Fabulous Renditions: Beethoven “Für Elise” Valentina Lisitsa Seoul Philharmonic

Beethoven “Für Elise” Valentina Lisitsa Seoul Philharmonic

ValentinaLisitsa

Uploaded on Dec 7, 2008

Live in Seoul. Encore #4 Please come to London on June 19th of 2012 if you want to hear this piece live ! I am making my debut at Royal Albert Hall 🙂
Валентина Лисица

Valentina Lisitsa Live at the Royal Albert Hall
US iTunes – http://bit.ly/iTunesUSVal
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Für Elise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

“Für Elise”, opening

 

First edition, 1867

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59 and Bia 515) for solo piano, commonly known as “Für Elise” or “Fuer Elise” (German: [fyːʁ eːˈliːzə] ( listen), English: “For Elise”, sometimes written without the German umlaut mark as “Fur Elise”), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s most popular compositions.^[1][2][3] It is usually classified as a bagatelle, but it is also sometimes referred to as an Albumblatt.

History

The score was not published until 1867, 40 years after the composer’s death in 1827. The discoverer of the piece, Ludwig Nohl, affirmed that the original autographed manuscript, now lost, was dated 27 April 1810.^[4]

The version of “Für Elise” heard today is an earlier version that was transcribed by Ludwig Nohl. There is a later version, with drastic changes to the accompaniment which was transcribed from a later manuscript by Barry Cooper. The most notable difference is in the first theme, the left-hand arpeggios are delayed by a 16th note beat. There are a few extra bars in the transitional section into the B section; and finally, the rising A minor arpeggio figure is moved later into the piece. The tempo marking Poco moto is believed to have been on the manuscript that Ludwig Nohl transcribed (now lost). The later version includes the marking Molto grazioso. It is believed that Beethoven intended to add the piece to a cycle of bagatelles.^{[citation needed]}

Therese Malfatti, widely believed to be the dedicatee of “Für Elise”

The pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore (es) argued in his thesis and his 2010 book Beethoven al piano that Beethoven might not have been the person who gave the piece the form that we know today. Chiantore suggested that the original signed manuscript, upon which Ludwig Nohl claimed to base his transcription, may never have existed.^[5] On the other hand, the musicologist Barry Cooper stated, in a 1984 essay in The Musical Times, that one of two surviving sketches closely resembles the published version.^[6]

Identity of “Elise”

It is not certain who “Elise” was. Max Unger suggested that Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named “Für Therese”,^[7] a reference to Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792–1851). She was a friend and student of Beethoven’s to whom he supposedly proposed in 1810, though she turned him down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816.^[8] Note that the piano sonata no.24, dedicated to Countess Thérèse von Brunswick, is also referred to sometimes as “für Therese”.

According to a 2010 study by Klaus Martin Kopitz (de), there is evidence that the piece was written for the German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel (1793–1883), later the wife of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. “Elise”, as she was called by a parish priest (she called herself “Betty” too), had been a friend of Beethoven’s since 1808.^[9] In the meantime, the Austrian musicologist Michael Lorenz^[10] has shown that Rudolf Schachner, who in 1851 inherited Therese von Droßdik’s musical scores, was the son of Babette Bredl, born out of wedlock. Babette in 1865 let Nohl copy the autograph in her possession. Thus the autograph must have come to Babette Bredl from Therese von Droßdik’s estate and Kopitz’s hypothesis is refuted.

In 2012, the Canadian musicologist Rita Steblin suggested that Juliane Katharine Elisabet Barensfeld (de), who used “Elise” as a variant first name, might be the dedicatee. Born in Regensburg and treated for a while as child prodigy, she first travelled on concert tours with Beethoven’s friend Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, also from Regensburg, and then lived with him for some time in Vienna, where she received singing lessons from Antonio Salieri. Steblin argues that Beethoven dedicated this work to the 13-year-old Elise Barensfeld as a favour to Therese Malfatti who lived opposite Mälzel’s and Barensfeld’s residence and who might have given her piano lessons.^[11] Steblin admits that question marks remain for her hypothesis.^[12]

Music

	Bagatelle in A minor (“Für Elise”)   Menu       0:00
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The piece is in A minor and is set in 3/8 time. It begins with an A minor theme marked Poco moto (little movement), with the left hand playing arpeggios alternating between A minor and E major. It then moves into a brief section based around C major and G major, before returning to the original theme. It then enters a lighter section in the subdominant key of the relative major of A minor (C major), F major. It consists of a similar texture to the A section, where the right hand plays a melody over left hand arpeggios. It then enters a 32nd note C major figure before returning to the A section. The piece then moves to an agitated theme in D minor^{[citation needed]} with an A pedal point, as the right hand plays diminished chords. This section then concludes with an ascending A minor arpeggio before beginning a chromatic descent over two octaves, and then returning to the A section. The piece ends in its starting key of A minor with an authentic cadence. Despite being called a bagatelle, the piece is in rondo form. The structure is A–B–A–C–A. The first theme is not technically difficult and is often taught alone as it provides a good basic exercise for piano pedalling technique. However, much greater technique is required for the B section as well as the rapid rising A minor figure in the C section.

Kopitz presents the finding by the German organ scholar Johannes Quack that the letters that spell Elise can be decoded as the first three notes of the piece. Because an E♭ is called an Es in German and is pronounced as “S”, that makes E–(L)–(I)–S–E: E–(L)–(I)–E♭–E, which by enharmonic equivalents sounds the same as the written notes E–(L)–(I)–D♯–E.^[10][13]

Historic musical bits: Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 3 “Scottish” – Klemperer & Philharmonia Orchestra

Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 3 “Scottish” – Klemperer & Philharmonia Orchestra

Kanal von shostakk

Published on Aug 7, 2012

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)

Symphony no. 3 in A minor op. 56 “Scottish”

I. Andante con moto – Allegro un poco agitato (0:00)
II. Scherzo (Vivace non troppo) (15:16)
III.Adagio (20:29)
IV. Allegro vivacissimo – Allegro maestoso assai (30:04)

*** Philharmonia Orchestra
*** Otto Klemperer

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Felix Mendelssohn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

This article is about the German musician. For other people with the same surname, see Mendelssohn (surname) and Bartholdy.

 

Portrait of Mendelssohn by the English miniaturist James Warren Childe (1778–1862), 1839

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (German: [ˈjaːkɔp ˈluːtvɪç ˈfeːlɪks ˈmɛndl̩szoːn baʁˈtɔldi]; 3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn,^{[n 1]} was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.

A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family. Although initially he was brought up without religion, he was later baptised as a Reformed Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent.

Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his travels throughout Europe. He was particularly well received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig), which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook.

Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. His Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and anti-Semitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has now been recognized and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

Life

Childhood

Mendelssohn aged 12 (1821) by Carl Joseph Begas

Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg, at the time an independent city-state,^{[n 2]} in the same house where, a year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, Ferdinand David, was to be born. Mendelssohn’s father was the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His mother was Lea Salomon, a member of the Itzig family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy.^[1] Mendelssohn was the second of four children; his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional and precocious musical talent.^[2]

The family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise fearing French revenge for the Mendelssohn bank‘s role in breaking Napoleon‘s Continental System blockade.^[3] Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul and Rebecka – the best education possible. Fanny became a well-known pianist and amateur composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. However, at that time, it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to have a career in music, so Fanny remained an active but non-professional musician. Abraham was also disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he seriously intended to dedicate himself to it.^[4]

Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the salon organised by his parents at the family’s home in Berlin included artists, musicians and scientists, amongst them Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, and the mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (whom Mendelssohn’s sister Rebecka would later marry).^[5] Sarah Rothenburg wrote of the household that “Europe came to their living room”.^[6]

Surname

Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion; he and his wife deliberately decided not to have Felix circumcised, in contravention of the Jewish tradition.^[7] Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, and were baptised by a Reformed Church minister in 1816,^[8] at which time Felix was given the additional names Jakob Ludwig. Abraham and his wife Lea were themselves baptised in 1822, formally adopting the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy (which they had used since 1812) for themselves and their children.^[9] The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Lea’s brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, who had inherited a property of this name in Luisenstadt and adopted it as his own surname.^[10] In an 1829 letter to Felix, Abraham explained that adopting the Bartholdy name was meant to demonstrate a decisive break with the traditions of his father Moses: “There can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a Jewish Confucius”.^[11] On embarking on his musical career, Felix did not entirely drop the name Mendelssohn as Abraham requested, but in deference to his father signed his letters and had his visiting cards printed using the form ‘Mendelssohn Bartholdy’.^[12] In 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of “Bartholdy […] this name that we all dislike”.^[13]

Career

Musical education

Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before him, Mendelssohn was regarded as a child prodigy. He began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris.^[14] After the family moved to Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, who was himself a former student of Muzio Clementi.^[15] From at least May 1819 Felix (and his sister Fanny) studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin.^[16] This was an important influence on his future career. Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach. Sarah Levy was a talented keyboard player in her own right, often playing with Zelter’s orchestra at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, of which she and the Mendelssohn family were leading patrons. Sarah had formed an important collection of Bach family manuscripts which she bequeathed to the Singakademie; Zelter, whose tastes in music were conservative, was also an admirer of the Bach tradition.^[17] This undoubtedly played a significant part in forming Felix Mendelssohn’s musical tastes. His works show his study of Baroque and early classical music. His fugues and chorales especially reflect a tonal clarity and use of counterpoint reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach, by whose music he was deeply influenced.^[18]

Early maturity

First page of the manuscript of Mendelssohn’s Octet (1825) (now in the US Library of Congress)

Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at age 9, when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo.^[19] He was also a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin.^[20] Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 12 string symphonies for such concerts. These works were ignored for over a century, but are now recorded and occasionally played in concerts. He wrote his first published work, a piano quartet, by the time he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of Mendelssohn’s early piano quartet by the house of Schlesinger.^[21] In 1824, the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11).

At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his String Octet in E-flat major, the first work which showed the full power of his genius.^[22] This Octet and his Overture to Shakespeare‘s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which he wrote a year later in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (He later also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous Wedding March, in 1842). The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture – that is, a piece not written deliberately to accompany a staged performance, but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became a popular form in musical Romanticism.^[23]

In 1824 Mendelssohn studied under the composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles, who however confessed in his diaries^[24] that he had little to teach him. Moscheles became a close colleague and lifelong friend. The year 1827 saw the premiere – and sole performance in his lifetime – of Mendelssohn’s opera, Die Hochzeit des Camacho. The failure of this production left him disinclined to venture into the genre again.^[25]

Besides music, Mendelssohn’s education included art, literature, languages, and philosophy. He had a particular interest in classical literature^[26] and translated Terence‘s Andria for his tutor Heyse in 1825; Heyse was impressed and had it published in 1826 as a work of “his pupil, F****” [i.e. “Felix” (asterisks as provided in original text)].^[27] This translation also qualified Mendelssohn to study at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where from 1826 to 1829 he attended lectures on aesthetics by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, on history by Eduard Gans and on geography by Carl Ritter.^[28]

Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach

In 1821 Zelter introduced Mendelssohn to his friend and correspondent, the elderly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison with Mozart in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter:

“Musical prodigies … are probably no longer so rare; but what this little man can do in extemporizing and playing at sight borders the miraculous, and I could not have believed it possible at so early an age.” “And yet you heard Mozart in his seventh year at Frankfurt?” said Zelter. “Yes”, answered Goethe, “… but what your pupil already accomplishes, bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child.”^[29]

Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions, and set a number of Goethe’s poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, (Op. 27, 1828) and the cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night, Op. 60, 1832).

In 1829, with the backing of Zelter and the assistance of actor Eduard Devrient, Mendelssohn arranged and conducted a performance in Berlin of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Four years previously his grandmother, Bella Salomon, had given him a copy of the manuscript of this (by then all-but-forgotten) masterpiece.^[30] The orchestra and choir for the performance were provided by the Berlin Singakademie. The success of this performance – the first since Bach’s death in 1750 – was an important element in the revival of J. S. Bach’s music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe.^[31] It earned Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of 20. It also led to one of the few references which Mendelssohn made to his origins: “To think that it took an actor and a Jew’s son to revive the greatest Christian music for the world!”^[32][33]

Over the next few years Mendelssohn traveled widely, including making his first visit to England in 1829, and also visiting amongst other places Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome and Naples, in all of which he met with local and visiting musicians and artists. These years proved the germination for some of his most famous works, including the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish and Italian symphonies.^[34]

Düsseldorf

On Zelter’s death in 1832, Mendelssohn had hopes of succeeding him as conductor of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. However, at a vote in January 1833 he was defeated for the post by the less distinguished Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen. This may have been because of Mendelssohn’s youth, and fear of possible innovations; it was also suspected by some to be attributable to his Jewish ancestry.^[35] Following this rebuff, Mendelssohn divided most of his professional time over the next few years between Britain and Düsseldorf, where he was appointed musical director (his first paid post as a musician) in 1833.

