This week on “The Lost Chord,” we present a Christmas bouquet of sorts.
Hugo Distler’s “Die Weihnachtsgeschichte” (“The Christmas Story”), from 1933, is an otherworldly, a cappella masterpiece, punctuated by seven variations on the carol “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” (“Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming”). Over the course of some 40 minutes, the work reinvents the Baroque Christmas cantata, after the manner of Heinrich Schütz, and does so quite beautifully, conjuring the calm and quiet of a bygone era. The composer described the piece as “an oratorio with chamber music character.”
Unfortunately, Distler’s life proved anything but calm. A man of conscience, he yet remained in Nazi Germany. He joined the Party with reluctance, when he realized his employment at the Lübeck Conservatory hinged on his doing so. Nevertheless, it did not smooth his path. The war separated him from his family, robbed him of many of his friends, and battered his psyche with nerve-wracking aerial assaults. Job pressures and fear of being conscripted into the German army further contributed to his anxiety.
Furthermore, his devotion to sacred music put him at odds with the authorities, who were intent on twisting the Lutheran Church to its own ends. The Nazis wound up branding Distler’s works “entartete,” or “degenerate.” Unable to reconcile the irreconcilable – serving both God and the Nazis – one day he pushed his bed into the kitchen and turned on the gas, committing suicide in 1942. He was 34 years-old.
Emil Waldteufel, by contrast, enjoyed much success and happiness. Although he was nearly 40 by the time he achieved international fame, his waltzes had long been a mainstay of Paris society during the Second Empire. It was the Prince of Wales – the future King Edward VII – who introduced him to London, where his music came to dominate Queen Victoria’s state balls at Buckingham Palace. One of his best-known works, “Les Patineurs” (“The Skaters’ Waltz”) was introduced there in 1882.
For our purposes, we’ll round out the hour with one of Waldteufel’s most successful waltzes from the other end of the decade, “Roses de Noël.”
The holidays are in bloom this week. I hope you’ll join me for “Christmas Roses,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
Category: The Lost Chord
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Vintage Sibelius on “The Lost Chord”
I have no hesitation in ranking Jean Sibelius as one of my top two favorite composers. He and Vaughan Williams pretty much run a three-legged race. Sibelius was born on December 8, 1865. This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll anticipate his 160th birthday with an hour of early recordings of his music.
Robert Kajanus was Sibelius’ good friend, a sometimes rival, and often a drinking buddy. The duo was captured during one of their infamous binges in a painting by the artist Akseli Gallén-Kallela (pictured). Kajanus set down first recordings of a number of Sibelius’ major works, including the underappreciated Symphony No. 3, which we’ll hear in a 1932 performance, with the London Symphony Orchestra.
As a personal aside, it was actually this recording that served as an introduction for me to the composers’ grandson. For a number of years, I owned a second-hand book business in Philadelphia. I suppose it’s hardly surprising that if anyone ventured into the shop there would be probably an 8-in-10 chance that I would be playing Sibelius.
Well, on this particular occasion, the composer’s grandson, Anssi Blomstedt (son of Sibelius’ youngest daughter, Heidi), wandered in during the Kajanus 3rd, which impressed him sufficiently that he struck up a conversation with me. It turned out he is a documentary filmmaker who was actually living in Philadelphia at the time. By further coincidence, Simon Rattle was coming to town to conduct Sibelius’ 5th Symphony. I was able to get Anssi an introduction to Rattle, who invited us to attend a rehearsal. Somewhere in Vanity Fair’s archives there is a photo of Rattle planting a big kiss on Sibelius’ grandson’s forehead.
Anssi later returned the favor by introducing me to Einojuhani Rautavaara, who came to Philadelphia for the premiere of his 8th Symphony. I’ve got a snapshot of me with Rautavaara, and I’m grinning like a Tyrannosaurus rex. I know I’ve posted it before.
Back to tonight’s show: I’ll also include a highly regarded performance of Sibelius’ last major work, the tone poem “Tapiola,” from 1926. The piece takes its name from Tapio, the forest god mentioned throughout the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, who inhabits the stark pine forests of the wild North. Again, Kajanus gave the piece its first recording, in 1932, but we’ll hear an equally atmospheric, and at times awe-inspiring reading, given seven years later, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky.
Sibelius would live another 30 years after the completion of “Tapiola.” Although he spent a portion of that time laboring at a highly-anticipated 8th Symphony, with the premiere promised to Koussevitzky, he eventually destroyed the manuscript.
We’ll give the last word to one of the heroes of the Kalevala, the swashbuckling Lemminkäinen. Eugene Ormandy was a superb interpreter of Sibelius’ “Four Legends from the Kalevala.” A stereo recording he made with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1978 must be one of his finest. However, his 1940 recording of the last of the legends, “Lemminkäinen’s Return,” is on a whole other level. It surpasses even Sir Thomas Beecham’s legendary account, in terms of sheer virtuosity and visceral excitement. If there’s a more hell-for-leather performance of the piece, I have yet to hear it.
I hope you’ll join me for “Vintage Sibelius,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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IMAGE: “Kajustaflan” by Akseli Gallén-Kallela. Pictured (from left to right), the artist, composer Oskar Merikanto, Robert Kajanus, and Jean Sibelius.
