List activity
1.9K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
51 people
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Frédéric François Chopin was born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, on March 1, 1810, in Zelazowa Wola, Masovia region, Duchy of Warsaw, Poland. His father, named Mikolaj (Nicolas) Chopin, was a Frenchman who came to Poland from Lorraine, and eventually became professor at Warsaw Lyceum. His mother, named Tekla Justina Krzyzanovska, was a relative of Polish Countess Ludwika Skarbkowa, owner of the Zelazowa Wola estate.
From 1816-1822 Chopin studied piano under professional musician Wojcech Zywny. He wrote his first piano compositions at the age of 7. In 1820, then ten-year-old Chopin moved with his parents to Warsaw. There he gained a reputation as a "second Mozart" for his piano playing. From 1823-1826 Chopin studied at the Warsaw Lyceum. In 1824 he was influenced by the Jewish folklore and composed Mazurka in A minor, called "The Jewish" by Chopin himself. From 1826-1830 he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory under pianist Wilhelm Wurfel and composer Josef Elsner. In 1829 Chopin attended a performance of Niccolò Paganini in Warsaw. In the same year Chopin gave solo concerts in Vienna and premiered his Piano Concerto No.1 in F minor. In 1830 he premiered his Piano Concerto No.2 in E minor at the National Theatre in Warsaw. He visited Vienna again in November of same year and played his two piano concertos with great success. After Vienna he continued his concert tour to Munich and Stuttgart. There he learned of the invasion of the Russian Army in Poland, and composed the Etude in C minor, called Revolutionary. Chopin chose the status of a political exile and finally emigrated to Paris, France.
From 1830-1849 Chopin established himself as composer and piano player in Paris. There he changed his name into Frédéric François Chopin. In Paris he met Franz Liszt, who initiated a friendship, and they played together in several concerts, but later became rivals. Chopin formed personal friendship with composer and critic Hector Berlioz. His other personal friends were Felix Mendelssohn and Vincenzo Bellini. In 1835 he made a trip to Dresden and Karlsbad, where he visited with his relatives and accompanied them to Poland. He became seriously ill with bronchial asthma on his way back to Paris. In 1836 he proposed to a seventeen-year-old Polish girl, named Maria Wodzinska, and she accepted. Their engagement lasted for several months, but was called off in 1837 by her mother after a certain manipulative influence by George Sand.
In October of 1836, in Paris Chopin met George Sand at a party hosted by Marie d'Agoult, mistress of Franz Liszt. Initially Chopin commented on Sand: "What an antipathetic woman". In June of 1837 Sand wrote in a letter to her friend about her agenda to abandon another affair in order to start a relationship with Chopin. George Sand was strongly attracted to Chopin, she destroyed his engagement to Maria Wodzinska, and dominated his life for nine years. Chopin and Sand had a turbulent relationship. In 1839, during their first winter vacation together on Mallorca, Sand took along her children from her previous marriage. At Mallorca Chopin did not have a decent piano to practice, while he was composing his 'Raindrop' prelude. Sand witnessed the completion of Chopin's greatest masterpiece, the cycle of 24 Preludes. He had to struggle with a poor rental piano and became unhappy and fell ill, but received little help from local doctors. Later Chopin enjoyed a better environment at Sand's estate in Nohant. There his creativity flourished during the summers of 1839 until 1843. At that time Chopin composed many important works. However, Chopin and Sand were not a good match, and eventually their differences prevailed. Sand was a pipe smoker and a flamboyant party goer. Chopin suffered from bronchial asthma and tuberculosis and needed a quiet solitude for his music. In George Sand's violent quarrel with her daughter Solange, Chopin defended the daughter. Sand left Chopin.
In February of 1848 Chopin gave his last concerts in Paris. He went to England and Scotland in November of 1848, and fell ill there. He gave his last concerts in London while being severely ill. He returned to Paris, but was unable to teach or perform for several months during 1849. Shortly before he died, sensing the end was near, Chopin had requested that Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart be sung at his funeral service at the Church of the Madeleine. He also requested that his heart be removed and brought in an urn to Warsaw, Poland. Chopin died on October 17, 1849, but could not be buried for two weeks, because the church did not allow female singers for the Mozart's Requiem. At last, the church relented and the funeral was held on October 30, 1849. A crowd of four thousand attended the ceremony. Composer Berlioz, artist Delacroix, poet Adam Mickiewicz, singer Viardot, were present among many others from cultural circles - but notably absent was George Sand. Chopin's heart was dispatched in an urn to Warsaw, and his body was laid to rest in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France.NOCTURNA N 1,OPUS 28 PRELUDE N 4- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Richard Wagner was a German composer best known for his operas, primarily the monumental four-opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen". He was born Wilhelm Richard Wagner on May 22, 1813, in Leipzig, Germany. He was the ninth child in the family of Carl Wagner, a police clerk. Richard was only six months old when his father died, and he was brought up by his mother Johanna and stepfather Ludwig Geyer, an actor and playwright. Young Wagner studied piano from the age of 7 and soon developed ability to play by ear and improvise. At age 15 he wrote piano transcriptions of Ludwig van Beethoven's "9th Symphony" and orchestral overtures. He studied at the University of Leipzig, and also took composition and conducting lessons with the cantor of St. Thomas in Leipzig.
Wagner's early operas did not meet with success, leaving him in serious financial difficulties. From 1836-1839 he was a music director in Riga Opera, where his wife, Minna Planer, was a singer, and her extramarital escapades were the talk of the town. The Wagners amassed such significant debts that they had to escape from creditors and fled Riga. They spent 1840 and 1841 in London and Paris, where Richard worked as an arranger for other composers.
Giacomo Meyerbeer promoted Wagner's third opera, "Rienzi", to performance by the Dresden Court Theatre, where the opera was staged to considerable acclaim. In 1842 the Wagners moved to Dresden and lived there for six years. Eventually Richard was appointed the Royal Saxon Court Conductor. At that time he completed and staged "Der fliegende Hollander" (aka "The Flying Dutchman") and "Tannhauser".
Wagner was exposed to many conflicting political influences, ranging from Marxism and liberalism on the left to German nationalism on the right to the anarchism of Mikhail Bakunin. After the revolution of 1848-49, Wagner fled from Germany to Paris, then to Zurich, and found himself penniless, unemployed and depressed (he had also suffered from a severe skin infection for many years). At that time Wagner was unable to compose or perform music, and he expressed himself in writing essays: "The Art-Work of the Future", describing "Gesamtkunstwerk," or "total artwork" uniting opera, ballet, visual arts and stagecraft.
Wagner's four "Ring" operas gradually evolved, and he completed the libretto by 1852. Another year of suffering went by, until he began composing "Das Rheingold" (aka "The Rhine Gold") in November 1853, following it with "Die Walkure" (aka "The Valkyrie") in 1854. In 1856 he began work on "Siegfried", but put the unfinished opera aside and focused on his new idea: "Tristan und Isolde" (aka "Tristan and Isolde"), which was composed between 1857 and 1859. In 1861 Germany ended the political ban on Wagner, and in 1862 he ended his troubled marriage to Minna.
"Tristan and Isolde" was initially accepted for production in Vienna. The opera had over 70 rehearsals between 1861 and 1864, but remained unperformed and gained a reputation for being unplayable. The young Bavarian King Ludwig II, an admirer of Wagner's operas since his childhood, had settled the composer's debts and financed his opera productions. Finally "Tristan and Isolde" was produced in Munich, and premiered under the baton of Hans von Bulow in June 1865. It was the first Wagner premiere in 15 years.
Cosima von Bulow, the wife of the conductor, Hans von Bulow, and the eldest daughter of pianist/composer Franz Liszt, had an indiscreet affair with Wagner, and their illegitimate daughter, Isolde, was born in 1865. The affair scandalized Munich, and Wagner fell into disfavor among members of the court who were jealous of his friendship with the king. Ludwig was pressured to ask Wagner to leave Munich. However, from 1866 to 1872 the king placed Wagner and his family at Tribshen villa on Lake Luzern, Switzerland. There Richard married Cosime in August 1870. Inspired composer created one of his most beloved works, the "Siegfried Idyll" for 15 players, written as a gift to Cosima, and premiered on Christmas day, 1870.
In 1872 Wagner moved to Bayreuth with a plan that his "Ring" cycle to be performed in a new, specially designed opera house. King Ludwig supported the composer with another large grant in 1874, and the Wagners bought Villa Wahnfried and made permanent home in Bayreuth. In August 1876 the new opera "Festspielhaus" opened with the premiere of "The Ring" and has been the site of the Bayreuth Festival ever since.
Richard Wagner died of a heart attack on February 13, 1883, while wintering in Venice. He was laid to rest in the garden of his Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth. The Wagner Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, is now a museum of period musical instruments and art collection of the Wagner family. One room is dedicated to the history of the Wagner Festivals in Lucerne. The Wagner Museum allows visitors to take photos of the documents about the Wagner family's help to the Jewish musicians and intellectuals who fled the Nazi regime in the 1930s.
Documents reveal that the Wagner family were assisting Jewish musicians and intellectuals who fled the Nazi regime in finding employment in Switzerland and other lands, such as the USA and Palestine. Documents, photographs and letters illustrate the bold activity of Arturo Toscanini with Vladimir Horowitz and the Wagner family members in getting funds from the government of Benito Mussolini and using those funds to accommodate Jewish musicians and intellectuals under the umbrella of the annual Wagner Festival in Lucerne. The Wagner Festival Symphony Orchestra employed many Jewish musicians who later joined the Israel Philarmonic Orchestra (then known as the "Palestine Orchestra").DIE WALKURE,TANNHAUSER- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, into a large and distinguished family of professional musicians. His father, named Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a violinist and trumpeter, employed by the city of Eisenach. His uncles were church organists, court musicians and composers. His mother and father died before Bach was 10. As an orphan, he moved in with his eldest brother, J. C. Bach, an organist and composer, under whose tutelage Bach studied organ music as well as the construction and maintenance of the organ.
Education: At the age of 14, Bach received a scholarship and walked on foot 300 kilometers to the famous St. Michael's school in Luneburg, near Hamburg. There he lived and studied for 2 years from 1699-1701. It was there that he sang a Capella at the boys chorale. Bach's studies included organ, harpsichord, and singing. In addition he took the academic studies in theology, history and geography, and lessons of Latin, Italian, and French. Besides his studies of music by the local Nothern German composers, Bach had important exposure to the music of composers from other European nations; such as the French composers Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marais, and Marchand, the South German composers Johann Pachelbel and Froberger, and the Italians Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi.
Personality and character: Bach was 17 when he made a 4-month pilgrimage, walking on foot about 400 kilometers from Arnstadt to the Northern city of Lubeck. There he studied with 'Dietrich Buxtehude' and became so involved that he overstayed his leave by three months. Buxtehude being probably the best organist of his time became the living link between the founder of Baroque music Heinrich Schütz and the biggest Baroque genius, Bach. Back in Arnstadt, Bach wrote 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' (1702), his first masterpiece; which stemmed from his bold organ improvisations. At that time he was in love with his second cousin Maria Barbara; whom he was taking upstairs to the church organ, where her presence was inspirational for his creativity. Bach was punished for the violation of the restrictions on women's presence in the church and he was fired. However, he eventually married Maria Barbara.