In the spring of that year Mendelssohn directed the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf, beginning with a performance of Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt prepared from the original score which he had found in London. This precipitated a Handel revival in Germany, similar to the reawakened interest in J. S. Bach following his performance of the St Matthew Passion.^[36] Mendelssohn worked with dramatist Karl Immermann to improve local theatre standards, and made his first appearance as an opera conductor in Immermann’s production of Mozart‘s Don Giovanni at the end of 1833, where he took umbrage at the audience’s protests about the cost of tickets.^[37] His frustration at his everyday duties in Düsseldorf, and the city’s provincialism, led him to resign his position at the end of 1834. He had offers from both Munich and Leipzig for important musical posts, and decided in 1835 to accept the latter.^[38]

Leipzig and Berlin

 Felix Mendelssohn’s study in Leipzig

In 1835 Mendelssohn was named conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.^[39] He chose this position although he had also been offered direction of the opera house in Munich and the editorship of the prestigious music journal, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.^[40] Mendelssohn concentrated on developing the musical life of Leipzig, working with the orchestra, the opera house, the Choir of St. Thomas Church, and the city’s other choral and musical institutions. Mendelssohn’s concerts included, in addition to many of his own works, three series of “historical concerts” and a number of works by his contemporaries. He was deluged by offers of music from rising composers and would-be composers; amongst these was Richard Wagner, who submitted his early Symphony, which to Wagner’s disgust Mendelssohn lost or mislaid.^[41] Mendelssohn also revived interest in Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann discovered the manuscript of Schubert’s 9th Symphony and sent it to Mendelssohn, who promptly premiered it in Leipzig on 21 March 1839, more than a decade after Schubert’s death.^[42]

A landmark event during Mendelssohn’s Leipzig years was the premiere of his oratorio St. Paul, given at the Lower Rhenish Festival in Düsseldorf in 1836, shortly after the death of the composer’s father, which much affected him; Felix wrote that he would “never cease to endeavour to gain his approval […] although I can no longer enjoy it”.^[43] St. Paul seemed to many of Mendelssohn’s contemporaries to be his finest work, and sealed his European reputation.^[44]

When Friedrich Wilhelm IV came to the Prussian throne in 1840 with ambitions to develop Berlin as a cultural centre (including the establishment of a music school, and reform of music for the church), the obvious choice to head these reforms was Mendelssohn. He was however reluctant to undertake the task, especially in the light of his existing strong position in Leipzig.^[45] Mendelssohn did however spend some time in Berlin, writing some church music, and, at the King’s request, music for productions of Sophocles‘s Antigone (1841) and Oedipus at Colonus (1845), Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1843) and Racine‘s Athalie (1845). But the funds for the school never materialised, and various of the court’s promises to Mendelssohn regarding finances, title, and concert programming were broken. He was therefore not displeased to have the excuse to return to Leipzig.

In 1843 Mendelssohn founded a major music school – the Leipzig Conservatory, now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” or (in its own English self-designation) the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre – where he persuaded Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann to join him. Other prominent musicians, including string players Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim and music theorist Moritz Hauptmann, also became staff members.^[46] After Mendelssohn’s death in 1847, his conservative tradition was carried on when Moscheles succeeded him as head of the Conservatory.

Mendelssohn in Britain

In 1829 Mendelssohn paid his first visit to Britain, where his former teacher Ignaz Moscheles, already settled in London, introduced him to influential musical circles. In the summer he visited Edinburgh, where he met among others the composer John Thomson, whom he later recommended to be Professor of Music at Edinburgh University.^[47] On his eighth visit in the summer of 1844, he conducted five of the Philharmonic concerts in London, and wrote:

[N]ever before was anything like this season – we never went to bed before half-past one, every hour of every day was filled with engagements three weeks beforehand, and I got through more music in two months than in all the rest of the year.^[48]

On subsequent visits he met Queen Victoria and her musical husband Prince Albert, who both greatly admired his music.^[49][50]

 

Felix Mendelssohn’s grave

In the course of ten visits to Britain during his life, totalling about 20 months, Mendelssohn won a strong following, sufficient for him to make a deep impression on British musical life.^[51] He composed and performed, and he edited for British publishers the first critical editions of oratorios of Handel and of the organ music of J.S. Bach. Scotland inspired two of his most famous works: the overture The Hebrides (also known as Fingal’s Cave); and the Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3).^[52]

Mendelssohn also worked closely with his protégé, the British composer and pianist William Sterndale Bennett (whom he had first heard in London in 1833 when Bennett was 17), both in London and Leipzig, where Bennett appeared throughout the 1836/1837 season.^[41] Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah was commissioned by and premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival on 26 August 1846, composed to a German text translated into English by William Bartholomew, who authored and translated many of Mendelssohn’s works during his time in England.^[53] On his last visit to Britain in 1847, Mendelssohn was the soloist in Beethoven‘s Piano Concerto No. 4 and conducted his own Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Queen and Prince Albert.^[54]

Death

Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous problems and overwork. A final tour of England left him exhausted and ill from a hectic schedule. The death of his sister Fanny on 14 May 1847 caused him great distress. Less than six months later, on 4 November, Mendelssohn himself died in Leipzig after a series of strokes. He was 38. His grandfather Moses, his sister Fanny and both his parents had died from similar apoplexies.^[55] Felix’s funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, and he was buried at the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The pallbearers included Moscheles, Schumann and Niels Gade.^[56] Mendelssohn had once described death, in a letter to a stranger, as a place “where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings”.^[57]

Personal life

Personality

 

View of Lucerne – watercolour by Mendelssohn, 1847

Although the image was cultivated, especially after his death in the detailed family memoirs by his nephew Sebastian Hensel,^[58] of a man always equable, happy and placid in temperament, this was misleading. The nickname “discontented Polish count” was given to Mendelssohn because of his aloofness, and he referred to the epithet in his letters.^[59] Mendelssohn was frequently given to alarming fits of temper which occasionally led to collapse. On one occasion in the 1830s, when his wishes had been crossed, “his excitement was increased so fearfully … that when the family was assembled … he began to talk incoherently, and in English, to the great terror of them all. The stern voice of his father at last checked the wild torrent of words; they took him to bed, and a profound sleep of twelve hours restored him to his normal state”.^[60] Such fits may be related to his early death.^[61]

Mendelssohn was a fine and enthusiastic artist in pencil and watercolour, a skill which he used throughout his life for his own amusement and that of his friends.^[62][63] His enormous correspondence shows that he could also be a witty writer in German and English – sometimes accompanied by humorous sketches and cartoons in the text.

Religion

On 21 March 1816, at the age of seven years, his parents prompted the baptism of Mendelssohn and his brother and sisters in a home ceremony by Johann Jakob Stegemann, minister of the Evangelical congregation of Berlin’s Jerusalem Church and New Church. Although Mendelssohn was a conforming (if not over-zealous) Christian as a member of the Reformed Church,^{[n 3]} he was both conscious and proud of his Jewish ancestry and notably of his connection with his grandfather Moses Mendelssohn. He was the prime mover in proposing to the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus a complete edition of Moses’s works, which continued with the support of his uncle Joseph Mendelssohn.^[64] Mendelssohn was notably reluctant, either in his letters or conversation, to comment on his innermost beliefs; his friend Devrient wrote that “[his] deep convictions were never uttered in intercourse with the world; only in rare and intimate moments did they ever appear, and then only in the slightest and most humorous allusions”.^[65] Thus for example in a letter to his sister Rebecka, Mendelssohn rebukes her complaint about an unpleasant relative: “What do you mean by saying you are not hostile to Jews? I hope this was a joke […] It is really sweet of you that you do not despise your family, isn’t it?”.^[66] Some modern scholars have devoted considerable energy to demonstrate either that Mendelssohn was deeply sympathetic to his ancestors’ Jewish beliefs, or that he was hostile to this and sincere in his Christian beliefs.^{[n 4]}

Mendelssohn and his contemporaries

Throughout his life Mendelssohn was wary of the more radical musical developments undertaken by some of his contemporaries. He was generally on friendly, if sometimes somewhat cool, terms with the likes of Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but in his letters expresses his frank disapproval of their works, for example writing of Liszt that his compositions were “inferior to his playing, and [..] only calculated for virtuosos”;^[67] of Berlioz’s overture Les francs-juges “the orchestration is such a frightful muddle […] that one ought to wash one’s hands after handling one of his scores”;^[68] and of Meyerbeer’s opera Robert le diable “I consider it ignoble”, calling its villain Bertram “a poor devil”.^[69] When his friend the composer Ferdinand Hiller suggested in conversation to Mendelssohn that he looked rather like Meyerbeer – they were actually distant cousins, both descendants of Rabbi Moses Isserlis – Mendelssohn was so upset that he immediately went to get a haircut to differentiate himself.^[70]

In particular, Mendelssohn seems to have regarded Paris and its music with the greatest of suspicion and an almost puritanical distaste. Attempts made during his visit there to interest him in Saint-Simonianism ended in embarrassing scenes.^[71]

It is significant that the only musician with whom he remained a close personal friend, Ignaz Moscheles, was of an older generation and equally conservative in outlook. Moscheles preserved this outlook at the Leipzig Conservatory until his own death in 1870.

Marriage and children

Mendelssohn’s wife Cécile (1846) by Eduard Magnus

Mendelssohn married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (10 October 1817 – 25 September 1853), the daughter of a French Reformed Church clergyman, on 28 March 1837.^[72] The couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lilli and Felix. The second youngest child, Felix August, contracted measles in 1844 and was left with his health impaired; he died in 1851.^[73] The eldest, Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (7 February 1838 – 23 February 1897), became a distinguished historian, and professor of history at Heidelberg and Freiburg universities, dying in 1897 in a psychiatric institution in Freiburg.^[74] Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880) was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye. Marie married Victor Benecke and lived in London. Lili married Adolph Wach, later Professor of Law at Leipzig University.^[75] The family papers inherited by Marie and Lili’s children form the basis of the extensive collection of Mendelssohn manuscripts, including the so-called ‘Green Books’ of his correspondence, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.^[76]

Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy died less than six years after her husband, on 25 September 1853.^[77]

Jenny Lind

 Jenny Lind

In general Mendelssohn’s personal life seems to have been fairly conventional compared to those of his contemporaries Wagner, Berlioz, and Schumann – except for his relationship with Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whom he met in October 1844, and with whom, it was rumoured, he became emotionally involved. Papers confirming this were alleged to exist, although their contents had not been made public.^{[78][n 5]} In 2013 George Biddlecombe confirmed in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association that “The Committee of the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation possesses material indicating that Mendelssohn wrote passionate love letters to Jenny Lind entreating her to join him in an adulterous relationship and threatening suicide as a means of exerting pressure upon her, and that these letters were destroyed on being discovered after her death.”^[80]

Mendelssohn met and worked with Lind many times, and started an opera, Lorelei, for her, based on the legend of the Lorelei Rhine maidens; the opera was unfinished at his death. He is said to have tailored the aria “Hear Ye Israel” in his oratorio Elijah to Lind’s voice,^[81] although she did not sing this part until after his death, at a concert in December 1848.^[82] In 1847 Mendelssohn attended a London performance of Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable – an opera which musically he despised – in order to hear Lind’s British debut, in the role of Alice. The music critic Henry Chorley, who was with him, wrote “I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn, whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind’s talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if a load of anxiety had been taken off his mind. His attachment to Mlle. Lind’s genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success”.^[83]

Upon Mendelssohn’s death Lind wrote, “[He was] the only person who brought fulfillment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again”. In 1849 she established the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, which makes an award to a British resident young composer every two years in Mendelssohn’s memory.^[78] The first winner of the scholarship was Arthur Sullivan, then aged 14, in 1856. In 1869 Lind erected a plaque in Mendelssohn’s memory at his birthplace in Hamburg.

Mendelssohn as musician

See also: List of compositions by Felix Mendelssohn and Category:Compositions by Felix Mendelssohn

Composer

Richard Taruskin points out that, although Mendelssohn produced works of extraordinary mastery at a very early age,

he never outgrew his precocious youthful style. […] He remained stylistically conservative […] feeling no need to attract attention with a display of ‘revolutionary’ novelty. Throughout his short career he remained comfortably faithful to the musical status quo – that is, the “classical” forms, as they were already thought of by his time. His version of romanticism, already evident in his earliest works, consisted in musical “pictorialism” of a fairly conventional, objective nature (though exquisitely wrought).^[84]

In this way he differed substantially from contemporaries such as Wagner and Berlioz, and even from Schumann and Chopin. The absence of real stylistic ‘development’ during Mendelssohn’s career makes it appropriate to consider his works by genre, rather than in order of composition.

Early works

The young Mendelssohn was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, traces of whom can be seen in the 12 early string symphonies, which were mainly written for performance in the Mendelssohn household and not published or publicly performed until long after his death. He wrote these from 1821 to 1823, when he was between the ages of 12 and 14.

