historic musical bits: Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 “From The New World” / Karajan · Vienna Philarmonic

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 “From The New World” / Karajan · Vienna Philarmonic

Canal de Josep489

Uploaded on Sep 21, 2011

Great presentation of the Great Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan, playing the 9th Symphony of Antonin Dvorak “From the new world”.

Gran presentación de la Filarmónica de Viena conducida por Herbert von Karajan, interpretando la novena sinfonía de Antonin Dvorak “Sinfonía del Nuevo Mundo”.

(C) Telemonde 1992, UMG and all their respective owners. No commercial use of this material.

(0:37) 1st mvt (Adagio, Allegro Molto)
(10:42) 2nd mvt (Largo)
(23:30) 3rd mvt (Scherzo, Molto Vivace)
(32:07) 4rth mvt (Allegro con fuoco)
**********************************************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“New World Symphony” redirects here. For the Miami-based orchestra, see New World Symphony (orchestra).

 Title page of the autograph score of Dvořák’s ninth symphony

The Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World,” Op. 95, B. 178 (Czech: Symfonie č. 9 e moll „Z nového světa“), popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular of all symphonies. In older literature and recordings, this symphony was often numbered as Symphony No. 5. Neil Armstrong took a recording of the New World Symphony to the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969.^[1]

Instrumentation

 

Opening english horn theme from the second movement of the work

This symphony is scored for an orchestra of at least the following^{[citation needed]}:

• 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo)^[2]
• 2 oboes (one doubling English horn)
• 2 clarinets in A
• 2 bassoons
• 4 horns in E, C and F
• 2 trumpets in E, C and E♭
• 2 tenor trombones
• Bass trombone
• Tuba (second movement only)^[3]
• Timpani
• Triangle (third movement only)
• Cymbals (fourth movement only)
• Strings

Movements

	1. Adagio – Allegro molto     2. Largo     3. Scherzo: Molto vivace     4. Allegro con fuoco
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The piece has four movements:

1. Adagio, 4/8 – Allegro molto, 2/4, E minor
2. Largo, common time, D-flat major, then later C-sharp minor
3. Scherzo: Molto vivace – Poco sostenuto, 3/4, E minor
4. Allegro con fuoco, common time, E minor, ends in E major

Influences

Dvořák was interested in Native American music and the African-American spirituals he heard in America. As director of the National Conservatory he encountered an African-American student, Harry T. Burleigh, later a composer himself, who sang traditional spirituals to him and said that Dvořák had absorbed their ‘spirit’ before writing his own melodies.^[4] Dvořák stated:

I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them.^[5]

The symphony was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and premiered on December 16, 1893, at Carnegie Hall conducted by Anton Seidl. A day earlier, in an article published in the New York Herald on December 15, 1893, Dvořák further explained how Native American music had been an influence on this symphony:

I have not actually used any of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral colour.^[6]

In the same article, Dvořák stated that he regarded the symphony’s second movement as a “sketch or study for a later work, either a cantata or opera … which will be based upon Longfellow‘s [The Song of] Hiawatha“^[7] (Dvořák never actually wrote such a piece).^[7] He also wrote that the third movement scherzo was “suggested by the scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians dance”.^[7]

In 1893, a newspaper interview quoted Dvořák as saying “I found that the music of the negroes and of the Indians was practically identical”, and that “the music of the two races bore a remarkable similarity to the music of Scotland“.^[8][9] Most historians agree that Dvořák is referring to the pentatonic scale, which is typical of each of these musical traditions.^[10]

In a 2008 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, prominent musicologist Joseph Horowitz asserts that African-American spirituals were a major influence on Dvořák’s music written in America, quoting him from an 1893 interview in the New York Herald as saying, “In the negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music.”^[11] Dvořák did, it seems, borrow rhythms from the music of his native Bohemia, as notably in his Slavonic Dances, and the pentatonic scale in some of his music written in America from African-American and/or Native American sources. Statements that he borrowed melodies are often made but seldom supported by specifics. One verified example is the song of the Scarlet Tanager in the Quartet. Michael Steinberg writes^[12] that a flute solo theme in the first movement of the symphony resembles the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot“.^[13] Leonard Bernstein averred that the symphony was truly multinational in its foundations.^[14]

Dvořák was influenced not only by music he had heard, but by what he had seen, in America. He wrote that he would not have composed his American pieces as he had, if he had not seen America.^[15] It has been said that Dvořák was inspired by the American “wide open spaces” such as prairies he may have seen on his trip to Iowa in the summer of 1893.^[16] Notices about several performances of the symphony include the phrase “wide open spaces” about what inspired the symphony and/or about the feelings it conveys to listeners.^[17]

Dvořák was also influenced by the style and techniques used by earlier classical composers including Beethoven and Schubert.^[18] The falling fourths and timpani strokes in the New World Symphony‍ ’​s Scherzo movement evokes the Scherzo of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. In his fourth movement, Dvořák’s use of flashbacks to prior movements is reminiscent of Beethoven quoting prior movements as part of the opening Presto of the last movement.^[19]

Reception

At the premiere in Carnegie Hall, the end of every movement was met with thunderous clapping and Dvořák felt obliged to stand up and bow.^[20] This was one of the greatest public triumphs of Dvořák’s career. When the symphony was published, several European orchestras soon performed it. Alexander Mackenzie conducted the London Philharmonic Society in the European premiere on June 21, 1894.^[20] Clapham says the symphony became “one of the most popular of all time” and at a time when the composer’s main works were being welcomed in no more than ten countries, this symphony reached the rest of the musical world and has become a “universal favorite.“^[20] It is performed [as of 1978] more often “than any other symphony at the Royal Festival Hall, London” and is in “tremendous demand in Japan.”^[20]

Several themes from the symphony have been used widely in films, TV shows, anime, video games, and advertisements.

