Here’s an interesting discovery for Mozart’s birthday – a recording of the Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major, K. 313, conducted by Karlheinz Stockhausen, employing Stockhausen’s own cadenzas!
Movt. I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idBfzgaKV2w
Tag: Mozart
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Support Classical Music Radio WWFM
What kind of a price tag do you put on something of intangible worth? It’s the age-old conundrum of the value of art.
Without getting into whether or not art is “good” for you or for your community (like spinach), consider for a moment what having classical music on WWFM has meant for the quality of your life. If you seriously feel it has done much to enrich your days and to give you solace or inspiration at all hours, then why not follow your heart – within the restraints of your budget, of course?
Public radio isn’t here to break the bank. Ideally, if everyone who enjoys the service – an endangered one in an increasingly commercial, talk, and news-driven market – then there would be no danger of having this invaluable asset lost or compromised. We’ve already had to make some hard decisions in recent years in order to survive within our budget.
If you’ve already given recently, thank you so much for your support – but if it’s been a year or more, how about it? Can you spare $20, $50, $120 for the station you love? $120 is just ten dollars a month. It may not seem like it would amount to much, but if even a few dozen people were to contribute, that’s quite a considerable chunk of change. If our entire listenership could be moved to be so generous, The Classical Network would one of the most well-off public radio stations in existence. But the reality is only a very small percentage of listeners give.
Regardless of what attracts you to the station – Who’s your favorite composer or performer? What’s your preferred era or genre? Who’s your favorite host or what’s your favorite specialty show? – we like to think we offer something for everyone who cares about classical music.
As you consider what you are able to do in order to help support our future, enjoy a day of wall-to-wall Mozart, as Alice Weiss (9 to noon), David Osenberg (10 to 2), Carl Hemmingsen (1 to 4), Michael Kownacky (2 to 6) and yours truly (4 to 6) share some of our favorites, in advance of the master’s 262nd birthday. (The actual anniversary is tomorrow.)
Then stick around for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, coming your way at 6 p.m. I’ve selected four recordings of scores by another one of classical music’s great musical prodigies, Erich Wolfgang Korngold. I’ll post a little more about that in just a bit.
“Picture Perfect” kicks off a Friday evening of unique specialty shows and live concert material. Bill McGlaughlin brings you another edition of “Exploring Music” (and more Mozart) at 7; Carl Hemmingsen hosts a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, with music by Respighi, Schulhoff, and Mendelssohn, at 8; Allan Kelly presents “Distant Mirror” at 10; and Lewis Baratz hosts “Well-Tempered Baroque” at 11.
The Mozart celebration is already underway on WWFM – The Classical Network. Please show your support by calling 1-888-232-1212 or by contributing online at wwfm.org. We wouldn’t be here without your generosity. Thank you for your support!
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Moore Da Ponte and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
Earlier this week, conductor and composer Mark Laycock, who I am proud to count among my Facebook followers, directed my attention to this informative article about the relationship between Clement Moore – of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (a.k.a. “The Night Before Christmas”) fame – and Mozart librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. Now, on this sixth day of Christmas, I am happy to share it with you:
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Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony: Marlboro Festival
With the new year bearing down upon us, I can think of nothing more appropriate – indeed more necessary – than the energetic striving and eternal optimism of the finale of Mozart’s last symphony, the Symphony No. 41, subtitled the “Jupiter.”
Incredibly, Mozart composed the “Jupiter” along with the Symphonies Nos. 39 and 40 in a burst of sustained inspiration over the summer of 1788. Though he had nothing to do with the work’s lofty moniker, it is the composer’s longest symphony, and quite possibly his greatest.
Mozart’s magnum opus will be the main attraction on this week’s “Music from Marlboro.” The Marlboro Music Festival, of course, is renowned primarily as a retreat for some of the world’s most revered artists and promising young talent, who come together each summer to explore works from the vast chamber music repertoire. Every once in a while, though, many of the musicians assemble to perform an enduring orchestral masterpiece.
Leon Fleisher, himself a pianist and beloved teacher, was forced to diversify with the onset of focal dystonia, a chronic neurological condition that impaired the mobility of his right hand. He continues to achieve much – even to the point of reclaiming in recent years some of his former, two-handed piano repertoire. He will take up the baton, at the age of 87, to lead Mozart’s “Jupiter” in an inspirational performance from the 2015 Marlboro Music Festival.
The program will open with several part-songs, composed around 1801, by Mozart’s friend and sometimes mentor Franz Joseph Haydn.
“Alles hat seine Zeit” (Everything has its time) sets a text by Johann Arnold Ebert:
Live, love, drink, clamor,
Circle with me,
Enthuse with me when I enthuse,
I am wise with you.Haydn’s setting of “Die Harmonie in der Ehe” (Harmony in Marriage), on a text of Johann Nikolaus Götz, includes an ironic discord on the word “harmony,” perhaps reflective of his own problematic union:
Oh, wondrous harmony, what he likes, she likes too,
He likes to drink, she too, he likes cards, she too,
He likes to fill his purse and to act like a great man. This is also her custom.
Oh, wondrous harmony.Finally, “Abendlied zu Gott” (Evening Song to God), sets a text by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert:
Lord, You who have given me life
Up until this very day,
Child-like, I pray to You.
I am much too unworthy of the faithfulness that I sing of,
And that You grant me today.The performances, from the 1976 Marlboro Music Festival, will feature soprano Claudia Visca, mezzo-soprano Constance Fee, tenor Michael Sylvester, bass John Paul White, and pianist Luis Batlle.
Haydn and Mozart give us the strength to endure on this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
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Saint-Saëns Mozart & Marlboro
On this All Saints’ Day, we’ll have music by Saint-Saëns, to open this week’s “Music from Marlboro.” In fact, works by two former prodigies will frame tonight’s program.
Saint-Saëns demonstrated perfect pitch at the age of two and gave his first public concert at the age of five. He was 72, at the other end of a very long career, when he composed his Fantaisie, Op. 124. We’ll hear it performed by violinist Thomas Zehetmair and harpist Alice Giles, from the 1982 Marlboro Music Festival.
Mozart, of course, was composing from the age of five; he wrote his first symphony at the age of eight. He lived less than half as long at Saint-Saëns (who died at 86), but in his comparatively brief span managed to hit greater heights. We’ll conclude with Mozart’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, K. 502, written in 1786, when he was about 30 years-old and at the peak of his powers. We’ll hear a recording made at Marlboro in 1968, with pianist (and Marlboro co-founder) Rudolf Serkin, violinist Jaime Laredo, and cellist Madeline Foley.
In between, we’ll have “Ainsi la nuit” (Thus the Night) by Henri Dutilleux. The seven-movement string quartet was meticulously crafted by the composer between 1973 and 1976, after intensive study of the works of Beethoven, Bartok, and Webern, and a series of preliminary sketches he called “Nights.” Nevermind the prodigy status; Dutilleux was about 60 at the time he completed the piece. All the hard work certainly paid off – the quartet was embraced as a modern masterpiece. We’ll hear it performed at Marlboro in 2001 by violinists Joseph Lin and Harumi Rhodes, violist Richard O’Neill, and cellist Marcy Rosen.
I hope you’ll join me for music by Saint-Saëns, Dutilleux, and Mozart, 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
Caricature of Saint-Saëns playing the harp, by his pupil, Gabriel Fauré
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