Cross-cultural studies: Bach studied the orchestral music of Antonio Vivaldi and gained insight into his compositional language by arranging Vivaldi's concertos for organ. Six French suites were written for keyboard; each suite opens with 'Allemande' and consists of several pieces, including 'Courante', 'Sarabande', 'Menuet', 'Gavotte', 'Air', 'Anglaise', 'Polonaise', 'Bourree', and 'Gigue'. As suggested by their titles, the pieces were representing songs and dances from various cultures. From the music of the Italians Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, and 'Giuseppe Torelli'; Bach adopted dramatic introductions and endings as well as vivacious rhythmical dynamism and elaborate harmonization. Bach also performed the music of English, French, and Italian composers; motets of the Venetian school, and incorporated their rhythmical patterns and textural structures in the development of his own style.
Teaching: Bach selected and instructed musicians for orchestras and choirs in Weimar and Leipzig. His work as a Cantor included teaching instrumental and vocal lessons to the church musicians and later to the musicians of the court orchestra. Bach was also a teacher of his own children and of his second wife. In 1730, Bach presented his second wife with a musical notebook for studies, known as the 'Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach'. Compositions in the notebook were written in a form of minuete, polonaise, gavotte, march, rondeau, chorale, sonata, prelude, song, and aria; written mainly by Bach, as well as by his sons 'Carl Philip Emanuel Bach', Johann Christoph Bach, and composers 'Francois Couperin', Georg Bohm, and others.
Family: Bach married his second cousin, named Maria Barbara, who was the inspirational force for his early compositions. They had seven children, 4 of whom survived to adulthood. W. F. Bach, J. C. Bach, and C. P. E. Bach became composers. Maria Barbara died in 1720. On December 3, 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena (bee Wilcke), a talented soprano, who was 17 years his junior. They had thirteen children. Bach fathered a total of 20 children with his two wives. His sons 'Friedemann Bach', Johann Christoph Bach, and 'Carl Philip Emanuel Bach' became important composers in the Rococo style. The descendants of Bach are living in many countries across the world.
Social activity: Bach replaced his friend Georg Philipp Telemann as the director of the popular orchestra known as Collegium Musicum, which he led from 1729-1750. It was a private secular music society that gave concert performances twice a week at the Zimmerman's Coffeehouse near the Leipzig market square. Bach's exposure to such a secular public environment inspired him to compose numerous purely entertainment pieces for solo keyboard and several violin and harpsichord concertos.
Politics: Being the undisputed musical genius, Bach still suffered from ugly political machinations. Although the Leipzig Council had enough money, they never honored the promised salary of 1000 talers a year; promised to Bach by the Mayor of Leipzig, Gottlieb Lange, at the hiring interview. Bach worked diligently, in spite of being underpaid for 27 years until his death. On top of that local political factions in the Leipzig Council manipulated Bach's educational work as well as his compositions and public performances. They were pressuring him as the Cantor and Composer and interfering his creative efforts by imposing restrictions on his performances because of their ugly political games. Bach prevailed as he composed and played his "Mass in B Minor" to the monarch of Saxony and was appointed the Royal Court Composer of Saxony.
King Frederick the Great invited Bach to Potsdam in 1747. There the king played his own theme for Bach and challenged the composer to improvise on it. Bach used the 'royal theme' and improvised a three-part fugue on the king's piano. Later Bach upgraded the king's theme to a more sophisticated melody, and composed an array of pieces based on the improved 'royal theme', which he titled "Musical Offering" and later presented this composition to the king.
Legacy: Bach wrote over eleven hundred music compositions in all genres. In Leipzig alone he wrote a cantata for every Sunday and feast day of the year, of which 224 cantatas survive. Some of his compositions were written on the same theme at different times in his life, like choral cantatas and organ works on similar themes with significantly reworked arrangements. The complete list of Bach's works, BWV, has 1127 compositions for voice, organ, harpsichord, violin, cello, flute, chamber music for small ensembles, orchestral music, concertos for violin and orchestra, and for keyboard and orchestra. His music became the essential part of the education for every musician. Bach influenced such great composers as Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev and many other prominent musicians.
Bach is by far the most performed and recorded composer in history. His 'Das Wohltemperierte Clavier' (The well-tempered keyboard, or The well-tuned piano, in modern terminology) is the definitive work for all students as well as concert musicians. Bach's 'Orgebuchlein' (The little organ book) is a staple in the repertoire of organists and pianists, and some pieces from it were arranged for ensembles. Bach's many chorales, especially the "Mass in B Minor" are considered the best works in the genre. His last work 'The Art of Fugue' is best known for it's acclaimed performance by Glenn Gould. Bach's music was used in hundreds of films, thousands of stage productions, and continues being played all over the world.
The definitive biography of J. S. Bach was written by the Nobel Prize Laureate Albert Schweitzer.DAS WOHITEMPERIERTE KLAVIER,GOLDBERG VARIATIONS- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Italian composer, one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end. His mature operas include "La Bohème" (1896), "Tosca" (1900), "Madama Butterfly" (1904), and "Turandot" left incomplete.LA BOHEME,MADAME BUTTERFLY- Music Department
- Composer
- Additional Crew
Beethoven was the child of a Flamian musician family and became a member of the electoral orchestra of Bonn in 1783. In 1787 he studied at Mozart's in Vienna and in 1792 he moved all to Vienna becoming a student of Joseph Haydn. The Vienna High Society loved him as a piano player as well as as composer. In 1802 his deafness became serious making Beethoven a real eccentric until his death in 1827.6 TH SYMPHONY PASTORAL,2 TH SYMPHONY- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Vyatka region, Russia. He was the second of six children (five brothers and one sister). His father, named Ilya Chaikovsky, was a mining business executive in Votkinsk. His father's ancestors were from Ukraine and Poland. His mother, named Aleksandra Assier, was of Russian and French ancestry.
Tchaikovsky played piano since the age of 5, he also enjoyed his mother's playing and singing. He was a sensitive and emotional child, and became deeply traumatized by the death of his mother of cholera, in 1854. At that time he was sent to a boarding school in St. Petersburg. He graduated from the St. Petersburg School of Law in 1859, then worked for 3 years at the Justice Department of Russian Empire. In 1862-1865 he studied music under Anton Rubinstein at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1866-1878 he was a professor of theory and harmony at the Moscow Conservatory. At that time he met Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz, who visited Russia with concert tours. During that period Tchaikovsky wrote his first ballet 'The Swan Lake', opera 'Eugene Onegin', four Symphonies, and the brilliant Piano Concerto No1.
As a young man Tchaikovsky suffered traumatic personal experiences. He was sincerely attached to a beautiful soprano, named Desiree Artot, but their engagement was destroyed by her mother and she married another man. His homosexuality was causing him a painful guilt feeling. In 1876 he wrote to his brother, Modest, about his decision to "marry whoever will have me." One of his admirers, a Moscow Conservatory student Antonina Ivanovna Milyukova, was persistently writing him love letters. She threatened to take her life if Tchaikovsky didn't marry her. Their brief marriage in the summer of 1877 lasted only a few weeks and caused him a nervous breakdown. He even made a suicide attempt by throwing himself into a river. In September of 1877 Tchaikovsky separated from Milyukova. She eventually ended up in an insane asylum, where she spent over 20 years and died. They never saw each other again. Although their marriage was terminated legally, Tchaikovsky generously supported her financially until his death.
Tchaikovsky was ordered by the doctors to leave Russia until his emotional health was restored. He went to live in Europe for a few years. Tchaikovsky settled together with his brother, Modest, in a quiet village of Clarens on Lake Geneva in Switzerland and lived there in 1877-1878. There he wrote his very popular Violin Concerto in D. He also completed his Symphony No.4, which was inspired by Russian folk songs, and dedicated it to Nadezhda von Meck. From 1877 to 1890 Tchaikovsky was financially supported by a wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck, who also supported Claude Debussy. She loved Tchaikovsky's music and became his devoted pen-friend. They exchanged over a thousand letters in 14 years; but they never met, at her insistence. In 1890 she abruptly terminated all communication and support, claiming bankruptcy.
