On Demand
Evening Music Archive
April 2004
Degenerate Music?
Friday, April 30, 2004
A little Beethoven, a little Mozart, and then a leap into the 20th century for David Diamond's Quintet for Flute, String Trio, and Piano. The 22-year-old composer received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in the wake of this work, the youngest recipient ever! Listen and find out why the foundation liked it so much.
Because of its modernism, the Nazis first condemned Erwin Schulhoff's work as "Degenerate Music" and went on to take his life in a concentration camp in 1942. The 1914 Divertimento for String Quartet bears no hint of that dark fate; it is sunny, inventive, and sparkling with good humor. We also offer Schulhoff's romantic and slightly woeful Second Piano Sonata. You can hear lots of his work at the 92nd Street Y this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Ottorino Respighi was fascinated with music of the past, and he often arranged or reworked early music works. Gregorian chant inspired the "Dorian Quartet," played for us by the Brodsky Quartet this evening.
Art & Life
Thursday, April 29, 2004
The evening begins with Felix Mendelssohn's 1812 String Symphony No. 12, in an original-instruments performance by Roy Goodman and The Hanover Band. Ervin Schulhoff's Symphony No. 1 was composed over a century later, in 1925; folkloric references add to its vigor and joyfulness. Duke Ellington was born 105 years ago today, so we pay tribute by offering his "Liberian Suite," a work commissioned for the first centennial of Liberia, and one in which great joy contrasts with ominous gloom.
Our second birthday-boy of the evening is Australian Peter Sculthorpe, whose String Quartet No. 13, "Island Dreaming," features a mezzo-soprano as well as the traditional four string players. Anne Sofie von Otter and the Brodsky Quartet, for whom the work was originally composed, do the honors. Finally, it's back to Bach, as Rachel Podger's violin negotiates the strings in the Sonata No. 5, BWV 1018.
Viola—It's No Joke
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Darius Milhaud was very fond of the viola, that butt of lousy musical jokes, and he wrote a lot of good music for it. The First Viola Sonata is performed this evening by violist Kenneth Martinson and pianist Christopher Taylor. John Tavener's "...Depart in Peace," a setting in Greek of the Nunc dimitiis, was composed as a memorial soon after Tavener's father had died. Alan Hovhannes, another admirer of things Greek, says his "Meditation on Orpheus" represents "the symbolic love quest of lamenting Orpheus against the infernal wind of the land of Pluto."
Later, and on a brighter note (lots of them!), we hear George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F performed by Michael Boriskin, Jonathan Sheffer conducting the Eos Orchestra. Papa Haydn, great engenderer of the string quartet, is back again: the Mosaiques Quartet brings us the B-flat Quartet, opus 33/4. The wit and happy humor of the opus 33 quartets reflect Haydn's felicitous relationship with the soubrette Luigia Polzelli, to whom he wrote, "O, my dear Polzelli: you are always in my heart."
Happy Birthday, Prokofiev!
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
We begin as Nigel Kennedy's nimble fingers bring Vaughan Williams's "The Lark Ascending" to glorious life. Then violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Olli Mustonen bring us Prokofiev’s opus 94 Sonata. It's Sergei's birthday—or at least it's the 1891 date recorded on his birth certificate. He himself claimed April 23, but we don't care: the music itself is cause for celebration, so you’ll hear his Symphony No. 5 later on, James Levine leading the Chicago Symphony. Meanwhile, thrill to Maria Joao Pires's performance of Schubert's Three Piano Pieces, D 946. Virgil Thomson was more revered by many for his criticism than for his compositions, but his String Quartet No. 2 demonstrates his great talent. Before we get to that aforementioned Prokofiev symphony, how about a trip to the "Valley of a Thousand Hills," courtesy of composer Malcolm Forsyth? Three movements evoke landscapes near his birthplace in South Africa: 'Horizons' portrays "myriad hills floating in the morning mists"; 'Mkambathini' is the Zulu name for a flat-topped mountain; 'Village Dance' explores South African asymmetrical meters.
Suite Tooth
Monday, April 26, 2004
We begin with "suites for the sweet": Ernest Bloch's "Suite Modal," Alec Wilder's Suite No. 2 for Sax and Strings, Johann H. Schein's just plain Suite, Marin Marais's Viola da gamba Suite, and...Tobias Hume's "Sweet Music" for viol. Whew! Another treat: pianist Maurizio Pollini plays Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. Lou Harrison's septet, "Marriage at the Eiffel Tower," is his incidental music (sans narration) to the surrealist Jean Cocteau's "Le maries de la Tour Eiffel." The original version—with music contributed by five of the French group "Les six"follows immediately. It was a "happening" before happenings happened, a ballet with narration by Cocteau, both a silly romp and a scathing denunciation of war and conformism. But yes, there is a wedding; so get out your French dictionary and have a listen. Don't miss Richard Danielpour's "A Child's Reliquary," composed for the executants, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Written in remembrance of a child dead at 18 months, it was "intended as a kind of 'Kindertotenlieder' without words."
