@ken re: Saint-Saens
The family were holidaying at a site about 10 miles from Chartres and we visited the Chartres Cathedral with our two children. We were allowed to sit quietly while they recorded the organ passage in his Symphony No3 (?) when that organ played that mighty chord that starts the organ passage we were nearly blown out of our seats. The kids still remember it 30+ years on. Give it a listen. I think he'd just been given the post of France's chief organist and it was a celebratory composition.
Stay safe and thanks for jogging the memory.
UTB,
John
In the absence of footy and something of a competition - 2 of my sons and I embarked on a piano competition to learn, each at their respective levels and play the Swan Lake theme from Tchaikovsky. Needless to say I ended up with the most difficult and am still trying to master it 3 months down the line.
However it has aided my covid recovery and given me something to be cheerful about during my convalescence - like half an hour a day practice which something my mother could never get me to do.
The next challenge is the Swan which looks like a nightmare!!
@ken re: Saint-Saens
The family were holidaying at a site about 10 miles from Chartres and we visited the Chartres Cathedral with our two children. We were allowed to sit quietly while they recorded the organ passage in his Symphony No3 (?) when that organ played that mighty chord that starts the organ passage we were nearly blown out of our seats. The kids still remember it 30+ years on. Give it a listen. I think he'd just been given the post of France's chief organist and it was a celebratory composition.
Stay safe and thanks for jogging the memory.
UTB,
John
I know Chartres Cathedral fairly well. The city used to be our penultimate overnight stay on the way to Calais for the Channel Tunnel and the following morning’s crossing on the way home from our winter stay in the Algarve. Happy days!
GEORGES BIZET 1838/1875
Georges Bizet was born in Paris in 1838 and registered as Alexandre César Léopold, but 18 months later his parents for some unknown reason at the time decided to call him Georges, and that was the name he was known as for the rest of his life. Georges was an only child and quickly showed an aptitude for music and soon picked up the basics of music notation from his mother who was an accomplished pianist. By the age of 9 years old he was accepted as a student at La Conservatoire de Paris where after failing to win the prestigious 1856 Prix de Rome, undaunted he entered and won an opera competition with a prize of 1,200 francs provided by Jacques Offenbach and then also won the Prix de Rome in the following year. For that success he was awarded a financial grant for five years, the first two years to study at the ‘Villa Medici’, the French Academy in Rome, one year in Germany which he was unable to take as he received notice that his mother was gravely ill so he returned to Paris. However on his mother’s death bed she revealed that Adolfe who he had always assumed was his father was not, and that his mother had borne him through an extra marital affair.
The condition of the five year grant was that Bizet had to compose an ‘envoi’, an original composition each year to be judged by his mentors, and so successful had they been that he seemed set up for life. He composed two symphonies whilst at La Conservatoire but the Second Symphony entitled the Rome Symphony took him over eleven years to complete as he was never satisfied with the score and it remained unfinished at his death. His first opera was “The Pearl Fishers” which was premiered in 1863 but only received moderate acclaim from the critics at the time, but is today recognised as a great peace of work. At the time only “The Fair Maid of Perth” subsequently a song recorded by the Scottish tenor Kenneth McKeller seemed to please the Parisian public of the time. His “L’Arlesienne Suites” a model of it’s kind today met with audience apathy and critical disregard. Even his opera “Carmen” on its premiere at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1875 seemed to offend and appall many of the audience because of its daring realism. Paris seemed to be offended by operetta or comic opera as we know it today. However in the meantime “Carmen” was enjoying triumphant applause from London to Saint Petersburg, and from Naples to New York. Not until the repeat performance eight years later did Paris appreciate what a gem they were watching and listening to.
Grand Opera can sometimes be tedious if one doesn’t know the story. There can be lots of time when the audience just hear dialogue in Italian between arias, etc but not knowing the story. “Carmen” is different because it was used as the basis for a stage musical entitled “Carmen Jones” in 1943 and later as a CinemaScope motion picture in 1954 starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. Although the storyline was slightly different I think that Bizet would have approved. Sadly Bizet died at the young age of 36 years and it’s often thought that the tepid reception of “Carmen” contributed to his early demise.
I leave you with Bizet’s own words to a friend about his masterpiece.
“I have written a work that is all clarity and vivacity, full of colour and melody. Come along to watch it: I think you will like it!” Well I certainly do!
