Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Mieczyslaw Horszowski

Beethoven Birthday Bash on Music from Marlboro

I’m staring at a pile of musical birthday gifts for Claudio Monteverdi, Michael Balfe, Nikolai Tcherepnin, Lars-Erik Larsson, Arthur Berger, and John Lanchbery. That’s an awful lot of wrapping for any classical music host. I hope you’ll be on hand to reap the benefits, as I’ll be jumping out of a cake repeatedly from 4 to 6 p.m. EDT.

Then, at the end of a long day of picking scotch tape off my fingers, there really is only one remedy. On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” it will be an all-Beethoven affair.

Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, known as the “Archduke,” was one of 14 works the composer wrote for his friend and patron Archduke Rudolf of Austria. Rudolf, an amateur pianist, was the youngest child of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II.

Beethoven himself appeared at the keyboard at the work’s premiere in 1814. His encroaching deafness so diminished his former prowess as a performer that he retired from concertizing after a repeat performance a few weeks later. The violinist and composer Louis Spohr summed up the discomfiture and pity felt by those in attendance, by stating, “I am deeply saddened by so hard a fate.”

The music remains unbowed. Today, the “Archduke” Trio is as noble and inspiring as ever.

We’ll hear it performed at the 2006 Marlboro Music Festival by pianist and Marlboro co-artistic director Mitsuko Uchida, violinist Soovin Kim, and cellist David Soyer of the legendary Guarneri Quartet.

Also on the program will be a performance of Beethoven’s “Three Marches for Piano Four Hands,” a remarkable collaboration between an 87 year-old Mieczyslaw Horszowski and an 18 year-old Cecile Licad.

There are plenty of gifted composers, but it’s hard to beat Beethoven. Beethoven takes the cake, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

Beethoven, ready to celebrate his unbirthday

May 15, 2019
Bach Birthday & Marlboro’s Music

The Eve of Bach is upon us.

Tomorrow will mark the 334th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s birth. I’m sure you are aware by now that The Classical Network is in the final hours of its Bach 500 campaign. Every March, we ask that 500 generous listeners step up and support the music by making a donation to the station IN ANY AMOUNT. Once we hit those 500 contributions, we stop asking and throw open the floodgates, filling the airwaves with undiluted Bach all day on March 21st. If we don’t hit that goal, we have to keep asking. The champagne goes flat and the ice cream cake melts.

So I’m asking one final time: if you haven’t contributed yet, or if you haven’t given in a while, or if your St. Patrick’s Day peregrinations have left you with a pot of gold, please do whatever you can. YOU set the amount. You won’t catch us sneering at an Andrew Jackson or two. But the truth is, anything counts toward the 500. Once we hit 500 donations, we can collect over $14,000 in challenge money from our Bach Pot, and then the Bacchanal can begin in earnest. Please call us during business hours at 1-888-232-1212, or contribute anytime at wwfm.org (click on “Donate”).

To prime the pump, on this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” I’ll be presenting an hour of fabulous Bach recordings from the archive of the legendary music school and festival.

Forget the period instrument movement. Scholarship has its place, but these artists believed unwaveringly in the transcendent quality of Bach’s music and its ability to communicate across the ages.

These are Old School performances. You’ll hear pianos all over the place. Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin will offer a sensitive interpretation of 14 canons on the aria ground from the “Goldberg Variations,” in a performance recorded at Marlboro in 1976.

Then the venerable Mieczyslaw Horszowski will join a Marlboro orchestra led by Felix Galimir for Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058. The performance was captured in 1982, when the pianist was 90 years-old. Horszowski, who gave his first public performance in 1901(!), died in 1993, just shy of his 101st birthday. No doubt his extraordinary longevity can be attributed in part to his healthy and sustained immersion in music such as this.

And of course, we can’t have an hour of Marlboro Bach performances without hearing from Pablo Casals. The legendary cellist was affiliated with the Marlboro Music Festival for the last 13 years of his life, from 1960 to 1973. His loving, humanistic interpretations of Bach’s orchestral works form a remarkable capstone to an extraordinary career.

Don’t let the “festival orchestra” appellation deceive you. These are no ragtag assemblages of itinerant performers. The ensembles are made up of world-class artists and stars-of-tomorrow, many of whom maintained their relationships with Marlboro for years.

You don’t have to break the bank for Bach, but your contribution in any amount will make a difference. Call now at 1-888-232-1212 or click on “Donate” at wwfm.org. Then kick back and enjoy an hour of magical Bach performances on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

Bach with Marlboro advocates (top to bottom) Pablo Casals, Mieczyslaw Horszowski & Felix Galimir, and Rudolf Serkin.

March 20, 2019
Bach at Marlboro: Casals, Serkin & More

If, like me, you’re in the Northeast, hopefully you’re enjoying winter’s last gasp (on the second day of spring!) from someplace warm and comfortable, preferably with a mug of tomato soup and a toasted cheese sandwich at your side, and plenty of great music at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse.

Although The Classical Network’s daylong celebration of Bach’s birthday has been postponed due to the inclement weather, nothing, not even Mother Nature, can impede an all-Bach “Music from Marlboro.” Join me for sublime music-making by the likes of Marlboro legends Pablo Casals, Felix Galimir, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and Rudolf Serkin. Even the personnel of the Marlboro Festival Orchestra is stuffed with already-legendary and soon-to-be-legendary performers. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Unfortunately, my original cut for the 58:30 show was an hour and four minutes! There was so much wonderful material, I couldn’t bring myself to delete any of the music, but I had to cut my text to the bone. So here is some of the background material that was left on the cutting room floor.