The song “Goin’ Home”

The theme from the Largo was adapted into the spiritual-like song “Goin’ Home”, often mistakenly considered a folk song or traditional spiritual, by Dvořák’s pupil William Arms Fisher, who wrote the lyrics in 1922.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

historic musical bits: Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 – Leonard Bernstein

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 – Leonard Bernstein

movements:

• First movement: Allegro con brio
  
• Second movement: Andante con moto
  
• Third movement: Scherzo. Allegro
  
• Fourth movement: Allegro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

“Beethoven’s Fifth” redirects here. For the movie, see Beethoven’s 5th (film). For Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto, see Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven).

The coversheet to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. The dedication to Prince J. F. M. Lobkowitz and Count Rasumovsky is visible.

The Symphony No. 5 in C minor of Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 67, was written 1804–1808. It is one of the best-known compositions in classical music, and one of the most frequently played symphonies.^[1] First performed in Vienna‘s Theater an der Wien in 1808, the work achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterward. E. T. A. Hoffmann described the symphony as “one of the most important works of the time”.

It begins by stating a distinctive four-note “short-short-short-long” motif twice: ( listen (help·info))

The symphony, and the four-note opening motif in particular, are known worldwide, with the motif appearing frequently in popular culture, from disco to rock and roll, to appearances in film and television.

Since the Second World War it has sometimes been referred to as the “Victory Symphony”.^[2] “V” is the Roman character for the number five; the phrase “V for Victory” became well known as a campaign of the Allies of World War II. That Beethoven’s Victory Symphony happened to be his Fifth (or vice versa) is coincidence. Some thirty years after this piece was written, the rhythm of the opening phrase – “dit-dit-dit-dah” – was used for the letter “V” in Morse Code, though this is probably also coincidental.^[3]

The BBC, during World War Two, prefaced its broadcasts to Europe with those four notes, played on drums.^[4][5][6]

make music part of your life series: Franz Anton Rösler (Rosetti). Symphony in D major, A12

Franz Anton Rösler (Rosetti). Symphony in D major, A12

Папа Ген

Published on Sep 9, 2014

Franz Anton Rösler (Francesco Antonio Rosetti)

Symphony in D major, A12

I. Allegro Moderato 00:00
II. Andantino 07:15
III. Menuetto: Trio & Moderato 11:37
IV. Allegretto Capriccio 14:05

London Mozart Players
Matthias Bamert, conductor

Recorded in London; 9–10 October 1996

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Historic Musical Bits: Schumann – Symphony No 2 in C major, Op 61 – Bernstein , great compositions/performances

Schumann – Symphony No 2 in C major, Op 61 – Bernstein

Classical Vault 1

Published on Oct 16, 2014

Robert Schumann
Symphony No 2 in C major, Op 61

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor
**********************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Symphony in C major by German composer Robert Schumann was published in 1847 as his Symphony No. 2, Op. 61, although it was the third symphony he had completed, counting the B-flat major symphony published as No. 1 in 1841, and the original version of his D minor symphony of 1841 (later revised and published as No. 4).

Schumann began to sketch the symphony on December 12, 1845, and had a robust draft of the entire work by December 28. He spent most of the next year orchestrating, beginning February 12, 1846.^[1] His depression and poor health, including ringing in his ears, prevented him finishing the work until October 19. Publication followed in 1847.

The uplifting tone of the symphony is remarkable in the face of Schumann’s health problems—the work can be seen as a Beethovenian triumph over fate/pessimism. It is written in the traditional four-movement form, and as often in the nineteenth century the Scherzo precedes the Adagio. All four movements are in C major, except the first part of the slow movement (in C minor); the work is thus homotonal:

1. Sostenuto assai — Allegro, ma non troppo
2. Scherzo: Allegro vivace
3. Adagio espressivo
4. Allegro molto vivace

The first movement begins with a slow brass chorale, elements of which recur through the piece. (Schumann wrote the Six Organ Fugues on B-A-C-H, Op. 60, just before this symphony, and this preoccupation with Bach suggests a chorale prelude, a quintessential Bachian genre, in the texture and feeling of the symphony’s opening.) The following Sonata-Allegro is dramatic and turbulent. It is characterized by sharp rhythmic formulae (double-dotted rhythms) and by the masterly transformation of the material of the Introduction. The second movement is a scherzo in C major with two trios, whose main portion strongly emphasizes the diminished chord—its characteristic gesture being a rapid and playful resolution of this chord over unstable harmony. The second trio employs the B-A-C-H motif in the context of flowing eighth notes reminiscent of the Baroque, further suggesting that Bach remained on Schumann’s mind after the completion of his Op. 60. The Adagio espressivo is a sonata movement in C minor, with the character of an elegy, its middle section strongly contrapuntal in texture. The finale is in a very freely treated sonata form, its second theme related to the opening theme of the Adagio. Later in the movement, a new theme appears: this theme has, as its sources of inspiration, the last song from Beethoven’s cycle “An die ferne Geliebte” (cf. also Schumann’s Piano Fantasy in C, Op. 17), and Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The coda of the Finale recalls the material from the Introduction, thereby thematically spanning the entire work.