MODEST PETROVICH MUSSORGSKY 1839/1881
Mussorgsky was born in Karevo in Russia and his mother gave him piano lessons at the age of 6 years. At the age of 13 he entered the Cadet School from where eventually he graduated to earn a commission in the Russian Imperial Guard. He spent some time serving in a military hospital in Saint Petersburg but then resigned his commission to concentrate on his music. By the age of 19 he had only composed piano pieces but as a self taught composer, he managed to use harmonic language full of discords and unusual innovations more appropriate to the next century. His music was ahead of its time in creating a Russian national music. He wrote 80 songs, 40 piano pieces, 6 choral works, 11 operas and 7 orchestral works, the most famous being the unique ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ which starts with a ‘promenade’ as someone walks from room to room studying a dozen portraits with the promenade separating each portrait until the last portrait of ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’, a ceremonial gateway that was never erected. Mussorgsky uses it as a pretext for a grandiose processional scene, with the chanting of priests and the ringing of bells, with the Promenade theme ending in a thunderous finale. Strangely this great composition attracted little attention and was not even printed until 1886, some 5 years after the composer’s death. His first opera was ‘Salammbo‘ written in 1863, but after his mother’s death two years later he became depressed and eventually became an alcoholic which meant that some of his compositions took several years to complete and some weren’t even completed at all.
One that was completed though was his opera ‘Boris Godunov’ in 1869 which was about the life of the Russian Tsar at that time, but his ‘Khovantchina’ opera which he started in 1872 was left unfinished at the time of his death eight years later. Khovantchina is set during the years 1682/1689 and deals with the plots of the nobles against the the reforms of Tsar Peter the First - the old ways in conflict with the new. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov rescued the work, orchestrating and arranging the music so that it was performable, but only the Introduction and ‘The Dance of the Persian Slaves’ has found its way in concert repertoire today.
“The Fair at Sorochinstsy” was another work uncompleted but rescued by Rimsky-Korsokov, although the ‘Prelude’ and ‘Gopak’ from the folk opera are popular pieces of music today and his ‘Night on a Bare Mountain’ was used as the theme music in Walt Disney’s 1940 film ‘Fantasia’. The main reason for a lot of Mussorgsky’s unfinished works were due to his alcoholism, though he had three seizures late in life which accounted for his death in 1881 at the age of 42.
I think we are soon to December 8, 1865, Ken? Keep on writing these master peaces, Sir.
Up the Boro!
I think we are soon to December 8, 1865, Ken? Keep on writing these master peaces, Sir.
Up the Boro!
I will as long as it keeps me occupied, although last night’s effort on Mussorgsky suddenly disappeared and it took me some time to recover it, meaning it was 1am this morning before I got to bed. I reckon I’m about a third of the way through this project at the moment, but hope to finish it before Christmas. Then I’ll have to find something else to occupy my time during lockdown.
@ken on Mussorgsky.
I was introduced to Mossorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition through Emerson Lake and Palmer's interpretation in a live album recorded, as I recall, at Newcastle City Hall.
For those not familiar with Keith Emerson, he was a hugely talented piano and keyboard player, but with quite wild tendencies. Like Pete Townshend of the Who may have smashed guitars on stage, Emerson could trash an electric organ.
I have often wondered what the composer might have thought of this 1970s reworking of his music.
@Powmill-Naemore
Not forgetting Keith Emerson’s interpretation of “ Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite” by Sibelius, when he was in The Nice.
They also did a version of Leonard Bernstein’s, America; from West Side Story.
@Powmill-Naemore
Not forgetting Keith Emerson’s interpretation of “ Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite” by Sibelius, when he was in The Nice.
They also did a version of Leonard Bernstein’s, America; from West Side Story.
Yes indeed they (The Nice) did GHW. Later as ELP there was also Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, a rare hit single for them.
Hear, hear ... careful in there. I am half Karelian from my mother's side. Karelia is the most eastern part of Finland and part of it is nowdays also in Russia. The other Red Army taking it during the Second World War from us.
Up the Boro!
PYOTR ILYITCH TCHAIKOVSKY 1840/1893
Although Beethoven is my favourite composer I have to say Russian music excites me, and in my opinion there’s no greater exponent of Russian music than Tchaikovsky from Symphonies, Concertos, Overtures, Operas and Ballets. I visited Moscow and Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in December 1974 and was lucky to see the Kirov Ballet Company perform ‘Swan Lake’. I chose the winter to visit Russia because being a Kenny Ball jazz fan with his hit of ‘Midnight in Moscow’ in mind I wanted to experience Red Square and the changing of the guard outside the Kremlin at midnight, despite temperatures of minus 17 degrees. However it was my first experience of ballet in Leningrad and my wife and I were captivated by the grace, beauty and music staged before us.
Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk in central Russia, and one of six children to fairly affluent parents. A musical career wasn’t planned for him, and when he was 10 years old his parents moved to St Petersburg where his mother enrolled him in a school for a trainlng in law. However Pyotr never took a law degree; instead he became a clerk in the Ministry of Justice and privately resumed his interest in music and at the age of 23 began full time study at the Rubinstein Conservatory. Two years later he became a teacher at a new conservatory in Moscow, a position he held for 13 years. During this period, despite being psychologically unsuited for it, Tchaikovsky married a former conservatory student named Antonina Miliukova played by Glenda Jackson in Ken Russell’s 1971 film ‘The Music Lovers’ depicting the life and career of Tchaikovsky (played by Richard Chamberlain).
However his life was full of tragedy. His mother contacted cholera and died after scalding herself in a bath of water thinking that might cure her, and the memory of that haunted him for the rest of his life. Being homosexual his marriage to Antonina who had nymphomaniacal tendencies only lasted a few weeks, and to extricate himself from his torment he tried to commit suicide by standing in the frigid Moscow river for several hours hoping to catch pneumonia, but was rescued by one of his brothers and after suffering a nervous breakdown another brother took him to Switzerland to recover. Meanwhile a salutary influence in his life came with the introduction to Nadejda von Meck, a middle-aged wealthy widow who had a burning passion for his music. In 1877 the generous, if slightly eccentric Nadejda, bestowed 6,000 roubles a year as his patron to enable Tchaikovsky to leave the Conservatory and devote all his time to composition of music. There was however one condition that Tchaikovsky and Nadejda should never meet, but merely communicate by correspondence. That condition lasted for 14 years when suddenly Nadejda unaccountably terminated the relationship. By that time though Tchaikovsky was established as a world-famous composer.
But what of his music? His First Symphony was performed in 1866 and by 1887 he had composed three more, but my favourite is his 5th especially the Andante Cantabile. His two Piano Concertos were composed in 1875 and 1880, the latter year being also the first performance of the 1812 Overture with cannons depicting his acknowledgment of Napoleon Bonaparte. Both ‘Marche Slave’ and ‘Capriccio Italien’ which some of you may remember was the theme music to BBC’s regional news programme ‘Look North’ were also composed during the patronage of Nadejda von Meck, as was his ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Fantasy Overture. The aforementioned ‘Swan Lake’ ballet was composed in 1876, some 13 years before ‘Sleeping Beauty’ which was started but not completed until after the termination of Nadejda’s patronage. His famous opera ‘Eugène Onegin’ based on the novel by Alexander Pushkin was completed in 1879.
By now though Tchaikovsky was suffering from depression despite his music having made a lasting impression internationally, and even honoured by Tsar Alexander III with a lifetime pension in 1884. He did though write his final ballet ‘The Nutcracker Suite’ in 1892 and his final Symphony (Pathétique) which probably depicted how depressed he had become. Contributory factors to his depression were the death of his mother, his catastrophic marriage, and the sudden withdrawal of the patronage of Nadejda von Meck. He conducted the premiere of his Pathétique Symphony in St Petersburg on the 16th October 1893, but nine days later died of cholera by drinking contaminated water. Whether that was deliberate is open to conjecture, but the German poet Goethe’s poem ‘None but the Lonely Heart’ which Tchaikovsky set to music probably sums up the tragic life of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arguably the best composer Russia has ever produced.
Thanks for the Tchaikovsky piece Ken. It is funny, but in my head I always had that theme (as used for Look North in the day) as being written by Greig. All those years and then you find it is actually a famous piece by someone totally different!
ANTONIN LEOPOLD DVORAK 1841/1904
Dvorak was born in Nelahozeves a small Bohemian town near Prague in 1841 and the eldest of 14 children of which 8 survived infancy. He learned to play the violin at primary school before being sent to Zlonice to live with his uncle to learn German but also to further his musical education. At the age of 16 he learned to play the organ but only wrote small pieces of music at first such as the ‘Forget-me-not’ polka. His First Symphony which has become known as ’The Bells of Zlonice’ was written in 1865, and quickly followed by his Second Symphony and his Concerto for cello and piano. In 1870 he wrote his first opera named ‘Alfred’ as a tribute to Alfred the Great. This opera was written in German but his other 9 operas were written in Czech so are not internationally well known.
It was a period when nationalism was sweeping Europe and composers were vying with each other to produce ambitious works to reflect the spirit of their own peoples and to that end Dvorak wrote several Slavonic Dances and three Moravian duets. Being proud of his Czech heritage even his symphonies although being more classical German works, the air of Bohemia blows refreshingly throughout. In 1892 he sailed to New York to head a music conservatory, and that’s where he composed his Ninth Symphony entitled ‘The New World Symphony’. This composition is arguably his most famous piece of work and has been used in a television commercial where the late Tony Capstick is seen narrating a baker pushing his bicycle containing a basket of Hovis bread up a steep hill to the largo played by a brass band. However ‘Carnival Overture’, ‘Humoresque’ and the waltz from ‘Serenade for String Orchestra’ are other notable and popular works by Dvorak.
During his three years in the ‘new world’ his music reflected his musical impressions of folk idioms he encountered there with some emphasis on Indian and Negro themes. Through his melodic genius and colourful compositions, Antonin Dvorak became popular throughout the world and when he died in Prague following five weeks illness following influenza his funeral cortège was watched by thousands of people lining the streets of the Czech capital.
Just to deviate from the chronological order of Classical composers possibly not known as well today by many, I thought I’d look back at music still popular today which was composed many years ago:-
JOHANN PARCHELBEL 1653/1706
Parchelbel was born in Nuremberg and was an organist so therefore wrote mostly fugues and choral music, but also some beautiful serenades. The only one I’m familiar with is his Canon in D for piano and cello, which is one of the most relaxing pieces of music I know. Not a lot is known about his musical education, but I do know that he lived in Regensburg in his youth, which is a city I am familiar with on the Danube in Bavaria, and later in Vienna before returning to Nuremberg for most of his life where he died aged 52.
TOMASO GIOVANNI ALBINONI 1671/1751
Albinoni was born in Venice and was an Italian Baroque composer of operas which were very popular in Italy at the time, plus concertos, sonatas and cantatas, but later symphonic works. Again little is known of his musical upbringing, but his Adagio in G minor has still become an adagio that has stood the test of time, although in fact is not an original piece by Albinoni, but a re-creation based on a fragment during researches on the composer in later years by the musicologist Giazotto. His reconstruction uses Albinoni’s original indications for cadenzas and other ornamentations. It was scored for strings, with the solo violin and organ. Today the adagio arguably stands on a par with Händel’s ‘Largo’ and Bach’s ‘Air on a G string’ as a supreme example of slow-moving sustained melodic inspiration.
CHRISTOPH WILLBAND GLUCK 1714/1787
Gluck was born in Berching in Germany and was educated in the village of Komotau in Bohemia after his parents moved there during Gluck’s early teens. He sang in the choir of the local church there and also played the violin and cello in later years. He composed over 35 operas, most of them whilst living in Paris, the most famous being ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ based on the mythical creature of Orpheus. The celebrated ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ in the second Act is heard as Orpheus searches for Euridice in the Valley of the Blessed where the good spirits in Hades will find eternal peace. The atmosphere is beautifully conveyed in this stately dance by a solo flute, and is another piece of music which is still popular today. Gluck wrote more smaller pieces of music as he finally settled in Vienna with his wife, but suffered with high blood pressure and depression and finally died in hospital at the age of 73. Sadly the manuscripts of most of Glucks work were destroyed in a fire in Vienna some 28 years after his death, thereby reducing his popularity in later years.
CHARLES-FRANÇOIS GOUNOD 1818/1893
Gounod was born in Paris and at the age of 21 won the prestigious Prix de Rome at his third attempt, and with it a grant for two years study at the French Institute in Rome with another two years in Austria and Germany. This not only launched his musical career, but also made impressions on him as to what field of compositions he wished to pursue for the rest of his life. During his two years he read Goethe’s ‘Faust’ and made some preliminary sketches for his future opera of the same name which was premiered in 1859. His first operas though were comic French operas one of which was based on a Molière drama, whereas ‘Faust’ was more of a serious opera. It became one of his two most favourite operas alongside ‘Roméo et Juliette’. However one of Gounod’s cantatas ‘Mors et Vita’ now long since forgotten does include ‘Judex’ a beautiful orchestral intermezzo. Although this is a Requiem Mass, ‘Judex’ is characteristic of Gounod’s bland and serene melodic style.
FRANZ von SUPPE 1819/1895
Franz von Suppe was born in Split, Croatia and spent his childhood in Zadar on the Dalmatian peninsula. He had piano lessons from a very early age and even started to write his own compositions although he was principally an orchestral conductor. He wrote over 30 operettas and several ballets, most of which are rarely performed today. However it is the overtures to some of these works which are still played today. The most famous of these is ‘Dichter und Bauer’ (Poet and Peasant) and ‘Leichte Kavallerie’ (Light Cavalry) which have been used as background music in films and television advertisements. ‘Poet and Peasant’ especially is a piece of music often performed by brass bands at English seaside resorts today. Franz von Suppe died in Vienna aged 76.