All you need to know about Gallén-Kallela and “The Symposium,” and then some, here:
https://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn14/coleman-on-sibelius-gallen-kallela-and-the-symposium -
One Last Dose of Musical Tryptophan on “The Lost Chord”
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have our final say on the long, gluttonous holiday weekend with Knudåge Riisager’s ballet “Slaraffenland” (usually translated as “Fool’s Paradise”).
Inspired by Bruegel’s painting “The Land of Cockaigne,” the scenario imagines a Promised Land “where roasted pigeons fly around in the air with knives and forks in their backs, and the streets are paved with marzipan and chocolate.” The plot concerns a silly boy who wanders into the country of King Sauce and becomes ill from overindulgence. Along the way, he encounters Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, Captain Fear, Fountains of Liqueur, Cigarettes, and the Candy Princess.
Riisager was born in 1897 to Danish parents living in Estonia. He studied music at Copenhagen University and then in Paris with Albert Roussel. Though he was a prolific composer, with some 400 works to his name, including symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and songs, he is probably best known, if at all, for his ballets.
Rouse yourself for one last dose of musical tryptophan. Join me for “Fool’s Paradise” – Knudåge Riisager’s “Slaraffenland,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
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IMAGE: A very Bruegel Thanksgiving -
Get Shaking on “The Lost Chord”
Classical music lovers are best acquainted with the Shakers by way of the hymn “Simple Gifts,” employed by Aaron Copland, of course, as the basis for a set of variations at the climax of his ballet “Appalachian Spring.” But the Shaker tradition predates Copland by nearly 200 years.
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear ample selections from “Simple Gifts: Shaker Chants and Spirituals,” an unusual album of traditional Shaker melodies, spearheaded by Joel Cohen in 1995. With this remarkable project, Cohen sought to preserve music of the Shakers in somewhat authentic performances, augmenting his Boston Camerata and Schola Cantorum with members of the actual dwindling population of Sabbathday Lake, Maine, the last active Shaker community, established in 1783.
Music has always been an integral part of Shaker worship. There are over ten thousand songs extant. In Shaker society, musical revelation is considered a spiritual gift. As such, it was important to document these inspirations as they occurred. Since many of the scribes had no musical education, a system of notation reliant on letters of the alphabet evolved. These were often not positioned on a staff, and simple rhythmic values were employed. Lyrics sometimes involve syllables and words of unknown tongues.
The second half of tonight’s program will consist of “Shaker Loops,” a modern American classic by John Adams. This kaleidoscopic example of Minimalism was originally composed in 1978, as a four-part work for seven solo strings (three violins, one viola, two cellos, and double bass). It bears the influence of Adams’ early electronic experiments. On its surface, it may seem somewhat repetitive – each instrument assigned a loop of oscillations – but when heard simultaneously, the various strands are continually shifting. The resultant mesmeric quality neatly parallels the ecstatic writhings of the Shakers.
The work falls into four movements, flowing into one another without break: “Shaking and Trembling;” “Hymning Slews;” “Loops and Verses;” and “A Final Shaking.” Adams arranged the piece for string orchestra in 1983. We’ll hear the world premiere recording, with the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Edo de Waart.
Time to get shaking! Give thanks for simple gifts, on “All Shook Up,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/ -
Salty Cossacks on “The Lost Chord”
This week on “The Lost Chord,” our ears will burn from the haughty and profane response of the Zaporozhy Cossacks to an ultimatum from Sultan Mehmad IV. The Sultan demanded the peaceful surrender of the Cossacks, after they had scored a glorious defeat against his Ottoman forces. To his giddy and inebriated foes, he was not exactly negotiating from a position of power.
Among Reinhold Glière’s works steeped specifically in Ukrainian lore is the symphonic poem/ballet “The Zaporozhy Cossacks,” based on the famous canvas by Ilya Repin. Glière, born in Kyiv in 1875, is best known for his ballet “The Red Poppy,” with its ubiquitous “Russian Sailor’s Dance,” and perhaps for his epic Symphony No. 3, “Ilya Muromets.”
In 1913, Glière attained an appointment to the school of music in Kyiv, which was raised to the status of conservatory shortly thereafter. Glière served as director of the conservatory from 1914 to 1920.
One of his pupils there was Boris Lyatoshynsky, who lived from 1895 to 1968. Lyatoshynsky was a student at the conservatory at the start. The first movement of his Symphony No. 1 was written as a graduation work. The other two movements followed in 1919.
The first performance of the piece took place under Glière’s direction in 1923. If you get all sweaty listening to the orchestral works of Alexander Scriabin, you certainly won’t want to miss this, an opulent work by a young man determined to impress.
I hope you’ll join me for “Steppe Lively” – classical music from Ukraine – on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
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If you aren’t too squeamish, you can read more about the Cossacks’ reply, with a rough (and I do mean rough) translation here. The translation was removed from a Wikipedia page about the painting, but preserved in a screenshot taken for the purpose of Ukrainian studies by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto.
https://tarnawsky.artsci.utoronto.ca/courses/Cossacks/Reply%20of%20the%20Zaporozhian%20Cossacks%20-%20Wikipedia,%20the%20free%20encyclopedia.pdf
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IMAGE: Ilya Repin’s “Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks” (1880-1891)
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