What, is no one celebrating the 300th birthday of Pietro Nardini?
Nardini was pupil of violinist Giuseppe Tartini, who found employment at the court chapel in Stuttgart for a few years in the 1760s. Then he returned home to become Kappelmeister to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence.
Nardini met the teenage Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on one of his trips to Italy in 1770-71. This was on the same tour during which Mozart liberated Allegri’s “Miserere” from the Sistine Chapel in Rome, copying it down from memory, though it was forbidden for the music to be distributed elsewhere. (The Pope let it slide.)
If we’re to believe Mozart’s father, Leopold, an accomplished violinist himself, Nardini played his instrument beautifully, but struggled in more difficult passages. A poet, then, if not a virtuoso. He was also criticized for his lack of depth. Hey, we can’t all be Tartini.
Still time to pick up a card and some flowers. It’s 300 candles on Nardini’s ice cream cake. Buon compleanno!
Montserrat Caballé gets a Google Doodle on what would have been her 89th birthday. Naturally in Google’s write-up, they emphasize her collaboration with Freddie Mercury, with imbedded video of “Barcelona.” Oh yeah, she also happened to be one of the greatest sopranos of her generation. I guess that’s why they called her “La Superba.”
It is ironic that one of the great conductors of opera would be comparatively unsung.
Victor de Sabata is fondly remembered by collectors largely for a single recording – a classic performance of “Tosca” with Maria Callas. The reasons for this have little to do with De Sabata’s merit. De Sabata was a creature of the theater, as opposed to the recording studio. Also, he happened to flourish at a time before the widespread adoption of stereo recording methods. His most cherished recordings were captured on the wing, which might be viewed as something of a mixed blessing. But while few of his performances were preserved under controlled circumstances, what we do have accurately reflects his volcanic temperament in all its terrible glory.
How much awe did De Sabata inspire? Apparently enough that a young Sergiu Celibidache was moved to hide overnight in the Bayreuth bathroom facilities in order to eavesdrop on his rehearsals of “Tristan und Isolde.”
For decades, De Sabata was principal conductor at La Scala. For a time, he was also its artistic director. One observer described his appearance while conducting as a cross between Julius Caesar and Satan. In 1953, a massive heart attack brought all that to an end. “Tosca” was planned to have been the first of a series of recordings for HMV which would have documented much of De Sabata’s operatic repertoire. In the event, he would return to conduct only twice more.
One of these “comebacks” was a molten performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem,” a classic 1954 recording featuring soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, mezzo-soprano Oralia Dominguez, tenor Giuseppe di Stefano, and bass Cesare Siepi. It’s a strikingly broad reading that yet manages to roil and sear.
Like that other titan of the podium, Wilhelm Furtwängler, De Sabata placed more importance on his activities as a composer than as a conductor, which might seem strange to us, given the nature of their respective legacies. There’s a good recording in modern sound of De Sabata’s symphonic poems on the Hyperion label, conducted by Aldo Ceccato. But Hyperion is pretty diligent about taking down unauthorized postings of its material from YouTube. So here’s “Juventus” (“Youth”) conducted by the composer in 1933:
Lorin Maazel conducts “La Notte di Plàton” (“The Night of Plato”)
New to me! Suite No. 2 for Orchestra
Verdi, “I Vespri Siciliani” Overture
Fragment of the Mozart Requiem
Rehearsing Brahms
“Dance of the Seven Veils”
Fly-on-the-wall “Tristan” from 1930
Sibelius!
Immortal “Tosca”
Celibidache remembers De Sabata
Happy birthday, Victor de Sabata, firebrand of the podium!
The Song of Songs. Attributed to King Solomon, this Biblical book contains some of the most ardent poetry ever written. Whether interpreted as the communion of man and woman, or as something of a more allegorical nature – the relationship, depending upon one’s system of belief, between God and Israel, between God and the Church, or between Christ and the human soul – over the centuries it has inspired some meltingly lovely music.
Since it is customary to read from the Song of Songs as part of the observance of Passover, this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” in anticipation of Pesach, we’ll sample two complementary settings: one by Sir Granville Bantock – selections from his massive, 2 ½ hour oratorio – and one by Lukas Foss – a more intimate song cycle, in which divine and romantic love unite in understated metaphor.
What if I told you your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate? If you fall for that, there’s plenty more where that came from, on “King Solomon’s Lines,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
It took nearly 90 years for her to become an overnight success.
Florence Price was the first African American woman to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra. Her Symphony No. 1 was played by the Chicago Symphony, conducted by Frederick Stock, in 1933.
But it’s only fairly recently, after decades of comparative neglect, that her music has finally begun to gain traction. Now she’s being played everywhere.
Is her sudden popularity a result of social or political trends? Who cares? When the music is this beautiful, everyone wins.
The Chicago Symphony plays Price in 2021 – the Andante Moderato for string orchestra, after a Quartet in G major:
