Many consider Dmitri Shostakovich the greatest composer of the 20th century. Born September 25, 1906, he might not have lived past his teens if he hadn't been talented. During the famines of the Revolutionary period in Russia, Alexander Glazunov, director of the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Conservatory, arranged for the poor and malnourished Shostakovich's food ration to be increased. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, his graduation exercise for Maximilian Steinberg's composition course at the Conservatory, was completed in 1925 at age 19 and was an immediate success worldwide. He was The Party's poster boy; his Second and Third Symphonies unabashedly subtitled, respectively, "To October". (celebrating the Revolution) and "The First of May". (International Workers' Day).
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
- 9/26/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) never left Germany but became internationally respected by his peers during his lifetime and a symbol of pure musicianship for future generations. A virtuoso organist, harpsichordist, and violinist/violist who may have also played lute, as a composer his mastery of counterpoint and fugal writing remain unmatched, yet he was also open to the influences of contemporary Italian and French composers.
Born into a highly musical family in Eisenach, Germany, Bach became organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt in 1703 at the age of 18. His first major appointment was as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, in 1708; six years later the Duke made him Concertmaster. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister and music director to the music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, where Bach wrote much of his greatest secular music. Bach's duties switched to writing choral and organ music for use in church services...
Born into a highly musical family in Eisenach, Germany, Bach became organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt in 1703 at the age of 18. His first major appointment was as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, in 1708; six years later the Duke made him Concertmaster. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister and music director to the music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, where Bach wrote much of his greatest secular music. Bach's duties switched to writing choral and organ music for use in church services...
- 3/21/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
A classicist using Romantic harmonies, Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was hailed at age 20 by Robert Schumann in a famous article entitled "New Paths." Yet by the time Brahms wrote his mature works, his music was thought of as a conservative compared to the daring harmonies and revolutionary dramatic theories of Richard Wagner. But in the next century, Arnold Schoenberg's 1947 essay titled "Brahms the Progressive" praised Brahms's bold modulations (as daring as Wagner's most tonally ambiguous chords), asymmetrical forms, and mastery of imaginative variation and development of thematic material.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
- 5/8/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
As always, there are biases at play here; my greatest interests are symphonic music, choral music, and piano music, so that's what comes my way most often. There are some paired reviews; the ranking of the second of each pair might not be the true, exact ranking, but it works better from a writing standpoint this way.
1. Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4; Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Tragic Overture, Op. 81; Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a; 3 Hungarian Dances; 9 Liebeslieder Waltzes; Intermezzi, Op. 116 No. 4 & Op. 117 No. 1 Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
It is not easy, at this point in recording history, to match the giants of the baton in a Brahms cycle, but Chailly has done it (this is my fiftieth Brahms cycle, and I have more than another fifty Brahms Firsts, and upwards of thirty each of the other symphonies outside those cycles, so I've got some basis for comparison...
1. Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4; Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Tragic Overture, Op. 81; Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a; 3 Hungarian Dances; 9 Liebeslieder Waltzes; Intermezzi, Op. 116 No. 4 & Op. 117 No. 1 Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
It is not easy, at this point in recording history, to match the giants of the baton in a Brahms cycle, but Chailly has done it (this is my fiftieth Brahms cycle, and I have more than another fifty Brahms Firsts, and upwards of thirty each of the other symphonies outside those cycles, so I've got some basis for comparison...
- 1/6/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
The quintessentially American story of classical piano hero Van Cliburn -- the Texan who at the height of the Cold War won the first Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow, when he was 23 years old, received a ticker tape parade in New York City on his return (as shown at left), made the first million-selling classical album, and (mostly) retired at age 44, having shrewdly invested his earnings in real estate -- is told in carefully balanced detail in Anthony Tommasini's lengthy obituary for The New York Times.
That obit includes the fact that some said that Cliburn didn't live up to his potential as a pianist, outside of his favorite repertoire, he did not always play with equal inspiration. While greater versatility would have been commendable, the same charge could be aimed at many pianists. In his comfort zone, though -- the music of Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and of course...
That obit includes the fact that some said that Cliburn didn't live up to his potential as a pianist, outside of his favorite repertoire, he did not always play with equal inspiration. While greater versatility would have been commendable, the same charge could be aimed at many pianists. In his comfort zone, though -- the music of Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and of course...
- 2/28/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Generally I try to give my genre review roundups a certain breadth, but this time I'm focusing on solo piano recordings, with one exception at the end that's still keyboard-centric.
Jenny Lin: Get Happy (Steinway & Sons)
Looking at the tracklist, one might think this is a jazz album: "Blue Skies," "I Got Rhythm," "Begin the Beguine," "My Favorite Things," etc. The subtitle, though, is "virtuoso show tunes for piano," and all of these are thoroughly notated arrangements, most by classical pianists -- Earl Wild, Alexis Weissenberg, Christopher O'Riley, Stephen Hough, and Marc-Andre Hamelin are among those credited, though from the jazz side Dick Hymen and Cy Walter are also heard from, and Andre Previn goes both ways, musically speaking.