Tchaikovsky played an important role in the artistic development of Sergei Rachmaninoff. They met in 1886, when Rachmaninov was only 13 years old, and studied the music of Tchaikovsky under the tutelage of their mutual friend, composer Aleksandr Zverev. Tchaikovsky was the member of the Moscow conservatory graduation board. He joined many other musicians in recommendation that Rachmaninov was to be awarded the Gold Medal in 1892. Later Tchaikovsky was involved in popularization of Rachmaninov's graduation work, opera 'Aleko'. Upon Tchaikovsky's promotion Rachmaninov's opera "Aleko" was included in the repertory and performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
In 1883-1893 Tchaikovsky wrote his best Symphonies No.5 and No.6, ballets 'The Sleeping Beauty' and 'The Nutcracker', operas 'The Queen of Spades' and 'Iolanta'. In 1888-1889, he made a successful conducting tour of Europe, appearing in Prague, Leipzig, Hamburg, Paris, and London. In 1891, he went on a two month tour of America, where he gave concerts in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. In May of 1891 Tchaikovsky was the conductor on the official opening night of Carnegie Hall in New York. He was a friend of Edvard Grieg and Antonín Dvorák. In 1892 he heard Gustav Mahler conducting his opera 'Eugene Onegin' in Hamburg. Tchaikovsky himself conducted the premiere of his Symphony No.6 in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the 16th of October, 1893. A week later he died of cholera after having a glass of tap water. He was laid to rest in the Necropolis of Artists at St. Aleksandr Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, Russia.THE NUTCRACKER,THE SWANS LAKE- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Gustav Mahler is largely considered one of the most talented symphonic composers of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. His musical output comprised mainly of symphonic and song cycles requiring mammoth orchestras and often choruses. Sadly, Mahler never experienced popularity as a composer during his lifetime, not nearly as much as Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, or even Tchaikovsky, but his talents as interpretive artist on the conductor's podium earned him many accolades and prestigious assignments as music director to famous orchestras. Mahler was born in Kaliste, Bohemia on July 7, 1860, to a distillery manager father and a homemaker mother. Gustav was the second of twelve children, of which five died in infancy and three others did not live to mature adulthood. The constant conflicts between Gustav's domineering and abusive father and his weak mother helped to shape his compositional style, always reflecting on the struggle between good and evil, happy and sad, strong and weak, etc. Mahler showed musical talent at an early age, and by the age of eight years, he was already composing music influenced by military marches played at the nearby barracks. His parents eagerly encouraged his music studies, sending him to private tutors and ultimately to the Vienna Conservatory (1875-1878). Mahler's studies at the Conservatory got off to a slow start, but the final year at school was marked with him winning several composing awards. After graduation, for want of paying composing work, Mahler instead started conducting, typically directing light operas at second-rate orchestras. His insistence on complete artistic control of the entire production, from the stage costumes to the dramatic routines to how each and every note in the opera was played, earned him few friends among the orchestral players and performers but many positive reviews from critics. It was during these ten years after graduation from the Conservatory in which Mahler really began serious orchestral composing. Works written during this time included Das Klagend Lied (1880), Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) (1884), and his First Symphony (1888). It must be noted that Mahler conducted the premieres of each of his orchestral works. However, the premiere of his First, in Budapest in November 1889, was deemed a critical failure, since the audience was unaccustomed to the sound of this complex, modern work. Yet the First is perhaps his most approachable symphony, containing many Austrian Lieder themes and simple melodies. And, still, with a performance time of 55 to 60 minutes, it is his shortest symphony! Failures of Mahler the composer did not daunt Mahler the conductor, as his successes with the operas of Mozart, Wagner, and even some brand new works from Tchaikovsky earned him a reputation as a brilliant interpretive artist. Still, Mahler persevered, composing the Second Symphony (1892), a mammoth work of five movements requiring a full orchestra, female choral soloists, two choirs, an offstage brass band, and a pipe organ. His Third Symphony (1896) took this one step further, a six movement symphonic journey typically taking one hour and forty minutes to perform. During this time, Mahler was busy conducting orchestras and opera companies in Kassel (1883), Prague (1885), Leipzig (1886), Budapest (1888), Hamburg (1891), and Vienna (1894), but it was the musical director position at the Vienna Court Opera that he was aiming for. First, he had to overcome some family problems (both his parents died within months of each other, a younger brother fled to the United States, and another younger brother committed suicide), but, more importantly, Mahler's Jewish faith stood in the way of his career goal (Vienna was largely anti-Semitic during this time). To accommodate, he accepted a Roman Catholic baptism, and was promptly appointed musical director of the Vienna Hofoper Court Opera. Mahler's tenure at the Hofoper was tumultuous yet productive; he composed his Fourth Symphony (1901), thereby completing what many music historians agree wraps up his "Early Symphonies." His Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Symphonies (1903, 1904, 1905 respectively), all purely orchestral, make up his intermediate works. Although these works are increasingly modern and complex, they still contain some wonderful lyrical passages, especially the divinely beautiful Adagio from his 5th. Also, during this time he married Alma Schindler (a composer of fair talent herself), and they had two daughters, Maria (born 1902), and Anna (born 1904). Still, as director of The Hofoper, Mahler brought new high standards of performance unmatched anywhere else in the world. 1907 brought three tragic events to Mahler's life (ironically foreshadowed by the three "hammer blows" present in the Finale of his 6th Symphony): First, he was forced to resign from the Hofoper in somewhat acrimonious circumstances (chiefly disagreements as to what artistic direction he wanted to take the Hofoper), second, the diagnosis of the valve defect in his heart, and third, the death of his elder daughter (of Scarlet Fever). But by this point in his career Mahler had reached worldwide popularity as an orchestral and operatic conductor, and new work was not difficult to find. But it was composing that fueled his passions; The Eighth Symphony (1908) began the final series of Mahler's works. The Eighth is another work of Biblical proportions; a standard performance requires a full orchestra with enlarged brass and woodwind sections, eight soloists (three sopranos, two altos, a tenor, baritone, and bass), two full mixed choirs, a children's choir, several "unconventional" orchestral instruments (guitars, a harmonium, a piano, and a celesta), and, again, a pipe organ. Mahler disliked the alternate title bestowed upon this symphony, A Symphony of a Thousand, but indeed, during the premiere (in Munich in 1910), over one thousand performers were present. Amazingly, this lengthy and difficult work (only two movements but requiring 80-90 minutes to perform), was a huge success at its premiere; in attendance were many famous musicians, businesspeople, and royal families. Concluding Mahler's final works were Das Lied von der Erde (1908), the Ninth Symphony (1909), and an unfinished Tenth Symphony (1911), all of which he did not live to see or hear performed. The completed portions of the Tenth contain references to how Mahler lamented his crumbling marriage (by this time Alma was having an affair) yet it is considered perhaps the most pure form of Mahler's music (it contains many elements of modern 20th Century music). It was during concluding a winter season of conducting the New York Philharmonic Society in the spring of 1911 in which the heart condition diagnosed four years earlier caught up with Mahler; he traveled back to Austria to spend his final days near his family. He died late in the evening of May 18. Mahler's legacy took a long time to mature. His music, although complex and full of vivid imagery, failed to become popular in musical circles until fifty years after his death; it was primarily the efforts of Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, and, more recently, Simon Rattle , who have introduced the works of Mahler to many. Mahler himself declared, "My time will come."ADAGIETTO FROM SYMPHONY N 5,10 TH SYMPHONY- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart grew up in Salzburg under the regulation of his strict father Leopold who also was a famous composer of his time. His abilities in music were obvious even when Mozart was still young so that in 1762 at the age of six, his father took him with his elder sister on a concert tour to Munich and Vienna and a second one from 1763-66 through the south of Germany, Paris and London. Mozart was celebrated as a wonder child everywhere because of his excellent piano playing and his improvisations.
In 1769 he became the concertmaster of the Archbishop and was knighted by the Pope in Rome. Working in Salzburg he nevertheless travelled around Europe to meet other composers and orchestras. But in 1781 after a dispute with the Archbishop he left Salzburg and went to Vienna where he married Constanze Weber from Mannheim. In Vienna he also started his friendship with Joseph Haydn and a time of many work pieces. In the last year of his life, for example, he wrote one of his masterpieces, "Die Zauberflöte". Although some of his operas were successful he could not make money from this and died in poverty at the age of 36, having even on his last day worked on a "Requiem". He was buried in a communal grave which could not be precisely identified years later.TURKISH MARCH,40 TH SYMPHONY- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Maurice Ravel was born on 7 March 1875 in Ciboure, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. He was a composer, known for Rashomon (1950), Basic (2003) and Stalker (1979). He died on 28 December 1937 in Paris, France.PAVANE POUR UNE INFANTE DEFUNTE,BOLERO- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Dmitri Shostakovich, one of Russian culture's most acclaimed intellectuals who was censored under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, was an internationally recognized composer whose music was in over 100 films.
He was born Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich on September 25, 1906, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, a chemical engineer, and Sofia Kokaoulina, a pianist. Young Shostakovich studied piano under his mother tutelage and at a private school in St. Petersburg. His greatest influences were Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Modest Mussorgsky. From 1919-1925 he studied piano and composition at St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Conservatory. He wrote his First "Classical" symphony as his graduation piece. In 1927 he won an "honorable mention diploma" at the 1st International Piano Competition in Warsaw. In 1929 he collaborated with writer Vladimir Mayakovsky, artist Alexander Rodchenko and director Vsevolod Meyerhold.
In 1934 Shostakovich collaborated with Aleksei Dikij on the legendary opera Katerina Izmailova" (aka Lady Makbeth of Mtsensk). Dikij's production of "Katerina Izmailova" had over 100 performances in Leningrad and Moscow, and was considered a highlight in his directing career. However, in 1936, the opera was severely criticized by some critics on the Pravda, the Communist Party's official newspaper, and accused of formalism and intellectualism.
In the summer of 1941 Nazi Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union, and German and Finnish forces and encircled Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Defenders and civilians in besieged Leningrad were doomed, because the besieging forces cut supplies of food and energy to the surrounded city. It wasn't long before the city's population of birds, pets and even rats were eaten, and not long after there were reports of cannibalism brought about by starvation. The siege of Leningrad was so impenetrable that by December of that year an average of 4000 to 6000 residents a day were dying of starvation, disease, shellfire, bombardment and a variety of other causes.
During the first months of the siege Shostakovich was in Leningrad. He survived the first bombardments and joined the "night watch" patrol, helping to put out fires during massive German air bombardments. Shostakovich personally neutralized several incendiary bombs and was actively involved in firefighting. After aerial and artillery bombardments, during the rare quiet moments, Shostakovich was back to his piano composing new music. He was evacuated from the besieged city in the end of 1941.
The Seventh "Leningrad" Symphony, which Shostakovich started composing during the Nazi aerial and artillery attacks during the siege, was the masterpiece that won him national and international recognition. His music helped lift the spirits of Leningrad citizens in a time when they were struggling to survive.
On August 9, 1942, Karl Eliasberg gave a premiere performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony in Leningrad. That famous concert was made possible because Eliasberg specially created an orchestra of survivors who were still able to perform in spite of starvation and dystrophy.
Eliasberg, who was also extremely emaciated, spent some time in the hospital in the Astoria hotel and came to the rehearsals straight from the sick ward. On the score of one of the musicians of that legendary orchestra you can still see a drawing showing hollow-cheeked Eliasberg conducting his orchestra sitting on a chair. The legendary performance was broadcast live from the Radio Hall in Leningrad, so millions of civilians and defenders of the besieged city were able to hear the powerful music. The symphony written in the conventional four movements is Shostakovich's longest, and one of the longest in the repertoire, with performances taking approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. The scale and scope of the work is consistent with Shostakovich's other symphonies as well as with those of composers considered to be his strongest influences, including Bruckner, Gustav Mahler and Igor Stravinsky.
Before they tackled Shostakovich's work, Eliasberg had the players go through pieces from the standard repertoire - Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - which they also performed for broadcast. Because the city was still blockaded at the time, the score was flown by night in early July for rehearsal. The concert was given on 9 August 1942. Whether this date was chosen intentionally, it was the day Hitler had chosen previously to celebrate the fall of Leningrad with a lavish reception for the top Nazi commanders. But instead of Hitler's plan, all loudspeakers delivered the live broadcast of the symphony performance throughout the city as well as to the German forces in a move of psychological warfare. The Russian commander of the Leningrad front, General Govorov, ordered a bombardment of German artillery positions in advance of the broadcast to ensure their silence during the performance of the symphony; a special operation, code-named "Squall," was executed for precisely this purpose. Three thousand high-caliber shells were lobbed onto the enemy. Then the music of Shostakovich came out of the speakers all over the siege perimeter, so the Nazis had to face the music. The music of Shostakovich brought the much needed support and catharsis to survivors who loved the symphony and applauded to Eliasberg and his orchestra. General Govorov with his staff came backstage to thank Eliasberg and his musicians for their art and courage.
The news about Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony premiere in besieged Leningrad spread all over the world. It was an important message to all nations that Hitler's attack on Leningrad failed. Shostakovich who began to write his famous symphony before evacuation from besieged Leningrad in 1941, could not go back to attend its premier performance in 1942. The composer sent the conductor and the musicians who performed his work in the besieged city a telegram with words of gratitude.
After WWII Shostakovich was again accused of formalism in 1948. At that time, Shostakovich gained international recognition in the free world, and received several invitations to participate in music festivals and other cultural events. He was awarded the International Peace Prize (1954), State Prize five times (in 1941-1952), State Prizes of Russia and the USSR, and was designated People's Artist of the USSR. From 1957-1975 he was secretary of the Union of Composers of Russia and the USSR. He taught and promoted many talented musicians, such as Andrey Petrov, Georgi Sviridov, Karen Khachaturyan, and Boris Tishchenko among others.
Shostakovich and Yevgeniy Yevtushenko worked together on the famous Symphony No. 13 titled "Babi Yar", a vocal setting of poems by Yevtushenko. It was first performed in Moscow on December 18, 1962 under the baton of Kirill Kondrashin. Yevtushenko and Shostakovich toured many countries with the performances of "Babi Yar", and made several recordings of the Symphony No. 13. Among Shostakovich's best known film scores are 'Suite from The Gadfly' from The Gadfly (1955), and the score for director Grigoriy Kozintsev's acclaimed film Hamlet (1964) starring Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy.