The Artistic Life
Friday, April 23, 2004
We begin the evening with Jordi Savall and his Concert des Nations, who bring us Jean-Baptiste Lully's “Le divertissement royal," a work "as gilded and magnificently over-the-top as the Versailles festivities it was designed to celebrate,” according to Harriet Smith. Next, a Joplin rag or two, and Vivaldi’s "Le grosso mogul" Violin Concerto (what a great name!).
The crux of the evening: two works by American-born pianist Frederic Rzewski, performed by the composer himself. First, "Which Side Are You On?"a meditation on and transformation of a strike song from the thirties. Then, a portion of Rzewski's "De profundis," in which the performer speaks passages from Oscar Wilde's famous Reading-Gaol letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, all the while playing a complex, virtuosic keyboard score. From our offering: "When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?"
Song of the Earth
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman start us off with two Bach transcriptions by Koopman. They're at Alice Tully Hall on April 29th, playing Vivaldi and Haydn. Our official Earth Day celebration begins, again with Yo-Yo, this time playing "Moon over Guan Mountains" from his popular Silk Road project.
Our featured recording: Gustav Mahler's "The Song of the Earth," Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic and soloists Placido Domingo and Bo Skovhus. A most fitting thought for this day from its final text: “Everywhere the lovely earth blossoms forth in spring and grows green anew! Everywhere, forever, horizons are blue and bright!” Utah composer Tully Cathey’s "Elements" for mandolin quartet was inspired by the “quaternity of fire, earth, air, and water... [and his] personal experience with these forces of nature." Even more “earthly” evocations follow, until we head for bed as the celestial harps of Julia Shaw and Nora Bumanis play Linda Kaiser's "Lullabies for Earth Children."
Musical Potpourri
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Our first hour features a wealth of chamber works, from Beethoven's "Les Adieux" piano sonata performed by Van Cliburn, to Arthur Foote's Nocturne and Scherzo for quintet, to a Telemann "Parisian" Quartet, to Aaron Copland's Piano Quartet, with pianist Gilbert Kalish and the Boston Symphony Chamber players.
The pièce-de-résistance of the evening may be Ravel's delicious Piano Concerto in G, featuring pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in a scintillating performance. James Sedares conducts the New Zealand Symphony in Symphony No. 1, by Randall Thompson, who was born this day in 1899. Thompson is best known for his choral works, but this symphony achieved instant acclaim at its premier in 1930. The evening ends with two concertos for recorder: the 18th-century Venetian-born Vivaldi's Concerto in C, RV 443, with soloist Dan Laurin; and the 20th-century's Danish-born DanishVagn Holmboe's Concerto for Recorder, Strings, Vibraphone, and Celeste, featuring Michala Petri.
The Celestial Harp
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Mozart's famous Concerto for Flute and Harp receives a sterling performance by flutist Emmanuel Pahud and harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet. Sir Arnold Bax's Sonatina for the same grouping is played by Marcia Dickstein on harp and Angela Wiegand on flute. A little later, you'll be surprised by a Nocturne for harp and bassoon from Francois-Joseph Naderman. Unlikely though the pairing seems, 18th-century France spawned a number of duets for these two instruments. Barry Tuckwell gives us two horn works: Richard Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 2, played with the Royal Philharmonic under Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Charles Koechlin's "Sonneries," with pianist Daniel Blumenthal. Then Franz Liszt's Piano Sonata explodes under the flying fingers of Alfred Brendel. Brendel will be playing Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven at Carnegie Hall on April 22; check it out.
Mozart and the Stars
Monday, April 19, 2004
We begin the evening simply enough with Britten's "Simple Symphony," followed by Copland's version of "Simple Gifts." Then it's on to Mozart's Variations on "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman," aka "Twinkle, twinkle little star," played by pianist Andras Schiff. Schumann's Piano Concerto follows soon after, Simon Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony, Lars Vogt as soloist. If you'd like to hear this concerto live, you can hear Martha Argerich play it with the New York Philharmonic under Charles Dutoit on April 28, 29, or 30.
