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Tag: Rachmaninoff

Rachmaninoff’s Francesca da Rimini Online

As a kind of addendum to its month of Sunday operas, The Princeton Festival is offering, for today only, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s rarely-heard one-acter “Francesca da Rimini,” streamed as part its special COVID-imposed “Virtually Yours” season.

When “Francesca” was presented at McCarter Theatre in 2012, it was as the first half of a double-bill with Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” – clever programming, since both works have ties to Dante.

As always with the Princeton Festival, the production was well-performed and staged, with, in this instance, evocative medieval sets and costumes. Also, in its vision of Hell, I remember thinking at the time that it was very much of a piece with the famous paintings and illustrations inspired by “Inferno.”

The lighting is a bit dim in this archival video, but it’s still worth watching, and certainly worth hearing. All in all, a good opera to get you in the spirit for St. John’s Eve…

https://princetonfestival.org/digital-event/rachmaninoffs-francesca-da-rimini/

Here’s a preview I wrote for the Trenton Times:

https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2012/06/princeton_festivals_operatic_t.html

The last of this year’s Princeton Festival operas, “The Flying Dutchman,” featuring bass-baritone Mark Delavan, will stream this Sunday at 1 p.m. EDT. For more information and a complete schedule, look online at princetonfestival.org.

June 23, 2020
Orthodox Easter Greetings & Music

My best wishes to all those who observe Orthodox Easter!

Χριστος Aνεστη!

Христос Воскресе!

Christus resurrexit!

From Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers”:

Greek Byzantine chant:

Paschal Canon:

Russian Easter with the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir:

Leopold Stokowski conducts Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Russian Easter Festival Overture.” This recording employs a bass-baritone in place of the trombone solo for maximum liturgical effect:

Rachmaninoff: “Easter,” from the Suite No. 1 for Two Pianos:

April 19, 2020
Rachmaninoff Busoni and Marlboro’s Serkin & Goode

Today is one of those remarkable days, on which two masters of the same instrument happened to be born. (Another is February 2, which gave us both violinists Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz.) In addition to it being the anniversary of the birth of pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (in 1873), it is also the birthday of Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni (in 1866). Clearly, Ferruccio Busoni’s parents had great expectations for their boy!

“Music from Marlboro” is on hiatus from WWFM – The Classical Network for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown. However, it’s still possible to enjoy great Marlboro performances on recordings. Here’s a jawdropping performance of Busoni’s “Fantasia contrappuntistica,” a vertiginous knucklebuster played with elan by 16 year-old Peter Serkin and 20 year-old Richard Goode.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

April 1, 2020
Hamish Milne Medtner Champion Dies

Sad day for fans of Nikolai Medtner. One of his great champions, Hamish Milne, has died.

Medtner was a good friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Both artists emerged from the same piano class at the Moscow Conservatory. Rachmaninoff was a lifelong advocate of Medtner’s music. Though undeniably Rach was the more successful of the two, Medtner developed a reputation as something of a pianist’s pianist.

In fact, Rachmaninoff believed wholeheartedly in his friend’s superior talent. He once described him as “the greatest composer of our time.” Rach dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 4 to Medtner. Medtner returned the kindness by dedicating his own Piano Concerto No. 2 to Rachmaninoff. He also provided emotional support for Rach during his frequent periods of self-doubt.

Medtner made another important friend in Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur, twenty-fifth Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore. Bahadur founded a Medtner Society in London to record all of the composer’s works.

Milne did his very best to carry on the tradition. A glance at his discography reveals an obvious preference for Medtner’s music. In addition, he recorded underplayed gems by Anatoly Alexandrov, William Sterndale Bennett, Ferruccio Busoni, Hermann Goetz, Sergei Lyapunov, Julius Reubke, Carl Maria von Weber, and Haydn Wood. He was the first pianist to set down a comprehensive survey of Medtner’s music since the composer’s own recordings, released all the way back in the 78 era.

At the time of his death, Milne was 80 years-old.

Medtner, Dithyramb, Op. 10, No. 2

Piano Sonata in G minor:

Interview with Melanie Spanswick:

February 16, 2020
Ashkenazy Retires Legacy Broadcast Today

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say the music world was stunned by the news on January 17 that Vladimir Ashkenazy is now retired, effective immediately. The announcement came with no advance notice. There will be no farewell tour, and all engagements for 2020 have been cancelled.

This afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll celebrate the legacy of this superb and beloved artist, with nearly three hours of his recordings.

Ashkenazy, who is indisputably one of the greatest pianists of his time – which is to say, of the past half century – is also a conductor of merit. We’ll hear him in both capacities, performing music by Beethoven, Boris Blacher, André Previn, Jean Sibelius, and of course Sergei Rachmaninoff.

First, on today’s Noontime Concert, rising musicians of Philadelphia’s Astral Artists will perform Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2 in G major and Sibelius’ String Quartet in D minor “Voces Intimae.”

After that, it’s all-Ashkenazy. The music-making will Rach your world, between 12 and 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

January 21, 2020

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