A typical performance lasts between 35 and 40 minutes. It is scored for an orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets (in B), two bassoons, two French horns (in C), two trumpets (in C), three trombones (alto, tenor, and bass), tympani, and strings.

The symphony was first performed on November 5, 1846, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig with Felix Mendelssohn. It was better received after a second performance some ten days later. The nineteenth century ultimately admired the work for its “perceived metaphysical content”,^[2] but the symphony’s popularity waned in the twentieth, owing to its unusual structure.^[2]

BEETHOVEN Symphony No 6 (Pastoral) in F Op 68 LEONARD BERNSTEIN, great compositions/performances

BEETHOVEN Symphony No 6 (Pastoral) in F Op 68 LEONARD BERNSTEIN

roger bridgland

Beethoven Symphony No.6 (Pastoral) in F Op.68
Leonard Bernstein (conductor)
Boston Symphony Orchestra****************************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

“Pastoral Symphony” redirects here. For other uses, see Pastoral Symphony (disambiguation).

Part of a sketch by Beethoven for his Symphony No. 6

 

The Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony (German Pastoral-Sinfonie^[1]), is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, and completed in 1808. One of Beethoven’s few works containing explicitly programmatic content,^[2] the symphony was first performed in the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808^[3] in a four hour concert.^[4]

Background

Portrait of Beethoven in 1804, when he had been working on the Sixth Symphony for two years.

 Beethoven was a lover of nature who spent a great deal of his time on walks in the country. He frequently left Vienna to work in rural locations.

The first sketches of the Pastoral Symphony appeared in 1802. It was composed simultaneously with Beethoven’s more famous—and more fiery—Fifth Symphony. Both symphonies were premiered in a long and under-rehearsed concert in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 22 December 1808.

The composer said that the Sixth Symphony is “more the expression of feeling than painting”,^[5] a point underlined by the title of the first movement.

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for piccolo (fourth movement only), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in F and B flat, 2 trumpets in C and E flat (third, fourth, and fifth movements only), 2 trombones (alto and tenor, fourth and fifth movements only), timpani (fourth movement only), and strings.

Form

The symphony has five movements, rather than the four typical of symphonies of the Classical era. Beethoven annotated the beginning of each movement as follows:

1. Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande (Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the countryside): Allegro ma non troppo
2. Szene am Bach (Scene by the brook): Andante molto mosso
3. Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute (Merry gathering of country folk): Allegro
4. Gewitter, Sturm (Thunder. Storm): Allegro
5. Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm (Shepherd’s song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm): Allegretto

The third movement ends on an imperfect cadence that leads straight into the fourth; the fourth movement leads straight into the fifth without a pause. A performance of the work lasts about 40 minutes.

Description of movements

Beethoven wrote a short descriptive note at the head of each movement.

I. Allegro ma non troppo

‘Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside.’

The symphony begins with a placid and cheerful movement depicting the composer’s feelings as he arrives in the country. The movement, in 2/4 meter, is in sonata form, and its motifs are extensively developed. At several points Beethoven builds up orchestral texture by multiple repetitions of very short motifs. Yvonne Frindle commented,^[6] “the infinite repetition of pattern in nature [is] conveyed through rhythmic cells, its immensity through sustained pure harmonies.”

II. Andante molto mosso

‘Scene by the brook.’

This movement, titled by Beethoven “By the brook,” is in 12/8 meter; the key is B flat major, the subdominant of the main key of the work. The movement is in sonata form.

At the opening the strings play a motif that clearly imitates flowing water. The cello section is divided, with just two players playing the flowing-water notes on muted instruments, with the remaining cellos playing mostly pizzicato notes together with the double basses. Toward the end of the movement there is a cadenza for woodwind instruments that imitates bird calls. Beethoven helpfully identified the bird species in the score: nightingale (flute), quail (oboe), and cuckoo (two clarinets).

III. Allegro

‘Merry gathering of country folk.’

This is a scherzo in 3/4 time, which depicts country folk dancing and reveling. It is in F major, returning to the main key of the symphony.

The form of the movement is an altered version of the usual form for scherzi, in that the trio appears twice rather than just once, and the third appearance of the scherzo theme is truncated. Perhaps to accommodate this rather spacious arrangement, Beethoven did not mark the usual internal repeats of the scherzo and the trio. Theodor Adorno identifies this scherzo as the model for the scherzos by Anton Bruckner.^[7]

The final return of the theme conveys a riotous atmosphere with a faster tempo. The movement ends abruptly, leading without a pause into the fourth movement.

IV. Allegro

‘Thunder. Storm.’

The fourth movement, in F minor, depicts a violent thunderstorm with painstaking realism, building from just a few drops of rain to a great climax with thunder, lightning, high winds, and sheets of rain. The storm eventually passes, with an occasional peal of thunder still heard in the distance. There is a seamless transition into the final movement. This movement parallels Mozart‘s procedure in his String Quintet in G minor K. 516 of (1787), which likewise prefaces a serene final movement with a long, emotionally stormy introduction.^[8]

V. Allegretto

‘Shepherd’s song. Happy and thankful feelings after the storm.’