Speaking of Argerich, you can hear her here, along with violinist Gidon Kremer, as the two of them vie for the honors in Mendelssohn's Double Concerto in D Minor. But before that happens, we bring you the Kronos Quartet performing excerpts from John Adams "John's Book of Alleged Danses," so named, according to Adams, because "the steps for them have yet to be invented. They cuss, chaw, hock hooeys, scratch and talk too loud." You'll love them!
Moorish Exoticism
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Although Saint-Saens spent many a winter in Algeria, he wrote his "Suite algerienne" while on holiday in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Nevertheless, the work—as displayed in this evening's performance by the London Symphony under Yondani Butt—is replete with Arab melodies and Moorish exoticism.
Rachmaninoff's first version (1926) of the Fourth Piano Concerto was so long that Sergei himself said it would need to be played over consecutive nights! He revised it, critics hated it, he revised it again, critics still hated it; he withdrew it until 1941, when he presented tonight's version. We like it, and hope you do too! Pianist Zoltan Kocsis is featured, along with the San Francisco Symphony under Edo de Waart. And another revision! Brahms was only twenty when he first wrote his Piano Trio No. 1; thirty-five years later, he decided much of it needed reworking, but the result is the masterpiece played for you this evening by pianist Artur Rubinstein, violinist Henryk Szering, and cellist Pierre Fournier.
» Evening Music playlist
The Extraordinary Andras Schiff
Friday, April 16, 2004
The extraordinary Andras Schiff places his bravura pianism at the service of two composers this evening. Our first offering is Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 2, which Schiff performs with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. You can hear them live at Carnegie Hall on April 27th, playing both Bach and Mendelssohn. Evening Music's last hour features Schiff playing solo piano in Janacek's "In the Mist," disguising its severe technical demands with his unfettered artistry.
Before that, Pianist Keith Jarrett and the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies illuminate Alan Hovhaness's "Lousadzak," whose name means, roughly, "dawn of light." Then we hear Davies conduct the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna in "The Light," Philip Glass's evocation of light waves and particles, written to commemorate the 1887 Michelson-Morley experiment, which demonstrated that—regardless of the motion of the observer—the speed of light remains the same.
» Evening Music playlist
Tax Time Blues
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Our evening begins with early Mozart: Sir Charles Mackerras conducts the Prague Chamber Orchestra in Wolfie’s Symphony No. 1. Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony No. 1 follows, James Levine at the helm of the Chicago Symphony. Back to Mozart a bit later, as we hear violinist/conductor Christian Tetzlaff and the German Chamber Philharmonic performing the Violin Concerto No. 5. By the way, Tetzlaff can be heard live in recital on April 22nd at Alice Tully Hall in the Great Performers series.
Other evening enticements: Maurizio Pollini playing Debussy’s Book 2 Piano Etudes and echoes-echoes everywhere, filling the air: Bernard Herrmann's "Echoes" String Quartet, Hotteterre's "Echoes," and Bochsa’s "Echo" Nocturne. Since it's tax time again, there's no better way to end the evening than listening to some jazzy complaints, including "The April 15th Blues," "Filling in the Form," and "Everyone Must Pay"lyrics and music by Ben Yarmolinsky.
» Evening Music playlist
Royal Entertainment
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
It’s a royal first hour! An anonymous Royal estampie and a Pavane pour le Roi begin our evening, followed by music from Henry Purcell's incidental music to John Dryden's "King Arthur," including the Overture, several Aires, and a Hornpipe, as well as "Fairest Isle." Jeanne Lamon conducts her band, Tafelmusik, in this evening's presentation. Then we have "The Queen's Maske" by Jean le Flelle and excerpts from Korngold's film score, "The Prince and the Pauper." Then back to us common folk with von Suppe's "Poet and Peasant" Overture. Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg graces our airwaves twice, with Mats Lidstrom's "Carnival of Venice" Variations and a Dvorak "Humoresque." You might want to go hear her live on April 21st at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. John Adams's "Naïve and Sentimental Music" is performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen. At the time of its composition (1998-99), Adams called it the most ambitious of his works outside of opera.