IVAN PETROVICH LARIONOV 1830/1889
I must confess I had never heard of this composer born to a noble family in Perm and studied music in Moscow. But my love of Russian music led me to his name as he wrote ‘Kalinka’ in 1860. He died of stomach cancer in Saratov aged 59. I’m not conversant with any of his music except for ‘Kalinka’, so if anyone knows of any other exciting music composed by Larionov please let me know.
Generally I have only limited knowledge of the aforementioned six composers, but I know what I like so have written only smaller pen pictures of their careers, but will continue the history of the remaining composers from 1842 in chronological order in the future.
JULES MASSENET 1842/1912
Jules Massenet was born in Montaud in 1842 and was taught to play the piano by his father at an early age. However the whole family took a flat in Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris when Jules was only 6 years old. Jules was educated at Lycee-Saint-Louis before winning a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire when he was 11 years old. However his father who endured ill-health moved to Chambery, whilst young Jules stayed in Paris living with family relatives in Montmartre for a couple of years. At the age of 19 Jules had his first composition published which helped to earn him a place at the famous Paris Conservatoire and like many other famous composers, he won the prestigious Prix de Rome which earned him two years sponsorship at the French Academy in Rome.
In 1866 he returned to Paris and made a living giving piano lessons whilst still composing small piano pieces. However his musical career was interrupted by the 1870/71 Franco-Prussia War when he volunteered to join the Home Guard.
Later he composed his dramatic oratorio ‘Marie-Magdeleine’ but still made most of his income from giving piano lessons from 4am until noon, then composing mainly operas during the rest of the day. One of his most famous operas ‘Le Roi de Lahore’ took him several years to complete, but his other 26 operas were written in a shorter period of time. ‘Herodiade’ was so successful that it ran for 55 performances in Brussels, and then to great acclaim made its Italian premiere at ‘La Scala’ in Milan in 1881.
Messenet’s greatest operas though were ‘Manon’ premiered in 1884, ‘Werther’ written in German and premiered in 1892, and ‘Thais’ in 1894 which although not as popular as the first two does contain a beautiful violin solo given the title ‘Meditation’ which in its own right still enjoys immense popularity. This violin solo is a symphonic intermezzo which separates the first two scenes of Act 2. The subject of ‘Thais’ is erotic and its rich voluptuous melody is typical of French romanticism.
Jules Massenet died of stomach cancer in 1912, but surprisingly wished that none of his music should be played at his funeral. He was finally laid to rest in Egreville in north central France.
ARTHUR SEYMOUR SULLIVAN 1842/1900
Arthur Sullivan was the first of the great English composers. He was born in Lambeth, London on 1842 and at the age of 8 wrote his first peace of music ‘By the Waters of Babylon’, and at the age of 14 was awarded the Mendelssohn Schola
ARTHUR SEYMOUR SULLIVAN 1842/1900
Arthur Sullivan was the second of the great English composers after Henry Purcell as I’m led to believe, but as I’m unfamiliar with any of Purcell’s music I can’t really comment. However like most people I am conversant with the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas so I’ve decided to write about Arthur Sullivan, his life and works prior to, but also including his partnership with William Schwenck Gilbert.
Arthur Sullivan was born in Lambeth, London and by the age of 8 years wrote his first piece of music, ‘By the Waters of Babylon’. I find it quite remarkable how so many famous composers showed such aptitude at an early age in their careers. By the time he was 13years old he had written his first anthem ‘O Israel’ and a year later was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship to study at the Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany. In 1842 he wrote the first of his two ballets entitled ‘L’ille Enchantee’ and two years later his First Symphony and also a Cello Concerto. In 1863 he was commissioned to write music for the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. In 1870 he wrote ‘Overture Di Ballo’ and whilst all these compositions were popular at the time, they are rarely performed today. Sullivan also wrote the music for two hymns which are certainly popular today - ‘The Lost Chord’ and ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ the latter of which has been adopted by the Salvation Army all over the World.
In 1871 he teamed up with William Schwenck Gilbert to compose the music for the comic operas ‘Thespis’ and ‘Trial by Jury’, but it was the engagement by Richard D’Oyley Carte for the partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan to flourish with a series of light comic operas at the Savoy Theatre that made them internationaly famous. These became known as the Savoy Operas which toured Europe and even the United States. The first of these comic operas was ‘The Sorcerer’ followed by ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’, ‘The Pirates of Penzance’, ‘Iolanthe’, ‘The Mikado’, ‘Ruddigore’, ‘The Yeoman of the Guard’ and ‘The Gondoliers’ all produced within 14 years. They also produced a grand opera called ‘Ivanhoe’ based on Walter Scott’s romantic novel. It might be said that Gilbert’s lyrics made these comic operas so successful, but go to any bandstand at the seaside or in the parks, and invariably one would hear a brass or silver band playing some piece of Sullivan’s music in their reportoire.