In 1965 Shostakovich raised his voice in defense of poet Joseph Brodsky, who was sentenced to five years of exile and hard labor. Shostakovich co-signed protests together with such prominent figures as Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy, Anna Akhmatova, Samuil Marshak, Yevgeniy Yevtushenko, and the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. After the protests his sentence was commuted, and Brodsky returned to Leningrad. At that time, Shostakovich joined the group of 25 distinguished intellectuals in signing the letter to Leonid Brezhnev asking not to rehabilitate Joseph Stalin.
Dmitri Shostakovich was a towering figure in Russian music of the 20th century along with 'Sergei Prokofiev (I)' and Aram Khachaturyan. He wrote 15 symphonies, of which the Fifth (1937), the Sevenths "Leningrad" (1942), and the Thurteenth "Baby Yar" (1968) are the best known. His other compositions include cantatas and oratorios, seven operas and operettas, four ballets, twelve musical comedies and other music for stage plays, 36 original motion picture scores, fifteen quartets and other chamber music for, piano, violin, and cello. Shostakovich, who was an awarded pianist himself, had composed outstanding works for piano, such as his Piano concertos No1 and No2. His 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano received numerous awards and recognitions, and were recorded in critically acclaimed performance by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Shostakovich died of a heart attack on august 9, 1975, in Moscow, and was laid to rest in Novodevichi Convent Cemetery in Moscow, Russia. His legacy is continued by his son, conductor Maxim Shostakovich, and his grandson, pianist Dmitri Shostakovich Jr.JAZZ VALS N 2- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Antonin Dvorak was a son of butcher, but he did not follow his father's trade. While assisting his father part-time, he studied music, and graduated from the Prague Organ School in 1859. He also was an accomplished violinist and violist, and joined the Bohemian Theatre Orchestra, which was under the baton of Bedrich Smetana in 1860s. For financial reasons he quit the orchestra and focused on composing and teaching. He fell in love with one of his students, but she married another guy. Her sister was available, so Dvorak married the sister, Anna, in 1873, and they had nine children.
Dvorak's early compositions were influenced by Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms, and with their promotion his music became performed in European capitals and received international acclaim. His performances in 1880s of Slavonic Dances, the Sixth Symphony and the Stabat Mater were a success in England, and Dvorak received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge. He made a successful concert tour in Russia in 1890, and became a professor at the Prauge Conservatory. In 1892 he received an invitation to America from Jeaunnette Thurber, the founder of he National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Dvorak was the Director of the National Conservatory in New York for three years (1892-95), where he also taught composition and carried on his cross-cultural studies.
Dvorak broadened his experiences through studying the music of the Native Americans and African Americans, many of whom became his students and friends. Dvorak was inspired by the originality of indigenous American music and culture, as well as by the spirituals and by the singing of his African American students. Dvorac incorporated his new ideas, blended with his Bohemian roots, into his well-known Symphony No.9 in E minor "From the New World". He worked on this symphony for most of the spring and summer of 1893, and made it's glorious premiere in Carnegie Hall in December, 1893. In America he also wrote the remarkable Cello Concerto and two string quartets, including the Quartet in F ("The American"). Dvorak was doing very well in New York financially, but his heart was in Prague and he left America for his Czech Motherland. He had a big family with his wife and nine children in Prague. He became the Director of the Prague Conservatory in 1901 and kept the position until his death in 1904.SYMPHONY N 5- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Born in Hungary in 1881, Bartok began his musical studies on the piano at age five. His mother was his first teacher; after his father died in 1888, the Bartok family moved to Nagyszolos, where Bela continued his piano studies and took up composition. At age eleven, he made his first public appearance, playing his own piano music. Bartok enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. he made several tours of Europe after his graduation in 1902. In 1940 Bartok moved to the United States to get away from the Nazi expansion, and was given a teaching position at Columbia University in New York City. With the exception of some noted musicians - conductor Serge Koussevitzky and violinist Yehudi Menuhin in particular - he was generally misunderstood and ignored by the musical establishment. He contracted leukemia in the early 1940s, and died in the fall of 1945, unaware of the monumental status he would achieve after death.DER WUNDERWARE MANDARIN- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Hector Berlioz was born on December 11, 1803, into the family of Dr. Louis Berlioz and Marie-Antoinette-Josephine. Hector was the first of six children, three of whom died. He took music lessons at home from a visiting teacher and played flute and guitar. By age 16 he wrote a song for voice and guitar that was later reused for his "Symphonie Fantastique."
In 1821 Berlioz went to Paris to study medicine. His impressions of the Paris Opera performance of "Iphigenie en Tauride" by Christoph Willibald Gluck turned him on music forever. He spent more days at the Paris Conservatory than at the medical school. In 1823 he started writing articles on music for "Le Corsaire". He abandoned medicine for music and successfully performed his "Messe Solennelle" in 1825. After being "cursed" by his mother for abandoning medicine, his allowance from his father was reduced, and was forced to take such jobs as a choir singer to support himself. In 1828 he heard the 3rd and 5th Symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven and with that impression he read "Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. With such inspiration he started composing "La Damnation de Faust."
Berlios fell in love with Irish actress Harriet Smithson and became so inspired that he finished the "Symphonie Fantastique." He premiered the work and met Franz Liszt at the premiere. They became good friends and Liszt transcribed the "Symphonie Fantastique" for piano. In 1830, after being rejected by Harriett Smithson, Berlioz became engaged to pianist Camille Moke. He went to Rome as the Prix de Rome Laureate and met Felix Mendelssohn and the Russian Mikhail Glinka. All three became friends for many years. At that time Berlioz received a letter from his fiancée that she had decided to marry M. Camille Pleyel, a wealthy piano maker in Paris. He decided to return to Paris and kill his fiancée, Mr. Playel and himself, but the long trip cooled him down. He stopped in Nice and composed "Le Roi Lear," inspired by William Shakespeare's play "King Lear".
Back in Paris he became friends with Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Niccolò Paganini, Frédéric Chopin and George Sand. He met writer Ernest Legouve and they became lifelong friends. In 1833 he finally married Harriet Smithson, with Liszt himself as one of his witnesses. Their son was born in 1834. Later he had a mistress, singer Marie Recio, whom he married after the death of Hariet Smithson in 1852.
Berlioz was an influential music critic. He wrote about Giacomo Meyerbeer, Mikhail Glinka, Paganini, Liszt and other musicians. From 1834-38 he completed the opera "Benvenuto Cellini". In 1938 his "Harold en Italie" was performed at the Paris Conservatoire. His friend Paganini was so impressed by that performance that he gave Berlioz 20,000 francs.
In the 1840s Berlioz toured in Europe and strengthened his friendship with Mendelssohn-Bartholdy', Richard Wagner, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Robert Schumann. After extensive concertizing in Belgium and Germany, Berlioz returned to Paris. There his friend Mikhail Glinka, who lived in Paris for over a year, came up with the idea of concerts in Russia. Berlioz's joke "If the Emperor of Russia wants me, then I am up for sale" was taken seriously. Having Mikhail Glinka as a convert, Berlioz was invited to Russia twice, and each tour brought him financial gain beyond his expectation. His deep debts in Paris were all covered many times over after his first concert tour of Russia in 1847. Back in Paris he was having difficulties in funding performances of his massive works and lived on his witty critical publications. His second tour of Russia in 1867 was so much more attractive that Berlioz turned down an offer of $100,000 from American Steinway to perform in New York. In St. Petersburg Berlioz took special pleasure in performing with the first-rate orchestra of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
His second Russian concert tour was a successful finale to his career and life. Berlioz never performed again. He died on March 8, 1869, and was laid to rest at the Cimetiere de Montmartre with his two wives.FANTASTIC SYMPHONY- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Georges Bizet was a child prodigy. Entering the Paris Conservatory at the age of nine, he counted among his teachers Antoine Marmontel, François Benoist and Jacques Halévy. At nineteen Bizet won a Prix de Rome. That same year he wrote his first opera, 'Le Docteur Miracle', a one-act comedy. After his studies in Italy he returned to Paris with the intention of writing music for the stage. His 'Les Pêcheurs de perles' (1863), 'La jolie fille de Perth' (1867) and 'Djamileh' however met no more than moderate success. Bizet remained in relative obscurity until 1872, when his incidental music for Daudet's "L'Arlésienne" won him a degree of fame. It was at the suggestion of Camille du Locle, director of the Opéra-Comique, that Bizet composed his opera 'Carmen'. Bizet's librettists, Henri Leilhac and Ludovic Halévy, had based their adaptation on a short novel by Prosper Mérimée. After initial bad reviews, today 'Carmen' is probably the most known opera in the world. The composer's strong dramatic sense, sensuous melodies, vivid orchestration and pulsating rhythms combine into what more than one critic has termed "the perfect opera."CARMEN- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Aaron Copland is an Academy Award-winning composer (The Heiress (1949)), author, conductor, lecturer and educator. He was educated at public schools and was a music student of his sister and later Leopold Wolfson, Victor Wittgenstein, Clarence Adler, Rubin Goldmark and Nadia Boulanger. In 1925, he received the first Guggenheim fellowship awarded to a composer. He was a lecturer for ten years at the New School for Social Research, a guest lecturer at Harvard University between 1935 and 1944, and Dean of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood from 1946. With Roger Sessions, he organized the Copland-Sessions concert series for young American composers, and he founded the American Festival of Contemporary Music, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York. He was a conductor in the United States and abroad. As a guest conductor for the Boston Symphony, he toured with Charles Münch throughout the Far East in 1960. His memberships included the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal, and the US Medal of Freedom.THE TENDLER LAND- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Composer ("Adagio for Strings", "Overture to 'The School for Scandal'"). He was educated at the Curtis Institute, and studied with Isabelle Vengerova, Emilio de Gogorza, Fritz Reiner, and Rosario Scalero. He was awarded an honorary music degree from Harvard University. He was a sergeant in the USAF during World War II. He conducted and recorded his own compositions with orchestras in the USA and in Europe. Joining ASCAP in 1939, his chief musical collaborator was Gian Carlo Menotti. He received the American Prix de Rome in 1935, a Guggenheim fellowship, and Pulitzer awards in 1935 and 1936, plus the Bearns Prize for the "Overture to 'The School for Scandal'". His works besides the above-mentioned include: "Serenade for Strings Quartet"; "Cello Sonata"; "Music for a Scene from Shelley"; "String Quartet No. 1"; "2 Essays for Orchestra"; "Three Reincarnations: A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map"; "Violin Concerto"; "Commando March"; "Capricorn Concerto"; "4 Excursions for Piano"; "Cello Concerto" (NY Music Critics Award, 1946); "Medea (ballet)"; "Nuvoletta"; "Knoxville: Summer of 1915"; "Piano Sonata"; "Souveniers (ballet)"; "Prayers of Kierkegaard (cantata)"; "Hermit Songs" "Summer Music for Woodwind Quintet"; "Vanessa" (opera, Pulitzer Prize, 1958); "A Hand of Bridge"; "Toccata Festiva"; "Nocturne"; "Adromache's Farewell"; "Piano Concerto No. 1" (Pulitzer Prize, 1963, NY Music Critics Award, 1964); "Antony and Cleopatra (opera)" (Metropolitan Opera Ford Foundation commission); and two symphonies.ADAGGIO FOR STRINGS- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Claude Debussy was born in St. Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France. His father was a salesman and kept a china shop. His mother was a seamstress. Some traumatizing events in his childhood caused him a depression and he never spoke about his early years. Later he could not compose without having his favorite porcelain frog.
