Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Richard Strauss The Conducting Secrets

    Richard Strauss The Conducting Secrets

    Richard Strauss will probably always be remembered, first, as the composer of Dionysian tone poems, employing opulent, even hedonistic orchestration, and for the turbulent, angst-ridden operas “Salome” and “Elektra.”

    But when it came to conducting, he took a decidedly Apollonian stance. His technique might best be described as no-nonsense. Some have even remarked on his looking bored. George Szell suggested Strauss often just wanted to get a performance over with, so that he could get out and go to a card game.

    (Szell, by the way, wound up conducting the first half of the premiere recording of Strauss’ “Don Juan” in 1917, on account of the composer oversleeping.)

    Here are Strauss’ “Ten Golden Rules for the Album of a Young Conductor,” set down in 1927:

    1. Remember that you are making music not to amuse yourself, but to delight your audience.

    2. You should not perspire when conducting. Only the audience should get warm.

    3. Conduct “Salome” and “Elektra” as if they were by Mendelssohn: fairy music.

    4. Never look encouragingly at the brass, except with a brief glance to give an important cue.

    5. But never let the horns and woodwinds out of your sight. If you can hear them at all, they are still too strong.

    6. If you think that the brass is now blowing hard enough, tone it down another shade or two.

    7. It is not enough that you yourself should hear every word the soloist sings. You should know it by heart anyway. The audience must be able to follow without effort. If they do not understand the words, they will go to sleep.

    8. Always accompany the singer in such a way that he can sing without effort.

    9. When you think you have reached the limits of prestissimo, double the pace.

    10. If you follow these rules carefully, you will, with your fine gifts and your great accomplishments, always be the darling of your listeners.

    In 1948, Strauss wrote of Number 9, “Today I should like to amend this: take the tempo half as fast.”

    Some of his suggestions may seem as if they’re tongue-in-cheek, but the idea to lighten the textures makes a whole lot of sense when you consider just how overblown these works can be, and how impossible to hear the singers.

    Strauss recorded most of his orchestral works over the last two decades of his life. A few of these were captured on film.

    See for yourself if Strauss follows his own advice, or, if as Szell, suggests, all he’s really thinking about is playing cards.

    “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks”:

    With commentary by Szell, his one-time assistant:

    “Allerseelen” (“All Souls’ Day”), with a glimpse of lederhosen!

    Happy birthday, Richard Strauss.

  • Happy 95th Birthday, Carlisle Floyd!

    Happy 95th Birthday, Carlisle Floyd!

    Today is the 95th birthday of one of the most successful opera composers this country has ever produced. Carlisle Floyd was not yet 30 when he enticed Phyllis Curtin and Mack Harrell to Tallahassee to sing in the world premiere of “Susannah” in 1956. The opera takes the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders and transplants it to rural Tennessee.

    Floyd wrote the libretto and music while on the piano faculty at Florida State University. The work’s success soon spread to New York, and “Susannah” became one of the most frequently performed of American operas. It does feature two heart-melting arias that remain favorites of aspiring American sopranos: “Ain’t It a Pretty Night” and “The Trees on the Mountain.”

    The directness of the drama and the uncluttered musical language struck a chord with both performers and audiences. Emboldened by his success, Floyd went on to compose ten more operas, all of them on his own librettos, drawing inspiration from such diverse sources as Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights,” Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Markheim,” John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men.”

    “Cold Sassy Tree,” based on the novel of Olive Ann Burns, was given its premiere in 2000. The composer had intended it to be his swan song. He had become too busy caring for his wife, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, to devote much further thought to composition. But following her passing, he found inspiration for one last hurrah. The result was “Prince of Players,” about 17th century actor Edward Kynaston, which was given its premiere at Houston Grand Opera in March 2016.

    For a composer to have a new opera performed at the age of 90 should be an inspiration to all of us who not only care about music, but who have ever puzzled over finding meaning in our lives.

    Happy birthday, Carlisle Floyd!

    Dawn Upshaw breaks hearts with “Ain’t It a Pretty Night,” from “Susannah”:

    Cheryl Studer sings “The Trees on the Mountain,” from a complete recording of the work:

    Samuel Ramey as the Reverend Olin Blitch:

    A taste of “Prince of Players” from Little Opera Theater of New York:

    The 2021 Grammy-nominated recording (Best Opera Recording; Best Contemporary Classical Composition; Producer of the Year, Classical):

    Carlisle Floyd speaks:

    “Cold Sassy Tree”:

  • Stravinsky’s Wind Symphonies A Centennial

    Stravinsky’s Wind Symphonies A Centennial

    On this date, 100 years ago, Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphonies of Wind Instruments” was given its first performance at Queen’s Hall, London, on a concert conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. Written the previous year, and dedicated to the memory of Debussy, the chorale that concludes the piece was first published in the French magazine “La Revue musicale,” alongside memorial works by Ravel, Bartók, Falla, Dukas, Satie, and others. The issue was titled “Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy.”

