Anybody else remember this piece of corn? I saw it in the theater back in 1980. Two pianists (Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving) improbably fall in love while preparing for the biggest competition of their lives.
Of course, I enjoyed “The Competition,” even if it was preposterous, but it gained an awful lot from Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 – a mid-performance substitute for a Mozart concerto (!) – and those creepy trees that were so memorably featured in the remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Sam Wanamaker makes a good caricature of a Bernstein-type conductor.
The whole thing is an eyeball-rolling throwback to the kind of classical music melodramas once overseen by middlebrow movie moguls in the 1940s. Was the always-pugnacious Dreyfuss the John Garfield of his day?
Limp trailer employing Lalo Schifrin’s love theme
More compelling TV ads using the Prokofiev 3rd
What’s the last Hollywood movie that gave us something like this?
On this day when the birthdays of Johann Pachelbel and Engelbert Humperdinck are generally observed, Othmar Schoeck is foremost in my thoughts.
Schoeck (1886-1957) may be largely forgotten now, but he once enjoyed international recognition for his art songs, which he composed prolifically. He also produced opera, orchestral, and instrumental works. His ambitious Violin Concerto – some 40 minutes in length – was composed at white heat, out of love for Stefi Geyer, the same violinist who captivated Béla Bartók and inspired Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
Schoeck was born in Switzerland and spent most of his life there, other than a brief period during which he lived in Leipzig, where he studied with Max Reger. He had considered pursuing a career in the visual arts, as had his father, before finally committing himself to music. He was fortunate enough to secure patronage so that he could compose more or less undisturbed.
When Ferruccio Busoni settled in Switzerland during the First World War, the two developed a friendship, despite some disagreements on certain artistic matters. In fact, Busoni provided the libretto for Schoeck’s opera “Das Wandbild” (“The Picture on the Wall”), marked by the kind of chinoiserie that characterized Busoni’s own “Turandot” (in no way to be confused with the later, more famous opera by Puccini).
Schoeck’s music experienced a stylistic shift as he became acquainted with the works of Alban Berg and Arthur Honegger. A torrid affair with the pianist Mary de Senger seems to have changed him for good. When their relationship ended, so did Schoeck bid farewell to his earlier, Romantic style.
Though he was no Nazi sympathizer, Schoeck had the bad judgment or naivete to attend the premiere of one of his operas in Berlin in 1943. This led to a lot of stress at home, with the Swiss unhappy with his actions. Schoeck suffered a heart attack, but continued to compose. He died in 1957.
I seem to recall his reputation was such that the writer Hermann Hesse referred to Schoeck in one of his books – I think it was “Journey to the East” – in the same breath as Richard Strauss. I suppose it didn’t hurt that Hesse and Schoeck were friends and Schoeck set some of Hesse’s poems (as did Strauss). Hesse pitched the idea of an operatic collaboration, and even wrote a libretto, but the proposal never came to anything.
Here is Schoeck’s lovely “pastoral intermezzo,” as the composer described it, “Summer Night.” It tells of a summer harvest, during which field hands come to the aid of a widow and work all night in order to get in her crop, before embarking on their own day jobs.
Here’s a song, “Summer Night,” on a text of Hesse, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Today is the birthday of Amilcare Ponchielli. It’s possible you may not know his name, but you certainly know his music, thanks to Allan Sherman and Walt Disney.
Of his ten operas, only “La Gioconda” (1876) maintains a toehold in the repertoire. It’s certainly not for want of trying. Ponchielli swung for the fences, with a large orchestra in the pit and impeccable orchestration. He influenced composers of the rising generation, including Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, and Umberto Giordano. But nothing outside of “Gioconda” has really stuck.
Fortunately, the opera has its share of memorable moments, including the contralto aria “Voce de donna o d’angelo” (a.k.a. the Rosary song), the tenor romanza “Cielo e mar,” a duet for tenor and baritone, “Enzo Grimaldo, Principe di Santafior,” and the soprano aria “Suicidio!”
However, far and way the most famous music is the ballet from Act III, known as “Dance of the Hours.” The opera is a tragedy (drawn from Victor Hugo), but it’s impossible now to take any of it seriously, since one can’t help but think of ostriches, elephants, alligators, and hippopotami.
Hey, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Happy birthday, Amilcare Ponchielli!
Dance of the Hours
Pavarotti sings “Cielo e mar”
Callas sings “Suicidio!”
The charming Quartet for Winds with Piano Accompaniment
Since “The Lost Chord” aired one hour later than usual this week, due to the length of the WWFM “Sunday Opera” (Handel’s “Almira”), I figured I’d share a link to the webcast, just in case you were asleep by 11 pm. The subject matter, “Mediterranean Muse,” and the featured work, John McLaughlin’s “Mediterranean Concerto,” seem like they would sit well on a day like today. I don’t know about you, but my Mediterranean diet starts now!