Debussy's piano teacher, Mme. Maute, had been a student of Frédéric Chopin. She sent Debussy to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied from 1872-84 with César Franck, Ernest Guiraud and others. He lived at the castle of Nadezhda von Meck and taught her children. She was a wealthy patroness of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and eventually Debussy played all pieces by Tchaikovsky in addition to other classical repertoire. She also took Debussy on trips to Venice, Vienna and Moscow. In Vienna he heard "Tristan und Isolde" by Richard Wagner and later admitted that it had influenced him for a number of years.
Debussy won the Prix de Rome twice--in 1883 and 1884--and the money covered his studies at the Villa de Medici in Rome for the next four years. In Rome he met Franz Liszt and Giuseppe Verdi and heard more of Wagner's music, which made a strong impression on him. In 1888 and 1889 he went to listen to yet more of Wagner's music at the Bayreuth Festspiehaus. There he was very impressed by "Parsifal" and other of Wagner's works. He used the Wagnerian chromaticism for upgrades to his own tonal harmony in "Cinq poems de Baudelaire" (1889).
Debussy became influenced by the impressionist poets and artists in the circle of Stéphane Mallarmé. In 1890 he wrote his most famous music collection for piano, "Suite bergamasque", containing "Clair de Lune". His "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" (1892) continued the most productive 20-year period in his life. He composed orchestral "Nocturnes", "La Mer", "Images" (1899-1909), and the intricate ballet "Jeux" (1912) for "Ballets Russes" of Sergei Diaghilev. He was fascinated with Maurice Maeterlinck's play "Pelleas et Melisande", which inspired him to compose the eponymous symbolist opera which was praised by Paul Dukas and Maurice Ravel.
In 1908 Debussy married singer Emma Bardac after they had a daughter, Claude-Emma. Debussy called her Chou-Chou and composed for her the collection of piano pieces "Children's Corner Suite" (1909). His piano masterpiece "Preludes" were composed in 1910-1913. The twelve preludes of the first book are alluding to Frédéric Chopin, with more provocative harmonies, especially the "La Cathedrale Engloutie". In the second book of twelve preludes Debussy explored avant-garde, with deliciously dissonant harmonies and mysterious images.
The beginning of WW I and the onset of cancer depressed Debussy. He left unfinished opera, ballets and two pieces after stories by Edgar Allan Poe that later were completed by his assistants. He died on March 25, 1918, in Paris.CLAIR DE LUNE- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Léo Delibes was born on 21 February 1836 in Saint-Germain-du-Val, La Flèche, Sarthe, France. He was a composer and writer, known for True Romance (1993), Carlito's Way (1993) and Pig (2021). He was married to Léontine Estelle Denain. He died on 16 January 1891 in Paris, France.LAKMÉ- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear. In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "Swanee" and his first Broadway show "La, La, Lucille." In less than three weeks in 1924 he composed "Rhapsody in Blue," originally for Paul Whiteman's relatively small swing band and later orchestrated by Ferde Grofé. "Concerto in F" followed the next year, and his musical success "Oh, Kay!" (which included "Someone to Watch Over Me") the year after that. Success continued: "Funny Face" (1927), the tone poem "American in Paris" (1928), "Girl Crazy" (1929), "Of Thee I Sing" (1931 the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize), and the first true American opera: "Porgy and Bess" (1935). He moved to Hollywood were his songs were performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In 1937 he fell in love with Paulette Goddard, then married to Charlie Chaplin. He was heartbroken that she would not leave her husband for him. When he fell ill, that June, it was written off as stress. A month later he died of a brain tumor, five hours after a failed surgical attempt to remove it. Funerals were hold in both Hollywood and New York.RHAPSODY BLUE- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Luigi Boccherini was born on 19 February 1743 in Lucca, Republic of Lucca [now Tuscany, Italy]. He is known for Congo (1995), 2012 (2009) and Cruising (1980). He died on 28 May 1805 in Madrid, Spain.MUSICA NOTTURNA DI LA ESTRADA DI MADRID- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in 1833 and died in Vienna, Austria in 1897. A perfectionist, he often compared himself unfavorably to composers such as Beethoven and ended up destroying many compositions without their ever being heard. While basically conservative, he showed musical growth throughout his four symphonies and occasionally borrowed wilder folk themes, such as in his Hungarian Dances, and he explored a vast range of human emotion in his Violin Concerto.
Although he never married, much of his later life involved a seemingly unending devotion to Clara Schumann, widow of composer Robert Schumann - both of whom were long-time friends to Brahms.WIEGENLIED- Composer
- Music Department
- Writer
Innovative Composer and pianist, educated at Pomona College, he studied music with Fannie Dillon, Ruhan Buhlig, Lazare Levy, Henry Cowell, Adolph Weiss, Arnold Schönberg, and Edgard Varèse. He invented the concept of the "prepared" piano, and gave recitals in Europe and the United States. He joined ASCAP in 1955.4,,33- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Edward Elgar was born on June 2, 1857, in Broadheath, near Worcester, where his father named William Elgar, was a music shop owner and a piano technician. Elgar was the fourth of six children. He was self-taught in all musical instruments, that were at his disposal in his father's shop, and he studied all the sheet music available in the shop.
Unrestricted by rules of "teaching", he remained highly original in developing his unique musical personality, that allowed him to surpass the other leading composers of his time. But having no teachers who would connect him into the entrenched musical establishment, it took all his genius, persistence and determination to advance through the rigid class structure of Victorian society. In 1889 Elgar married his student, Alice Roberts, daughter of the late General Sir Henry Roberts. She married beneath herself in opposition to her relatives. Alice played a vital role in Elgar's career by keeping a dogged faith in his genius.
Elgar was 42 when his "Enigma Variations" (1899) was premiered in London and brought him the first big success outside of his native Worcester. The performance of "The Dream of Gerontius" (1900) at the Rhine Festival in Dusseldorf earned him highest praise from Richard Strauss, who considered Elgar as the first English progressive musician.
The Coronation Ode "Land of Hope and Glory" came from his first "Pomp and Circumstance March" in D major (1901). Elgar prophesied: "I've got a tune that will knock'em-knock'em flat!... a tune like that comes once in a lifetime..." This piece became extremely popular and was later used in more than 30 films. In 1904 an all-Elgar festival was held at Covent Garden. In July of 1904, Elgar was knighted by King Edward VII.
Spending the winter of 1907-08 in Italy, Elgar composed the "Symphony No 1" in A flat. In just one year it had 100 performances all over Europe and in America, Australia and Russia, and was compared to the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven. The "Symphony No 2" in E flat was written during 1909-1911. It was dedicated to the memory of King Edward VII and was considered by many the greatest of Elgar's symphonic works.
Elgar's incidental music for a children's play "The Starlight Express" (1915) and his patriotic "The Spirit of England" (1917) on the war poems by Laurence Binyon preceded his last great masterpiece, the elegiac "Cello Concerto" in E minor (1919). It was used as a main theme in Hilary and Jackie (1998).
The death of Alice Elgar in 1920 took away much of Elgar's inspiration and will to write music. He made a series of studio recordings of his works for HMV. In 1928 he was created Knight Commander of the Victorian Order (K.C.V.O.). In 1933 he recorded his "Violin Concerto" in B minor with then young Yehudi Menuhin and a few weeks later both flew to Paris for performances of this concerto. Elgar died on February 23, 1934 and was laid to rest beside his wife.POMP AND CIRCUNSTANCE (OPUS 39)- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Born February 23 1685 in Halle, Germany, he was christened "Georg Friederich Händel" but always signed his name "Georg Friedrich Händel". His father intended for him to go into law, but Händel studied music clandestinely and was eventually allowed to study under an organist. He achieved some success early on, and toured Italy in 1706. He briefly worked in Hannover before departing for London in 1711. While in England Händel composed a number of anthems, operas, and church music, and in 1723 he became a British citizen. He premiered "Messiah" in Ireland as a charity aid, and this quickly became his most famous work. He died early in the morning on 14 April 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey under a monument that reads: "George Frederic Handel". 3,000 people attended his funeral.DER MESSIAS- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Haydn had a hard childhood: at six years old he had to work as a boy singer in a choir and after his voice broke he had to earn his money by playing dance music and serving as a butler. Becoming famous for his compositions Haydn was employed as "Kapellmeister" by Fuerst Esterhazy in Eisenstadt in 1761. For thirty years he served him and composed his pieces for the pleasure of the aristocrats; his musicians used to call him "Papa Haydn" as he was caring for them and was socially engaged. After the death of Esterhazy Haydn moved to Vienna leaving it only twice for London where he composed his "London symphonies".EMPEROR(0PUS 76)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Charles Ives was born on 20 October 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut, USA. He was a composer, known for Run Lola Run (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998) and Neruda (2016). He was married to Harmony Twitchell. He died on 19 May 1954 in New York City, New York, USA.THE UNASWERED QUESTION- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Franz Liszt, the virtuoso pianist and composer, was the most famous concert superstar of the 19th century. He was born in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father was Hungarian and his mother was Austrian. At age 6 he took music lessons from his father, Adam Liszt, who worked at the Court of Count Esterhazy, the main sponsor of Liszt's education and career. Liszt continued his music studies in Vienna under Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri.
In 1823, at the young age of 12, Liszt moved with his parents to Paris. There he enjoyed an early friendship with Frédéric Chopin, but later they became rivals. At that time young Liszt began his career of a travelling virtuoso. He was adulated all-over Europe, from Ireland to Russia. His concert performances included his own compositions, regarded by many as the most difficult piano music ever written. His elegant, worldly manners in combination with diabolic cynicism and his impressive stage presence and supernatural virtuosity gave cause for rumors, that he must have made a deal with the Devil. His "Mephisto Waltz" depicts the Devil playing a Paganini-style violin on the piano.
Franz Liszt became a friend of many important cultural figures of his time. He attended the Paris premiere of the "Symphonie Fantastique" by Hector Berlioz and the two composers became good friends. Liszt shared mutual respect with Mikhail Glinka. He also admired Aleksandr Borodin and promoted his first symphony for performances in Western Europe. Liszt was a friend of Richard Wagner, who was Liszt's son-in-law, until their differences led to cooler relationship in their later years. Liszt's influence on his fellow musicians was legendary. He made superb piano transcriptions of symphonies, operas and large orchestral works of other composers, such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner. Operas and symphonies in Liszt's transcriptions became valuable repertoire of many pianists.