Mendelssohn’s first published works were his three piano quartets, (1822–1825; Op. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 in F minor and Op. 3 in B minor); but his capacities are especially revealed in a group of works of his early maturity:

• the String Octet (1825)
• the Overture A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826), which in its finished form also owes much to the influence of Adolf Bernhard Marx, at the time a close friend of Mendelssohn.
• the two early quartets: Op. 12 (1829) and Op. 13 (1827), which both show a remarkable grasp of the techniques and ideas of Beethoven’s last quartets that Mendelssohn had been closely studying^[85]

These four works show an intuitive grasp of form, harmony, counterpoint, colour, and compositional technique, which justify claims frequently made that Mendelssohn’s precocity exceeded even that of Mozart in its intellectual grasp.^[86]

Symphonies

Mendelssohn’s mature symphonies are numbered approximately in the order that they were published, rather than the order in which they were composed. The order of actual composition is: 1, 5, 4, 2, 3. The placement of No. 3 in this sequence is problematic because he worked on it for over a decade, starting sketches for it soon after beginning work on No. 5, but completing it after both Nos. 5 and 4.

The Symphony No. 1 in C minor for full-scale orchestra was written in 1824, when Mendelssohn was aged 15. This work is experimental, showing the influences of Beethoven and Carl Maria von Weber.^[87] Mendelssohn conducted this symphony on his first visit to London in 1829, with the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society. For the third movement he substituted an orchestration of the Scherzo from his Octet. In this form the piece was a success, and laid the foundations of his British reputation.^[88]

During 1829 and 1830 Mendelssohn wrote his Symphony No. 5, known as the Reformation. It celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Lutheran Church. Mendelssohn remained dissatisfied with the work and did not allow publication of the score.^[89]

The Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3 in A minor) was written and revised intermittently between 1829 (when Mendelssohn noted down the opening theme during a visit to Holyrood Palace)^[90] and 1842, when it was given its premiere in Leipzig, the last of his symphonies to be performed in public. This piece evokes Scotland’s atmosphere in the ethos of Romanticism, but does not employ any identified Scottish folk melodies.^[91]

Mendelssohn’s travels in Italy inspired him to write the Symphony No. 4 in A major, known as the Italian Symphony. Mendelssohn conducted the premiere in 1833, but did not allow the score to be published during his lifetime, as he continually sought to rewrite it.^[92]

Mendelssohn wrote the symphony-cantata Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise) in B-flat major, posthumously named Symphony No. 2, to mark the celebrations in Leipzig of the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press; the first performance took place on 25 June 1840.^[93]

Other orchestral music

Trumpet part, including main theme, of the Wedding March from Mendelssohn’s Op. 61

Mendelssohn wrote the concert Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) in 1830, inspired by visits to Scotland around the end of the 1820s. He visited Fingal’s Cave, on the Hebridean isle of Staffa, as part of his Grand Tour of Europe, and was so impressed that he scribbled the opening theme of the overture on the spot, including it in a letter he wrote home the same evening.

Throughout his career he wrote a number of other concert overtures. Those most frequently played today include an overture to Ruy Blas, commissioned for a charity performance of Victor Hugo‘s drama, which Mendelssohn hated; Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt), inspired by a pair of poems by Goethe; and The Fair Melusine.

The incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Op. 61), including the well-known Wedding March, was written in 1843, seventeen years after the overture.

Opera

Mendelssohn wrote some Singspiels for family performance in his youth. His opera Die beiden Neffen (The Two Nephews) was rehearsed for him on his 15th birthday.^[94] 1829 saw Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde (Son and Stranger or Return of the Roamer), a comedy of mistaken identity written in honor of his parents’ silver anniversary and unpublished during his lifetime. In 1825 he wrote a more sophisticated work, Die Hochzeit des Camacho (Camacho’s Wedding), based on an episode in Don Quixote, for public consumption. It was produced in Berlin in 1827, but coolly received. Mendelssohn left the theatre before the conclusion of the first performance, and subsequent performances were cancelled.^[95]

Although he never abandoned the idea of composing a full opera, and considered many subjects – including that of the Nibelung saga later adapted by Wagner – he never wrote more than a few pages of sketches for any project. In Mendelssohn’s last years the opera manager Benjamin Lumley tried to contract him to write an opera from Shakespeare’s The Tempest on a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and even announced it as forthcoming in 1847, the year of Mendelssohn’s death.^[96] The libretto was eventually set by Fromental Halévy. At his death Mendelssohn left some sketches for an opera on the story of the Lorelei.

Concertos

Violin Concerto op.64, main theme of second movement

The Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844), written for Ferdinand David, has become one of the most popular of all of Mendelssohn’s compositions. David, who had worked closely with Mendelssohn during the piece’s preparation, gave the premiere of the concerto on his Guarneri violin.^[97]

Mendelssohn also wrote a lesser-known, early concerto for violin and strings in D minor (1822); four piano concertos (“no. 0” in A minor, 1822; 1 in G minor, Op. 25, 1831; 2 in D minor, Op. 40, 1837; and 3 in E minor, Op. posth., a fragment from 1844); two concertos for two pianos and orchestra, E major (MWV O5), which he wrote at 15, and A-flat major (MWV O6), at 17; and another double concerto, for violin and piano (1823). In addition, there are several single-movement works for soloist and orchestra. Those for piano are the Rondo Brillante, Op. 29, of 1834; the Capriccio Brillante, Op. 22, of 1832; and the Serenade and Allegro Giocoso Op. 43, of 1838. He also wrote two concertinos (Konzertstücke), Opp. 113 and 114, originally for clarinet, basset horn and piano; Op. 113 was orchestrated by the composer.^[98]

Chamber music

Mendelssohn’s mature output contains numerous chamber works, many of which display an emotional intensity lacking in some of his larger works. In particular, his String Quartet No. 6, the last of his string quartets and his last major work – written following the death of his sister Fanny – is both powerful and eloquent. Other mature works include two other string quintets; sonatas for the clarinet, cello, viola and violin; and two piano trios. For the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Mendelssohn uncharacteristically took the advice of his fellow composer, Ferdinand Hiller, and rewrote the piano part in a more romantic, “Schumannesque” style, considerably heightening its effect.^[99]

Choral works

 Part of the overture to ‘Elijah’ arranged by Mendelssohn for piano duet (manuscript in the Library of Congress)

Mendelssohn’s two large biblical oratorios, St Paul in 1836 and Elijah in 1846, are greatly influenced by Bach. His unfinished oratorio, Christus, consists of a recitative, a chorus “There Shall a Star Come out of Jacob,” and a male trio; the chorus is sometimes performed.

Strikingly different is the more overtly romantic Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night), a setting for chorus and orchestra of a ballad by Goethe describing pagan rituals of the Druids in the Harz mountains in the early days of Christianity. This remarkable score has been seen by the scholar Heinz-Klaus Metzger as a “Jewish protest against the domination of Christianity”.^[100]

Mendelssohn also wrote many smaller-scale sacred works for unaccompanied choir and for choir with organ. Most are written in or translated into English, and remain highly popular. Amongst the most famous is Hear My Prayer, whose second half contains “O for the Wings of a Dove,” which became extremely popular as a separate item. The piece is written for full choir, organ, and a treble or soprano soloist who has many challenging and extended solo passages. As such, it is a particular favourite for choirboys in churches and cathedrals and has frequently been recorded as a treble solo. Mendelssohn’s biographer Todd comments “The very popularity of the anthem in England […] later exposed it to charges of superficiality from those contemptuous of Victorian mores“.^[101]

The hymn tune Mendelssohn – an adaptation by William Hayman Cummings of a melody from Mendelssohn’s cantata Festgesang (Festive Hymn) – is the standard tune for Charles Wesley‘s popular hymn Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. This extract from an originally secular 1840s composition, which Mendelssohn felt unsuited to sacred music,^[93] is ubiquitous at Christmas.

Songs

Mendelssohn wrote many songs, both for solo voice and for duet, with piano. Many of these are simple, or slightly modified, strophic settings. Some, including Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (On Wings of Song), became popular. Nine of Mendelssohn’s songs, including Auf Flügeln des Gesanges and Neue Liebe (New Love, set to a poem by Heinrich Heine) were transcribed for piano solo, in a virtuoso style, by Franz Liszt.

A number of songs written by Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny originally appeared under her brother’s name; this may have been partly due to the prejudice of the family, and partly to her own retiring nature.^[102]

Piano music

Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte), eight cycles each containing six lyric pieces (two published posthumously), remain his most famous solo piano compositions. They became standard parlour recital items even during the composer’s lifetime,^[103] and their overwhelming popularity has itself caused many critics to underrate their musical value.^[104] Other composers who were inspired to produce similar pieces of their own, included Charles-Valentin Alkan (his five sets of Chants, each ending with a barcarole), Anton Rubinstein, Ignaz Moscheles, and Edvard Grieg.

Other notable piano pieces by Mendelssohn include his Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 (1841), the Rondo Capriccioso, the set of six Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35 (written between 1832 and 1837), and the Seven Characteristic Pieces, Op. 7 (1827).

Organ music

 Advertisement for the Organ Sonatas in the Musical World, 24 July 1845

Mendelssohn played the organ and composed for it from the age of 11 to his death. His primary organ works are the Three Preludes and Fugues, Op. 37 (1837), and the Six Sonatas, Op. 65 (1845), of which Eric Werner wrote “next to Bach’s works, Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonatas belong to the required repertory of all organists”.^[105]

Performer

Mendelssohn was renowned during his lifetime as a keyboard performer, both on the piano and on the organ. One of his obituarists noted:

First and chiefest we esteem his pianoforte-playing, with its amazing elasticity of touch, rapidity, and power; next his scientific and vigorous organ playing […] his triumphs on these instruments are fresh in public recollection.^[106]

In his concerts and recitals Mendelssohn performed both his own works and those of his predecessor German composers, notably works of Weber, Beethoven and (on the organ) J.S. Bach.^[107]

Both in private and public performances, Mendelssohn was also renowned for his improvisations. On one occasion in London, when asked by the soprano Maria Malibran after a recital to extemporise, he created a piece which included the melodies of all the songs she had sung. The music publisher Victor Novello who was present remarked ‘He has done some things that seem to me impossible, even after I have heard them done.’^[108] At another recital in 1837, where Mendelssohn played the piano for a singer, Robert Schumann ignored the soprano and wrote ‘Mendelssohn accompanied like a God’.^[109]

Conductor

Mendelssohn was a noted conductor, both of his own works and of other composers. At his London debut in 1829, he was noted for his innovatory use of a baton (then a great novelty).^[110] But his novelty also extended to taking great care over tempo, dynamics and the orchestral players themselves – both rebuking them when they were recalcitrant and praising them when they satisfied him.^[111] It was his success at conducting at the Lower Rhine music festival of 1836 that led to him taking his first paid professional position as director at Düsseldorf. Amongst those who appreciated Mendelssohn’s conducting was Hector Berlioz, who in 1843, invited to Leipzig, exchanged batons with Mendelssohn, writing “When the Great Spirit sends us to hunt in the land of souls, may our warriors hang our tomahawks side by side at the door of the council chamber”.^[112] At Leipzig, Mendelssohn led the Gewandhaus orchestra to great heights; although concentrating on the great composers of the past (already becoming canonised as the ‘classics’) he also included new music by Schumann, Berlioz, Gade and many others (including of course his own music).^[113] One critic who was not impressed however was Richard Wagner; he accused Mendelssohn of using tempos in his performances of Beethoven symphonies that were far too fast.^[114]

Editor

Mendelssohn’s interest in baroque music was not limited to the Bach St Matthew Passion which he had revived in 1829. He was concerned in preparing and editing such music, whether for performance or for publication, to be as close as possible to the original intentions of the composers, including wherever possible a close study of early editions and manuscripts. This could lead him into conflict with publishers; for instance, his edition of Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt for the London Handel Society (1845) evoked an often contentious correspondence, with Mendelssohn refusing for example to add dynamics where not given by Handel, or to add parts for trombones. Mendelssohn also edited a number of Bach’s works for organ, and apparently discussed with Robert Schumann the possibility of producing a complete Bach edition.^[115]

Teacher

Although Mendelssohn attributed great importance to musical education, and made a substantial commitment to the Conservatoire he founded in Leipzig, he did not greatly enjoy teaching and undertook only a very few private pupils; these he took only if he believed they had notable qualities or potential.^[116] Amongst such students were composer William Sterndale Bennett, the pianist Camille-Marie Stamaty, the violinist and composer Julius Eichberg, and Walther von Goethe (grandson of the poet).^[117] At the Leipzig Conservatoire Mendelssohn taught classes in composition and ensemble playing.^[118]

Reputation and legacy

The first century

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Mendelssohn monument in 1900 (removed in 1936)

In the immediate wake of Mendelssohn’s death, he was mourned both in Germany and England. However, the conservative strain in Mendelssohn, which set him apart from some of his more flamboyant contemporaries, bred a corollary condescension amongst some of them toward his music. Mendelssohn’s relations with Berlioz, Liszt and others had been uneasy and equivocal. Listeners who had raised questions about Mendelssohn’s talent included Heinrich Heine, who wrote in 1836 after hearing the oratorio St. Paul that his work was “characterized by a great, strict, very serious seriousness, a determined, almost importunate tendency to follow classical models, the finest, cleverest calculation, sharp intelligence and, finally, complete lack of naïveté. But is there in art any originality of genius without naïveté?”^[119][120]

Such criticism of Mendelssohn for his very ability – which could be characterised negatively as facility – was taken to further lengths by Richard Wagner. Mendelssohn’s success, his popularity and his Jewish origins irked Wagner sufficiently to damn Mendelssohn with faint praise, three years after his death, in an anti-Jewish pamphlet Das Judenthum in der Musik:

[Mendelssohn] has shown us that a Jew may have the amplest store of specific talents, may own the finest and most varied culture, the highest and tenderest sense of honour – yet without all these pre-eminences helping him, were it but one single time, to call forth in us that deep, that heart-searching effect which we await from art […] The washiness and the whimsicality of our present musical style has been […] pushed to its utmost pitch by Mendelssohn’s endeavour to speak out a vague, an almost nugatory Content as interestingly and spiritedly as possible.^[121]

This was the start of a movement to downgrade Mendelssohn’s status as a composer which lasted almost a century, the echoes of which still survive today in critiques of Mendelssohn’s supposed mediocrity.^{[n 6]}

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche expressed consistent admiration for Mendelssohn’s music, in contrast to his general scorn for “Teutonic” Romanticism:

At any rate, the whole music of romanticism [e.g. Schumann and Wagner] … was second-rate music from the very start, and real musicians took little notice of it. Things were different with Felix Mendelssohn, that halcyon master who, thanks to his easier, purer, happier soul, was quickly honored and just as quickly forgotten, as a lovely incident in German music.^[122]

Some readers, however, have interpreted Nietzsche’s characterization of Mendelssohn as a ‘lovely incident’ as condescending.^[123]

In the 20th century the Nazi regime and its Reichsmusikkammer cited Mendelssohn’s Jewish origin in banning performance and publication of his works, even asking Nazi-approved composers to rewrite incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Carl Orff obliged.)^[124] Under the Nazis, “Mendelssohn was presented as a dangerous ‘accident’ of music history, who played a decisive role in rendering German music in the 19th century ‘degenerate’.”^[125] The German Mendelssohn Scholarship for students at the Leipzig Conservatoire was discontinued in 1934 (and not revived until 1963). The monument dedicated to Mendelssohn erected in Leipzig in 1892 was removed by the Nazis in 1936. A replacement was erected in 2008.^[126] His grave however remained unmolested during the National Socialist years.^[127]

 The reconstructed Mendelssohn monument near Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church, dedicated in 2008^[128]

Mendelssohn’s reputation in England remained high throughout the 19th century. Prince Albert inscribed (in German), a libretto for the oratorio Elijah in 1847:

To the noble artist who, surrounded by the Baal-worship of false art, has been able, like a second Elijah, through genius and study, to remain true to the service of true art.^[129]

In 1851 an adulatory novel by the teenaged Sarah Sheppard was published, entitled Charles Auchester.^[130] The book features Mendelssohn as the “Chevalier Seraphael”, and remained in print for nearly 80 years. In 1854 Queen Victoria requested that the Crystal Palace include a statue of Mendelssohn when it was rebuilt.^{[n 7]} Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream was played at the wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Victoria, The Princess Royal, to Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia in 1858, and it remains popular at marriage ceremonies.^[131] Mendelssohn’s sacred choral music, particularly the smaller-scale works, remains popular in the choral tradition of the Church of England. However many critics, including Bernard Shaw, began to condemn Mendelssohn’s music for its association with Victorian cultural insularity; Shaw in particular complained of the composer’s “kid-glove gentility, his conventional sentimentality, and his despicable oratorio-mongering”.^[132] In the 1950s the scholar Wilfrid Mellers complained of Mendelssohn’s “spurious religiosity which reflected the element of unconscious humbug in our morality”.^[133]

A contrasting opinion came from the pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni, who considered Mendelssohn “a master of undisputed greatness” and “an heir of Mozart”.^[134] Busoni and other pianists such as Anton Rubinstein^[135] and Alkan^[136] all regularly included Mendelssohn’s piano works in their recitals.

Modern opinions

 German postage stamp issued on the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth

Charles Rosen in a chapter on Mendelssohn in his 1995 book The Romantic Generation both praises and criticizes the composer, calling him a “genius” with a “profound” comprehension of Beethoven and “the greatest child prodigy the history of Western music has ever known”. Although Rosen feels that in his later years, without losing his craft or genius, the composer “renounced … his daring”, he calls Mendelssohn’s relatively late Violin Concerto in E minor “the most successful synthesis of the Classical concerto tradition and the Romantic virtuoso form”. Rosen calls the Fugue in E minor (later included in Mendelssohn’s Op. 35 for piano) a “masterpiece”; but in the same paragraph calls Mendelssohn “the inventor of religious kitsch in music”.^[137]

Such opinions are evidence of how a more nuanced appreciation of Mendelssohn’s work has developed over the last 50 years, together with the publication of a number of modern biographies placing his achievements in context.^[138] Mercer-Taylor comments on the irony that “this broad-based reevaluation of Mendelssohn’s music is made possible, in part, by a general disintegration of the idea of a musical canon”, an idea which Mendelssohn “as a conductor, pianist and scholar” had done so much to establish.^[139]

A large portion of Mendelssohn’s 750 works still remained unpublished in the 1960s, but most of them have now been made available.^[140] A scholarly edition of Mendelssohn’s complete works and correspondence is in preparation but is expected to take many years to complete, and will be in excess of 150 volumes. This includes a modern and fully researched catalogue of his works, the Mendelssohn-Werkverzeichnis (MWV).^[141] All of Mendelssohn’s oeuvre – including the most popular works such as the E minor Violin Concerto and the Italian Symphony – has been explored more deeply, and prior concepts about the Victorian conventionality of the oratorio Elijah have been shed.^{[n 8]} The frequently intense and dramatic world of Mendelssohn’s chamber works has been more fully recognized. Virtually all of Mendelssohn’s published works are now available on CD, and his works are frequently heard in the concert hall and on broadcasts.^[142] An English Heritage blue plaque commemorating Mendelssohn was placed at 4 Hobart Place in Belgravia, London, in 2013.^[143] As the critic H. L. Mencken concluded, if Mendelssohn indeed missed true greatness, he missed it “by a hair”.^[144]

historic musical bits: Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 / Bernstein · New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 / Bernstein · New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Canal de Josep489

Published on Oct 16, 2012 / 957,745 views

Gran presentación del director norteamericano Leonard Bernstein, conduciendo a la Orquesta Filarmónica de New York interpretando la Sinfonía No. 5 de Dmitri Shostakovich en la localidad japonesa de Bunka Kainan, Tokio en el año 1979.

Great presentation of american conductor Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic, playing the Symphony No. 5 of Dmitri Shostakovich at a 1979 live perfomance on Bunka Kainan, Tokyo, Japan.

http://www.kultur.com/Bernstein-In-Ja…

historic musical bits: Stravinsky|The Firebird / Gergiev · Vienna Philarmonic · Salzburg Festival 2000 (Wikipedia article on the musical piece

Stravinsky: The Firebird / Gergiev · Vienna Philarmonic · Salzburg Festival 2000

Canal de Josep489

Uploaded on Nov 6, 2011 / 1,452,810 views

Gran presentación de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Viena, conducida por el director ruso Valery Gergiev en [a mi juicio personal] una de las más grandes y magníficas interpretaciones del Pájaro de Fuego (L’Oiseau de feu) de Igor Stravinsky, que se tenga conocimiento, durante el Festival de Salzburgo 2000.

Great presentation of the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by the russian Maestro Valery Gergiev, in one of the most powerful and greatest presentation of The Firebird (L’Oiseau de feu) of Igor Stravinsky at Salzburg Festival 2000.

(C) Deusche Grammophon, ORF/RM Associates Limited , Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society, UMPG Publishing and all their respective owners. There’s no personal work here.

(C) Deutsche Grammophon, ORF/RM Associates Limited et toutes leurs propriétaires respectifs.
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The Firebird

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

This article is about the ballet to Stravinsky’s 1910 music. For other uses of the word, see Firebird.

The Firebird
Léon Bakst: Firebird, Ballerina, 1910
Choreographer	Michel Fokine
Music	Igor Stravinsky
Based on	Russian folk tales
Premiere	25 June 1910 Paris Opera
Original ballet company	Ballets Russes
Characters	The Firebird Prince Ivan Tsarevich Koschei, the Immortal The Beautiful Tsarevna
Design	Aleksandr Golovin (sets) Léon Bakst (costumes)
Created for	Tamara Karsavina, Michel Fokine

The Firebird (French: L’Oiseau de feu; Russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa) is a ballet by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes, with choreography by Michel Fokine. The scenario by Alexandre Benois and Michel Fokine is based on Russian fairy tales of the magical glowing bird that can be both a blessing and a curse to its owner. At the premiere on 25 June 1910 in Paris, the work was an instant success with both audience and critics.

The ballet has historic significance not only as Stravinsky’s breakthrough piece, but also as the beginning of the collaboration between Diaghilev and Stravinsky that would also produce Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, Pulcinella and others.

Background

 Stravinsky, sketched by Picasso

Igor Stravinsky was the son of Fyodor Stravinsky, the principal bass at the Imperial Opera, St Petersburg, and Anna, née Kholodovskaya, a competent amateur singer and pianist from an old-established Russian family. Fyodor’s association with many of the leading figures in Russian music, including Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Mussorgsky, meant that Igor grew up in an intensely musical home.^[1] In 1901 Stravinsky began to study law at St Petersburg University, while taking private lessons in harmony and counterpoint. Having impressed Rimsky-Korsakov with some of his early compositional efforts, Stravinsky worked under the guidance of the older composer. By the time of his mentor’s death in 1908 Stravinsky had produced several works, among them a Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor (1903–04), a Symphony in E-flat major (1907), which he catalogued as “Opus 1”, and in 1908 a short orchestral piece, Feu d’artifice (“Fireworks”).^[2][3]

In 1909 Feu d’artifice was performed at a concert in St Petersburg. Among those in the audience was the impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who at that time was planning to introduce Russian music and art to western audiences.^[4] Like Stravinsky, Diaghilev had initially studied law, but had gravitated via journalism into the theatrical world.^[5] In 1907 he began his theatrical career by presenting five concerts in Paris; in the following year he introduced Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov. In 1909, still in Paris, he launched the Ballets Russes, initially with Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. To present these works Diaghilev recruited the choreographer Michel Fokine, the designer Léon Bakst and the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Diaghilev’s intention, however, was to produce new works in a distinctively 20th-century style, and he was looking for fresh compositional talent.^[6]

Genesis and premiere

The ballet was the first of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes productions to have an all-original score composed for it. Alexandre Benois wrote in 1910 that he had two years earlier suggested to Diaghilev the production of a Russian nationalist ballet,^[7] an idea all the more attractive given both the newly awakened French passion for Russian dance and also the ruinously expensive costs of staging opera. The inspiration of mixing the mythical Firebird with the unrelated Russian tale of Koschei the Deathless possibly came from a popular child’s verse by Yakov Polonsky, “A Winter’s Journey” (Zimniy put, 1844), which includes the lines:

And in my dreams I see myself on a wolf’s back
Riding along a forest path
To do battle with a sorcerer-tsar (Koschei)
In that land where a princess sits under lock and key,
Pining behind massive walls.
There gardens surround a palace all of glass;
There Firebirds sing by night
And peck at golden fruit.^[8]

Benois collaborated with the choreographer Michel Fokine, drawing from several books of Russian fairy tales including the collection of Alexander Afanasyev, to concoct a story involving the Firebird and the evil magician Koschei.

Diaghilev approached the Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov (1855–1914) to write the music.^[9] There is no evidence, however, despite the much-repeated story that Lyadov was slow to start composing the work, that he ever accepted the commission to begin with.^[10] There is evidence to suggest that Nikolai Tcherepnin had previously started composing music for the ballet—music which became The Enchanted Kingdom—but that Tcherepnin, for reasons unexplained, withdrew from the project after completing only one scene.^[11] Diaghilev eventually transferred the commission to the 28-year-old Stravinsky.

The ballet was premiered by the Ballets Russes in Paris on 25 June 1910, conducted by Gabriel Pierné.^[12] Even before the first performance, the company sensed a huge success in the making, and every performance of the ballet in that first production, as Karsavina recalled, met a “crescendo” of success.^[13] The critics were ecstatic, praising the ballet for what they saw as an ideal symbiosis between decor, choreography and music: “The old-gold vermiculatino of the fantastic back-cloth seems to have been invented to a formula identical with that of the shimmering web of the orchestra” enthused Henri Ghéon in Nouvelle revue française (1910).^[14] The scenery was designed by Alexander Golovine and the costumes by Léon Bakst.

For Stravinsky, it was a major breakthrough both with the public and with the critics, Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi in particular hailing Stravinsky as the legitimate heir to The Mighty Handful.^[15] The Firebird’s success also secured Stravinsky’s position as Diaghilev’s star composer, and there were immediate talks of a sequel,^[16] leading to the composition of Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. “Mark him well—said Sergei Diaghilev to Tamara Karsavina, who was dancing the title role—he is a man on the eve of celebrity…”^[17]

Stravinsky used several ideas from works by Rimsky-Korsakov in his score. Koschei’s “Infernal Dance” borrows the highly chromatic scale Rimsky-Korsakov created for the character Chernobog in his opera Mlada. The Khorovod, meanwhile, uses the same folk tune Rimsky-Korsakov presented in his Sinfonietta, Op. 31.

