As you tick off the tasks on your own holiday to-do list, consider this shopping list in Beethoven’s hand. Among the desired items: soap, a mousetrap, a knife, and a metronome. Let the festivities begin!
Then enjoy these “Bagatelles,” musical trifles, performed by Melvyn Tan on Beethoven’s 1817 Broadwood piano.
Remember when 2020 was supposed to be the big Beethoven year? To mark the 250th anniversary of his birth, I mean? How did that work out?
Small compensation, I know, but how about a week’s worth of posts about Beethoven, to mark his actual birthday, commonly observed on December 16?
On the fourth evening of Hanukkah, the obvious choice is Beethoven’s “Variations on ‘See the conquering hero comes,’” from Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus.” Here’s a performance I’ve got all cued up from a recording of the complete cello sonatas:
Beethoven was a great admirer of Handel’s music. “Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived,” he said. “I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb.” On his deathbed, he indicated an edition of Handel’s works and said, “There is the truth.”
Handel’s influence can also be heard in Beethoven’s “Consecration of the House Overture” (which has nothing at all to do with the Maccabees). Note the stately intro of the piece, the fanfares, and the magnificent fugal passages:
If you’ve got a long evening ahead of you, why not give Handel’s “other” holiday oratorio a whirl?
If you want to skip right to the big tune, here it is:
Then I hope you’ll join me for an hour of Hanukkah music by Michael Isaacson, Leon Stein, and Ofer Ben-Amots, on “Pieces of Eight,” on “The Lost Chord,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Judah Maccabee, 18th century style
Oh my goodness! The conductor Kenneth Alwyn has died.
Alwyn recorded many popular classics and much film music. I remember the thrill of discovering his first, extensive digital recordings of music from “The Bride of Frankenstein” and “The Quiet Man” – two of my desert island film scores – in the bins at Tower Records.
He also conducted Decca’s first stereophonic recording of the “1812 Overture” and several albums devoted to the works of Richard Addinsell, including, of course, the ubiquitous “Warsaw Concerto.”
He was an experienced ballet and musical theater conductor. He held posts at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet and the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. He served as musical director at the English premieres of many British and Broadway musicals. He recorded ballet music by Lord Berners. He made at least two very fine recordings of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, including the complete oratorio, “The Song of Hiawatha.”
Some of Alwyn’s other memorable records include albums devoted to Max Steiner, a selection of music from Ealing Studios comedies, and orchestral highlights from classic British film scores by Vaughan Williams, Sir Arthur Bliss, and others. For Silva records, he led collections devoted to Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa, and Ennio Morricone, as well as any number of thematically-organized anthologies.
In 1992, he toured with the BBC Concert Orchestra, with his friend, Dudley Moore, at the piano.
Alwyn died yesterday at the age of 95. By coincidence, I happened to include his recording of Sir Arnold Bax’s “Oliver Twist” on last night’s broadcast of “Picture Perfect,” and on Friday, shipped his recording of Paul Ben-Haim’s Symphony No. 2, as part of a Christmas mailing to a friend.
R.I.P. Kenneth Alwyn.
God bless us, every one!
This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s music from movies inspired by the writings of Charles Dickens. Tune in for selections from “Nicholas Nickleby” (1947) by Lord Berners, “Oliver Twist” (1948) by Sir Arnold Bax, “David Copperfield” (1969) by Sir Malcolm Arnold, and “A Christmas Carol” (1951) by Richard Addinsell.
If I had my way, every fool who goes around with “Merry Christmas” on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly in his heart!
But this isn’t all about me. Take your pick of Dickens, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Before people started to pretty much anesthetize themselves with electronics, there must have been little else to fill their time, as the days grew shorter, beyond getting all liquored up and terrorizing the kids. How else to explain the Icelandic Yule Lads?
Not the modern-day bevy of affable, ersatz Santas, mind you – the ones who reward the good with welcome gifts and penalize the naughty with rotten potatoes – but rather the amoral pranksters and homicidal trolls who devour children.
According to Icelandic lore, the Lads are thirteen in number. Mostly they harass and steal from Icelandic farmers. They descend from the mountains, staggering their arrivals and departures, beginning thirteen nights before Christmas. For those who can’t be bothered to do the math, that would be December 12.
Each has his own exasperating speciality, whether it be harassing sheep, stealing milk, eating crust out of pans, licking spoons, stealing leftovers, licking bowls, slamming doors, eating skyr (a kind of Icelandic yogurt), stealing sausages, peeping through windows, sniffing for bread, stealing meat with a hook, or eating candles.
For Tolkien fans, surely the Lads are the basis for the thirteen Dwarves [sic] who visit Bilbo Baggins, in the process eating him out of house and home and imperiling his dishes.
Their mother is the ogress Grýla, who seeks children to boil in her cauldron. If you happen to find yourself in her gnarled claws, remember, she has to release you if you repent!
The Yule Lads are frequently accompanied by the Yule Cat. The cat eats those who don’t receive new clothes before Christmas. This is tied in to the Icelandic work ethic. In the old days, if farm hands processed their autumn wool in a timely fashion, they were rewarded with new garments. If not, they received nothing, thereby leaving them vulnerable to the Yule Cat. Better sheer them sheep!
In 1746, the practice of parents tormenting their children with Christmas monster stories was officially banned.
Get festive in the way only Icelanders can, with these “Icelandic Folk Dances” by Jón Leifs.
And remember – only 13 days of folklore and paganism until Christmas!
Aaron Copland (94) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (152) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (106) John Williams (198) KWAX (233) Leonard Bernstein (105) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (167) Mozart (91) Opera (219) Philadelphia Orchestra (91) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (110) Radio (90) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (269) Vaughan Williams (107) WPRB (397) WWFM (881)