The finale is in F major and is in 6/8 time. The movement is written in sonata rondo form, meaning that the main theme appears in the tonic key at the beginning of the development as well as the exposition and the recapitulation. Like many classical finales, this movement emphasizes a symmetrical eight-bar theme, in this case representing the shepherds’ song of thanksgiving.

The coda starts quietly and gradually builds to an ecstatic culmination for the full orchestra (minus “storm instruments”), with the first violins playing very rapid triplet tremolo on a high F. There follows a fervent passage suggestive of prayer, marked by Beethoven “pianissimo, sotto voce”; most conductors slow the tempo for this passage. After a brief period of afterglow, the work ends with two emphatic F major chords

P. I. Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”, Op. 74 (Fedoseyev),: great compositions/performances

P. I. Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”, Op. 74 (Fedoseyev)

   Joseph Aknin

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique” in B minor, Op. 74 (1893) :
1. Adagio. Allegro non troppo
2. Allegro con grazia
3. Allegro molto vivace
4. Finale. Adagio lamentoso. Andante

*** Moskow Radio Symphony Orchestra
*** Conductor – Vladimir Fedoseyev
*** Recorded live at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, 1991

*****************************************************************
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky‘s final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 28 October [O.S. 16 October] of that year, nine days before his death. The second performance, conducted by Eduard Nápravník, took place 21 days later, at a memorial concert on 6/18 November.^[1][2] It included some minor corrections that Tchaikovsky had made after the premiere, and was thus the first performance of the work in the exact form in which it is known today. The first performance in Moscow was on 16 December [O.S. 4 December], conducted by Vasily Safonov.^[3] It was the last of Tchaikovsky’s compositions premiered in his lifetime; his last composition of all, the single-movement 3rd Piano Concerto, Op. 75, which was completed in October 1893, a short time before his death, received a posthumous premiere.

Background

After completing his 5th Symphony in 1888, Tchaikovsky did not start thinking about his next symphony until April 1891, on his way to the United States. The first drafts of a new symphony were started in the spring of 1891.^[4] However, some or all of the symphony was not pleasing to Tchaikovsky, who tore up the manuscript “in one of his frequent moods of depression and doubt over his alleged inability to create.”^[4] In 1892, Tchaikovsky wrote the following to his nephew Vladimir “Bob” Davydov:

The symphony is only a work written by dint of sheer will on the part of the composer; it contains nothing that is interesting or sympathetic. It should be cast aside and forgotten. This determination on my part is admirable and irrevocable.^[5]

This work was the Symphony in E-flat, the first movement of which Tchaikovsky later converted into the one-movement 3rd Piano Concerto (his final composition), and the latter two movements of which Sergei Taneyev reworked after Tchaikovsky’s death as the Andante and Finale.

In 1893, Tchaikovsky mentions an entirely new symphonic work in a letter to his brother:

I am now wholly occupied with the new work … and it is hard for me to tear myself away from it. I believe it comes into being as the best of my works. I must finish it as soon as possible, for I have to wind up a lot of affairs and I must soon go to London. I told you that I had completed a Symphony which suddenly displeased me, and I tore it up. Now I have composed a new symphony which I certainly shall not tear up.^[5]

The symphony was written in a small house in Klin and completed by August 1893. Tchaikovsky left Klin on 19 October for the first performance in St. Petersburg, arriving “in excellent spirits.”^[6] However, the composer began to feel apprehension over his symphony, when, at rehearsals, the orchestra players did not exhibit any great admiration for the new work.^[6] Nevertheless, the premiere was met with great appreciation. Tchaikovsky’s brother Modest wrote, “There was applause and the composer was recalled, but with more enthusiasm than on previous occasions. There was not the mighty, overpowering impression made by the work when it was conducted by Eduard Nápravník, on November 18, 1893, and later, wherever it was played.”^[7]

Mozart Symphony No 25 G minor K 183 Karl Böhm Wiener Philamoniker|great compositions/performances

Mozart Symphony No 25 G minor K 183 Karl Böhm Wiener Philamoniker

La Casa di Davide

Mozart Symphony No 25 G minor K 183 Karl Bohm Wiener Philarmoniker

1.Allegro con brio in G minor 0:30
2.Andante in E-flat major 8:43
3.Menuetto & Trio in G minor, Trio in G major 12:05
4.Allegro in G minor 15:58

********************************************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183/173dB, was written by the then 17 year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in October 1773,^[1] shortly after the success of his opera seria Lucio Silla. It was supposedly completed in Salzburg on October 5, a mere two days after the completion of his Symphony No. 24, although this remains unsubstantiated. Its first movement is widely known as the opening music in Miloš Forman‘s film Amadeus.

This is one of two symphonies Mozart composed in G minor, sometimes referred to as the “little G minor”. (The other is the Symphony No. 40; see also Mozart and G minor.)