One of Sullivan’s last pieces of work was ‘Victoria and Merrie England’ composed three years before his death in 1900 from heart failure following a bout of bronchitis, and he is buried in St Paul’ Cathedral. He was knighted in 1883 for his contribution to music having written 24 operas, 11 orchestral compositions and 10 choral works, but the pompous music critics of the day didn’t appreciate the Savoy Operas; they expected Sullivan to challenge Henry Purcell as England’s greasiest composer of what might be termed ‘highbrow’ music. But when did composers write for the critics? The public loved him, and that’s what counts in any generation.
EDVARD HAGERUP GRIEG 1843/1907
Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen when the city was part of Sweden although now of course in Norway. His life was portrayed in the musical film ‘Song of Norway’ featuring Elizabeth Larner and Harry Secombe. The film starts silently with beautiful scenes of Norway with its fjords and glaciers. It starts with Grieg’s childhood as he was taught to play the piano at the age of 6 years old by his mother. At the age of 15 he passed the entrance examination to enter the famous Leipzig Conservatoire, but unlike previous composers like Arthur Sullivan he hated the strict regime. At the age of 17 he survived pleurisy and bronchitis though it left him with a diseased left lung for the rest of his life. Nevertheless his life followed the pattern of other famous composers, the burning ambition to study and succeed although restricted by financial circumstances. Also he was in love with two women, Theresa whose beauty, wealth and influence captured his imagination, and Nina his true love whom he eventually married.
In 1868 he composed his one and only Piano Concerto, and unlike the late Eric Morecambe played all the right notes in the right order. Encounters with Franz Liszt, Hans Christian Andersen and the playwright Henrik Ibsen resulted in collaborations that added new dimensions to his career. In 1874 Ibsen invited Grieg to compose incidental music for his play ‘Peer Gynt’. The work was an immediate success not only throughout Norway, but also in London. His popularity in England threatened to eclipse that in his homeland both as a composer and a pianist. In fact when he performed his final concert in London the queues for the evening concert started to gather at 11am. On his return he was badly affected by the death of his greatest friend John Heggerstrom for whom he wrote both the lyrics and the music in remembrance of his pal.
Many of his compositions were folk songs of his beloved Norway, although he also wrote a fine Homage March from his ‘Sigurd Jorsalfar’ suite. In the film ‘Song of Norway’ there are other fine pieces of music given lyrics such as ‘Strange Music’ with lyrics written by George Forrest and Robert Wright and ‘Hill of Dreams’ with lyrics written by Guy Lombardo. Grieg also wrote 3 violin sonatas and one cello sonata, although his Piano Concerto in A minor is definitely his most well-known work and one of the greatest of all piano concertos ever written.
As for his life Grieg eventually recognised an overwhelming sense of neglect and selfishness which ended his career, and recognising life’s true values returned to his family and friends and the majestic beauty of his Norwegian homeland where he remained until his death in 1907 due to heart failure and his respitory lung disorders.
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV 1844/1908
Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, Russia and started composing by the age of 10 years old, but actually preferred literature to music yet decided to join the Imperial Russian Navy two years later as a cadet. He later studied at the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in St Petersburg taking his final examinations at the age of 18. He eventually developed a love of music especially opera and orchestral concerts, though his Naval exploits interfered with his musical development so much so that he was 23 years old before he wrote a musical tableau named Sadko including ‘Song of India’ and his Christmas Eve Suite which included a beautiful polonaise. However instead of composing musical works, from 1871 he taught music at the St Petersburg Conservatory teaching naval bandmasters and became more renowned as a musical conductor much against the approval of his naval superiors. Later though he started composing several works including the famous ‘Flight of the Bumble Bee’, 40 folk songs, 6 fugues and 15 operas which were his main forte.
One of his earliest operas was ‘The Snow Maiden’ which included ‘The Dance of the Tumblers’ although he also composed ‘The Procession of the Nobles’ from his Mlada Suite, and ‘Hymn to the Sun’ from Le Coq D’or. However his ‘Capriccio Espagnol’ found great acclaim from fellow composers, especially from Tchaikovsky who regarded it as a colossal masterpiece of instrumentation. ‘Scheherazade’ is considered to be his finest ballet containing moments of unparalleled beauty that reveal not only exquisite craftsmanship, but also the distinctive musical personality that made Rimsky-Korsakov an artist in the fullest sense of the word.
In his later years Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina, and the 1905 revolution accelerated his illness prohibiting him to work. In 1908 he finally died in Lubensk but was interred in the Tikhvin cemetery in St Petersburg at the age of 64.