Liszt lived and travelled with the married Countess Marie D'Agoult for 12 years and they had three children. In 1847, in Russia, Liszt met the beautiful and wealthy Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein, who soon left her husband for Liszt. In 1848 he became the Director of Music at the Court of Weimar. There, living with Carolyne in her mansion, he composed and revised his most important music, including the "Dream of Love", dedicated to Carolyne. The Church did not allow Liszt to marry Carolyne and also did not allow Carolyne to divorce Wittgenstein, with whom she had a daughter. In 1861 Liszt settled in Rome where Carolyne bought a home and they tried to marry again, but the Church did not terminate Carolyne's marriage until her husband died in 1864. She then changed her mind and lived with unmarried Liszt, who was stuck in this painful situation until the end of his life. Under her influence, he became a religious man and in 1865 Pope admitted Liszt into Holy Orders and commissioned the church music. Since 1870s Liszt taught at the Budapest Conservatory and also participated with Wagner in several concert events in Bayreith. He spent his last years between Rome, Weimar, Budapest and Bayreuth, where he died in 1886.HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY N 1- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jean-Baptiste Lully was born on 28 November 1632 in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany [now Tuscany, Italy]. He was a composer, known for The Brothers Grimm (2005), Quills (2000) and The BFG (2016). He died on 22 March 1687 in Paris, France.LE BOURGEOIS GENTILHOMME- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Giuseppe Verdi was born Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi on October 10, 1813, in Le Roncole di Busseto, Parma, Italy. His parents were landowners and innkeepers. Young Verdi received his first organ lessons at the age of 7. He studied composition privately with Ferdinando Provesi in Busseto. At age 20 he moved to Milan to continue his studies, but the Conservatory of Music rejected him. Verdi took private lessons and associated with Milan's cultural milieu in his pursuit of a musical career. He was patronized by Antonio Barezzi, a merchant, whose daughter, Margherita, was Verdi's student and later became his wife.
His first opera, Oberto (1839), was a successful production by Milan's Theatro La Scala. While Verdi continued working on his second opera, his wife and two children died. The second opera failed, and he suffered a depression and vowed to quit musical career. La Scala impresario, Merelli, persuaded him to write a third opera. Nabucco (1842) made Verdi famous. He followed the Bel Canto style of Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini. Verdi's best operas were based on plays by Victor Hugo, such as 'Ernani' (1844) and 'Rigoletto' (1851). In 1853 Verdi 's masterpiece 'La Traviata' was produced in Venice. It was based on 'The Lady of the Camelias', a play by Alexandre Dumas, fils. At that time Verdi became familiar with the music of Russian composer Mikhail Glinka who was popularized in Europe by Franz Liszt. The music of Mikhail Glinka had certain influence on Verdi's later operas.
In 1861 Verdi wrote 'La forza del destino' commissioned by the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, upon the recommendations by Aleksandr Borodin. It was performed with great success in 1862, and became part of a standard operatic repertoire ever since. His grand-opera 'Aida' (1871) was premiered in Cairo as part of the celebrations of the opening of the Suez Canal, and became an instant success. In his later operas Verdi turned from the style of Bel Canto to more expressive music and orchestration, like in 'Otello' (1887), based on the eponymous play by Shakespeare. Verdi's last and musically most brilliant, rich and expressive opera, 'Falstaff' (1893), was based on the Shakespeare's play "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in the adaptation of Victor Hugo.
Verdi's musical success coincided with the political events of Italian unification during the Austrian occupation. The 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' from his opera 'Nabucco' (1842), became a popular song among supporters of Italian unification. Many of his opera performances were used by the supporters of Victor Emmanuel to shout "Viva Verdi" as a code name for a secret unification message. The name Verdi was used as acronym for "Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia" - Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy. Such a code enabled clandestine partisans of Victor Emmanuel, then the King of Sardinia, to gain more supporters in Milan which eventually led to the unification of Italy. Verdi was aware that his popular operas and his name was used as a political tool. Austrian censorship was powerless.
In 1861 Victor Emmanuel became the King of Italy in Turin. From 1861-1865 Giuseppe Verdi was elected representative of Busseto in the newly formed Italian parliament. After Garibaldi's military campaign the capital was moved to Florence, then to Rome, and Verdi returned from politics to music. He lived in Milan during the last years of his life. He was revered and honoured all over the world, and was much visited by his admirers. He died on January 27, 1901, in Milan, and was laid to rest at the Casa di Riposo, a retirement home for elderly musicians that was established by Verdi himself.
Verdi's music was used in hundreds of film scores. His operas has been the staples of operatic repertoire. His canzonas "La donna è mobile" from opera 'Rigoletto' (1851) and "Libiamo ne'lieti calici" (Drinking song) from 'La Traviata' (1853) has been popular concert numbers in performances by the three tenors: Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.SIEMPRE LIBERA DEGGIO- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Being the son of a violinist Vivaldi started playing the violin himself early in his life. In 1703 he became priest and in 1716 the director of a conservatory of the church in Venice. Being a famous violinist he gave concerts all over Europe also composing a lot of violin concerts and other string works. There is not much information about his life only that he died in poverty in Vienna.THE FOURTH SEASONS- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 - 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio St. Paul, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, the mature Violin Concerto and the String Octet. The melody for the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is also his. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions.HOCHEZEITSHMARCH- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
In 1856 Moussorgsky joined the Russian army where he met the piano player and composer 'Balakirev' who taught him composition. As he could not finish his studies in music, Moussorgsky did not know all stylistic means of composition perfectly and thus had to follow his instinct in his works becoming the pathmaker of the musical impressionism as well as expressionism: He was the first to compose realistic pictures, e.g. "Pictures at an Exhibition". Having no success during his lifetime Moussorgsky spent all of his fortune ending up a poor man addicted to alcohol.PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION- Composer
- Music Department
- Writer
Carl Orff was born on 10 July 1895 in Munich, Germany. He was a composer and writer, known for Excalibur (1981), 6 Underground (2019) and Natural Born Killers (1994). He was married to Liselotte Schmitz, Luise Rinser, Gertrud Willert and Alice Solscher. He died on 29 March 1982 in Munich, Germany.CARMINA BURANA- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Johann Pachelbel was born on 1 September 1653 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Germany]. Johann was a composer, known for Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Asteroid City (2023) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Johann died on 3 March 1706 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Germany].CANON Y GIGA EN RE MAYOR- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Prokofiev was a multi-talented man and an innovative composer. He learned piano from his mother and chess from his father. He always had a chess set on his piano, and was able to play against the chess champions of his time. He studied music with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, graduated with highest marks from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1914), and was rewarded with a grand piano. He emigrated from Russia after the revolution, and made successful concert tours in Europe and the U.S. In 1918 in New York he met Spanish singer Carolina Codina (Lina Llubera), they married in Paris, in 1923, and had two sons.
Prokofiev's radiant optimism and his childlike personality shines in his popular orchestral suite "Peter and the Wolf" and in the "Classical Symphony". His humorous irony and wit is popping up in piano pieces named "Sarcasms", also in his five piano concertos, ballets and film scores, all written in his instantly identifiable musical language. He wrote film scores for The Czar Wants to Sleep (1934), Alexander Nevsky (1938), Cinderella (1961), and the two-part Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944), directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
All of his music, that he created while outside of the Soviet Union, was sometimes criticized as cosmopolitan and anti-Soviet. Prokofiev divorced his wife in 1948. His ninth sonata, dedicated to Svyatoslav Richter, was welcomed warmly, but another official critic on his music and life started in 1948. He died in 1953, the same day of Joseph Stalin.SUITE ESCITA- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Sergei Rachmaninoff (also spelled Rachmaninov) was a legendary Russian-American composer and pianist who fled Russia after the Communist revolution of 1917, and became one of the highest paid concert stars of his time, and one of the most influential pianists of the 20th century.
He was born Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov on April 2, 1873, on a large estate near Novgorod, Russia. He was the fourth of six children born to a noble family, and lived in a family estate, where he enjoyed a happy childhood. Rachmaninoff studied music with his mother from age 4; continued at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and continued at the Moscow Conservatory with professors Arensky, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky. He graduated in 1892, winning the Great Gold Medal for his new opera "Aleko."
He was highly praised by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , who promoted Rachmaninov's opera to the Bolshoi Theater in 1893. But the disastrous premiere of his 1st Symphony, poorly conducted by A. Glazunov, coupled with his distress over the Russian Orthodox Church's pressure against his marriage, caused him to suffer from depression, which interrupted his career for three years until he sought medical help in 1900. He had a three-month treatment by hypnotherapist, Dr. Dahl, aimed at overcoming his writer's block. Upon his recovery, Rachmaninov composed his brilliant 2nd Piano Concerto, and made a comeback with successful concert performances. From 1904 to 1906 he was a conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. From 1906 to 1909, Rachmaninoff lived and worked in Dresden, Germany. There he composed his 2nd Symphony.
In 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoff made his first tour of the United States having composed the 3rd Piano Concerto as a calling card. He appeared as a soloist with Gustav Mahler conducting the New York Philharmonic. His further work on merging Russian music with English literature culminated in his adaptation of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe into choral symphony, "The Bells," which Rachmaninov considered to be among the best of his works. In 1915 he wrote the choral masterpiece: "All-Night Vigil" (also known as the Vespres), fifteen anthems expressing a plea for peace at a time of war. The terror of Russian Revolution and the destruction of his estate forced him to emigrate. On December 23, 1917, Rachmaninov left Russia on an open sledge carrying only a few books of sheet music.
As a pianist, Sergei Rachmaninov made over a hundred recordings and gave over one thousand concerts in America alone between 1918 and 1943. His concert performances were legendary, and he was highly regarded as a virtuoso pianist with unmatched power and expressiveness. Rachmaninoff's technical perfection was legendary. His large hands were able to span a twelfth, that is an octave and a half or, for example, a stretch from middle C to high G. Rachmaninoff was highly regarded for accuracy on the piano keyboard, which he achieved through arduous practice by repeating difficult passages many times in a very slow tempo. In many of his original compositions, Sergei Rachmaninoff used musical allusions ranging from folk songs to oriental music and jazz. Unusually wide chords and deeply romantic melody lines were characteristic of his compositions. Besides his own music, he often performed pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin , Franz Liszt and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
In 1931, Rachmaninov signed a letter condemning the Soviet regime, that was published in the New York Times. There was retaliation immediately, and his music was condemned by the Soviets as "representative of decadent art." However, the official censorship in the Soviet Union could not stop the popularity of Rachmaninov's music in the rest of the world. During the 1930s and 1940s, he remained one of the highest paid concert stars.
During the 1930s, Rachmaninoff shared his time between Europe and America, because he was booked for numerous live performances in major cultural centers on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1932, Rachmaninoff with his family moved to his newly built Villa 'Senar' on Lake Luzern. There he replicated the layout of his estate that was destroyed by Russian revolution of 1917. The villa became a new home for the family and a center of cultural life, as Rachmaninoff was visited by notable musicians, such as Horowitz, writers, such as Bunin, and even Maharaja with family from India. For his guests, Rachmaninoff often played his music on the new concert grand piano that was presented to him by Hamburg Steinway company. Using that piano, Rachmaninoff composed his famous Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini in 1934. In 1939, with the onset of World War 2, Rachmaninoff left Europe and moved to America for good.
At his home on Elm Drive in Beverly Hills, Rachmaninoff had two Steinway pianos which he played together with Vladimir Horowitz and other entertainers. His love of fast cars was second to music, and led him to occasional fines for exceeding the speed limit. Since he bought his first car in 1914, Rachmaninov acquired a taste for fast cars, buying himself a new car every year. His generosity was legendary. He gave away 5000 dollars to Igor Sikorsky to start an American helicopter industry. He paid for Vladimir Nabokov and his family relocation from Paris to New York. He sponsored Michael Chekhov and introduced him to Hollywood.
