Puccini?! What you doing, being born so close to Christmas?
No matter, here’s a student work, his “Capriccio sinfonico.” Puccini wrote the piece in 1883, while still at the Milan Conservatory. You may recognize some of the music since he later recycled it in his most frequently performed opera, “La bohème.” You’ll detect the bohemians at around the 4-minute mark.
Now that you’re in the mood for hopeless Christmas romance, here’s Luciano Pavarotti and company in Acts I & II of “La bohème,” set on Christmas Eve. Interestingly, the production is directed by Gian Carlo Menotti (he of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” fame). Mimi is sung by Fiamma Izzo d’Amico – no relation, surely?
It is one of those things that would seem to go without saying, yet it should not be taken for granted – the blessing, as the 20th century progressed, of just how much recorded material exists relating to our great composers. Imagine what it would have been like to have had this kind of access to a conversational Brahms or Liszt.
On the anniversary of his birth, here is Samuel Barber from 1978, speaking with WQXR’s Bob Sherman, prior to the premiere of the composer’s “Third Essay for Orchestra” with the New York Philharmonic. The conversation is punctuated by interesting recordings, including one of Pierre Bernac singing Barber’s “Mélodies passagères” – in French – with Francis Poulenc at the piano. Barber reveals that he acted as page-turner during the recording. Also, he mentions that he was originally expected to go to Princeton!
The same interview, without ads for Scientific American (the program’s sponsor), but transferred at a lower level of sound:
The “Third Essay for Orchestra,” the piece that would receive its premiere only a few days later:
During the interview, Barber also teases the anticipated debut of a Concertino for Oboe, also with the New York Phil, a work that sadly never came to pass. This gorgeous “Canzonetta,” which would have served as the piece’s slow movement, is all that was released. It would be Barber’s final composition. The performance here is by Humbert Lucarelli and the now-defunct Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra.
Here’s an earlier broadcast, from 1958, an intermission feature of the New York Phil, with Barber and James Fassett, the composer talking about his new orchestral work, “Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance,” distilled from the ballet for Martha Graham:
Finally, Barber and composer Gian Carlo Menotti shared a home in Mount Kisco, New York, from 1943 to 1972. The two had met as students at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Menotti would serve as librettist for Barber’s Pulitzer Prize winning opera “Vanessa.” He later worked to rehabilitate Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra” after its disastrous 1966 premiere at the grand opening of the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Both composers were two-time Pulitzer Prize winners. Menotti talks about Barber, ten years after their split (the two remained friends), at Curtis in 1980:
If you’re a Barberophile, you’ll also want to check out H. Paul Moon’s award-winning documentary, “Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty.” You can view the trailer here:
We mark the centenary of the birth of violinist Ruggiero Ricci (1918-2012) with a recording of Gian Carlo Menotti’s rarely heard Violin Concerto this afternoon in the 3:00 hour. Menotti’s concerto was written for Efrem Zimbalist, then the head of the Curtis Institute Music, and given its first performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy.
The piece will cap an afternoon of “New World” treasures, building on Dolce Suono Ensemble’s “Música en tus Manos: The Americas” noontime concert broadcast. Between now and 4 p.m. EDT, stay tuned for Morton Gould’s “Latin American Symphonette,” Leo Brouwer’s Guitar Concerto No. 4 “Concerto de Toronto,” Robert Farnon’s Symphony No. 2 “Ottawa,” and more, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
