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All right, Savoyards, it’s Sir Arthur Sullivan’s birthday. Let’s see those “likes.”
Here’s the great John Reed. Why is this collection not on CD, in the form it was originally issued? Granted, all the numbers are drawn from complete recordings:
Seasonal Sullivan:
Sullivan without Gilbert – his “Irish Symphony” (though I still prefer Sir Charles Groves’ recording):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9irmDpqDSs
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Today is the birthday of two outstanding French composers: Jules Massenet (born 1842) and Gabriel Fauré (born 1845). Massenet’s fluency and emotionally direct style made him the most successful French opera composer of his generation. Fauré was the radical who blew the dust off the Paris Conservatory and ushered in an era of unprecedented reform.
Here are two absorbing recordings by these very different French masters:
Soprano Emma Calvé sings “Pendant un an je fus ta femme” from Massenet’s “Sapho,” a role she created (be advised, the recording doesn’t start until about 15 seconds in):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhs88jKmT08
The elegant Samson François performs Fauré’s Nocturne in B Major, Op. 33, No. 2:
Joyeux anniversaire, mes amis!
PHOTOS: Fauré (left) and Massenet getting a little fresh air
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Happy Mother’s Day! Perhaps it’s a good thing I am not a parent; otherwise I would scare the bejesus out of my kids with stories from Karel Jaromir Erben’s “Kytice,” or “Bouquet.”
Like the Brothers Grimm in Germany, Erben synthesized native folk tales into often gruesome fairy stories. In doing so, he became an important figure in the establishment of a Czech national identity. His stories are recited by Czech schoolchildren and recalled proudly by the Czech people. Despite its influence, “Kytice” did not appear in a complete English translation until 2013.
Antonin Dvořák was particularly fond of Erben’s tales. In 1896, he composed a series of symphonic poems after Erben ballads, including “The Water Goblin,” “The Noon Witch” and “The Wood Dove.” Erben’s influence also hangs over Dvořák’s most famous opera, “Rusalka.”
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we salute Erben with two Dvořák works: the symphonic poem “The Golden Spinning Wheel,” and the final scene from the dramatic cantata “The Spectre’s Bride.”
“The Golden Spinning Wheel” is a Cinderella story gone very, very wrong, as a wicked stepmother and stepsister not only murder but dismember an unfortunate maiden favored by the king. Not to give too much away, but the titular appliance proves their undoing.
“The Spectre’s Bride” is another in the seemingly infinite variations on the tale of a young woman being swept off by the ghost of her lover. The climax of Dvořák’s cantata places the heroine in a cottage besieged by howling spirits, as a corpse on the table, prepared for burial, stirs to do their bidding.
Forget Dvořák’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me.” Join me for “Erben Legends,” as we celebrate Karel Jaromir Erben, this Mother’s Day at 10 ET, with a repeat Thursday at 11, or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.
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Tell me more!
The story framing “One Thousand and One Nights” presents a sultan scarred by the unfaithfulness of his sultana. To guarantee their fidelity, he has had each of his subsequent wives executed on the day following their nuptials. The most recent in the line, Scheherazade, must use her wits to prolong her life and win the sultan’s love.
If I were the sultan, she would have nothing to fear. I never get tired of listening to “Scheherazade.” Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s oft-performed symphonic poem will bring Sinfonietta Nova’s 2013-2014 season to a colorful close. The program will open with another “Arabian Nights” inspiration, Carl Maria von Weber’s overture to the one-act farce, “Abu Hassan.”
In between, soprano Lauren Athey-Janka will sing the “Song to the Moon,” from Antonín Dvořák’s “Rusalka.” Rusalka is a water spirit from Slavic mythology, whose tale bears more than a passing resemblance to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”
The program will also include a concerto for that unlikeliest of lyric instruments, the tuba, by an 82 year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams. Scott Mendoker will be the soloist.
Scheherazade’s fascination is a tribute to the power of creative storytelling. Tonight’s performance will feature spoken narration, adapted from “One Thousand and One Nights” by Alton Thompson. The storyteller will be musician and former WWFM radio personality Bliss Michelson.
The program will conclude Sinfonietta Nova’s “fairy tale” season. Music director Gail Lee will conduct.
The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m., at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 177 Princeton-Hightstown Rd., West Windsor, NJ (some sources indicate Princeton Junction).
Tickets and information are available at sinfoniettanova.org, or at 609-785-1812.
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The game’s afoot!
This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of music from movies inspired by the world’s greatest detective.
Intrada Records has released the soundtrack to Bruce Broughton’s “Young Sherlock Holmes,” which is finally making it to compact disc after the better part of three decades.
Steven Spielberg produced the 1985 film, which offers a conjectural origins story, including Holmes and Watson’s first meeting as teenagers (ignoring the particulars laid out by Arthur Conan Doyle in his stories, with Watson already a war veteran who had served in Afghanistan).
It’s all for fun, though it’s unfortunate the filmmakers felt the need to interject ‘80s-style special effects, rather than simply trust in the inherent magic of the subject matter. “Young Sherlock Holmes” features the first photorealistic, fully computer-generated character. Also, some Indiana Jones B-movie antics involving an Egyptian cult seem especially out of place.
Interestingly, the film’s screenwriter, Chris Columbus, went on to direct the first two Harry Potter films. By my recollection, “Young Sherlock Holmes,” with its boarding school setting, has some of that same feel.
The music is certainly buoyant and beautiful, in the best John Williams tradition. Broughton, who’s probably best-known for his rousing music for the western “Silverado,” was one of the great film music hopes of the 1980s. He did score a handful of big screen hits, notably “Tombstone,” though arguably it is in the medium of television that he’s made his greatest impact. Thus far, his work has been recognized with a record 10 Grammy Awards.
Also featured will be selections from Hans Zimmer’s score for the Robert Downey, Jr., “Sherlock Holmes” (2009), Miklós Rózsa’s lovely, melancholy music for “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” (1970), and Henry Mancini’s theme for the tame Holmes comedy “Without a Clue” (1988).
It’s elementary, my dear Watson. “Picture Perfect” can be heard this Friday evening at 6 ET, or later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.
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