» Evening Music playlist
Intimate Letters
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Everyone's favorite "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" begins our evening, The English Concert under Andrew Manze making the most of Mozart. Leos Janacek composed his "Intimate Letters" Quartet out of his love for the unhappily married Kamila Stosslova, to whom he wrote that "little fires in my soul" will "set it ablaze with the most beautiful melodies." The Juilliard String Quartet sets fire to the work. Martin Jones performs "Impresiones intimas" by Federico Mompou—his very first work for piano (1911-1914). Composed for its performer, pianist Elena Riu, John Tavener's "Ypakoe" refers to words spoken by angels to the disciples on the morning of the resurrection: "Why seek ye among the dead, as though He were a mortal man?" More mysticism: Arvo Part says his "Tabula rasa" refers to the "nothingness out of which God created the world." The world of Boccherini ends the evening. We hear a guitar and harpsichord arrangement of a fandango from his Guitar Quintet, and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Sonata "Hommage to Boccherini," both with Julian Bream.
» Evening Music playlist
Globetrotting with Milhaud
Monday, April 12, 2004
Did Mozart write his Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano in E-flat for an evening at casa Jacquin, with the daughter—his current heartthrob Franziska—playing the piano, while he played viola and Anton Stadler played clarinet? Doesn't matter, since the work is charming, whatever its inspiration. In case you want to see the world, Darius Milhaud’s "Globetrotter Suite" will transport you to France, Portugal, Italy, the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil—around the world in under twenty minutes! Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yo-Yo Ma, and Mark Zeltser perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan. Then violinist Ida Kavafian and Irving Fine himself on piano provide a fine change of pace in Fine’s own Violin Sonata. Somei Satoh says his "Toward the Night" is the tone of dusk that resonates in his mind as he contemplates the Buddhist idea of Samsara (transmigration).
» Evening Music playlist
Easter Evening
Sunday, April 11, 2004
We begin our Easter evening with Ralph Vaughan Williams. First, his "Easter Hymn," which celebrates the resurrection and tells us "Now is time of gladness, To sing of the Lord’s goodness...." We continue with his “Five Mystical Songs,” the first of which also hymns Easter, sung by baritone Simon Keenlyside. After a brief Motet for Easter by Francois Couperin, we arrive at the core of the evening’s music: Bach’s “St. John Passion,” Anthony Newman conducting the Brandenberg Collegium Orchestra and Chorus, along with a stellar roster of soloists: soprano Julianne Baird, countenor Jeffrey Dooley, tenors Daniel Pincus and Jeffrey Thomas, and basses John Ostendorf and William Sharp. Finally, Steven Osborne plays Olivier Messiaen's transcendent 'Gaze of the Church of Love,' the twentieth of the "Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jesus."
» Evening Music playlist
Down the Rabbit Hole
Friday, April 09, 2004
Begin and end the evening inhaling an herbal mix of musical ideas in two "swales" (a swale is a meadow) from Brooklyn-dwelling Beth Anderson: "Pennyroyal Swale" and "Rosemary Swale." Then pause with Poulenc's Trio for Piano, Oboe, and Bassoon, played by Charles Wadsworth and members of his Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centerhis 75th birthday will be celebrated there live on April 16th and 18th. Then it's down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass, and into never-never land with lots of music inspired by Lewis Carroll's two Alice novels. Three choruses by Irving Fine start us off, beginning with the "Lobster Quadrille." Then we pass through "Through the Looking Glass" with music from Deems Taylor, jabberwockying all the way. Herbert Baumann leads us down the "Hall of Doors" before we end our journey, listening to David Del Tredici’s version of "The White Knight's Song."
» Evening Music playlist
Music's Rich Possession
Thursday, April 08, 2004
The evening begins with Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto" No. 3, with Yehudi Menuhin and the Bath Festival Orchestra performing, if not on original instruments, nevertheless with historically informed inspiration. Schubert's "Little" Symphony in C, his sixth, is given a beautiful performance by the Orchestra of St. Luke's under Julius Rudel. You can hear his "Great" Symphony No. 9 performed by the same orchestra, but conducted by Sir Roger Norrington, at Carnegie Hall on April 15. After David Garland’s movie score picks, he plays you music from Frederick Delius’s "Irmelin" in a suite created by Sir Thomas Beecham. The evening ends with Robert Kyr's "Songs of the Shining Wind," comprising six magical and mystical motets/madrigals set to texts from poets as far apart as Jorge Luis Borges and Niu His Chi, all translated by W.S. Merwin, and all concerning love, its loss, and its infinite endurance.
» Evening Music playlist
West Meets East
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Ravi Shankar, eighty-four years old today, based his "The Enchanted Dawn" on the Indian raga, "Todi." We hear it performed by the Schmidt/Verdery Duo for flute and guitar. And we close the evening with Shankar's version of a morning raga, "Tenderness," the composer performing on sitar alongside Yehudi Menuhin on violin. Blow out the candles and may your wishes all come true! In the meantime, much good listening. Murray Perahia turns in a sterling performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 15, along with the English Chamber Orchestra. Arnold Schoenberg, who arranged the Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 for orchestra, laughingly called his version "Brahms's Fifth Symphony." In truth, it reflects his profound love for Johannes; the work is on display from the Houston Symphony, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. There's some Bach, Boccherini, and Gualtier as well.
