Big doings with the @[100064825684990:2048:Rotary Club of Trenton, New Jersey] today, as I’ll be delivering a lunchtime talk about Trenton’s own George Antheil. Antheil was the avant-garde composer and super-pianist who put Paris on its ear in the 1920s. He then devoted himself to symphonies, ballets for Balanchine, and even Hollywood film scores. But he also did a lot of other things, including laying the groundwork, with actress Hedy Lamarr, for the kind frequency-hopping spread-spectrum technology that decades later would be employed for wireless phones, GPS, and Wi-Fi. Always fun to talk about Antheil, as he was such an eccentric and versatile character. I didn’t realize there would be a shout-out on the Rotary Club’s Facebook page, but here it is!
Category: Daily Dispatch
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Saint Francis Feast Day Celebrate Animals
As an animal lover, I’ve always had a soft spot for St. Francis of Assisi. (Also, I was fortunate enough to visit his hometown before the devastating earthquakes of 1997.)
Today is Saint Francis’ feast day. This is a saint who was never too busy to chat with the birds or to befriend a wolf. He introduced the crèche to Christmas, complete with livestock. He even lobbied for a special law so that people would provide for the birds and the beasts. How could you not love this guy?
Regardless of one’s creed, no one, I should think, would take umbrage at the idea of love and respect for the natural world. Take a moment today to be kind to the animals. Hug your pet. Water the birds. Let a cricket out of the house. Bless all animals! Then enjoy some of the music below.
Franz Liszt’s “Saint Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds” (piano)
Liszt’s “Saint Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds” (orchestra)
Francis Poulenc’s “Quatre petites prières de saint François d’Assise”
Paul Hindemith’s “Nobilissima Visione” (suite, conducted by the composer)
Hindemith’s “Nobilissima Visione” (rarely-heard complete version)
Leo Sowerby’s “Canticle of the Sun” (1946 Pulitzer Prize winner)
Kenneth Fuchs’ “Canticle to the Sun” for French horn and orchestra
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Polish Music Legends: Skrowaczewski & Szymanowski
Big day in Polish music today, which marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and, somewhat more randomly, the celebration via Google Doodle of the 141st birthday of Karol Szymanowski.
Skrowaczewski, born in Lwów, was forced to abandon his dream to become a concert pianist after sustaining a hand injury during World War II. Nevertheless, music served him well. By 1946, he had already begun his conquest of the great Polish orchestras, becoming music director in turn of the Wrocław, Katowice, and Krakow Philharmonics. He also studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger.
He made his American debut conducting the Cleveland Orchestra at the invitation of George Szell. This led to a music directorship with the Minneapolis Symphony, beginning in 1960 (the organization was rebranded the Minnesota Orchestra during his tenure, against his protests). After 1979, he maintained a long relationship with the orchestra as conductor laureate. For many, it would have been considered an honorary title, but Skrowaczewski really did return just about every season to conduct.
He was also principal conductor of the Hallé Orchestra from 1983 to 1992. He served as artistic adviser to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1997, and in 1988 he was composer-in-residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s summer season at Saratoga. His composition, “Passacaglia Immaginaria,” was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997.
As a budding record collector, I cut my teeth on a number of Skrowaczewski’s recordings that were issued on the Vox label. I still find his Ravel to be particularly fine. I am also partial to his recordings for Mercury, including an “Italian Symphony” framed by some unusually fleet outer movements. In concertos, he accompanied the label’s most distinguished soloists, artists such as Gina Bachauer, Byron Janis, and János Starker.
Later, I discovered his Bruckner recordings with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (now on Oehms Classics), interpretations that render the composer’s student symphonies with as much logic and dignity as his mature works.
Skrowaczewski lived a long and productive life. He died in 2017 at the age of 93. He conducted his last series of concerts in Minnesota less than four months before his death. On the program was Bruckner’s grandest symphonic edifice, the Symphony No. 8, which clocks in, depending on performance, at around 80 or 90 minutes in length. While there are plenty of maestros who’ve conducted Bruckner into their 90s (I saw Herbert Blomstedt do so only last season), I venture to guess there are few who have been able to do it without the aid of chair. Skrowaczewski remained on his feet the entire time.
Karol Szymanowski is regarded as the most important Polish composer between Chopin and the generation that yielded Witold Lutoslawski. He absorbed the musical influences of Richard Strauss, Alexander Scriabin, and Claude Debussy, but put them through his own creative refinery.
Listening to Szymanowski can be a bit like submerging oneself too long in a hot bath – the same low blood-pressure, the increased heart rate, the wooziness. Though the harmonies and melodies suggest the familiar patterns of tonality, the traditional framework has been almost wholly eaten away by the hothouse atmosphere. The music is seductive and dangerous, and one risks being overcome by languor, even as one is overrun by fast-growing vegetation.
It may be in poor taste to suggest that so much humidity was bad for the acute tuberculosis that eventually claimed him at the age 55. Find out more about him in this biographical sketch on Google’s website. You’ll note the “Doodle’s Reach” map at the bottom of the page indicates that the artwork is only visible in the U.K. and Poland!
https://www.google.com/doodles/karol-szymanowskis-141st-birthday
Parenthetically, I knew the composer’s nephew in Philadelphia.
Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin, boys!
Szymanowski, Violin Concerto No. 1 (1916)
The brigand ballet “Harnaisie” (1923-31)
Symphony No. 3 “Song of the Night” (1914)
Skrowaczewski conducts Bruckner’s 9th in Frankfurt
Ravel, “Mother Goose” (transferred at a low level, so turn it up!)
Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 4 “Italian”
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Vaughan Williams Concerts US 2023-24
I know I’ve groused about the lack of Vaughan Williams performances in the United States, especially last year, surrounding the composer’s sesquicentenary, while seemingly the party never stopped – and continues – in the U.K.
This year, things are looking a little better, with more Vaughan Williams performances across the U.S. I can’t make all of these, of course – it’s a big country, and I’ve got limited resources – but, if I am able to make arrangements, I am game for anything roughly down to the D.C area, possibly up to Boston, and as far west as Pittsburgh.
In the U.S., you’re most likely to encounter the composer’s choral and vocal works. Beyond the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” and “The Lark Ascending,” performances of the big orchestral pieces by major orchestras are rare.
Here are some RVW performances that have come to my attention for the 2023-24 season, with a special emphasis on fairly local performances scheduled to take place over the next seven weeks or so.
Wouldn’t you know it, my favorite of the symphonies, the Symphony No. 5, makes a strong showing this year. Unfortunately, I’ve got scheduling conflicts for both performances by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which will take place this Thursday and Saturday. Sir Andrew Davis will conduct. If you’re in the Baltimore area, go!
https://my.bsomusic.org/overview/18271
Happily, there’s another performance this week, by the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, and it will be held only about an hour from where I live. The concert will take place on Friday at 7 p.m. at St. Helen’s Church, 1600 Rahway Ave., in Westfield, NJ. Also on the program will be Beethoven’s Fifth. David Wroe will conduct.
https://www.njfestivalorchestra.org/concerts
Then on November 4 at 7:30 p.m., the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra will perform the Fifth at Calvary Baptist Church, 1380 S. Valley Forge Road, in Lansdale, PA – again, for me about an hour away. Also on the program will be Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” Allan R. Scott will conduct.
https://www.spso.info/concert-ii-elgars-enigma/
Not to be outdone, the Main Line Symphony Orchestra will perform the Fifth on November 17 at 8 p.m., again about an hour away, at Valley Forge Middle School in Wayne, PA. The latter concert is especially attractive in that the Symphony No. 2 by Vaughan Williams pupil Ruth Gipps will also be performed. Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo” will feature as soloist Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Yumi Kendall. The conductor will be Don Liuzzi, also of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
https://www.mlso.org/concerts.htm
That’s a lot of Fifths! With the exception of the Baltimore performances, which, as I say, I cannot make, I will do my best to attend the rest.
More astonishingly, the Symphony No. 8 will be undertaken by the New Conductors Orchestra at Good Shepherd-Faith Church, 152 W. 66th St., in New York City, on Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. & Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. I say astonishingly, because the percussion section in this work is quite lavish, including tuned gongs, which makes me wonder if there will be substitutions. Also on the program will be works by Kabalevsky, Smetana, and Gershwin. The program’s conductors will include Eric R. Stewart, Hannah Nacheman, and Mark Powell.
https://www.newconductorsorchestra.org/concerts
Anyone know of any other Vaughan Williams concerts, between Boston and D.C.? If so, let me know!
A cursory glance at 2023-24 concert schedules across the U.S. reveals the Utah Symphony will perform the Symphony No. 5 with Donald Runnicles on January 12 & 13; the Los Angeles Philharmonic will perform the Symphony No. 8 with Simone Young on April 4, 6 & 7; the Seattle Symphony will perform the “Sinfonia Antartica” with Gemma New on April 25, 27 & 28; the Charlotte Symphony will perform “A Sea Symphony” with Christopher Warren-Green on April 26 & 27; and the Colorado Symphony will perform “A Sea Symphony” with Peter Oundjian on May 18 & 19.
Surely, there are others, especially among regional orchestras. The Oboe Concerto is being done with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra on December 1, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra on April 12 & 13, and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra on March 1-3. Perhaps elsewhere?
I probably won’t be able to make these farther-flung concerts, but perhaps you can?
EDIT: Sincere thanks to David Woodward for informing me that the Colorado Symphony Orchestra will also perform the “Serenade to Music,” with Duain Wolfe conducting, Nov. 17-19.
And thanks also to Byron Adams for pointing out that “Serenade to Music” is also on this season’s concerts of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. It was performed there this past weekend.
PHOTO: Harvesting a veritable bumper crop of Vaughan Williams
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Paul Dukas Halloween Composer
How fortuitous that Paul Dukas would be born on October 1. What better way to start Halloween month than with the composer of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice?”
Though Dukas left a comparatively small output – he was a notorious perfectionist who destroyed much – what survives of his music is of very high quality. Of that, he lends to his Halloween street cred with two other works of a fantastical, potentially horrific nature: an opera about Bluebeard and his sixth wife, and a so-called dance poem, “La Péri,” about a fatal encounter with a Persian fairy.
The music is fantastic in more ways than one. Happy birthday, Paul Dukas!
“La Péri”
His Bluebeard opera, “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue”
Mickey learns that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing:
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