1. Allegro con brio, 4/4 in G minor
2. Andante, 2/4 in E-flat major
3. Menuetto & Trio, 3/4 in G minor, Trio in G major
4. Allegro, 4 /4 in G minor

Style and influence

With its wide-leap melodic lines and syncopation, this symphony is characteristic of the Sturm und Drang style. It shares certain features with other Sturm und Drang symphonies of this time, and is likely inspired by Joseph Haydn‘s Symphony No. 39 which is likewise in G minor.^[2]

Performance history

The work was first performed in the United States by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on October 27, 1899, under the direction of Wilhelm Gericke. It was not performed again in the U.S. until 1937, when rendered by the Alfred Wallenstein Sinfonietta. John Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic performed it again in 1941 as part of their centennial season.^[3]

 

Related articles

• Mozart – Violin Concerto No. 3 in G, K. 216: make music part of your life series
• Mendelssohn-Piano Concerto No. 1 in g minor Op. 25, Rudolf Serkin/Philadelphia Orchestra- Eugene Ormandy: great compositions/perfornmances

Mozart: Symphony ‘Jupiter’ No.41 in C major, K 551 (Jaap Ter Linden & Mozart Akademie Amsterdam): great compositions/performances

Johanes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony ‘Jupiter’ No.41 in C major, (K 551)

vivaldi369

Álbum: Mozart, Complete Works Vol. 1: Symphonies Complete
Interprete del álbum: Jaap Ter Linden & Mozart Akademie Amsterdam
Compositor: Johanes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Año: 2002
*********************************************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s compositions characterized music of the classical era. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, on 10 August 1788.^[1] It was the last symphony that he composed, and also the longest.

The work is nicknamed the Jupiter Symphony. This name stems not from Mozart but rather was likely coined by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon^[2] in an early arrangement for piano.

Instrumentation

The symphony is scored for flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns in C, two trumpets in C, timpani in C and G, and strings.

Composition and premiere

The 41st Symphony is the last of a set of three that Mozart composed in rapid succession during the summer of 1788. The 39th was completed on 26 June and the 40th on 25 July.^[1] Nikolaus Harnoncourt argues that Mozart composed the three symphonies as a unified work, pointing, among other things, to the fact that the Symphony No. 41, as the final work, has no introduction (unlike No. 39) but has a grand finale.^[3]

Around the same time as he composed the three symphonies, Mozart was writing his piano trios in E and C major, his Sonata facile, and a violin sonatina.

It is not known whether the 41st Symphony was ever performed in the composer’s lifetime. According to Otto Erich Deutsch, around this time Mozart was preparing to hold a series of “Concerts in the Casino” in a new casino in the Spiegelgasse owned by Philipp Otto. Mozart even sent a pair of tickets for this series to his friend Michael Puchberg. But it seems impossible to determine whether the concert series was held, or was cancelled for lack of interest.^[1]

Movements

The four movements are arranged in the traditional symphonic form of the Classical era:

1. Allegro vivace, 4/4
2. Andante cantabile, 3/4 in F major
3. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio, 3/4
4. Molto allegro, 2/2

The symphony typically has a duration of about 33 minutes.

The sonata form first movement’s main theme begins with contrasting motifs: a threefold tutti outburst on the fundamental tone (respectively, by an ascending motion leading in a triplet from the dominant tone underneath to the fundamental one), followed by a more lyrical response.

 

Related articles

• Mozart – Piano Sonata No. 1 in C, K. 279: make music part of your life series

Schubert – Symphony no. 8 in B minor D 759 “Unfinished” (KARAJAN – Philarmonia Orchestra): great compositions/performances

Schubert – Symphony no. 8 in B minor D 759 “Unfinished” (KARAJAN – Philarmonia Orchestra)

   Massimo Montanari

Franz SCHUBERT:   Symphony no. 8 in B minor D 759 “Unfinished”

I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante con moto

Philarmonia Orchestra with  Herbert Von KARAJAN, Conductor

(Recorded: 1955)

Related articles

• Great Compositions/Performances: Schubert – Symphony no. 8 in B minor D 759 “Unfinished” (KARAJAN – Philharmonia Orchestra)
• Franz Schubert: Symphony in B minor ‘Unfinished’ conducted by Bruno Walter.
• P. I. Tchaikovsky – Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48 (Fedoseyev) Erudite Music Channel: make music part of your life series

Johannes Brahms – Symphony No.3 in F, Op.90: great compositions/performances

Johannes Brahms – Symphony No.3 in F, Op.90

  Classical Music

Johannes Brahms:  Symphony No.3 in F, Op.90.
Conductor — Kurt Sanderling/Orchestra — Staatskapelle Dresden
1.Allegro con brio
2.Andante
3.Poco allegretto
4.Finale: Allegro

The time when performers and composers had personal mottoes—Wieniawski’s “Il faut risquer” (I must risk it), Joachim’s “Frei aber einsam” (Free but lonely), Brahms’ “Frei aber froh” (Free but happy)—is long since past, but still such mottoes are more than just biographical curiosities: there are at least two very well-recognized musical encryptions of those mottoes. Schumann, Albert Dietrich, and Brahms put their collective talents together to compose the “F-A-E” Sonata as a gift for Joachim, and, when Brahms came up with his own motto, he decided to use the pitches of its initials—F-A-F—as the motto theme for his Symphony No. 3 in F, Op. 90.

Brahms composed the Symphony No. 3 in the summer of 1883 after a five year long sabbatical from symphonic work. It is often considered the other three symphonies’ “poor sister”—a prominent feature, yes, on any symphonic season calendar, but not quite the same stunning pinnacle of symphonic achievement that each of the other three is. How wrong that notion is!