» Evening Music playlist
The Hardest Horn Work Ever Written
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Robert Schumann's Concertpiece for Four Horns and Orchestra, reputedly one of the most fiendishly difficult works ever composed for horn and requiring four exceptional players, was conceived by an excited Schumann to exploit the new, valveless horn; he called the work "one of my best things." The Chicago principals of 1977 do the honors, under the baton of Claudio Abbado. Leos Janacek celebrated a northeastern area of his native Moravia with his six "Lachian Dances," played this evening by the Czech Philharmonic under Jose Serebrier. Jerome Moross thought "The Last Judgement" ballet (which is all about Eve) was one of his best works: "Exonerating women of the Original Sin—where will we go next?" Listen to the Devil run off with the best chromaticism! Andre Previn, who turned seventy-five today, wrote "Diversions" for the Vienna Philharmonic, which he conducts in this evening's performance.
» Evening Music playlist
Song of the Celestial Lake
Monday, April 05, 2004
Afanassiev describes the Brahms Rhapsodies, op. 79, as "inexorable, inevitable, inflexible, implacable, unrelenting, relentless, merciless." Pianist Emanuel Ax's performance demonstrates that they are also uncommonly gripping and gorgeous. That handsome Welshman with the incredible baritone, Bryn Terfel, will be concertizing at Carnegie on April 12, but don’t wait. Hear him this evening, singing Schubert's "Das Fischermadchen" and "Standchen," accompanied here, as he will be there, by pianist Malcolm Martineau. Our most unusual offering is "Chant of The Celestial Lake," a flute concerto by Estonian Peeter Vahi, written for the soloist Maarika Jarvi, sister of the conductor, Kristjan (both fathered by Neeme). Venture into the oriental unknown as you listen. Most of us know the Stravinsky ballet "Apollo" as scored for strings, but Christopher O'Riley displays its magic in the composer's own piano version in our last hour.
» Evening Music playlist
Brahm's Beautiful Lament
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Brahms wrote his Trio for Piano, Violin, and Horn within months of his mother's death, so some biographers believe it to be a lament in her memory. The third movement is marked Adagio mesto (sad), and one of Brahms’s favorite folk melodies appears and reappears "like a lost memory emerging from the distant mists of time," as biographer Max Kalbeck put it. Whatever the origin, the result is Brahms at his best. Vincent d'Indy once said, "Melody alone never grows old." And he proves it in his exuberant "Symphony on a French Mountain Air," performed for us by pianist Francois-Joel Thiollier with the Ireland National Symphony, conducted by Antonio de Almeida. Keep listening, or you'll miss a Schubert song and some German dances, as well as other musical bonbons.
» Evening Music playlist
A Good Composer
Friday, April 02, 2004
We begin the evening with Georg Phillipp Telemann's Suite in D, TWV 55, masterfully performed on original instruments by The English Concert under Trevor Pinnock. Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra as we hear Sir Michael Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra, a work characterized by an energetic interplay of uneven, additive rhythms and bluesy harmonic inflections. That takes care of the Baroque and the 20th century. How about the Romantic era? Brahms's "Academic Festival Overture," rousingly played by the Houston Symphony under Christoph Eschenbach, ends our evening festivities with a flourish.
» Evening Music playlist
April Fool
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Billy Mayerl's "April Fool" sets the mood for an evening of musical foolishness and fun, with a few excursions into the serious. Violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica bring us the wacky "McMozart's Eine kleine bricht Moonlicht Nicht Musik" and the more serious "Blitz" Fantasy, so named by Vato Kakhidze because he wrote it so quickly. That famous Austrian joker, the "real" Mozart, contributes "A Musical Joke" in a spirited rendering by The English Concert, led by Andrew Manze. But seriously, folksyou can hear violinist Joshua Bell play Schubert, Grieg, and Ravel sonatas at Carnegie Hall on April 8, but listen to him here in Ravel's only violin sonata. No April Fool's would be complete without contribution from Peter Schickele's favorite guy, the indefatigable P.D.Q Bach; his "Short Tempered Clavier" is given long shrift by pianist Christopher O'Riley. We go out as Anne Sophie von Otter sings "April after All."
» Evening Music playlist
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