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Tag: Composer

Happy 80th Birthday Robert Moran!

Well, I missed it. I was off by one day. While I was busy lauding Ulysses Kay on the 100th anniversary of his birth, I failed to notice that January 8 was also the birthday of my friend, composer Robert Moran. And it was not just any birthday. It’s hard to believe that classical music’s merry prankster is now 80 years-old.

Bob has lived a lot in 80 years. Not only did he study twelve-tone music with Hans Erich Apostel in Vienna, he was accepted into a composition class of four at Mills College, where he was taught by Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio. His classmates included Steve Reich, Phil Lesh and Tom Constanten. Lesh and Constanten went on to play for The Grateful Dead. And Reich? Who knows what happened to that guy.

Moran gained notoriety in the late 1960s and early ‘70s through a series of performance pieces that incorporated entire cities, including San Francisco, Bethlehem, Pa., and Graz, Austria. These involved tens of thousands of performers.

His many stage works include “Desert of Roses,” written for Houston Grand Opera, and, in 2011, “Alice” composed for the Scottish Ballet. Maurice Sendak introduced him to the Grimm fairy tale “The Juniper Tree,” which became an operatic collaboration with Philip Glass.

For the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Moran was commissioned to write a work for the youth chorus of Trinity Wall Street, the so-called “Ground Zero” church in Lower Manhattan. “Trinity Requiem,” scored for children’s chorus, four cellos, harp and organ, offers a similar brand of solace to that conjured in the 19th century masterwork by Gabriel Fauré.

With Robert Moran, you never know what you’re going to get. In his more puckish moments, he might write for 39 autos, giant puppets or electric popcorn popper. But then there are times when his natural gift for lyricism will melt your heart.

Happy belated birthday, Bob. We’ll melt a few hearts this afternoon, between 4 and 7 EST, with at least one of his works, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

An aria from “Desert of Roses”:

Selections from “Trinity Requiem”:

“Obrigado” for Iowa Percussion:

Bob, looking groovy in merry prankster mode, introducing his “Lunchbag Opera” for the BBC:

PHOTO: Bob (left) getting caffeinated with conductor, composer and performance artist Rupert Huber

January 9, 2017
Rediscovering Weingartner: Conductor & Composer

Felix Weingartner (1863-1942) is best-recognized as a conductor. However, he considered himself equally, if not more so, a composer. He was one of a number of prominent conductors of the day who fit the Mahler paradigm. However, the works of Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer and any number of other famed figures of the podium are very seldom heard.

Weingartner held many conducting posts over the years. He succeeded Mahler as principal conductor of the Vienna Hofoper, from 1908 to 1911. He led the Vienna Philharmonic in an official capacity until 1927. He was later chief conductor of the Vienna Volksoper.

He thought very deeply about the problem of the symphony. I remember reading a book he wrote in which he examined the strengths and weaknesses of all the major symphonies written in the shadow of Beethoven, down to the dawn of the 20th century.

He himself composed seven symphonies, among other symphonic works, and thanks to the enterprising cpo.de – classic production osnabrück label (CPO for short), all of them have been recorded. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear the Symphony No. 2, from 1901, a fascinating mix of old and new, evidently romantic in disposition, yet very much of its time. The recording will feature the Basel Symphony Orchestra, which Weingartner himself directed from 1927 to 1934.

As a conductor, Weingartner was particularly well-regarded as a Beethoven interpreter. He’d been conducting the Beethoven symphonies as a cycle since at least 1902, and he was the first to complete an integral set of recordings. We’ll have time to sample the scherzo from the Symphony No. 9 from his superlative recording of 1935.

I hope you’ll join me as we raise a glass to Felix Weingartner. That’s “Wine from Weingartner,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Weingartner gets busted in Basel in 1927

November 13, 2016
Vittorio Giannini Composer Remembered

Happy birthday, Vittorio Giannini!

Giannini was born in Philadelphia in 1903. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, after which he earned his graduate degree from Juilliard. He then taught at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music and the Curtis Institute.

Arguably his most important contribution as an educator was the foundation in 1965 of the North Carolina School of the Arts, which he envisioned as a Juilliard of the South. The school attracted to its faculty such luminaries as Ruggiero Ricci and Janos Starker. Giannini died the year after it opened, in 1966.

He was from a family of opera singers. His father founded the Verdi Opera House in Philadelphia. One sister taught voice at the Curtis Institute of Music and the other sang at the Metropolitan Opera. Giannini himself composed 14 operas, including “Lucedia,” “The Scarlet Letter,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” and one for radio, “Beauty and the Beast.” Two, “Casanova” and “Christus,” remain unperformed.

Not surprisingly, then, in his day he was known largely for his vocal music, but his Symphony No. 3 for wind band has fared best on disc. There are seven recordings in the current catalogue, from the classic release directed by A. Clyde Roller on the Mercury label to one of the later-in-life, digital recordings of Frederick Fennell.

Daniel Spalding, enterprising music director of the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic, recorded the Symphony No. 4 with the Bournemouth Symphony, for Naxos. We’ll hear that recording in the 4:00 hour.

Spalding will conduct the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey this Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Trenton War Memorial. The program will include Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” and Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America,” a stirring work for actors and orchestra, on texts of actual émigrés who came to the United States in search of a better life. You can read all about it in my article in the Friday edition of the Trenton Times. Or you can get a sneak preview here:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/10/classical_music_njcp_performin_2.html

Later on this afternoon, we’ll have music by Norwegian composers Edvard Grieg (performed by Emil Gilels on the 100th anniversary of his birth) and Geirr Tveitt. Listen in from 4 to 7 EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network, and at wwfm.org.

October 19, 2016
Schoenberg Innovator at WWFM

He was a painter, a lover of tennis, and a composer of light-hearted cabaret songs. Oh yes! And he also developed the twelve tone technique, which has intrigued musicians and alienated listeners ever since. We’ll peck around his diverse output this afternoon, between noon and 4 p.m. EDT, and try not to frighten the horses too much, on this, Arnold Schoenberg’s birthday, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

September 13, 2016
Musician Rulers Henry VIII Rousseau Birthday

Today is the birthday anniversary of two able musicians who made their biggest reputations, for better or worse, in fields other than music.

When Henry VIII (1491-1547) wasn’t occupied in upgrading spouses or downgrading churches, he happened to be a skilled composer and performer. More about Henry and his music here:

http://www.classical-music.com/article/pieces-viii

One of Henry’s greatest hits:

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is best remembered as one of the great philosophers of the Enlightenment and a driving influence behind the French Revolution. But he was also a successful composer who wrote seven operas. The best-known of these is probably “Le devin de village.”

Undoubtedly less heads would have rolled had these gentlemen stuck to their music!

June 28, 2016

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