Subsequent ballet performances

Main article: List of Firebird casts

The Firebird has been restaged by many choreographers, including George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins (co-coreographers), Graeme Murphy, Alexei Ratmansky, and Yuri Possokhov.

The ballet was revived in 1934 by Colonel Wassily de Basil‘s company, the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, in a production staged in London, using the original decor and costumes from Diaghilev’s company.^[18] The company subsequently performed the ballet in Australia, during the 1936–37 tour.^[19]

The work was staged by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet in 1949 with Maria Tallchief as the Firebird, with scenery and costumes by Marc Chagall, and was kept in the repertory until 1965. The ballet was restaged by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins in 1970 for the New York City Ballet with elaborated scenery by Chagall, and with new costumes by Karinska based on Chagall’s for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival that introduced Gelsey Kirkland as the Firebird.^[20]

The Mariinsky Ballet performed the original choreography at Covent Garden in August 2011, as part of their Fokine retrospective.

The National Ballet of Canada created a version of the Firebird for television, occasionally rebroadcast, in which special effects were used to make it appear that the Firebird is in flight.

On 29 March 2012, the American Ballet Theatre premiered the ballet with choreography by Alexei Ratmansky at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California, starring Misty Copeland.

Plot summary

The ballet centers on the journey of its hero, Prince Ivan. While hunting in the forest, he strays into the magical realm of Koschei the Immortal, whose immortality is preserved by keeping his soul in a magic egg hidden in a casket. Ivan chases and captures the Firebird and is about to kill her; she begs for her life and he spares her. As a token of thanks she offers him an enchanted feather which he can use to summon her should he be in dire need.

Prince Ivan then meets thirteen princesses who are under the spell of Koschei and falls in love with one of them. The next day, Ivan confronts the magician and eventually they begin quarrelling. When Koschei sends his minions after Ivan, he summons the Firebird. She intervenes, bewitching the monsters and making them dance an elaborate, energetic dance (the “Infernal Dance”). The creatures and Koschei then fall into a deep sleep. While they sleep, the Firebird directs Ivan to a tree stump where the casket with the egg containing Koschei’s soul is hidden. Ivan destroys the egg and with the spell broken, the magical creatures that Koschei held captive are freed and the palace disappears. All of the “real” beings, including the princesses, awaken and with one final hint of the Firebird’s music (though in Fokine’s choreography she makes no appearance in that final scene on-stage), celebrate their victory.

Order of numbers in the 1910 ballet score

Most common numbers separation in most recordings I. Introduction First Tableau II. Le Jardin enchanté de Kachtcheï (The Enchanted Garden of Kastchei) III. Apparition de l’Oiseau de feu, poursuivi par Ivan Tsarévitch (Appearance of the Firebird, Pursued by Prince Ivan) IV. Danse de l’Oiseau de feu (Dance of the Firebird) V. Capture de l’Oiseau de feu par Ivan Tsarévitch (Capture of the Firebird by Prince Ivan) VI. Supplications de l’Oiseau de feu (Supplication of the Firebird) VII. Apparition des treize princesses enchantées (Appearance of the Thirteen Enchanted Princesses) VIII. Jeu des princesses avec les pommes d’or (The Princesses’ Game with the Golden Apples). Scherzo IX. Brusque apparition d’Ivan Tsarévitch (Sudden Appearance of Prince Ivan) X. Khorovode (Ronde) des princesses (Khorovod (Round Dance) of the Princesses) XI. Lever du jour (Daybreak) XII. Ivan Tsarévitch pénètre dans le palais de Kachtcheï (Prince Ivan Penetrates Kastchei’s Palace) XIII. Carillon Féerique, apparition des monstres-gardiens de Kachtcheï et capture d’Ivan Tsarévitch (Magic Carillon, Appearance of Kastchei’s Monster Guardians, and Capture of Prince Ivan) XIV. Arrivée de Kachtcheï l’Immortel (Arrival of Kastchei the Immortal) XV. Dialogue de Kachtcheï avec Ivan Tsarévitch (Dialogue of Kastchei and Prince Ivan) XVI. Intercession des princesses (Intercession of the Princesses) XVII. Apparition de l’Oiseau de feu (Appearance of the Firebird) XVIII. Danse de la suite de Kachtcheï, enchantée par l’Oiseau de feu (Dance of Kastchei’ Retinue, Enchanted by the Firebird) XIX. Danse infernale de tous les sujets de Kachtcheï (Infernal Dance of All Kastchei’s Subjects) XX. Berceuse (L’Oiseau de feu) (Lullaby) XXI. Réveil de Kachtcheï (Kastchei’s Awakening) XXII. Mort de Kachtcheï (Kastchei’s Death) XXIII. Profondes ténèbres (Profound Darkness) Second Tableau XXIV. Disparition du palais et des sortilèges de Kachtcheï, animation des chevaliers pétrifiés, allégresse générale (Disappearance of Kastchei’s Palace and Magical Creations, Return to Life of the Petrified Knights, General Rejoicing)

Numbers separated by Stravinsky himself I. Introduction First Tableau II. Le Jardin enchanté de Kachtcheï (The Enchanted Garden of Kastchei) III. Apparition de l’Oiseau de feu, poursuivi par Ivan Tsarévitch (Appearance of the Firebird, Pursued by Prince Ivan) IV. Danse de l’Oiseau de feu (Dance of the Firebird) V. Capture de l’Oiseau de feu par Ivan Tsarévitch (Capture of the Firebird by Prince Ivan) VI. Supplications de l’Oiseau de feu (Supplication of the Firebird) – Apparition des treize princesses enchantées (Appearance of the Thirteen Enchanted Princesses) VII. Jeu des princesses avec les pommes d’or (The Princesses’ Game with the Golden Apples). Scherzo VIII. Brusque apparition d’Ivan Tsarévitch (Sudden Appearance of Prince Ivan) IX. Khorovode (Ronde) des princesses (Khorovod (Round Dance) of the Princesses) X. Lever du jour (Daybreak) – Ivan Tsarévitch pénètre dans le palais de Kachtcheï (Prince Ivan Penetrates Kastchei’s Palace) XI. Carillon Féerique, apparition des monstres-gardiens de Kachtcheï et capture d’Ivan Tsarévitch (Magic Carillon, Appearance of Kastchei’s Monster Guardians, and Capture of Prince Ivan) – Arrivée de Kachtcheï l’Immortel (Arrival of Kastchei the Immortal) – Dialogue de Kachtcheï avec Ivan Tsarévitch (Dialogue of Kastchei and Prince Ivan) – Intercession des princesses (Intercession of the Princesses) – Apparition de l’Oiseau de feu (Appearance of the Firebird) XII. Danse de la suite de Kachtcheï, enchantée par l’Oiseau de feu (Dance of Kastchei’ Retinue, Enchanted by the Firebird) XIII. Danse infernale de tous les sujets de Kachtcheï (Infernal Dance of All Kastchei’s Subjects) – Berceuse (L’Oiseau de feu) (Lullaby) – Réveil de Kachtcheï (Kastchei’s Awakening) – Mort de Kachtcheï (Kastchei’s Death) – Profondes ténèbres (Profound Darkness) Second Tableau XIV. Disparition du palais et des sortilèges de Kachtcheï, animation des chevaliers pétrifiés, allégresse générale (Disappearance of Kastchei’s Palace and Magical Creations, Return to Life of the Petrified Knights, General Rejoicing)

Orchestration: 4 flutes (3rd & 4th also Piccolo); 3 oboes; cor anglais; 3 clarinets (3rd also D Clarinet); bass clarinet; 3 bassoons (2nd also 2nd contrabassoon); contrabassoon; 4 horns; 3 trumpets; 3 trombones; tuba; 3 trumpets (onstage); 4 Wagner tubas (two tenor and two bass, onstage); timpani; bass drum; cymbals; triangle; tambourine; tamtam; tubular bells; glockenspiel; xylophone; celesta; 3 harps; pianoforte; strings.

The Firebird ballet suites

 

Ivan Bilibin. A warrior — costume design for 1931 performance of The Firebird

Besides the complete 50-minute ballet score of 1909–10 (written for a very large orchestra including quadruple woodwind and three harps, as well as a piano), there are three shorter suites arranged by the composer himself for concert performance by a smaller orchestra, which date from 1911, 1919 and 1945. While the 1919 suite remains the most well known and often played, the 1945 version contains the most music from the original ballet score (partly motivated by the need to secure copyright in a USA that did not recognize European agreements).

There is no consensus for the precise naming of either the different versions, or of the movements, or the numbering of the movements. Different recordings tend to follow different naming conventions. While this partly might be due to the English translation from the original French names, some recordings of the orchestral suites even avoid referring to the tale by just calling the movements by their tempo markings (i.e., Adagio, Allegro, etc.) or the name of the musical form (Scherzo, Rondo, etc.).

Many adaptations of The Firebird Suite for concert band, marching band and drum corps have been made throughout the years.

Order of movements in the 1911 Suite

“Concert suite for orchestra No. 1”

1. Introduction – Kashchei’s Enchanted Garden – Dance of the Firebird
2. Supplication of the Firebird
3. The Princesses’ Game with Apples
4. The Princesses’ Khorovod (Rondo, round dance)
5. Infernal dance of all Kashchei’s Subjects

Orchestration: essentially as per the original ballet—the score was printed from the same plates, with only the new endings for the movements being newly engraved.

Some recordings will list movement no. 1 as three movements.

In 1928, Stravinsky conducted a group of Parisian musicians in a recording of this suite for Columbia Records, which was released on a set of 12-inch 78-rpm discs.

The Kalmus orchestral score for this suite is dated “1910”, while Luck’s Music publishes this version as “1912”

The 2005 remastered edition on Sony with conductor Pierre Boulez calls it “Ballet suite for orchestra”, while in 1991 Sony called it “Suite, 1910”.

Order of movements in the 1919 Suite

“Concert suite for orchestra No. 2”

	Infernal Dance of Kastchei   Menu       0:00   The “Infernal Dance of Kastchei” performed in 1994 by the United States Marine Corps Band
Problems playing this file? See media help.

1. Introduction—The Firebird and its dance—The Firebird’s variation
2. The Princesses’ Khorovod (Rondo, round dance)
3. Infernal dance of King Kashchei
4. Berceuse (Lullaby)
5. Finale

Orchestration: 2 Flutes (2nd also Piccolo); 2 Oboes (2nd also English Horn for one measure); 2 Clarinets; 2 Bassoons; 4 Horns; 2 Trumpets; 3 Trombones; Tuba; Timpani; Bass Drum; Tambourine; Cymbals; Triangle; Xylophone; Harp; Pianoforte (also opt. Celesta); Strings.

Some recordings will list movement no. 1) as two or three movements. It is sometimes also referred to as a “Symphonic Suite”.

Order of movements in the 1945 Suite

“Ballet suite for orchestra”

1. Introduction—The Firebird and its dance—The Firebird’s variation
2. Pantomime I
3. Pas de deux: Firebird and Ivan Tsarevich
4. Pantomime II
5. Scherzo: Dance of the Princesses
6. Pantomime III
7. The Princesses’ Khorovod (Rondo, round dance)
8. Infernal dance of King Kashchei
9. Berceuse (Lullaby)
10. Finale

Orchestration: 2 Flutes (2nd also Piccolo); 2 Oboes; 2 Clarinets; 2 Bassoons; 4 Horns; 2 Trumpets; 3 Trombones; Tuba; Timpani; Bass Drum; Snare Drum; Tambourine; Cymbals; Triangle; Xylophone; Harp; Pianoforte; Strings.

Once again, some recordings will list movement no. 1) as three movements or may refer to this as a “Symphonic Suite”. Stravinsky recorded this suite in 1967, his last commercial recording for Columbia Records.

In popular culture

The numbers The Princesses’ Khorovod and The Infernal Dance of King Katscheï were used in Bruno Bozzetto‘s animated film Allegro Non Troppo. The segment visualizes a variant of the Adam and Eve story.^[21] However, in this version, both Adam and Eve refuse to eat the apple offered by the Serpent, who then swallows it himself. Falling asleep, he is immediately plunged into a nightmare where he is first tormented by fiery demons and then plagued by things that are supposed to corrupt mankind (sex, alcohol, money, material objects, drugs, violence); he also somehow grows arms and legs and is magicked into a suit and fedora. When he wakes up, he is still wearing the suit and hat; after telling Adam and Eve his dream in a fast-motion and incomprehensible fashion, he sheds the suit (losing his arms and legs but keeping the hat) and spits up the still-whole apple.

The chapter in the animated film Fantasia 2000 based on Stravinsky’s piece uses an abridged version (this can be most evidenced by a shortened Infernal Dance) of the 1919 suite to tell the story of the Spring Sprite and her companion, an elk. After a long winter, the Sprite is brought forth by the Elk and attempts to restore life to a forest but accidentally wakes the “Firebird” spirit of a nearby volcano. Angered, the Firebird proceeds to destroy the forest and seemingly the Sprite. She survives, but is initially despondent. With the Elk to comfort her, she quickly regains her confidence and restores the forest to its prior glory. The Fantasia 2000 Firebird chapter is considered an exercise in the theme of life-death-rebirth deities; the depiction of the Firebird in it as a violent, flaming volcanic spirit is not related to Stravinsky’s original theme.