If mass consumption has less taste for the Third Symphony’s odd mix of overt heroism and dense formal logic than it has for the apparently more sensuous, even voluptuous, music of the second or fourth symphonies, or the Beethovenian spiritual journey of the First Symphony’s outer movements, that is hardly evidence of a shortcoming on the composer’s part. And indeed there is something heroic about the Symphony No. 3, enough to prompt Hans Richter, who conducted the premiere of the piece, to suggest that Brahms give it the subtitle “Eroica” (a suggestion that Brahms didn’t take). It is a heroism utterly unlike the kind brought to mind by the composer of the actual “Eroica” Symphony, however. How could a symphony that begins with a musical manifestation of the bittersweet words “free but happy” approach Beethoven’s Third or Fifth in raw grittiness?

The symphony is in four movements: Allegro con brio, Andante, Poco allegretto, and Allegro. The winds open the first movement with a three-chord rendition of F-A-F (actually A flat), after which a tempestuous first theme, also outlining F-A-F, takes over. The second theme is as beautiful a melody, pulsating with warmth, as one might hope for.

The melody of the Andante is rather like that of the First Symphony’s third movement, and not just because it is first given by a clarinet; it also has the same initial rhythm and the same gentle intervallic circle. Poco allegretto is hardly a scherzo; it is almost mournful.

The finale rekindles some of the first movement’s dramatic fire. The quiet, unison theme of the opening is like the long-lost twin of the quiet, unison theme at the opening of the Second Symphony‘s finale, except that what is in the Second Symphony a joyous occasion is in the Third Symphony intense and shadowed. The F-A-F motto appears again in the final bars, this time winding downward towards the final serene F major chord by way of luxurious string tremolandos.

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• Great Compositions/Performances: Brahms, Symphony Nr 3 F Dur op 90 Leonard Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker

Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastorale”: make music part of your life series

From: ChamberMusicTube

Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastorale“

From Wikipedia

The Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony (German Pastoral-Sinfonie^[1]), is a symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, and completed in 1808. One of Beethoven’s few works containing explicitly programmatic content,^[2] the symphony was first performed in the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808^[3] in a four hour concert.^[4]

Form

The symphony has five movements, rather than the four typical of symphonies of the Classical era. Beethoven annotated the beginning of each movement as follows:

1. Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande (Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the countryside): Allegro ma non troppo

2. Szene am Bach (Scene by the brook): Andante molto mosso

3. Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute (Merry gathering of country folk): Allegro

4. Gewitter, Sturm (Thunder. Storm): Allegro

5. Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm (Shepherd’s song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm): Allegretto

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Aleksandr Glazunov: Symphony no.6 op.58 (Gennadij Rozhdestvenskij, conductor): make music part of your life series

Aleksandr Glazunov: Symphony no.6 op.58 (Gennadij Rozhdestvenskij, conductor)

Parts/Movements

1. Adagio – Allegro passionato
2. Tema con varazioni
3. Intermezzo. Allegretto
4. Finale. Andante maestoso

Review :

While the Symphony No. 6 in C minor, Op. 58, of 1896 by Alexander Glazunov is not the most personally characteristic of his eight completed symphonies — the optimistic Third or the Olympian Fifth are more typical of his confident symphonic aesthetic — it is arguably the most typically Russian of his symphonies. Part of the reason for this is the scoring — violins in octaves above massed brass at its climaxes à la Tchaikovsky and gorgeously colorful woodwind writing in its central movements — part of it is the themes — ardent and powerful with a yearning quality characteristic of fin de siècle Russian symphonies — but most of it is the furious tone of the opening movement.
******With the darkly unfolding Adagio leading into a Allegro appassionato that balances a passionately despairing first theme with a fervently supplicating second theme, Glazunov’s Sixth sounds like a Russian symphony composed after the death of Tchaikovsky. But the Sixth is more than the work of a symphonic epigone. While the tone of the opening movement sounds typically Russian, its chromatic melodic and cogent harmonic structure makes it sound much more modern than contemporary symphonies by Kalinnikov or even Rachmaninov. Even more modern are the Sixth’s second and fourth movements.
******The second movement is a theme and seven variations that slowly transmutes the tone of the symphony from the fury of the opening movement to one of calm acceptance.
******The brief third-movement Intermezzo that precedes the Finale is lighter in tone than anything else in the symphony.
******The Finale itself is one of Glazunov’s most successful closing movements. With its magisterial Andante maestoso introduction announcing the chorale theme that will ultimately cap the movement, its highly contrasted themes — the first confidently striding in the winds Moderato maestoso, the second a lilting Scherzando theme for the flutes, horns, and strings — the Finale seems at first too episodic to cohere. Glazunov’s superb technical skills, however, form all the Finale’s material into an organic whole and the tone of the Finale — powerfully positive — is altogether Glazunov’s own. ~ James Leonard, Rovi

Read more:
               http://www.answers.com/topic/symphony-no-6-in-c-minor-op-58#ixzz3AkekJ1oA
               http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/5a0988a4-695c-4bff-bc68-4f312427495e.html
              http://www.allmusic.com/composition/symphony-no-6-in-c-minor-op-58-mc0002366895

 

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Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13 “Winter Dreams” – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: make music part of your life series

Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13 “Winter Dreams” – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

FROM

SymphonyOfAThousand

Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13 “Winter Dreams” – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Composed in 1866