GABRIEL FAURE 1845/1924
Gabriel Fauré was born in Pamiers, Ariege in the South of France in 1845 but was fostered until the age of 4, and at the age of 9 was enrolled at the Niedermeyer Music College in Paris for training as a church organist and choirmaster. He went to a boarding school for 11 years, and after graduating he earned a modest income as an organist and teacher with little time for composing works. In 1866 he was appointed as the organist at the church of Saint-Sauveur in the Brittany city of Rennes where he continued composing though none of his works composed there are played today. However in 1870 he decided to volunteer for military service during the Franco-Prussian war, during which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery. In 1874 he returned to Paris to take up a post as choirmaster at the church of Saint-Sulpice de Madeleine as deputy organist to Camille Saint-Saens, although by then he preferred the piano to the organ, but the position of being an organist provided him with a reasonable income and gave him time to continue composing musical works for the piano.
He greatly admired the works of Frederic Chopin and so it is little surprise that Fauré should compose 13 nocturnes all individually in honour of his friends, the most famous of which is ‘Apres un Reve’ meaning ‘after the dream’. His other famous works were his ‘Requiem’, ‘Pavane’ and ‘Clair de Lune’ not to be confused with Claude Debussy’s work of the same name. He also wrote 13 barcarolles which are usually sung by Venetian gondoliers, 4 grand waltzes and 9 preludes though most of his works were composed later in life. However during his last 20 years he suffered with increasing deafness and his works became turbulent and impassioned. Finally he died through pneumonia at the age of 79, but such was his fame he was given a state funeral where he died in Paris.
CHARLES HUBERT HASTINGS PARRY 1848/1918
Hubert Parry was born in Bournemouth in 1848 but his early life was a lonely life as he was brought up by a governess and sent to a preparatory school in Malvern at the age of 8 where he stayed for two years before being transferred to another preparatory school in Twyford 3 miles from Winchester in Hampshire. There he took a great affection for music, but eventually he entered Eton College which had no affinity to music although in his spare time he found a tutor to give him extracurricular lessons in music. In 1867 he left Eton and enrolled at Exeter College in Oxford where he studied Law and Modern History at the insistence of his father who considered music to be a pastime and not a career befitting his son. After leaving Oxford, Parry took up a position as an underwriter at Lloyd’s in London for 7 years but hated the work and still had intentions to become a composer of music. During this time the public began to take notice of his musical works which were composed in his spare time. Eventually he removed the shackles of being an underwriter and started teaching music.
His first major work was a Piano Concerto in 1880 after which he wrote another 130 musical compositions including 4 Symphonies and also received commissions to write compositions including music for the coronation of King Edward Vll. Parry also wrote the music for Bernard Ingemann’s hymn ‘Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow onward goes the Pilgrim Band’ and John Greenleaf Whittier’s hymn ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’, but is best remembered for writing the music to William Blake’s hymn ‘And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountain green?’ commonly known as ‘Jerusalem’.
Parry was a keen sailor and was later elected a member of the Royal Yacht Club in 1908, and also knighted as a first baronet. In the autumn of 1918 he contacted the Spanish influenza pandemic and died in Rustington, West Sussex aged 70.
Fuare Requiem is my favourite having been in two performances at St Peters Church in the 60's. Listening to it on CD is nowhere near as atmospheric as actually doing it in a church. Very sombre very moody. My favourite with a light Italian red wine and fresh dates.
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA 1854/1932
John Philip Sousa was born in Washington DC in the United States in 1854, and it may surprise people to learn that he had a classical music background. Indeed he started his musical career by learning to play the piano, flute and several brass instruments at the age of 7. His first composition when he was still in his early teens was entitled ‘An Autumn Leaf’ which his tutor described as ‘utter rubbish’ and was destroyed, but undeterred he young Sousa joined the United States Marine Corps as a cadet where he learned to play the trombone. After serving his apprenticeship he started to play the violin in a theatrical pit orchestra and often took the place of the conductor, but then returned to the Marine Corps in 1880 and was its conductor for 12 years after which he resigned from his military career to become a band leader having given his final appearance at a concert in the White House. He then seriously got round to composing music starting with dance music, but his military background soon led him to compose no fewer than 134 military marches which earned him the title of ‘The March King’.
The following are probably the most famous to be heard at military parades in the order that they were composed. The titles may not all register with folks, but the sounds certainly will:- Semper Fidelis, Washington Post, The Thunderer, High School Cadets, The Liberty Bell (theme tune for Monty Python’s Flying Circus), King Cotton, Stars and Stripes Forever, El Capitan, and Hands Across the Sea, all of which I’m sure have been played at Ayresome Park in the days when brass and silver bands was the main form of entertainment preceding the match and at halftime. But what is not universally known is that Sousa also wrote 15 operettas, and over 22 waltzes and polonaises amongst his 330 compositions.
