compose a sequel to the Brahms “Hungarian Dances“, since that collection had put a considerable chunk of change into his pocket, and he relished the idea of repeating the pleasurable experience with the less expensive composer.

 

Today’s Birthday: Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (1289)

Wenceslaus III of Bohemia (1289)

Wenceslaus III was king of Bohemia and of Hungary. Unable to assert his authority in Hungary, even with the help of his father, Wenceslaus II, he relinquished his claim to Duke Otto of Bavaria in 1305. He attempted to assert his hereditary claim to the Polish crown but was assassinated while marching to Poland. After an interregnum, John of Luxemburg, who married Wenceslaus’s sister, was elected king of Bohemia. Wenceslaus III was the last member of what dynasty? More… Discuss

Today’s Birthday: Petrus Canisius (1521)

 

Saint Peter Canisius: Confessor and Doctor Of The Church

Petrus Canisius (1521)

Canisius was a 16th century Jesuit preacher who fought against the spread of Protestantism in Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and Switzerland. His catechism, Summa Doctrinae Christianae, authorized in 1566, was one of the earliest popular expositions of the faith. The reestablishment of Roman Catholicism in Germany after the Reformation was largely due to his zeal, and he was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1925. What line is he credited with adding to the Hail Mary prayer? More… Discuss