I. Allegro tranquillo (0:00)
II. Adagio cantabile (12:17)
III. Scherzo. Allegro scherzando giocoso (24:45)
IV. Finale. Andante lugubre (32:53)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Yuri Temirkanov, cond.
Recorded in 1993
http://www.amazon.com/6-Symphonies-P-…

Image: Tchaikovsky (published 1906), courtesy Wikipedia

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great compositions/performances: Schumann – Symphony No 1 in B flat major “Spring”, Op. 38 – VPO, Furtwängler, 1951 (Remastered 2012)

[youtube.com/watch?v=yp3OixIiJV0]

Schumann – Symphony No 1 in B flat major “Spring” Op. 38 – VPO, Furtwängler, 1951 (Remastered 2012)

great compositions/performances:  Schumann – Symphony No 1 in B flat major “Spring”, Op. 38 – VPO, Furtwängler, 1951 (Remastered 2012)

great compositions/performances:  Schumann – Symphony No 1 in B flat major “Spring”, Op. 38 – VPO, Furtwängler, 1951 (Remastered 2012)

 

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Make Music PArt of Your Life: Pyotr Tchaikovsky – Souvenir de Florence

The String Sextet in D minor “Souvenir de Florence“, Op. 70, is a string sextet scored for 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos composed in the European summer of 1890 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky dedicated the work to the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society in response to his becoming an Honorary Member. The work, in the traditional four-movement form, was titled “Souvenir de Florence” because the composer sketched one of the work’s principal themes while visiting Florence, Italy, where he composed The Queen of Spades. The work was revised between December 1891 and January 1892, before being premiered in 1892.

1. Allegro con spirito (00:00)
2. Adagio cantabile e con moto (10:16)
3. Allegretto moderato (19:56)
4. Allegro con brio e vivace (26:11)

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Vincent D’indy Symphony on a French mountain air for piano and orchestra

Pnina Salzman and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra/ Mendi Rodan, conductor. See also her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pnina-…

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

For the asteroid named after the composer, see 11530 d’Indy.

Vincent d’Indy, ca. 1895

Vincent d’Indy (French pronunciation: ​[vɛ̃ˈsɑ̃ dɛ̃ˈdi]) (27 March 1851 – 2 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher.

Life

Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d’Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and Louis Diémer.^[1] From the age of 14 he studied harmony with Albert Lavignac. At age 19, during the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted in the National Guard, but returned to musical life as soon as the hostilities were over. The first of his works he heard performed was a Symphonie italienne, at an orchestral rehearsal under Jules Pasdeloup; the work was admired by Georges Bizet and Jules Massenet, with whom he had already become acquainted.^[1] On the advice of Henri Duparc, he became a devoted student of César Franck at the Conservatoire de Paris. As a follower of Franck, d’Indy came to admire what he considered the standards of German symphonism.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

Pnina Salzman (Hebrew: פנינה זלצמן) (February 24, 1922, Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine – December 16, 2006, Tel Aviv, Israel) was an Israeli classical pianist and piano pedagogue.

Salzman showed an early aptitude for the piano, and gave her first recital at the age of eight. The French pianist and teacher, Alfred Cortot, heard her play in 1932 while she was a student at Shulamit Conservatory and invited her to Paris to study. She graduated at the Ecole Normale de Musique then became a pupil of Magda Tagliaferroat the Conservatoire de Paris, where she was to win the Premier Prix de Piano in 1938, aged 16.

It was through the violinist Bronislaw Huberman that she first developed a lifelong association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which Huberman had founded.

In 1963 she became the first Israeli to be invited to play in the USSR and in 1994, the first Israeli pianist invited to play in China. Besides performing as a soloist, she was a member of the Israel Piano Quartet.

She was a Professor and the head of the piano department at Tel Aviv University and served on the jury of many piano competitions, including the Arthur Rubinstein,Vladimir Horowitz and Marguerite Long competitions. She taught piano to many students, including Dror Elimelech, Nimrod David Pfeffer, Elisha Abas, Iddo Bar-Shai andYossi Reshef.

Buy “Symphony on a French Mountain Air for Piano and Orchestra in G Major, Op. 25: II. Assez modéré, mais sans lenteur” on

Google Play, AmazonMP3, iTunes, eMusic

• Artist
  Pnina Salzman

 

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Great Compositions/Performances: Mozart Symphony No 40 G minor K 550 Karl Bohm Wiener Philarmoniker

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No 40 G minor K 550Karl Bhom conducts Wiener Philarmoniker:

 

 

 

 

Molto allegro 0:40
Andante 9:42
Menuetto, allegretto 17:25
Finale, allegro assai 22:05

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, KV. 550, in 1788. It is sometimes referred to as the “Great G minor symphony,” to distinguish it from the “Little G minor symphony,” No. 25. The two are the only extant minor key symphonies Mozart wrote.^[1]

 

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Great Composers/Compositions: Robert Schumann Symphony No 3 E flat major Rhenish Rheinische Sinfonie David Zinman Tonhalle Zurich

Robert Schumann Symphony No 3 E flat major Rhenish Rheinische Sinfonie David Zinman Tonhalle Zurich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish” in E flat major, Op. 97 is the last of Robert Schumann‘s (1810-1856) symphonies to be composed, although not the last published. It was composed from November 2 to December 9, 1850, and comprises five movements:

1. Lebhaft (Lively)
2. Scherzo: Sehr mäßig (Scherzo) (in C major)
3. Nicht schnell (not fast) (in A-flat major)
4. Feierlich (Solemn) (in E-flat minor)
5. Lebhaft (Lively)

