A Nod to Nordic Lands
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
As the weather turns colder and we don woolly gloves and mufflers, it seems appropriate that some of our music give a nod to Nordic lands.
Franz Joseph Haydn holds sway in our first hour with two offerings: we hear his Piano Sonata No. 45 in A, performed with panache by Evgeny Kissin; and the Divertimento No. 7 in C, Ton Koopman leading the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. The hour ends with Ars Antiqua Austria performing Biber's "Baletti lamentabili," a suite of dances probably written c. 1670 for a Carneval Feast at the Bishops's court in Vienna; these dances might have marked the end of the evening, with everybody winding down and getting ready to go home as the Lenten season begins.
Milhaud's musical romp, "Le boeuf sur le toit" starts hour two, James Levine conducting the Aspen Chamber Symphony. Then we hear Margaret Leng Tan as she plays her own arrangements for piano and toy piano of pieces by and in honor of Erik Satie. Tan can be heard live at Zankel Hall on November 20th, playing George Crumb's "Makrokosmos," Vols. I and II. You can hear Vol. III, otherwise known as "Music for a Summer Evening," at the end of Evening Music, when Gilbert Kalish and Janes Freeman play two amplified pianos in the company of Raymond DesRoches and Richard Fitz on percussion.
Our third hour takes us from summer climes to wintry rimes. Antonio Carlos Gomes’s Sonata in D receives a warm and spirited performance in an arrangement by the performing group, the Brazilian Guitar Quartet. Then it's off to the north, as we hear Kenneth Schermerhorn lead the Nashville Symphony in Howard Hanson's "Nordic" Symphony. Hanson was a Brit of Swedish ancestry, whose admiration for Sibelius is evident in this first of his seven symphonies. Percy Grainger was born in Australia, spent much of his youth in England, and then came to the United States. He was married on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, just before the orchestral premiere of "To a Nordic Princess," which was dedicated to the bride. We get a his paired-down version for piano, played by Martin Jones. Sköll!
Franz Joseph Haydn holds sway in our first hour with two offerings: we hear his Piano Sonata No. 45 in A, performed with panache by Evgeny Kissin; and the Divertimento No. 7 in C, Ton Koopman leading the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. The hour ends with Ars Antiqua Austria performing Biber's "Baletti lamentabili," a suite of dances probably written c. 1670 for a Carneval Feast at the Bishops's court in Vienna; these dances might have marked the end of the evening, with everybody winding down and getting ready to go home as the Lenten season begins.
Milhaud's musical romp, "Le boeuf sur le toit" starts hour two, James Levine conducting the Aspen Chamber Symphony. Then we hear Margaret Leng Tan as she plays her own arrangements for piano and toy piano of pieces by and in honor of Erik Satie. Tan can be heard live at Zankel Hall on November 20th, playing George Crumb's "Makrokosmos," Vols. I and II. You can hear Vol. III, otherwise known as "Music for a Summer Evening," at the end of Evening Music, when Gilbert Kalish and Janes Freeman play two amplified pianos in the company of Raymond DesRoches and Richard Fitz on percussion.
Our third hour takes us from summer climes to wintry rimes. Antonio Carlos Gomes’s Sonata in D receives a warm and spirited performance in an arrangement by the performing group, the Brazilian Guitar Quartet. Then it's off to the north, as we hear Kenneth Schermerhorn lead the Nashville Symphony in Howard Hanson's "Nordic" Symphony. Hanson was a Brit of Swedish ancestry, whose admiration for Sibelius is evident in this first of his seven symphonies. Percy Grainger was born in Australia, spent much of his youth in England, and then came to the United States. He was married on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, just before the orchestral premiere of "To a Nordic Princess," which was dedicated to the bride. We get a his paired-down version for piano, played by Martin Jones. Sköll!
