When is music not Fine? When it’s by Webern, of course!
The playlist today will consist of works by birthday celebrants Irving Fine, Anton Webern, Nino Rota (both film and concert pieces), Jose Serebrier, Antonio Soler, and Paul Turok. We’ll also mark the second evening of Hanukkah.
Better pick up some more candles!
All fire codes will be flouted, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
I found this the other day, on Aaron Copland’s birthday, but I thought I would save it for the weekend, when you might have time to actually listen to it. It’s a fascinating document of four insanely talented composers – Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss, and Irving Fine – gathered around a piano and engaged in a bull session about the state of American music.
https://www.wnyc.org/story/217199-what-american-music/
PHOTOS: (top) Foss and Bernstein; (bottom) Copland and Fine
Irving Fine, you’re so fine. You’re so Fine, you blow my mind.
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll mark the centenary of the birth (on December 3, 1914) of this most appropriately named composer, with an hour of his well-crafted music. We’ll hear works for piano, mixed chorus, woodwind quintet, and string orchestra.
For more on Fine, see my post of December 3.
I’ve mentioned several times, between the show and my postings, Fine’s late flirtation with serialism. Since I don’t actually include any of the twelve-tone works on my playlist (too many other short, beautiful pieces to cover), I’ll include a link to his Symphony here.
This is twelve-tone music for people who don’t like twelve-tone music.
Fine conducted the work’s premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1962. Less than two weeks later, he was dead of a massive coronary at the age of 47.
I hope you’ll join me for “Everything’s Fine,” this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.
PHOTO: (Left to right) The inseparable Lukas Foss, Irving Fine and Harold Shapero, composers of the “Boston Six,” doin’ nothin’
Today is the 100th birthday of Irving Fine. Who? Well, if you’ve sung in a chorus for any length of time, you may already know. Among Fine’s best-known works are arrangements of Copland’s “Old American Songs” and settings of texts from “Alice in Wonderland.”
He also wrote a woodwind quintet that gets recorded from time to time and certainly deserves more exposure. His “Serious Song,” for string orchestra, is another among his most frequently recorded works.
He was an American composer of the “Stravinsky school,” one of the so-called “Boston Six” (which also included Arthur Berger, Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss and Harold Shapero).
In some of his later works he experimented with serial techniques, though he never wholly abandoned tonality. On the other hand, in his early pieces he never shied away from dissonance. His was a tart brand of graceful neo-classicism that occasionally bubbled over into romanticism, as in the “Serious Song” and his “Notturno for Strings and Harp.” No matter what language he embraced, he was always an elegant and attractive composer.
Fine died of heart disease in 1962. He was only 47 years-old.
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll offer a slightly belated salute to this unjustly neglected figure. The program, titled “Everything’s Fine,” will air at 10 ET, with a repeat next Wednesday at 6. You can listen to it at http://www.wwfm.org. I’ll post more about it over the weekend.
In the meantime, here’s a listing of Fine celebrations around the country:
http://www.irvingfinesoc.org/#!events/c9a0
And Fine’s “Notturno for Strings and Harp”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aDTULoEJQ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmtpyqGT8IE
PHOTO: Irving Fine (second from right) with (left to right) Claudio Spies, Lukas Foss, Harold Shapero, Esther Geller, Verna Fine and Leonard Bernstein, Tanglewood, 1946
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