About Pablo Casals: The legendary cellist was affiliated with the Marlboro Music Festival for the last 13 years of his life, from 1960 to 1973. It was Casals who, at the age of 13, rediscovered Bach’s cello suites in a thrift shop in Barcelona. His 1939 recordings established the works as cornerstones of the modern repertoire. Casals’ loving, humanistic interpretations of Bach’s orchestral works (as well as those of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann) at Marlboro form a remarkable capstone to an enviable career. We’ll hear Casals in 1965, conducting Marlboro musicians, including trumpeter Robert Nagel, flutist Ornulf Gulbransen, oboist John Mack, and violinist Alexander Schneider, in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2.

About Mieczyslaw Horszowski: The great pianist died in 1993, just shy of his 101st birthday. He had one of the longest careers of any performing artist. Horszowski was a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky, who was a pupil of Carl Czerny, who in turn was a pupil of Beethoven. Horszowski played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in public for the first time in 1901! He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1942. He remained there for over 50 years, giving his last lesson a week before his death. We’ll hear Horszowski in 1982, performing Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058.

About Felix Galimir: This marvelous musician had an amazing career. He was a violinist with the Vienna Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony (under Toscanini), formed the Galimir Quartet, and was in residence at Marlboro from 1954 until his death in 1999. Galimir will be on the podium, accompanying the venerable Horszowski in the aforementioned Bach concerto.

About Rudolf Serkin: The visionary Serkin co-founded the Marlboro Music Festival in 1951, with Adolf and Herman Busch, and Marcel, Blanche, and Louis Moyse. In addition to being one of the most revered pianists of his generation, he managed to direct the festival for 40 years, until his death in 1991. We’ll listen to Serkin’s probing and intimate account, from 1976, of Bach’s 14 Canons, BWV 1087, on the first eight notes of the aria ground from the “Goldberg Variations.”

Along the way, we’ll also hear a Trio Sonata in G major, BWV 1038, performed in 1974 by flutist Michel Debost, violinist Pina Carmirelli, cellist Ronald Leonard, and harpsichordist Mark Kroll!

Not much talk from me, but lots of great music, as we celebrate Bach on “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network. Please support us in advance of our belated Bach birthday celebration (which will take place tomorrow, hopefully, if we’re not under ten feet of snow) at wwfm.org. Thank you for your support, and Happy Birthday, Bach!

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

March 21, 2018
Carl Reinecke: An Unsung Musical Titan

Carl Reinecke lived an unusually long life for his day. Or perhaps it is just the amount of incident crammed into that life that makes it seem so.

A musical prodigy who composed from the age of 7 and performed in public from the age of 12, Reinecke lived and worked in Copenhagen, Paris, Cologne, and Leipzig. He studied with Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Liszt. His concert tours took him throughout Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the British Isles.

He taught in Cologne, Breslau, and Leipzig. Among his pupils were Isaac Albéniz, Max Bruch, Ferruccio Busoni, Mikalojus Čiurlionis, Edvard Grieg, Leoš Janáček, Julius Röntgen, Christian Sinding, Charles Villiers Stanford, Johan Svendsen, and Felix Weingartner. In addition, he was music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for over three decades.

Somewhere along the way, he found time to compose – three hundred published works, including operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and instrumental pieces. When he was born, Beethoven and Schubert were still alive. Toward the end of his life, he was making piano rolls, the earliest born musician to have his artistry preserved in any format. Reinecke died in 1910 at the age of 85.

For having lived such a monumental life and having wielded such an enormous influence, Reinecke’s own compositions can seem so effortless – modest, even.

On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” we’ll enjoy his utterly charming Octet for Winds, Op. 216. Also on the program will be a performance of Beethoven’s “Three Marches for Piano Four Hands,” with the 87 year-old Mieczyslaw Horszowski and the 18 year-old Cecile Licad.

Age is just a number, at the legendary Marlboro Music Festival, this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

Carl Reinecke: He had the chops – mutton and otherwise

January 10, 2018
Horszowski & Forgotten Italian Gems

Okay, I’m kind of excited about this one. Mieczyslaw Horszowski was one of the great poets of the keyboard. He also happens to be one of my favorite pianists.

On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” we’ll hear Horzsowski perform music by…

Chopin? No.

Schumann? No.

ILDEBRANDO PIZZETTI. Yes.

Who the hell is HE?

Pizzetti was one of the composers of the “generazione dell’Ottanta” (generation of the ‘80s), contemporaries of Ottorino Respighi, all born around 1880. These artists of the post-Puccini generation largely made a name for themselves in the concert halls as opposed to the opera houses. That was a change of pace for Italy.

Pizzetti was best-known as an associate of Gabrielle d’Annunzio, providing incidental music for a number of d’Annunzio’s plays and setting “Fedra” as an opera. Pizzetti’s Piano Trio in A major, written in 1925, is big music with big things to say. There is plenty of drama, lyricism and warmth throughout the 30-minute piece, which is almost never heard. It was performed at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1968, by Pina Carmirelli, violin; Leslie Parnas, cello; and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano.

Horszowski, who died in 1993, just shy of his 101st birthday, had one of the longest careers of any performing artist. He was a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky, who was a pupil of Carl Czerny, who in turn was a pupil of Beethoven. Horszowski played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in public for the first time in 1901! He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1942. He remained there for over 50 years, giving his last lesson a week before his death.

As if the idea of hearing Horszowski in this neglected repertoire isn’t compelling enough, we’ll also have a young Yo-Yo Ma among the personnel – alongside guitarist Javier Calderon, violinist Daniel Phillips, and violist Luigi Alberto Bianchi – in a 1976 performance of Niccolò Paganini’s Quartet No. 15 in A minor for guitar and strings.

That’s Marlboro, Italian-style, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

PHOTO: Mieczyslaw Horszowski (center) with Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin and an up-and-coming Ruth Laredo

October 18, 2017

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