Saviour Pirotta and Catherine Hyde’s picture book, Firebird, is based on the original stories that inspired the ballet. It was published by Templar in the UK and Candlewick Press in 2010 to celebrate the ballet’s centenary. It won an Aesop Accolade in the US and was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Award in the UK. The paperback was published in 2014.^[22]

The ending section of the ballet is closely associated with the progressive rock band Yes, who regularly used it as their “walk-on” music in concert in the 1970s. It was used in the opening ceremony of Sochi 2014 during the Cauldron Lighting segment.^[23]

 

 

historic musical bits: Itzhak Perlman – Pugnani Kreisler-Preludium and Allegro

Itzhak Perlman-Pugnani Kreisler-Preludium and Allegro

Mario Palermo

Uploaded on Jun 23, 2008/ 1,531,550 views

• Music

  • “Prelude and Allegro in the style of Pugnani” by Itzhak Perlman (Google Play)

Dream Children, Dorabella, and Carissima by Sir Edward Elgar

Gilda Tabarez

Uploaded on Aug 21, 2010

The beautiful music of Elgar set to images of children, flowers and pets.
1. Dream Children Op.43 : II Allegretto piacevole
2. Enigma Variations Op. 36 :X. Intermezzo: Dorabella (Dora Penny)
3. Excerpt from “Carissima”

great compositions/performances: Anne-Sophie Mutter – Brahms – Violin Sonata No 2 in A major, Op 100

Anne-Sophie Mutter – Brahms – Violin Sonata No 2 in A major, Op 100

Classical Vault 1

Published on Sep 28, 2013

Johannes Brahms
Violin Sonata No 2 in A major, Op 100

1 Allegro amabile
2 Andante tranquillo – Vivace
3 Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante)

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Lambert Orkis, piano
*********************************************************************

Violin Sonata No. 2 (Brahms)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100 (“Thun” or “Meistersinger”), by Johannes Brahms was written while spending the summer of 1886 in Thun in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.

It was a very fertile and refreshing time for Brahms. His friend the Swiss pastor and poet Josef Victor Widmann (1842–1911) lived in Berne and they visited each other. He was also visited by the poet Klaus Groth and the young German contralto Hermine Spies. Both Groth and Brahms were somewhat enamoured of Spies.^[1] He found himself so invigorated by the genial atmosphere and surroundings that he said the area was “so full of melodies that one has to be careful not to step on any”. In a short space of time, he produced, in addition to this violin sonata, the Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99, the Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101, and various songs.

The 2nd Violin Sonata is the shortest^[2] and is considered the most lyrical of Brahms’s three violin sonatas.^[3] It is also considered the most difficult of the three to bring off successfully, and to exhibit its balance of lyricism and virtuosity.^[4] It maintains a radiant, happy mood throughout.^[2][5]

It consists of three movements, with the middle movement doing service as both a slow movement and a scherzo:^[1]

• 1. Allegro amabile
• 2. Andante tranquillo – Vivace – Andante – Vivace di più – Andante – Vivace
• 3. Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante).

By giving the work the formal title of “Sonata for Piano and Violin”, rather than the more usual “Sonata for Violin and Piano”, Brahms indicated the piano part was just as important as the violin part.^[2] In keeping with this, he allowed the piano to announce the opening theme. The first three notes of the first movement are very similar in both melody and harmony^[6] to the first three notes of “Walther’s Prize Song” (Morgenlich leuchtend im rosigen Schein) from Richard Wagner‘s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Although they were musical rivals, Brahms was a great admirer of Wagner’s music,^[6] but whether this was a deliberate quotation on Brahms’s part is open to speculation. Nevertheless, the sonata has often been subtitled the “Meistersinger” Sonata.^[4] It is also sometimes called the “Thun” Sonata from the place of its creation.

Motives from three of the songs Brahms wrote that summer with Hermine Spies’s voice in mind^[1] appear fleetingly in the sonata: “Wie Melodien zieht es mir leise durch den Sinn”, Op. 105/1 (“Like melodies it steals softly through my mind”; words by Klaus Groth) makes an appearance in the second subject of the first movement. “Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer”, Op. 105/2 (“Ever gentle is my sleep”; words by Hermann Lingg) and “Auf dem Kirchhofe”, Op. 105/4 (words by Detlev von Liliencron) are quoted in the final movement.^[1][7] The song “Komm bald”, Op. 97/5 (“Come soon”; words by Groth) is also said have provided thematic inspiration for the sonata.^[8]

The Violin Sonata No. 2 was premiered in Vienna on 2 December 1886 by the violinist Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. and Brahms himself at the piano.^[1][2]

Brahms’s friend the poet Josef Widmann later wrote a poem to be accompanied by the sonata.^[9]

External links

• Violin Sonata No. 2 (Brahms): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

great compositions/performances: Schubert String Quartet No. 10 in E Flat Major Opus 125 # 1, D 87

Schubert String Quartet No. 10 in E Flat Major Opus 125 # 1, D 87

Music Mountain

Published on Jul 18, 2013

St. Petersburg String Quartet
Music Mountain 84th Season
Underwritten by Edward R Hamilton Bookseller Company
http://www.edwardrhamilton.com

great compositions/performances: Julia Fischer – Tchaikovsky – Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42

Julia Fischer – Tchaikovsky – Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42

Cantus 5

Published on Feb 17, 2015

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42

Julia Fischer, violin
Yakov Kreizberg, piano

Hilversum, April 2006

great compositions/performances: Tchaikovsky Overture 1812 for Piano| Valentina Lisitsa

Tchaikovsky Overture 1812 for Piano | Valentina Lisitsa

ValentinaLisitsa

Published on Oct 7, 2015

Piano arrangement by Yessipov. Freely available on IMSLP .
Warning: one of the most technically challenging pieces ever 🙂

Recorded September 5-9 2015 at the wonderful http://www.schaubuehne.com/

Performers – me at the piano,
Benjamin at bells, Chimemaster and cannons :-))))

My heartfelt thanks to ©MDR Klassik Symphony Orchestra http://www.mdr.de/konzerte/artikel111…
and personally to Franziska Simon for letting me use their great piano.
And to Echoschall Verleih http://www.echoschall.de/ for best-sounding microphones.
Full credit for the bells to Ohio-based http://www.chimemaster.com/

Historic Musical Bits: Michelangeli Debussy Preludes Book 1

Michelangeli Debussy Preludes
Book 1

mightysmeagol

Published on Jun 9, 2012

As a tribute to greatest among artists to be dedicated towards Yuu aka 225cess
– Hommage à Rameau; Images set 1 Paris 05/01/1965
– Preludes: book 1 Paris 22/10/1978
***********************************************************************

Préludes (Debussy)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Claude Debussy‘s Préludes are 24 pieces for solo piano, divided into two books of 12 preludes each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, such as those of J.S. Bach and Chopin’s Op. 28, Debussy’s does not follow a strict pattern of key signatures.

Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book I was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and Book II between the last months of 1912 and early April 1913.
Movements:

1. Danseuses de Delphes: Lent et grave
   (Dancers of Delphi)
2. Voiles: Modéré
   (Veils / sails)
3. Le vent dans la plaine: Animé
   (The Wind in the Plain)
4. «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir»: Modéré
   (“The sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air”)
5. Les collines d’Anacapri: Très modéré
   (The Hills of Anacapri)
6. Des pas sur la neige: Triste et lent
   (Footsteps in the Snow)
7. Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest: Animé et tumultueux
   (What the West Wind has seen)
8. La fille aux cheveux de lin: Très calme et doucement expressif
   (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
9. La sérénade interrompue: Modérément animé
   (Interrupted Serenade)
10. La cathédrale engloutie: Profondément calme
    (The Submerged Cathedral)
11. La danse de Puck: Capricieux et léger
    (Puck‘s Dance)
12. Minstrels: Modéré

Two of the titles were set in quotation marks by Debussy because they are, in fact, quotations: «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir» is from Charles Baudelaire‘s poem Harmonie du soir (“Evening Harmony”). «Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses» is from J. M. Barrie‘s book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, which Debussy’s daughter had received as a gift.

 

 

Mgr Yousif Mirkis, archevêque de Kirkouk en Irak : « Toute ma vie je n’ai connu que des troubles »

Mgr Yousif Mirkis, archevêque de Kirkouk en Irak : « Toute ma vie je n’ai connu que des troubles »

FRANCE 24

Published on Jun 24, 2015

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L’archevêque de Kirkouk revient pour France 24 sur les différents troubles et les guerres qui ont déchiré l’Irak depuis 1958 et sur la vie des chrétiens d’Irak en présence des combattants de l’EI. Aujourd’hui, il met toute son énergie au service de la lutte contre ces jihadistes.

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• Category

  • News & Politics

The Irrawaddy River

The Irrawaddy River

The Irrawaddy, or Ayeyarwady, is Myanmar‘s longest river and its most important commercial waterway. For many centuries, it was Myanmar’s principal communication route. The 1,000-mile (1,600-km) river bisects the country from north to south and empties into the Indian Ocean through a vast, nine-armed delta, which is one of the world’s great rice-producing regions. The Ayeyarwady lends its name to what animal found in its waters? More… Discuss

Facebook: Flori de Salcam la Casa din Sona Photography

Flori de salcam la Casa din Sona

Facebook.

A woman says she was fired after she deleted an app that her boss used to track her, 24/7: — CNNMoney (@CNNMoney) May 13, 2015

 

A woman says she was fired after she deleted an app that her boss used to track her, 24/7 http://t.co/GPZ0mHQfoH pic.twitter.com/lfBwpN7yCN

— CNNMoney (@CNNMoney) May 13, 2015

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California’s soon-to-be saint hailed as a man ahead of his time : Bl. Junipero Serra

 

  Statue of Fr Junipero Serra, Mission San Juan Bautista California. Credit: Ramon Lomeli via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

California’s soon-to-be saint hailed as a man ahead of his time

By Elise Harris

Rome, Italy, May 3, 2015 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Experts in California history, archeology and the life of Bl. Junipero Serra have praised him as a passionate missionary with a vision that extended far beyond his own generation.

“I think that’s a characteristic of great people. They’re not bound up by the restrictions of their generation, they see ahead,” Mons. Francis J. Weber told CNA April 30, in reference to the life of Bl. Junipero Serra.

He compared Serra to former president of the United States Abraham Lincoln, who despite being heavily criticized during his life for working to abolish slavery, “was one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had. But he was generations ahead of his time.”

“I think you could say that most great people are ahead of their own generation. I would probably say that they see things the way they should be done, but not as they are,” the priest said.

Mons. Weber is the author of more than 100 books, many of which focus on California’s Catholic history, and the former archivist of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

A pupil of the well-known Catholic Church historian John Tracy Ellis, Mons. Weber also taught history at Queen of Angels Seminary in Los Angeles and served as president of the Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists.

He was one of four panelists present in Rome for an April 30 discussion on the life and legacy of Bl. Junipero Serra, who will be canonized by Pope Francis during his visit to the U.S. in September.

Fr. Serra was born in 1713 on the Spanish island of Majorca in the Mediterranean. He left his position as a university professor to become a missionary to the New World, helping to convert many of the native community to Christianity and teaching them new technologies. The Franciscan priest founded several of the missions that would go on to become the centers of major California cities.

The priest’s mission work often took place despite a painful ulcerated leg which is said to have been caused either by cancer or a spider bite soon after his arrival in Mexico. He died in 1784 at Mission San Carlos Borroméo del Carmelo in what is now the state of California.

St. John Paul II beatified Fr. Serra in 1988. In January, Pope Francis praised the missionary as “the evangelizer of the West” when he announced his intention to canonize him.

In the panel discussion, specific attention was given to Serra’s zeal to be a missionary. Mons. Weber said this can be seen in the priest’s decision to leave his home in Spain despite the fact that he wasn’t young anymore, and knowing that he likely wouldn’t see his aged parents again.

While praising Serra’s visionary perspective and the good that came out of the missions, panelists also addressed criticisms surrounding Serra and the missions in a conversation with journalists after the panel.

Controversy over the canonization has stemmed from claims that Serra’s missions enacted forced labor and conversions as well as corporal punishment. Scholarship on the issue is divided, and Serra supporters contend that many of the accusations against Serra are rife with misinterpretations and factual errors.

Robert Senkewicz, a history professor at Santa Clara University in California and co-author of a newly released 500 page biography on Junipero Serra, was also present at Thursday’s press conference.

He said he’s not surprised that there is contention over Serra’s canonization, and noted that much of the dissatisfaction likely surrounds a history of poor policies the U.S. had toward native Americans in the past.

Inevitably native populations will interpret their past to be a “prison” of previous U.S. policies toward Indians, because “it wasn’t nice,” he said.

“It was a policy of removal and extermination…so I’m not surprised that there’s a lot of dissatisfaction against the canonization Fr. Serra, because Californian Indians are American Indians, and American Indians interpret their past through the most catastrophic parts of it, which were the U.S. policies.”

