Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Remembering Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos & Falla’s Atlántida

The Spanish conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos died on Wednesday at the age of 80. Tonight on “The Lost Chord,” we celebrate his artistry with highlights from a recording he made in 1978 of the scenic cantata “Atlántida” by Manuel de Falla.

“Atlántida” tells the story of the lost continent of Atlantis, with appearances by Hercules; Pyrene, the Queen of the Pyrenees; the Hesperides (nymphs who tend a blissful garden); Queen Isabella; and a shipwrecked Christopher Columbus.

Interestingly, Falla eschews the overtly Spanish idioms that make his ballets, “El Amor Brujo” and “The Three-Cornered Hat,” so insistently memorable. The result is something much more austere, akin to the choral works of Stravinsky and Arthur Honegger.

It is Falla’s most ambitious work, at which he labored for 20 years, up until his death in 1946. The composer envisioned it to be his magnum opus, yet it is very seldom heard. Falla disciple Ernesto Halffter arranged the incomplete sketches into a performing edition, which he conducted at the work’s premiere in 1961. He revised the piece in 1976, at the request of Falla’s publisher, allegedly bringing the work closer to the composer’s vision.

Frühbeck de Burgos recorded it two years later. He retained affection for the piece for the remainder of his life, conducting a generous suite of highlights with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as recently as 2010.

That’s “Farewell to Frühbeck,” remembering Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. You can enjoy it tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Thursday night at 11; or listen to it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.

June 15, 2014
Dvořák’s American Flag A Neglected Masterpiece

It’s Flag Day! Antonin Dvořák planned his rarely-heard cantata “The American Flag” to celebrate his arrival in America in 1892 as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. But the text, by Joseph Rodman Drake, arrived too late, and the work did not receive its first performance until 1894. Though he submitted the vocal score for publication in 1895, he did not consider the work complete until 1898.

Scored for tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra, the cantata falls into eight sections:

I. The Colors of the Flag
II. First Hymn to the Eagle
III. Second Hymn to the Eagle
IV. Orchestral Interlude: March
V. First Address to the Flag (The Foot-Soldier)
VI. Second Address to the Flag (The Cavalryman)
VII. Third Address to the Flag (The Sailor)
VIII. Apotheosis (Prophetic)

The piece remains something of an obscurity, having never attained the popularity of other major works of his American years, including the String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 92 (the so-called “American”), the “New World” Symphony No. 9, and his Cello Concerto in B Minor. Part of the reason may be the fact that, for the most part, the work doesn’t sound particularly “American.”

His association with Henry T. Burleigh (called Harry), his African-American assistant at the conservatory, and travels around the American Midwest, introduced Dvořák to the Negro Spiritual and Native American folk music, traditions the composer enthusiastically embraced. He called upon his American counterparts to look to their own soil in the founding of a unique national sound.

Mindful of the invaluable contributions of their people, Dvořák lobbied to waive tuition to the conservatory for talented Native and African American composers who could not afford the fee. His perceptivity, his enthusiastic support for, and his elevation of sounds that really were in the American ear all along earn Dvořák his place as the honorary Grandfather of American Music.

Here is the neglected cantata, “The American Flag,” posted in two parts:

June 14, 2014
Pirate Movie Music Scores on “Picture Perfect”

Ahoy! This week on “Picture Perfect,” we sharpen our sabers and head for the high seas with an hour of music from pirate movies.

We’ll exhume a buried treasure full of scores by Franz Waxman (“Anne of the Indies”), Elmer Bernstein (“The Buccaneer”), William Alwyn (“The Crimson Pirate”), Alfred Newman (“The Black Swan”) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (“The Sea Hawk”).

Remember, Turner Classic Movies: TCM is showing pirate movies every Friday night in June. You’ll be able to catch “The Crimson Pirate” tomorrow night at 8 ET and “The Sea Hawk” June 20 at 11:45, part of a full night of Errol Flynn films.

Comb out your beards and polish your hooks, me mateys. We vary piracy with a little burglary, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6, or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

June 12, 2014
Remembering Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

Very sorry to learn of the death this morning of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. He conducted many memorable concerts locally with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In fact, last season he celebrated his 150th Philadelphia Orchestra appearance. I still remember a roof-raising performance of “The Rite of Spring,” which took place at the old Academy of Music in the late 1980s. Can you believe it, I actually found the date:

http://articles.philly.com/1987-11-13/news/26175840_1_carmina-burana-philadelphia-orchestra-carl-orff

I remember that program quite well. He was the real deal.

Here he is, being interviewed by Hilary Hahn:

There are many performances posted on YouTube, with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. I am sure any of them are worthwhile. Here he is conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio espagnol.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLOVVzmEnto

R.I.P. Maestro Frühbeck de Burgos. Sorry to see you go.

June 11, 2014
Richard Strauss 150th Birthday & “Funiculì”

Today is the 150th birthday of Richard Strauss.

I read an amusing anecdote the other day, purely by coincidence, when I looked up the Neapolitan song “Funiculì, Funiculà.” The song is about a funicular cable car that used to service passengers to Mount Vesuvius before it was predictably destroyed in an eruption in 1944. The music was composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza to lyrics by the journalist Peppino Turco. The song became a huge international success and sold over a million copies.

Richard Strauss, like many, believed the piece to be an authentic Italian folk song, so he cheerfully appropriated it in 1886 for use in his large-scale symphonic fantasy “Aus Italien” (“From Italy”). Denza’s lawyers were not so cheerful. Strauss found himself at the receiving end of a lawsuit, which resulted in the composer having to pay a royalty fee every time the work was performed.

This would be irksome to any composer, but Strauss has always been the butt of sardonic remarks about his love of money. Stravinsky used to spell his name using dollar signs in place of the esses. And this only a few weeks after I posted about his never getting paid for “Josephslegende!”

However, I also came across this long and absorbing reminiscence of Strauss by one of his publishers, who claimed the composer had no business sense at all.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/Roth/Strauss.htm

Is it any wonder that he married someone (the soprano Pauline de Anha) who could keep his life together? Pauline, the daughter of a general, was herself frequently portrayed as a martinet. But she kept Strauss on the straight and narrow, and they loved one another devotedly.

Despite her vigilance, however, the Strauss fortune was twice obliterated by two world wars.

Be that as it may, Strauss was not the only composer to step wrong in regard to “Funiculì, Funiculà.” Rimsky-Korsakov used it as the basis for his “Neapolitan Song,” and Arnold Schoenberg transcribed it for string quartet. Whether Denza ever tried to sue Rimsky-Korsakov is unknown. Schoenberg clearly credited the original composer. Maybe he was just too scary to sue.

At any rate, a happy 150th birthday, Richard Strauss!

June 11, 2014

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