    However, the opening night audience found Stravinsky’s music anything but grave. They chortled inappropriately, and Koussevitzky glanced over his shoulder to share a conspiratorial grin. Even so, at the end of the performance, any cheekiness was obliterated by applause, as Stravinsky rose to take a bow.

    The work is scored for 24 wind instruments. The term “symphonies” has nothing to do with symphonic form. Rather, Stravinsky employed the word for its broader, older connotation, from the Greek, of “sounding together.” He would reorchestrate the piece in 1947.

    Three days prior to the Queen’s Hall jeers, Stravinsky had given Londoners something to cry about, as he attended the UK premiere, in the same venue, of the concert version of his riot-inducing ballet “The Rite of the Spring.”

    It’s always refreshing to look back on a time when people were actually passionate about music.

    “Symphonies of Wind Instruments”

    Riot at “The Rite”

    Stravinsky as rendered by Picasso in 1920

  • Secret of the Incas: The REAL Raiders of the Lost Ark?

    Secret of the Incas: The REAL Raiders of the Lost Ark?

    What is the “Secret of the Incas?” That George Lucas and Steven Spielberg plundered its treasure to create “Raiders of the Lost Ark!”

    The archaeological quest, the Peruvian jungle setting, the cynical antihero, the bantering romance, the collegial betrayal, the cryptic secret of the burial chamber/map room, the moral tug-of-war between greed and responsibility, even the signature Indiana Jones fedora, leather jacket, and multi-day stubble. The only things missing are the bullwhip and Indy’s scoundrel charm.

    Sure, “Raiders” is the slicker, more breathlessly-paced contemporary entertainment, but “Secret of the Incas” (1954) is a solid representative of the grand, old school, Technicolor, shot-on-location Hollywood adventure.

    Charlton Heston is the hard-edged “hero,” Harry Steele, who frequents a local saloon while fielding business and other propositions. Nicole Maurey is the sultry woman with a past, on the run from agents from behind the Iron Curtain. Thomas Mitchell is Harry’s slippery business partner, who periodically tries to kill him. And Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac lends a touch of verisimilitude with her mind-blowing, five-octave range. Oh yeah, there’s also a supporting part for Robert Young as a nice-guy archaeologist, who’s everything Heston’s character isn’t. If you were Maurey, which one would you choose?

    To mark the 40th anniversary of “Raider’s” release, on June 12, 1981, we’ll discuss “Secret of the Incas” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner – with ample reflections on Indiana Jones along the way. So while you’re at it, be sure to brush up on those films too. The comments section will be alive with asps, as I crack the whip on Roy, livestreamed on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner/

    PHOTO: If adventure has a name, it must be… Harry Steele?

  • Carl Nielsen Awaits Rediscovery

    Carl Nielsen Awaits Rediscovery

    Great Dane or Ugly Duckling? In the case of Carl Nielsen, the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

    While Nielsen retains his status as Denmark’s most celebrated composer, internationally, he has had difficulty emerging from the shadow of that other great bard of the North, Jean Sibelius.

    This is a shame, since, far from being a Sibelius knock-off, Nielsen forged his own, immediately-recognizable style – which can’t always be said, with as much conviction, about a lot of other fin de siècle Scandinavian composers. Not that I don’t love their music.

    Leonard Bernstein believed Nielsen’s rightful place was as Sibelius’ equal.

    “I think many people are in for pleasant surprises as they get to know Nielsen,” he said at a centennial celebration of the composer’s birth, “his rough charm, his swing, his drive, his rhythmic surprises, his strange power of harmonic and tonal relationships – and especially his constant unpredictability – all these are irresistible. I feel confident that Nielsen’s time has come.”

    Here’s Bernstein, conducting the Danes on their own turf, in what may be my favorite Nielsen symphony, the Symphony No. 3:

    That was in 1965. Sadly, fifty-six years on, with many more recordings and performances to choose from, Nielsen’s music remains, stubbornly, an acquired taste. But it is a rewarding one. There really is nothing else quite like it. The puckish wit, the ambiguity, the quirky juxtaposition of seemingly disparate melodies, harmonies, and key signatures, all very often shot through with a sense of hope and optimism that rises above the chaos.

    Next to Sibelius, Nielsen doesn’t really have that many imitators. The English composer Robert Simpson was evidently a great admirer of both. This is Simpson’s centenary year. (He was born on March 2, 1921.) His own symphonies often resemble Nielsen’s, but without the big moments.

    Simpson’s Symphony No. 2:

    Simpson introduces Nielsen:

    “Espansiva: A Portrait of Carl Nielsen” (featuring Simpson):

    Rare glimpses of Nielsen on film:

    Happy birthday, Carl Nielsen, and thanks for the advocacy, Robert Simpson.

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