Ruben Mendoza, an archeology professor at California State University, Monterey Bay, also spoke on the panel from a cultural perspective, being of both Mexican and Indian descent.

With extensive experience in the field of archeology as well as working in the California missions of San Juan Bautista, San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, Nuestra Senora de la Soledad and the Royal Presidio of Monterey, Mendoza was initially hostile to Serra, but changed his view after studying about the blessed and working in the missions himself.

Mendoza pointed out that despite Serra’s critics, “many of us carry currencies in our pockets that contain the images of individuals who we see as heroes, they were the founders of our country, and yet if we judge them from the perspective of our histories then they were human traffickers.”

These people, he said, “were a whole host of things that today we would not even begin to dream of if we consider ourselves as patriots.”

Mendoza also referred to how some have argued that Serra had sought to be a martyr at one point in his life, saying that if we look at this life, the reality is that “if he had sought martyrdom he would have been mortified.”

Serra, he said, “would have realized that the very people that he loved, that he devoted his life to, would now see him as the culprit in their disintegration.”

“I believe that in the end, by virtue of the very attacks that those descendants bring to the table, they have martyred Junipero Serra and turned him into a saint.”

Tags: Bl Junipero Serra

Cziffra plays Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies No.1-9

EvaYoungPianist

Published on Jul 1, 2012

Franz Liszt:
Hungarian Rhapsodies:
No.1 in E Major 00:00
No.2 in C-sharp Minor 12:49
No.3 in B-flat Major 23:04
No.4 in E-flat Major 27:28
No.5 in E Minor 32:52
No.6 in D-flat Major 41:56
No.7 in D Minor 48:58
No.8 in F-sharp Minor 54:09
No.9 in E-flat Major 1:00:54

Georges Cziffra: piano

 

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best classical music, Giacomo Puccini: “Coro a bocca chiusa” (Humming Chorus) from Madame Butterfly , great compositions/performances

Giacomo Puccini: “Coro a bocca chiusa” (Humming Chorus) from Madame Butterfly

RoLorenz

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Madame Butterfly waits for the ship of her beloved Pinkerton to come. In fact her death comes closer.

composed by Ciacomo Puccini
performed by the Hungarian State Opera

• Music

  • “Madame Butterfly, 1. Akt: Vogliatemi bene (Mona Lisa): Act II Part I: “Humming Chorus” (Chorus)” by Veronika Kincses, Klara Takacs, Gabriella Szamado, Peter Dvorsky, Lajos Miller, Istvan Rozsos, Peter Korcsmaros, Jozsef Gregor, Gabor Vaghelyi, C. Toth Pal, Tibor Gyapjas, Erzsebet Kovacs, Magda Pulveri, Marta Kiss (Google Play • AmazonMP3)

† Pray the Rosary † Wednesday and Sunday † The Glorious Mysteries † Powerful Prayers for Miracles †

lovetrinity8

Published on Jun 12, 2012

Listen and pray along to The Glorious Mysteries and meditate on:

1. The Resurrection: Conversion of heart.
2. The Ascension: A desire for heaven.
3. The Coming of the Holy Spirit: The gifts of the Holy Spirit.
4. The Assumption of our Blessed Mother into Heaven: Devotion to Mary.
5. The Coronation of our Blessed Mother: Eternal happiness.

Enjoy peace and love.

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Fighting Boko Haram: Chad aims to ‘destroy’ militant group | euronews, world news

Luis Carballo will be online to discuss his experiences in Chad on Thursday at 15:00 CET. He’ll answer your questions in English, Spanish or French so please post them in the live blog at the foot of this page, email them to askluis@scribblelive.com or Tweet them using the hashtag #askeuronewsluis. You can follow Luis on Twitter @granangular.

For more than a decade, the Islamist group Boko Haram had a limited strategy: to create an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria. But now it has spread its terror campaign to neighbouring countries as well.

Chad, Niger and Cameroon have responded with a military alliance which, since January, has been helping the Abuja government.

“What these children have seen, you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy.”

In March, Boko Haram signed a deal with ISIL, or the self proclaimed Islamic State. This turned the conflict into an international one, switching on red lights across the region and accelerating a joint offensive.

via Fighting Boko Haram: Chad aims to ‘destroy’ militant group | euronews, world news.

>>>>>>RELATED READING<<<<<<<

>>>>>>RELATED READING<<<<<<<

New research claims that Facebook is tracking anyone who visits the site— msnbc (@msnbc)

New research claims that Facebook is tracking anyone who visits the site: http://t.co/Ir62QukVRe

— msnbc (@msnbc) April 3, 2015

Must read: Ebola in Liberia: According to Dr. Kwan Kew Lai’s Blog

Today is the Feast of St. Kew, a little known Welsh saint, probably of the fifth century. She was the sister of a hermit called Docco who founded a monastery at or near the village of St. Kew which is now in Cornwall, England. Nothing much is known about her except that she was able to cause some wild boars to obey her, this ability caught the attention of her said brother who condescended to finally speak to her. Why they were not on speaking terms to begin with was a mystery.What is in a name? Kew is my given name. It would be unheard of to have a saint with my name especially someone from Asia. My daughter, Cara, was told by her Confraternity Christian Development (CCD) teacher that everyone has a saint who bears his or her name. She searched in vain for a saint with her name.

via Ebola in Liberia.

***featured on by NPR: The Ebola Diaries: Trying To Heal Patients You Can’t Touch http://n.pr/1EaPxUw

Now in the Time machine of Internet Archive Org…Good go in life…nice go…http://itsmurdock.wordpress.com (access site at your own risk!)

click on the pic to access the way Back time machine…If you wish you can find your blog there, and if want, yo can access that archive: It’s great to know that your hard work, and dedication to blogging is archived somewhere for posterity! So…Blog responsibly!

this site is Now featured on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and of course on Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine!

site administrators have the right to protect themselves, and have a immediate blocking tool, against Mature, offensive language at any host provider, to avoid embarrassment and who know what else…Facebook, Twitter, Google+, allow that, and so should WordPress!

 

BBC WebWise – Webcam safety with Jacqueline Jossa

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Christoph Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide, Wq. 40: VIII. Gavotte in A Major

Iphigénie en Aulide, Wq. 40: VIII. Gavotte in A Major

Various Artists – Topic

Published on Aug 1, 2014

Iphigénie en Aulide, Wq. 40: VIII. Gavotte in A Major

Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra
Mark Ermler
Christoph Gluck
Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra
Mark Ermler

℗ 2013 One Media iP Ltd

Released on: 2013-06-30

Music Publisher: PUBLIC DOMAIN

Auto-generated by YouTube.

Thinking of a song: Bob Dylan – I Pity The Poor Immigrant Great song and lyrics

I Pity the Poor Immigrant

Bob Dylan – Topic

Published on Nov 8, 2014

I Pity the Poor Immigrant

English: Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. closeup view of vocalists Joan Baez and Bob Dylan., 08/28/1963 Español: Bob Dylan con Joan Baez en la Marcha por los Derechos Civiles en Washington, D.C. (1963) Italiano: Joan Baez e Bob Dylan durante la marcia per i diritti civili a Washington, 28 agosto 1963 Polski: Bob Dylan i Joan Baez w 1963 Deutsch: Joan Baez und Bob Dylan beim Marsch auf Washington am 28. August 1963 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bob Dylan / Bob Dylan

℗ Originally released 1967. All rights reserved by Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

Released on: 1967-12-27

Associated Performer, Composer, Harmonica,

English: Portrait of Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan by Elsa Dorfman (1975) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lyricist, Piano, Vocal: Bob Dylan / Bob Dylan
Producer: Bob Johnston
Drums: Kenny Buttrey
Bass: Charles McCoy

(Auto-generated by YouTube.)

I Pity The Poor Immigrant Lyrics

from John Wesley Harding

“I Pity The Poor Immigrant” is track #7 on the album John Wesley Harding. It was written by Bob Dylan.

I pity the poor immigrant
Who wishes he would’ve stayed home
Who uses all his power to do evil
But in the end is always left so alone

That man whom with his fingers cheats
And who lies with every breath
Who passionately hates his life
And likewise, fears his death

I pity the poor immigrant
Whose strength is spent in vain
Whose heaven is like Ironsides
Whose tears are like rain

Who eats but is not satisfied
Who hears but does not see
Who falls in love with wealth itself
And turns his back on me

I pity the poor immigrant
Who tramples through the mud
Who fills his mouth with laughing
And who builds his town with blood

Whose visions in the final end
Must shatter like the glass
I pity the poor immigrant
When his gladness comes to pass

Songwriters
Bob Dylan

Published by
DWARF MUSIC  (1968, 1996)

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/i-pity-poor-immigrant#ixzz3PqdnUumx

 

quotation: “…If it were possible to heal sorrow by weeping…” Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC)

If it were possible to heal sorrow by weeping and to raise the dead with tears, gold were less prized than grief.Sophocles (496 BC–406 BC) Discuss

Democracy Now!: “Cartoonist Lives Matter”: Art Spiegelman Responds to Charlie Hebdo Attack, Power of Cartoons

Democracy Now! “Cartoonist Lives Matter”: Art Spiegelman Responds to Charlie Hebdo Attack, Power of Cartoons

Posted on Jan 9, 2015

49:38

• 295 plays295
• 2 likes2

Art Spiegelman is renowned American cartoonist, editor and comics advocate. In 1992, he won a Pulitzer Prize for “Maus,” considered one of the most important graphic novels ever published and one of the most influential works on the Nazi Holocaust. Spiegelman also founded the comics magazine RAW. In 2005, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine. After a discussion about the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, we continue our conversation with Spiegelman about his life’s work and the power of cartoons. Listen to the first part of the interview at democracynow.org. ||| Visit democracynow.org to watch the full daily news program, read the transcript, or search our vast online archive. Livestream weekdays 8-9am ET. Follow Democracy Now! on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Google+ and Pinterest.

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François Hollande : “Ceux qui ont commis ces actes n’ont rien à voir avec la religion musulmane”

FRANCE 24

Published on Jan 9, 2015

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PARIS – François Hollande a prévenu vendredi que “la France n’en a pas terminé avec les menaces dont elle est la cible”, lors d’une allocution télévisée après le dénouement des deux prises d’otages.

“La France, même si elle consciente d’avoir fait face, même si elle sait qu’elle peut disposer, avec les forces de sécurité, d’hommes et de femmes capables de courage et de bravoure, n’en a pas terminé avec les menaces dont elle est la cible. Je veux vous appeler à la vigilance, à l’unité et à la mobilisation”, a déclaré le président de la République.

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News – Tech at work: Status Update Saves Stranded Hiker

Status Update Saves Stranded Hiker

A resourceful emergency dispatcher used social media to help save a hiker who plunged 150 feet (45 m) off a cliff into a tree near Sacramento, California, this week. After a 911 call by the hiker’s son was disconnected, dispatchers tried in vain to determine the location using the cell phone’s coordinates—until a dispatch trainee Googled the injured man’s name. She soon found his Facebook page, saw an earlier status update about his hike, and sent rescue crews to his location. The man was treated for broken bones and a head injury. More… Discuss

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Ethnography and folklore: VIKI STEFANOVICI – TARA FAGARASULUI (Old Romanian Countries)

VIKI STEFANOVICI-TARA FAGARASULUI

ArhussMedia

just a thought:  “Visit tara fagarasului at facebook, from here you can discover a PLace and a people that protected the Romanian borders and stood for their ancient traditions and belief, from food, to carols to dances, and vestments, and to the beautiful Fagaras Mountians that trully reign the people and emulated their souls, their mind, and their might!”

-©George-B

 

from Life Noggin: A BRIEF YEAR IN REVIEW OF 2014 (you wanna make time to watch this video!)

A BRIEF YEAR IN REVIEW OF 2014

Life Noggin

Published on Dec 30, 2014/6036 views

Help us grow! Share this video with one click to Facebook (http://m301.me/1JZU68V) and Twitter (http://ctt.ec/a4sQM).

Can you believe it’s the end of the year already?! So many things have happened this year and this video is just scratching the surface. Here is 2014 in review.

Click here to see more videos: http://www.m301.me/lifenoggin

Life Noggin is a weekly animated educational series. Whether it’s science, pop culture, history or art, we explore it all and have a ton of fun doing it.

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This video uses many sounds from freesound,
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Minecraft Xbox One – HAY BALES – Tutorial ( How to Raise Horses on Minecraft PS4, PS3, XB1 )

Only1Gam3r

Published on Dec 28, 2014

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Welcome to my Minecraft Xbox One Edition Gameplay Tutorial on Hay Bales! Hay bales are excellent for growing horses and building different houses! Don’t forget to leave a “LIKE” rating for more Minecraft PS4 and Xbox Edition videos!