Sergei Rachmaninoff gave numerous charitable performances, and donated large sums of money to fighting against the Nazis during WWII. He became a US citizen in 1943, just a few weeks before his death. In his last recital, in February, 1943, Rachmaninov played Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, featuring the famous "Funeral march." The New York Times obituary of March 28, 1943, stated that Sergei V. Rachmaninoff, pianist, composer and conductor, who for fifty years had been a leader in the music world on two continents, died today at his Beverly Hills home of complications resulting from pneumonia and pleurisy, which twice had caused him to cancel recitals here this month.
Rachmaninoff was survived by his wife and two daughters who arranged for his burial in Kensico Cemetery, New York. Over the years, Soviet and Russian authorities made numerous claims to re-bury the composer in Moscow, Russia, but the Rachmaninoff family successfully opposed due to the fact that Sergei Rachmaninoff made his choice to be a citizen of the United States.TRIO ELEGIAQUE- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Rimsky-Korsakov was a navy officer but soon discovered his love for music. Since 1861 he belonged to the group of Balakirew but later he returned to the traditional way of composing. He combined uniquely the Russian folk songs with the music of the Orthodox Church. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the first Russian symphony and Igor Strawinsky was one of his students.OPUS 34- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
As a son of a horn player and a singer Rossini was taught instruments early in his life. When he was older he went to the conservatory of Bologna for lessons. His first opera was such a big success that a lot of people wanted him to write more pieces. But nevertheless in 1816 his masterpiece "The Barber of Seville" failed although later it received the attention it deserved. In 1823 Rossini became the director of the Italian Opera in Paris, but when he stopped working he left for Italy only to return in 1853 and stay in Paris until his death in 1868.IL BARBIERI DI SIVIGLIA- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Composer chiefly remembered for his symphonic poems -the first of that genre to be written by a Frenchman- and for his opera 'Samson et Dalila'. Notable for his pioneering efforts on behalf of French music, he was also a gifted pianist and organist, and a writer of criticism, poetry, essays, and plays. Of his concerti and symphonies, in which he adapted the virtuosity of Franz Liszt's style to French traditions of harmony and form, his 'Third Symphony' is most often performed.LE CARNAVAL DES ANIMAUX- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Erik Satie was born on 17 May 1866 in Honfleur, Calvados, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Badlands (1973), The November Man (2014) and Mr. Nobody (2009). He died on 1 July 1925 in Paris, France.GYMNOPEDIES- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Arnold Schonberg was born in the Jewish ghetto of Vienna, in 1874. His parents were Ashkenazim, his mother, Pauline was from Prague, and his father, Samuel, was from Bratislava. His mother was a piano teacher, but he had little interest in early childhood. He took violin lessons when he was eight and began composing at the same time.
Later he took lessons in composition from Alexandr von Zemlinsky, who's sister he married in 1910, after his first wife left him in 1908. His earlier sextet Verklarte Nacht (1899) and Symphonic poem Pelleas and Melisande, brought him recognition from Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. He became Mahler's apprentice, and considered his master a 'saint'.
It was during the absence of a wife that Schonberg started composing without a key. He created the dodecaphonic (or twelve-tone) method of composition, which later developed into serialism. The innovative String Quartet No. 2, and Pierrot Luniare (1912) incorporated female voice and moved into atonal (or pan-tonal) method, later developed into dodecaphonic (twelve-tone), method, and further grew into serialism. His students Anton Webern, Alban Berg, and Hanns Eisler adopted this technique and thus formed the Second Viennise School. His method of teaching was based on analyzing and transmitting the music of the great classics, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Mozart', and Ludwig van Beethoven. He regarded the music of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Gustav Mahler . In 1925 he moved to Berlin to take a master class. He wrote unfinished opera "Moses und Aron", and lived there until the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Schonberg was brought up as a Catholic, converted to Lutheranism in 1898 and remained Litheran until 1933. In 1933 he had to leave Berlin, because Nazis disregarded his conversion to Lutheranism, and treated him as a Jew. He made a stay in Paris where he formally reaffirmed his original faith. After that Schonberg went on his journey to Los Angeles, where he settled in 1934. There he revisited tonal composition and continued development of serialism, which contributed to the complexity of his difficult Violin Concerto. From 1935 to 1945 he taught at USC and UCLA Department of Music. In 1941 Schonberg became a citizen of the United States. He retired after having a heart attack in 1945. His later compositions include String Trio "A Survivor from Warsaw" and religious Choir works. His theoretical writings are still used by students. He used to say: "my music is not really modern, just badly played." He feared the number 13 (triskaidekafobia), but ironically was born on the 13th and died on Friday, the 13th of July, 1951. He was buried in Vienna.VERKLARTE NACHT- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Schubert was musically educated at the "Hofkapelle" in Vienna where he sang as a boy but then had to quit in order to help his father at school. Four years later, he became an independent composer and was destined to live in poverty from then onwards. Having an introverted personality, Schubert played his songs mostly amongst a couple of friends who shared his romantic passion. Within his short life Schubert composed many pieces of music, including eight symphonies.D.667- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Schumann studied Law and at the same time attended piano lessons. He ignored all musical theory because in his mind the romantic music had only to be inspired by fantasy. Publishing the "Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik" he supported young composers of his time like Frédéric Chopin or Johannes Brahms. His own compositions where accepted when his wife 'Clara Wieck' - a famous piano player - played them during her concerts. Schumann suffered from mental depressions which became more serious with his age leading into schizophrenia. He died in an mental asylum near Bonn in 1856.SYMPHONY N 3- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Johann Strauss (or Johann Strauss son), one of Austrian music's most famous names who studied music secretly against his father's will, later became the leader of his father's band and the indisputable "waltz king"; his waltz 'On the Beautiful Blue Danube', is the main theme in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
He was born Johann Sebastian Strauss on October 25, 1825, in Vienna, Austria. His father was the composer Johann Strauss Sr. Young Johann Strauss studied music secretly with his father's first violinist in the Strauss orchestra. He was reprimanded by his father who wanted him to be a banker. He continued studies of counterpoint, harmony, and violin, and concentrated fully on a career as a composer at the age of 17, when his father left the family.
Young Strauss made his debut at the Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, the upscale district of Vienna. He became the rival of his father and gained popularity performing with his own orchestra. He took the side of revolutionaries when Vienna was racked up by the bourgeois revolution of 1848. He publicly played La Marseillaise and was hauled up by the Viennese authorities. That caused him denial of position of the Hofballmusikdirektor (Royal Ball Music Director). His career continued after the death of his father in 1849, which allowed the merger of two Strauss orchestras under the baton of Johann Strauss.
Strauss took his united orchestra on extensive tours in Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, and Britain. Russian Tsar Alexander II commissioned Strauss to play at Pavlovsk, the royal suburb of St. Peterburg. There was the opening of a new railway and a landmark concert hall for Russian aristocracy. Strauss also accepted commissions to play for the Grand Prince Michael in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1853, when the commissions became too much to be handled, his mother persuaded younger brother Joseph to take over the helm of the Strauss Orchestra. Strauss eventually toured and concertized to an exhaustion and was confined to a sanatorium to recuperate as he was suffering from neuralgia. He was married three times and had complications with the Catholic Church which refused to grant him a divorce. Strauss had to change his religion and nationality in order to get married to the woman he loved; he became a citizen of German Duchy of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. After that he became free to marry his third wife Adele, who encouraged his creative talent in his later years.
Johann Strauss was the most sought after composer of dance music in the second half of the 19th Century. His influence is felt in the music of the operetta maestro Franz Lehár and other composers. Among his admirers were Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and other prominent composers. Strauss wrote Die Fledermaus (The Bat), Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), Wiener Blut (The Viennese Blood), and other popular operettas. His exquisite waltzes: The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Wood, Man only Lives Once, On the Beautiful Blue Danube, and many other waltzes made Johann Strauss the indisputable "waltz king" of the 19th century. He died of pneumonia on June 3, 1899, in Vienna, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria.AN DER SHONEN BLAUEN DONAU(OPUS 314)- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Richard Strauss was a German composer best known for symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) used as the music score in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by director Stanley Kubrick.
He was born Richard Georg Strauss on June 11, 1864, in Munich, Bavaria (now Germany). His father, named Franz Strauss, was the principal horn player at the Royal Opera in Munich. Young Strauss was taught music by his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of 6. From the age of 10 he studied music theory and orchestration with an assistant conductor of the Munich Court Orchestra. He was also attending orchestral rehearsals. In 1874 Strauss heard operas by Richard Wagner, but his father did not share his son's interest and forbade him to study Wagner's music until the age of 16.
Strauss studied philosophy and art history at Munich University, then at Berlin University. In 1885 he replaced Hans von Bulow as the principal conductor of the Munich Orchestra. Strauss emerged from under his father's influence when he met Alexander Ritter, a composer, and the husband of one of the nieces of Richard Wagner. He abandoned his father's conservative style and began writing symphonic tone poems. In 1894, Strauss married soprano singer Pauline Maria de Ahna. She was famous for being dominant and ill-tempered, but she was also a source of inspiration to Strauss, resulting in the preferred use of the soprano voice in his compositions.
The image of Richard Strauss and his music was abused by the Nazi propaganda machine, to a point of damaging the composer's posthumous reputation. Richard Strauss was trapped in Nazi Germany just as the Russian intellectuals were under Stalin in the Soviet regime. Strauss' name and music was used by the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who appointed Strauss, without his consent, to the State Music Bureau, as a mask on the ugly regime. Strauss was commissioned to write the Olympic Hymn for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. His cautious apolitical position was the only way to survive and to protect his daughter-in-law Alice, who was Jewish.
In 1935 Strauss was fired from his job at the State Music Bureau. He refused to remove from the playbill the name of his friend and opera librettist, the writer Stefan Zweig, who was Jewish. Later Gestapo intercepted a letter from Strauss to Zweig, where Strauss condemned the Nazis. Strauss' daughter-in-law Alice was placed under the house arrest in 1938. In 1942 Strauss managed to move his Jewish relatives to Vienna. There Alice and Strauss's son were later again arrested and imprisoned for two nights. Only Strauss' personal effort saved them. They were returned under house arrest until the end of the Second World War.
Richard Strauss died on September 8, 1949, in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany at the age of 85. Strauss' symphonic poem 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1896) was recorded under the baton of Herbert von Karajan and was used as the music score in '2001: A Space Odyssey' by director Stanley Kubrik, as well as in many other films.ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Igor Stravinsky's father was a singer at the opera, and thus Stravinsky became a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov after a short stint as a law student. Very much influenced by Russian composers, only his sponsor Sergei Diaghilev in Paris was able to convince him to try new styles of ballet, e.g. "Le sacre du printemps". Stravinsky was very flexible in his style and also composed jazz music as well as church music. During his lifetime Stravinsky put influence into all new styles of music, e.g. 12 tone, E music and others.LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Gustav Holst was born on 21 September 1874 in Pittville, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Knowing (2009), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and The Vast of Night (2019). He was married to Isobel Harrison. He died on 25 May 1934 in Ealing, Middlesex, London, England, UK.THE PLANETS- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Gabriel-Urbian Faure was born May 12, 1845, in Pamires, Mid-Pyrenees, France. He was the youngest of 6 children born to Toussaint and Marie Faure. From the age of 9 he studied piano and organ with Camille Saint-Saëns at the Ecole Niedermeyer. Saint-Saene encouraged young Faure to play piano music by Franz Liszt. In 1865 Faure was awarded first prize for composition, for his 'Cantique de Jean Racine', opus 11. In 1870 he served in the army during the Franco-Prussian war, and during the Paris Commune he was a music teacher in Switzerland, where his school Ecole Niedermeyer was relocated. Back in Paris he became organist at Saint-Sulpice.