The Third Symphony is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B♭, two bassoons, four french horns in E♭, two trumpets in E♭, threetrombones, timpani and strings. Its premiere on February 6, 1851 in Düsseldorf, conducted by Schumann himself,^[1] was received with mixed reviews, “ranging from praise without qualification to bewilderment”. However according to Peter A. Brown, members of the audience applauded between every movement, and especially at the end of the work when the orchestra joined them in congratulating Schumann by shouting “hurrah!”.^[2]

Biographical context

Throughout his life, Schumann explored a diversity of musical genres, including chamber, vocal, and symphonic music. Although Schumann wrote an incomplete G minor symphony as early as 1832-33 (of which the first movement was performed on two occasions to an unenthusiastic reception),^[3]he only began seriously composing for the symphonic genre after receiving his wife’s encouragement in 1839.^[4] Schumann gained quick success as a symphonic composer following his orchestral debut with his warmly-received First Symphony, which was composed in 1841 and premiered in Leipzig with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. By the end of his career Schumann had composed a total of four symphonies. Also in 1841 he finished the work which was later to be published as his Fourth Symphony. In 1845 he composed his C major Symphony, which was published in 1846 asNo. 2, and, in 1850, his Third Symphony. Therefore, the published numbering of the symphonies is not chronological. The reasoning for the “incorrect” numerical sequencing of the symphonies is because his Fourth Symphony was originally completed in 1841, but it was not well received at its Leipzig premiere. The lukewarm reception caused Schumann to withdraw the score and revise it ten years later in Düsseldorf. This final version was published in 1851 after the “Rhenish” Symphony was published

Genesis

The same year that Schumann composed his Third Symphony, he completed his Cello Concerto op. 129 which was published four years later. Schumann was inspired to write this symphony after a trip to the Rhineland with his wife. This journey was a happy and peaceful trip with Clara which felt to them as if they were on a pilgrimage.^[5] As a result of this trip, he incorporated elements of his journey and portrayed other experiences from his life in the music. The key of the symphony has been connected to Bach’s idea of E flat major and the Holy Trinity.^[6]

 

 

Great Composers/Compositions: Igor Bukhvalov – Symphony no. 8 in F-Dur, Op. 93 by Ludwig van Beethoven

Igor Bukhvalov conducts Belarusian National Philharmonic performing Symphony #8 in F-Dur ,Op. 93 By Ludwig van Beethoven:

The Eighth Symphony consists of four movements:

 

1. Allegro vivace e con brio
2. Allegretto scherzando
3. Tempo di Menuetto
4. Allegro vivace

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 The Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1812. Beethoven fondly referred to it as “my little Symphony in F,” distinguishing it from his Sixth Symphony, a longer work also in F.^[1]

The Eighth Symphony is generally light-hearted, though not lightweight, and in many places cheerfully loud, with many accented notes. Various passages in the symphony are heard by some listeners to be musical jokes.^[2] As with various other Beethoven works such as the Opus 27 piano sonatas, the symphony deviates from Classical tradition in making the last movement the weightiest of the four.
The work was begun in the summer of 1812, immediately after the completion of the Seventh Symphony.^[3]At the time Beethoven was 41 years old. As Antony Hopkins has noted, the cheerful mood of the work betrays nothing of the grossly unpleasant events that were taking place in Beethoven’s life at the time, which involved his interference in his brother Johann’s love life.^[4] The work took Beethoven only four months to complete,^[3] and is, unlike many of his works, without dedication.
The premiere took place on 24 February 1814, at a concert in the Redoutensaal, Vienna, at which theSeventh Symphony (which had been premiered two months earlier) was also played.^[5] Beethoven was growing increasingly deaf at the time, but nevertheless led the premiere. Reportedly, “the orchestra largely ignored his ungainly gestures and followed the principal violinist instead.”^[6]

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Mahler Symphony No.5. IV Adagietto | Leonard Bernstein (4/5)

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 5
IV Adagietto. Sehr langsam.
Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein

“In the Fourth movement, the famous Adagietto, harp and strings alone play. The opening melody recalls two of Mahler’s songs, “Nun seh’ ich wohl” (from Kindertotenlieder) and the separate Ruckert setting “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”. The long upbeats and expressive appoggiaturas of the melodic lines give the music a yearning, almost heart-breaking quality. The intensity that builds up inthis movement finaly assuages the darkness and doubts of the earlier movements, making the lighter mood and extrovert energy of the Rondo-Finale acceptable. Together, these two movements form the third part of the symphony. The formal function of the Adagietto is ambiguous. It acts as an introduction to the last movement, which follows without a break, and is thematically bound to it, for twice in the Finale we hear the Adagietto’s main theme, now at a fast tempo. The Adagietto also functions as a slow interlude in F major, between two faster movements in D major; but is also has an expressive weight sufficient for it to stand on its own – indeed, it is often performed by itself.

Even without a text or programme, the music’s emotional and referential content implies an existential dimension. Without an explicit programme or titles, we have few clues to the “meaning” of the Fifth Symphony other than the music itself. Mahler offers some guidance by grouping the five movements, which share some thematic Material, as well as an obsession with death, from the first part; the central scherzo stands alone as the second part; and the lat two movements, which are also linked thematically, form the third.