The subtitle is a bit off in one instance, in two senses: as Lin freely admits in the fine interview that makes up the friendly yet informative booklet notes, David...
- 11/26/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Born August 22, 1862 in St.-Germaine-en-Laye, France, Claude-Achille Debussy was a child prodigy pianist who was admitted to the Paris Conservatory at age 10. Now generally considered to have been the greatest French composer, Debussy is proof that great art can come from terrible human beings. He was supremely self-centered and selfish. Two women -- one his wife -- attempted to kill themselves after he ended his relationships with them in cruelly casual fashion; his behavior was so beyond acceptable norms, even by bohemian French standards, that many of his friends turned their backs on him. In the midst of his greatest personal controversy, when he'd left his wife for a married woman and moved with the latter to England for awhile after to escape the constant recriminations, he wrote his biggest masterpiece, La Mer.
But, of course, there's nothing the French enjoy more than a controversy. Debussy's music was controversial as well.
But, of course, there's nothing the French enjoy more than a controversy. Debussy's music was controversial as well.
- 8/16/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Sviatoslav Richter: The Teldec Recordings (Teldec/Warner Classics)
This three-cd set returns to print some fairly fascinating items from the discography of the most venerated pianist of his generation. It’s an import from England that’s distributed by Naxos; at its $24.99 list price, it’s a great bargain, and thus easily worth acquiring even if you already have one of its discs.
Baroque authenticists may sneer at Richter’s playing, on disc one, of J.S. Bach’s Piano Concertos in D major, Bwv 1054, and in G minor, Bwv 1058, accompanied by the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto conducted by Yuri Bashmet. I enjoy it, with some qualification. Richter plays Bwv 1054 rather sternly, though with quiet elegance in the slow movement; in the outer movements, though, his rhythms are foursquare, lacking the vivacity we now expect in this repertoire, and though he does play a few ornaments, he’s pretty restrained in that department.
This three-cd set returns to print some fairly fascinating items from the discography of the most venerated pianist of his generation. It’s an import from England that’s distributed by Naxos; at its $24.99 list price, it’s a great bargain, and thus easily worth acquiring even if you already have one of its discs.
Baroque authenticists may sneer at Richter’s playing, on disc one, of J.S. Bach’s Piano Concertos in D major, Bwv 1054, and in G minor, Bwv 1058, accompanied by the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto conducted by Yuri Bashmet. I enjoy it, with some qualification. Richter plays Bwv 1054 rather sternly, though with quiet elegance in the slow movement; in the outer movements, though, his rhythms are foursquare, lacking the vivacity we now expect in this repertoire, and though he does play a few ornaments, he’s pretty restrained in that department.
- 5/30/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
When Beethoven died on 26 March 1827 in Vienna, he had been ill for over three months, in which time he completed no compositions. It was the culmination of a long string of illnesses; his work was seriously interrupted in 1811, 1812, 1816-17, 1821, 1825, and from December 1826 to his death. (His extensive meddling in the lives of various relatives had also interfered with his musical productivity.)
We ran an Anniversaries piece for Beethoven's birthday in 2010 that looked at recordings of his symphonies. Now, to mark the anniversary of his death on, we look at his piano sonatas. Beethoven transformed the sonata nearly as much as the symphony, his 32 canonical works (which doesn't include the early C major sonata and F major sonatina without opus numbers or the three "Elector" sonatas Wo47) in the form varying greatly and achieving, especially in the last five or six, an epic, questing quality that's highly personal.
But even...
We ran an Anniversaries piece for Beethoven's birthday in 2010 that looked at recordings of his symphonies. Now, to mark the anniversary of his death on, we look at his piano sonatas. Beethoven transformed the sonata nearly as much as the symphony, his 32 canonical works (which doesn't include the early C major sonata and F major sonatina without opus numbers or the three "Elector" sonatas Wo47) in the form varying greatly and achieving, especially in the last five or six, an epic, questing quality that's highly personal.
But even...
- 3/26/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Here's the last of my retrospective articles inspired by my 50th birthday. It was the hardest one to write, because it involved the toughest choices in the music I love most. This is nothing like my Top 111 Composers list, where I'm relatively objective and tried to cover a representative sampling of major works; here I'm totally subjective. These are favorite recordings, and/or milestones in my listening life. So there are two sets of Chopin’s Nocturnes, and no Beethoven symphonies, and no Mozart at all. Don’t read anything into that. Going year by year, that's just how it worked out. Sviatoslav Richter is my favorite pianist, but he's not here (though if I'd been born earlier, his Prague-recorded "Appassionata" Sonata or his 1960 Carnegie Hall concert would've been included).
read more...
read more...
- 5/6/2011
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
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