Faure became a regular at the salon of Camille Saint-Saëns and the salon of Pauline Garcia-Viardot. There he met many prominent Parisian intellectuals: writers Gustave Flaubert and Ivan Turgenev, composers Hector Berlioz and Georges Bizet. With those contacts Faure initiated the formation of the 'Societe Nationale Musique' around the figure of Camille Saint-Saëns. Faure also took over the position of organist at the Eglise de la Madeleine in 1877, when Saint-Saens retired. At that time Faure became engaged to Marianne Viardot, the daughter of Pauline Viardot, but the engagement was broken off by Marianne.
Faure was sincerely in love, but heartbroken and so depressed, that he could not stay in the same salon. He canceled all social obligations and left Paris for a long journey. He went to Weimar, where he met Franz Liszt and expressed his gratitude by playing his own compositions to Liszt. Then Faure traveled to Cologne to listen to the operas of Richard Wagner, whom he admired. Faure's impressions from 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' were strong, but not enough to influence his own compositions.
Back in Paris he renewed his activity at 'Societe Nationale Musique'. He married Marie Frement in 1883, and the couple had two sons. He had to support his family. The lack of any musical success kept him working as the organist at the Eglise de la Madeleine, and also teaching piano and harmony, which took up all his time. His own compositions were sold to his publisher at 50 francs per piece with thw copyright. At that time Faure composed the exquisitely delicate 'Requiem' (1888), his most important choral work. He could not find a venue to perform his large-scale compositions. That made him even more depressed.
After ten years of hardship, Faure finally got promoted to the government position of the Inspector of Music Conservatoires in the French provinces. In 1896 he became chief organist at the Eglise de la Madeleine. He also replaced Jules Massenet as professor of composition at the Conservatoire de Paris. His students there included Maurice Ravel, Nadia Boulanger, George Enescu, and Charles Koechlin, who later orchestrated Faure's popular suite 'Pelleas et Melisande'. In 1890s Faure wrote piano duet 'Dolly Suite' and a vocal piece 'La bonne chanson' for Emma Bardac, the wife of Claude Debussy.
From 1905 to 1920 Faure was the powerful director of the Conservatoire de Paris. He made some reforms and dismissed unnecessary stuff for the purpose of rational spending of the funding from the government. His song opera 'Penelope' (1913) is noteworthy. His works of the late years were affected by his hearing loss, which inevitably caused his retirement. He was the music critic at Le Figaro from 1903-1921. Faure died from pneumonia on November 4, 1924, and was laid to rest in the Cemetiere de Passy in Paris.REQUIEM,PAVANE OF FAURÉ- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Edvard Hagerup Grieg (Greig) was born on on June 15, 1843, in Bergen, Norway. His father, named Alexander Greig (originally McGregor), was English consul of Scottish origin. His mother, named Gesine Hagerup, was an educated pianist. Grieg grew up among three sisters and an elder brother. He began piano studies with his mother at the age of six. His mother's brother-in-law, a famous violinist Ole Bull, recommended Grieg to study at the Leipzig Conservatory. From 1858-1862 he studied music in Leipzig under the tutelage of Ignaz Moscheles and graduated with honors. From 1863-1866 Grieg lived in Copenhagen, where he continued his music studies with 'Niels W. Gade'. He made progress towards Scandinavian folk music while being an apprentice of Rikard Nordraak. Soon Grieg emancipated himself from the German romantic tradition and grew towards the development of his original style. Grieg's harmonies became unorthodox, rich, and challenging for a public conditioned to classic compositions of Mozart and Haydn. During the winter of 1865-1866 he was in Rome, where he performed his music and earned a European reputation.
His love of the Norwegian folk culture and traditional melodies became evident in his compositions written after 1866, the year Grieg returned to Norway. He settled in Christiania (Oslo) and established himself as a music teacher and concert performer. At the same time Grieg became the founder of a concert society "Eutherpe" with a choir and a symphony orchestra. His collection of "Lyrical Pieces" for piano made him a fine reputation among musicians. Grieg was called the "Chopin of the North" by Hans Bulow. In 1867 Grieg married his cousin Nina Hagerup, and their only child died being only one year old. His famous Piano Concerto in A minor was completed in 1868 and performed in Copenhagen. With a letter of recommendation from Franz Liszt, Grieg received a state stipend for his studies in Italy and spent a winter of 1869-1870 in Rome. There Grieg performed his music and had meetings with Franz Liszt and other European musicians. His collaboration with Norwegian writer Bjornson also began in Rome. During the 1870's Grieg and Bjornson made several dramatic compositions together. In 1876 Grieg was asked by Henrik Ibsen to write the incidental music to "Peer Gynt", a play about the Norwegian folk hero. Later Grieg made two "Peer Gynt" Suites for concert performances, which scored international success.
In 1872 Grieg was made a member of the Royal Music Society in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1874 Grieg was awarded the state annual grant of 1600 kronen from the Norwegian Storthing. He quit teaching and returned to his hometown of Bergen. There he chose a natural environment for his work. Grieg composed much of his music among the picturesque landscape of forest, mountains, and sea at the Hardanger fjord. There he had a cottage with a Steinway baby grand piano. Grieg's admiration with serenity and beauty of the Norwegian landscapes was the essential part of his music. Grieg wrote music of a distinguished lyrical quality and emotional depth, which he expressed through refined melody lines and sophisticated harmonic changes. His symphonic "Norwegian dances" and "Norwegian peasant dances" allude to Scandinavian folk melodies. The "Peer Gynt" suites and such pieces as "Solvejg's Song" and "Ein Schwan" are characterized with power for creating pictures in the listener's mind, which made them suitable for many film scores.
From 1878-1880 Grieg and his wife Nina, a professional singer, went on a two-year journey. Grieg performed in many cities of Europe. He was giving performances of his Piano Concerto in London during the 1880s and 1890s. Grieg died on September 4, 1907, in Bergen, Norway, and was laid to rest in a mountain cave at his countryside estate in Troldhaugen, Norway. His wife Nina lived to the age of 90 and made Grieg's villa in Troldhaugen into a museum. A concert hall was built nearby to house the annual festivals of Grieg's music.OPUS 16- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Aleksandr Borodin was born on November 12, 1833 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was in fact the illegitimate son of the Georgian Prince, Lukas Gedevanishvili, who registered his son under the name of his serf and payed for Borodin's private education in music, languages and sciences.
Young Borodin grew up becoming fluent in German, French and English, besides his native Russian. He later learned Italian and was able to write a technical essay in that language. Borodin studied at the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy from 1850-1856 and graduated with honours as a Medical Doctor. He also earned a doctorate in organic chemistry with his dissertation "On the analogy of arsenic acid with phosphoric acid in chemical and toxicological behaviour." Borodin carried advanced research on aldehydes. In 1872, Borodin discovered the "Aldol-reaction/condensation". He also worked on the chemistry of mineral waters and researched their medicinal properties.
In 1859-63 Borodin lived in Western Europe, where he studied medicine and chemistry and also attended the concerts of Franz Liszt, who became Borodin's friend and admirer of his music. Back in Russia, Borodin continued his music studies as a weekend hobby. He often played piano and flute with his friends, the composers of "The Mighty Handful", which included Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Borodin was a frequent traveller because of his scientific research and invitations from various research centres and Universities. His tone poem for symphony orchestra "In the Steppes of Central Asia" was composed on his impressions from travels.
Borodin started the work on his first symphony in 1862, under the tutelage of Mily Balakirev and completed the work by 1869, when it was premiered under the baton of Mily Balakirev. In 1869, Borodin started on his Symphony No.2 which was premiered in 1877, but Borodin made upgrades to its orchestration for the triumphal performance in 1879 under the direction of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His lengthy work on each one of his symphonies was caused by Borodin's preoccupation with his second opera "Prince Igor", which became his most important work. Borodin was working on this masterpiece from 1869 to his death in 1877. It contains the famous choral "Polovetsian Dances" which was borrowed for the popular song "Stranger in Paradise" and was also used in many films.
In 1877, Borodin went to Weimar where Franz Liszt worked as a Muskmaster. Though Borodin's European trips were made for the business of his scientific research, Franz Liszt, being a personal friend of Borodin, made arrangements for his Symphony No. 1 to be performed for the first time outside Russia. In Italy, Borodin became engaged and lived with Ekaterina Protopopova, whom he married upon their return to St. Petersburg, Russia. Borodin composed many romantic songs for voice and piano accompaniment, dedicated to his beloved wife, Ekaterina. Some of those romances were composed to the poems by Nikolai A. Nekrasov. Borodin's romances became a staple in the repertoire of many classical vocalists.
Borodin's strong and lyrical String Quartet No.2 in D Major stands out in that genre. It is an intellectual conversation between the four musical instruments, each having a special character, and each shows its development through their delicious harmonic interplay. The popular "Nocturne" movement from this quartet is arguably one of the most lyrical melodies in all music.
Borodin's contribution to science and culture could be even more significant. He left a number of unfinished works, the Symphony No. 3 and a five-part opera on stories from Russian fairy tales. He died on February 27, 1887 during a party in St. Petersburg and was laid to rest at the St. Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg, Russia.THE PRINCE IGOR- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Jacques Offenbach, the son of a synagogue cantor, was born in Cologne, Germany, June 20, 1819. So strong were his musical talents that the Paris Conservatory waived the rule forbidding foreigners and enrolled him. At the completion of his studies he began playing the cello in the orchestra of the prestigious Opera-Comique. In 1850 he was appointed musical director of the Comedie Frangaise, another of France's principal theaters; he continued in this position for five years. During this period he began writing comic operas. When he realized that he would be unable to get them performed by established production organizations, he decided to open a theater of his own -- Bouffes Parisiens--in 1855. There he wrote and presented twenty-five musical satires, farces, and comic operas within a three-year period. In response to this work, he became the idol of Parisian theater-goers. In the years that followed he remained the master of French comic opera, enjoying great popularity and irregular financial success. He travelled to America in 1876 on a performance tour. His desire to write musical work of a more serious nature led him to consider the opera project which eventually resulted in The Tales of Hoffmann. Although the work was almost complete at his death, he never lived to see the opera performed. He died in Paris on October 4, 1880, four months before the opera's premiere. Although The Tales of Hoffmann is undeniably Offenbach's greatest work, his delightful lighter efforts are still produced periodically throughout the world. Among the most popular of these are Orpheus in the Underworld, La belle Helehne, La Grand Duchesse de Gerolstein, and La Perichole.LOS CONTES D,HOFFMAN