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today’s holiday: Holy Innocents’ Day (2014)

Holy Innocents’ Day (2014)

Also known as Innocents’ Day or Childermas, this day commemorates the massacre of all the male children two years and younger in Bethlehem as ordered by King Herod, who hoped that the infant Jesus would be among them. Not surprisingly, this day has long been regarded as unlucky. In ancient times, the “Massacre of the Innocents” was reenacted by whipping the younger members of a family. But over the years, the tables turned, and in some countries it has become a day when children play pranks on their elders. In Mexico, Childermas is the equivalent of April Fools’ Day. More… Discuss

Google – Year in Search 2014 (Published on Dec 15, 2014/7,231,183 views)

Google – Year in Search 2014

Google

Published on Dec 15, 2014/7,231,183 views

In 2014 we searched trillions of times. What do these searches say about us? Explore the Year in Search http://www.google.com/2014 and follow the conversation on #YearInSearch

Watch past Year in Search videos: http://goo.gl/LXA4nQ

Soundtrack is ‘Divinity’, by Porter Robinson
Porter Robinon’s new album ‘Worlds’ is available on Google Play: http://goo.gl/q6ljz4

Nicky Minaj’s new album ‘The Pinkprint’ is available on Google Play: http://goo.gl/utOZxd
HBO’s Game of Thrones is available on Google Play (not all countries are eligible): http://goo.gl/xOgofr

Credits:
Two people hugging: Dida Mulder
Boy with 3D Printed hand: E-NABLE/RIT University News/RIT MAGIC Center
Ebola doctors and patients: Plan International
Perth passenger train footage: vision courtesy of the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia
Malala Yousafzai collecting the Nobel Peace Prize: Nobel Media AB

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Outbrain recommends, but who’s listening? euzicasa does!

Outbrain recommends but who’s listening? euzicasa does! Check this and many other unique videos at the BBC This one too should open in a new window!

 

Inside secret vault holding long-lost art treasures

26 March 2014 Last updated at 20:32 GMT

Cornelius Gurlitt is a reclusive man, but he was recently found to be holding one of the world’s biggest private art collections – close to 1,500 pieces that he had stored at his homes in Munich and Salzburg.

It is though much of it came from his father, a dealer licensed by the Nazis to buy and sell art, and may have been stolen from Jewish families.

The works, by artist such as Picasso, Renoir, Monet, are now being held in secure warehouses and vaults by restorers and experts trying to trace their history.

The BBC’s Stephen Evans was granted exclusive access to look at some of the long-lost masterpieces which had been kept hidden for decades.

Read more

Nazi trove in Munich contains unknown works by masters

intriguingly So: Continuum Season 3 Opportunity to know a different reality…alternate, but weaved within this reality!

Continuum season 3 (click to access)

RIDAY, APRIL 25, 2014 4:37 PM

Continuum Episodes – Now With Enhanced Video!

Posted by Sarah Pugsley

Tweet Like +1

Can’t get enough Continuum? Well, get ready to watch Season 3 like you’ve never seen it before—with our all-new Enhanced Video experience! Watch interactive full episodes featuring original bonus webisodes, extended scenes, and behind-the-scenes content that you won’t find anywhere else, all fully immersed inside full episodes of Continuum, Season 3.

Bonus content appears on-screen at key moments in each episode—all designed to take you deeper into the world of the show. Behind-the-scenes pop-up commentary is indicated by the grey dots that appear along the episode progress bar, while the orange dots indicate original video content. To view the videos, click on the pop-up text when it appears on-screen. The episode you are watching will pause, and resume once the bonus clip has concluded.As always, if you want to watch the episode without bonus content, you can toggle the red caption icon located next to the closed caption button.

Now go back and rewatch episodes 1-5! And please (as always) feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments.

http://www.showcase.ca/video#continuum/video

this pressed for your knowledge: Uber’s car-financing program sets up drivers to lie to the DMV in Calif — Ellen Huet (@ellenhuet)

Uber’s car-financing program sets up drivers to lie to the DMV in Calif: http://t.co/nFfOk4vdVr @JMBooyah

— Ellen Huet (@ellenhuet) December 23, 2014

word: wizened

wizened

Definition:	(adjective) Lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness.
Synonyms:	shrunken, withered, shriveled
Usage:	The wizened face of the man of law was twisted into a wrinkled smile. Discuss.

The St. Bernard

Monks at the Hospice of the St. Bernard Pass in the Swiss Alps originally bred the St. Bernard for rescue and guide work. Endowed with an uncanny sense of direction, the breed was able to guide the monks over trails that had been obliterated by windblown snow. One St. Bernard is said to have rescued at least 40 people from harsh Alpine conditions, although such tales might be exaggerated. Why do depictions of St. Bernards

Let’s Facebook it: All we care about is getting you to buy stuff…Because: Life is a commercial!

Let’s Facebook it: All we care about is getting you to buy stuff!

Let’s Facebook it: All we care about is getting you to buy stuff

Merry Christmas from euzicasa! Post Card: Saddle-back Mountain from Huntington Beach Municipal Pier – December 2011-2014©

Merry Christmas from euzicasa!  Post Card: Saddle-back Mountain from Huntington Beach Municipal Pier – December 2011-2014©

Les “combattants d’Ebola”, personnalités de l’année pour le “Time”

FRANCE 24

Abonnez-vous à notre chaîne sur YouTube : http://f24.my/youtubeL’hebdomadaire américain “Time” a désigné les “combattants d’Ebola” comme la personnalité 2014. Le personnel de santé paie un tribu particulièrement lourd au virus avec 340 morts sur 592 contaminations depuis le début de l’épidémie.

En savoir plus : http://f24.my/12y2v1O

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new at #euzicasa: Widget – KINJI SAN-Martial Arts Supplies (Access Here or from the sidebar…your choice!)

KUNJI SAN-Martial Arts Supplies (Access here or visit the widget on the sidebar (way down with 100+ others!) they should open all in anew window, but only WPRESS can secure that!  

     新しい#euzicasaアット：ウィジェット – KINJI SAN-格闘技用品（アクセスここまたはサイドバー…あなたの選択から！）

Please blame (or held in higher respect) Google Translate service @ https://translate.google.com/:
because while you may not agree with all Google is doing, I think many of their initiatives are awesome, and I include Google Translate among those initiatives!
Once you accessed the website, save the page to your browser’s bookmarks, and for easy access place it on the bookmark toolbar! That way it is always in sight and at the tip of your finger! 🙂

Get back to me with how it worked for you here, by a  welcome comment!: go do it noow, what you’re waiting for!

books on my golden shelf: “Bushido: The Way of the Warrior|Samurai code (full) Audio Book: “…this are the spirits of freedom or liberty and of honor…”

BUSHIDO: The Way of the Warrior | Samurai Code FULL AudioBook – The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe

  Greatest AudioBooks

Published on Nov 12, 2012

BUSHIDO: The Way of the Warrior | Samurai Code – FULL Audio Book – The Soul of Japan – by Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933)

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Chapter Listings and Chapter Length:

00 Preface — 00:08:22

01 Bushido as an Ethical System — 00:10:43

02 Sources of Bushido — 00:13:15

03 Rectitude or Justice — 00:06:41

04 Courage, the Spirit of Daring and Bearing — 00:09:22

05 Benevolence, the Feeling of Distress — 00:15:02

06 Politeness — 00:13:25

07 Veracity or Truthfulness — 00:12:43

08 Honor — 00:11:29

09 The Duty of Loyalty — 00:14:01

10 Education and Training of a Samurai — 00:10:18

11 Self Control — 00:09:30

12 The Institutions of Suicide and Redress — 00:24:38

13 The Sword the Soul of the Samurai — 00:08:11

14 The Training and Position of Woman — 00:21:50

15 The Influence of Bushido — 00:10:44

16 Is Bushido Still Alive? — 00:15:47

17 The Future of Bushido — 00:13:58

More about Bushido:

Bushidō (武士道?), literally “the way of the warrior”, is a Japanese word for the way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. The etymology of the Japanese word bushido, stemming from the Zhou Dynasty (1111–256 BCE)(Zhang, and Fan, 2003) or (1818-221 BCE)(de Bary, and Bloom) Chinese text Zhou bi 周髀 (Cullen, 1996) and word wushidao (武士道), loosely meaning a soldier well-trained in martial arts. The subword “wushi,” (武士) when bifurcated into two parts, the first term “wu” (武) describes a person competent in martial arts such as King Wu, with the second term “shi,” (士) meaning army. The two characters together (武士) meaning warrior or palace guard. The last part of the word, “dao” (道) is the same as “do” in Japanese, meaning “way of” (Dao, 2003) such as the Japanese martial art Kendo (剣道) “way of the sword”.

The Japanese understanding of the word is predicated on the samurai moral code stressing frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death. Born from Neo-Confucianism during times of peace in Tokugawa Japan and following Confucian texts, Bushido was also influenced by Shinto and Zen Buddhism, allowing the violent existence of the samurai to be tempered by wisdom and serenity. Bushidō developed between the 9th and 20th centuries and numerous translated documents dating from the 12th to 16th centuries demonstrate its wide influence across the whole of Japan, although some scholars have noted “the term bushidō itself is rarely attested in premodern literature.”

Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, aspects of bushidō became formalized into Japanese feudal law.

According to the Japanese dictionary Shogakukan Kokugo Daijiten, “Bushidō is defined as a unique philosophy (ronri) that spread through the warrior class from the Muromachi (chusei) period.”

The word was first used in Japan during the 17th century.[10] It came into common usage in Japan and the West after the 1899 publication of Nitobe Inazō’s Bushido: The Soul of Japan.

In Bushido (1899), Inazō wrote: …Bushidō, then, is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe…. More frequently it is a code unuttered and unwritten…. It was an organic growth of decades and centuries of military career.

Nitobe was not the first person to document Japanese chivalry in this way. In his text Feudal and Modern Japan (1896), historian Arthur May Knapp wrote: The samurai of thirty years ago had behind him a thousand years of training in the law of honor, obedience, duty, and self-sacrifice…. It was not needed to create or establish them. As a child he had but to be instructed, as indeed he was from his earliest years, in the etiquette of self-immolation.

Seven virtues of Bushidō

The Bushidō code is typified by seven virtues: Rectitude (義 gi?) Courage (勇氣 yūki?) Benevolence (仁 jin?) Respect (禮 rei?) Honesty (誠 makoto?) Honour (名誉 meiyo?) Loyalty (忠義 chūgi?)

Associated virtues: Filial piety (孝 kō?) Wisdom (智 chi?) Care for the aged (悌 tei?)  (from Wikipedia)
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Total running time: 3:49:59
Read by Availle
In addition to the reader, this audio book was produced by:
Dedicated Proof-Listener: Kristine Bekere
Meta-Coordinator/Cataloging: Anna Simon
This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain.
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Item# book-bushido $12.95

Product Description

***Bushido:  The Warriors Code
***(By Inazo Nitobe):   A popular illustrated reprint of a classical study of Samurai life and death.

ll était une bergère

Il était une bergère (Version playback instrumental) – Mister Toony

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LES PAROLES :

Il était une bergère
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Il était une bergère
Qui gardait ses moutons, ron ron
Qui gardait ses moutons

Elle fit un fromage
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Elle fit un fromage
Du lait de ses moutons, ron ron
Du lait de ses moutons

Le chat qui la regarde
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Le chat qui la regarde
A un p’tit air fripon, ron ron
A un p’tit air fripon

Si tu y mets la patte
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Si tu y mets la patte
Tu auras du bâton, ron ron
Tu auras du bâton

Il n’y mit pas la patte
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Il n’y mit pas la patte
Il y mit le menton, ron ron
Il y mit le menton

La bergère en colère
Et ron et ron petit patapon
La bergère en colère
Tua son p’tit chaton, ron ron
Tua son p’tit chaton

Elle fut à son père
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Elle fut à son père
Lui demander pardon, ron ron
Lui demander pardon

Mon père je m’accuse
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Mon père je m’accuse
D’avoir tué mon chaton, ron ron
D’avoir tué mon chaton

Ma fille pour pénitence
Et ron et ron petit patapon
Ma fille pour pénitence
Nous nous embrasserons, ron ron
Nous nous embrasserons

La pénitence est douce
Et ron et ron petit patapon
La pénitence est douce
Nous recommencerons, ron ron
Nous recommencerons

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Michael Brown’s stepfather under investigation for allegedly trying to incite riot in Ferguson http://t.co/A8mWuFSCV1 pic.twitter.com/2ZB3bYGYbo

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word: impecunious

impecunious 

Definition:	(adjective) Lacking money; penniless.
Synonyms:	penurious
Usage:	It was hard to believe that the impecunious man asking me if I could spare any change had once been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Discuss.

Google’s New Project: A Steady Spoon

Among Google’s latest attempts at innovation is a spoon that allows people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease to eat without spilling. The project was begun by a small startup that was acquired by Google earlier this year. Equipped with sensors that detect shaking, the spoon uses algorithms to keep it steady, reducing shaking by an average of 76 percent, according to the results of clinical trials. Doctors say the device has allowed some patients to eat independently who otherwise would have to be fed. More… Discuss

Ottorino Respighi Brazilian Impressions (Antal Dorati/LSO): great compositions/performances

Ottorino Respighi Brazilian Impressions (Antal Dorati / London Symphony Orchestra)

  stradi cuatro

Ottorino Respighi Brazilian Impressions
1. Tropical Night
2. Butantan
3. Song and Dance
Antal Dorati and The London Symphony Orchestra
1957
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