Summer 2021 is on the wane. Autumn begins tomorrow afternoon at 3:20 EDT.
Felix Mendelssohn, “Fantasy on ‘The Last Rose of Summer’”
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, “Variations on ‘The Last Rose of Summer’”
And for a change of pace…
“Late Summer Nights” by Wilhelm Stenhammar
I only just realized, 2021 marks the 150th anniversary of Stenhammar’s birth! Here’s an analysis of the first movement of “Late Summer Nights”:
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” it’s autumn in the North countries, as well as in the Nordic soul. We’ll test your limits on gratuitous vowels, with music by Danish composer Rued Langgaard and Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara.
Langgaard lived from 1893 to 1952. Despite a promising start – born to musical parents, a prodigious childhood, meetings with major conductors, and a symphony performed by the Berlin Philharmonic – his personal and creative eccentricities worked against him.
Perpetually out of step with the times, and particularly with the musical tastes of his countrymen, performances of his works were scarce. He found himself ignored by the musical establishment, with the result that his music really only started to be recognized in the 1960s – 16 years after the composer’s death.
Langgaard was 46 by the time he managed to obtain a permanent job, as an organist at the cathedral in Ribe. It was the oldest town in Denmark, and situated far, far from Copenhagen, the center of Danish musical life. He would die in Ribe at the age of 59.
He wrote 16 symphonies. The fourth of those bears the subtitle “Fall of the Leaf.” Beyond a simple evocation of autumnal nature, complete with thunderstorms, wind and rain, the symphony is one of moods related to, or symbolized, by autumn. The composer originally called the work “Nature and Thoughts.”
Rautavaara, Finland’s grand old man of music, died in 2016 at the age of 87. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, under Aare Merikanto, before receiving a scholarship to attend the Juilliard School. Among his teachers in the United States were Vincent Persichetti, Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland. He himself taught for extended periods at the Sibelius Academy.
As a composer, he wrote eight symphonies, 14 concertos, and nine operas, as well as choral, chamber and instrumental music. His most famous piece is probably his “Cantus Arcticus,” for taped bird song and orchestra.
Early on, Rautavaara experimented with serialism (though he was never a strictly serial composer), but in the 1960s, he left all that behind. His mature style is frequently one of austere beauty, marked by lyricism and even luminosity. His later works often bear something of a mystical stamp.
We’ll be listening to music composed in 1999, titled “Autumn Gardens,” Rautavaara’s meditation on beauty in nature and the transience of life.
That’s “Fall of the Leif,” autumnal meditations from the North, this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
It’s ginger snaps for breakfast! Celebrate autumn in music with this week’s Classic Ross Amico crossword.
To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”
Take it or leaf it. Rake through this week’s colorful clues here:
https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.09/2707/27072447.189.html
Autumn arrived in the Northern Hemisphere this morning at 9:31 EDT. It is one of my favorite days of the year, when I can breathe a sigh of relief at the passing of summer and the diminishing power of my nemesis, the sun. For me, by February, everything begins to sour, since Spring, for as lovely as she is, is right around the corner.
Of course, things will be a little different this year. I won’t be sipping coffee at outdoor cafes or raiding any book sales or taking any day trips to visit favorite niche museums and attractions. But I will be reading heaps of ghost stories and watching more monster movies and wearing cozy sweaters and hopefully consuming an abundance of pie.
Naturally, I prefer an autumn without COVID, but walks in the woods will remain, as will twilit English symphonies, Brahms, and Charles Ives. Already we’ve been blessed with a week’s worth of crisp mornings, and the nights are clear. The green is slowly differentiating and, here and there, there are flashes of yellow and red.
I’m not totally letting down my guard: Summer, though in decline, will push back, as she does every year. Tomorrow’s high for New Jersey is projected to be 80 degrees. But hopefully she’ll be in the ground for good by Hallowe’en.
In the meantime, the wild kingdom gets down to the business of fattening up on nuts and seed. An apple I leave on the lawn mysteriously vanishes in the night. What imp or malevolent fairy I am sustaining, I do not know. But I hope it’s one of the foxes that’s been helping him or herself to the peanuts I’ve been tossing out for the squirrels (and by extension the jays). It won’t be long before a pumpkin, purchased with the aim of carving, will be gnawed by rodent teeth into a makeshift playhouse.
Yes, Autumn will retain its joys. Nature cares not for COVID, and like my friends, the beasts, I shall have plenty of sustenance in my stores.
Welcome, most glorious season!
Now that we’ve changed the clocks, we’re officially in deep autumn – whether the temperatures happen to agree or not.
Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network, as we finally get around to giving the season its due. We’ll hear the Symphony No. 10, “Zur Herbstzeit” (“To Autumn Time),” by Joachim Raff; “Poema autunnale” for violin and orchestra by Ottorini Respighi;” “The Seasons” by Alexander Glazunov;” “Fall of the Leaf” by Gerald Finzi; the “Sinfonia di Caccia” by Leopold Mozart; “November Woods” by Sir Arnold Bax; “Autumn Crocus” by Billy Mayerl; the Symphony No. 4, “Fall of the Leaf,” by Rued Langgaard; and “Autumn Gardens” by Einojuhani Rautavaara.
Today’s Noontime Concert will be a comparatively brief one. John Mark Rozendaal and Adam Young will perform works for two violas da gamba by Tobias Hume and Johannes Schenck. The program, “Poeticall Musicke,” was presented as part of the Midtown Concerts series at the chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Church, 325 Park Avenue in New York City. Free concerts are held at St. Bart’s every Thursday at 1:15 p.m. For more information and a complete schedule, visit the website of Gotham Early Music Scene, gemsny.org.
Find a dry place and enjoy a nice hot cup of something. It’s autumn. Be good to yourself. Tune in today, from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, to WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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