Later in his life Sousa lived at Sands Point, New York but died of heart failure at the age of 77 in the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania. In 1952 ‘Twenty Century Fox’ made a film entitled ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ starring Clifton Webb as John Philip Sousa, a fitting tribute to arguably America’s finest composer.
EDWARD ELGAR 1857/1934
Edward Elgar was born in the small village of Lower Broadheath near Worcester and from the age of 8 was taking piano and violin lessons. At the age of 15 he left school to work as a solicitor’s clerk, but hated the work as his thoughts turned to literature as well as music. After a few months as a solicitor he left to embark on a musical career teaching himself to play the organ, bassoon and violin, also giving piano and violin lessons. However his early ambition was to become a concert violinist, but instead went to teach music at Worcester College for the Blind. Although he made public appearances as a violinist and an organist, it wasn’t until later in life at the age of 40 that people began to take notice of his work as he wrote a succession of marches, the first of which was his Imperial March for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
ln 1899 Elgar wrote his 14 Enigma Variations, the first of which he dedicated to his wife Alice and all of them to colleagues and friends except the 14th which he named EDU which was a paraphrase of his wife’s name for himself. The most famous of the variations though was the 9th named Nimrod to portray the character and temperament of August Jaegar a German publisher and friend. In 1901 Elgar wrote his famous Cockaigne Overture described as honest, hearty and strong depicting London at the start of the century “replete with street urchins, lovers in the park, Cockney cries, and military bands”. In the same year he wrote the first of his 5 Pomp and Circumstance Marches, but it was Arthur Christopher Benson who wrote the lyrics entitled ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ which many people think should be used as England’s National Anthem, such a stirring number which traditionally ends the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms each September in the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
In 1902 he completed the Coronation Ode ‘Crown the King’ for the coronation of King Edward Vll and his Second Symphony was written 7 years later in memory of the King. He completed his Violin Concerto which he had started to compose in 1901 but wasn’t completed until 1910, and a year later he also wrote the Coronation March for King George V. Elgar also wrote a choral composition entitled the Spirit of England “In memory of our glorious men of the First World War”. The public loved his marches, but it was the BBC who commissioned Elgar to write a Third Symphony, but along with an opera he started to write called ‘The Spanish Lady’ were lost in the annals of time and never published.
In 1918 Elgar wrote a Cello Concerto and in 1924 he wrote his Empire March, and in all wrote 90 compositions most of them within a 21 year period. He was knighted in 1904, but died of cancer at the age of 76 and is buried in Little Malvern, Worcestershire.
Yes Pomp and Circumstance - the music to " We hate Nottingham Forest, we hate Sunderland too"
GIACOMO PUCCINI 1858/1924
Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy in 1858 and at the age of 6 participated as a choirboy in the beautiful San Martino Cathedral where he also acted as a substitute organist. He was educated at San Michelle School in Lucca, but continued his education at Milan Conservatory for 3 years where he wrote an orchestral piece called “Capriccio Sinfonico” which was the start of his musical career as a young composer. His first opera ‘Edgar’ was written in 1888 and followed by ‘Manon Lescaut’ with its striking “Intermezzo’’ five years later, but it was ‘La Boheme’ composed in 1896 that set him on the international road to glory. It is probably the most performed of all operas to this day, probably because it doesn’t require ambitious staging or elaborate sets to tell its bittersweet tale of love among Parisian poets and painters. Few operas especially in the first act contains as many pulsating arias as when the poet Rodolfo and the seamstress Mimi fall in love. Amongst the arias is Rodolfo’s aria “Your tiny hand is frozen” and an enchanting “Love Duet”. However their love is threatened by the appearance of the saucy Musetta in the Latin Quarter cafe with her flirtatious waltz indicating that “Every man is her prize”. This causes a parting of the ways for the young lovers, but eventually the two lovers are reconciled, but Mimi catches tuberculosis and dies.
Puccini’s next opera was ‘Tosca’ which is set in Rome under a political intrigue between Floria Tosca, the painter Mario and the Chief of Police Baron Scarpia. The story basically is that Tosca must face the unwanted love of Scarpia or lose her beloved Mario to the firing squad for his crimes. However Tosca kills Scarpia when he tries to rape her and she sings “The stars were shining brightly” as Mario is executed and Tosca is imprisoned whilst facing trial but chooses to take her own life by jumping from the prison walls. Three years after composing ‘Tosca’ Puccini was involved in a serious car crash pinned down under his car, but saved by a doctor living nearby.
A year later Puccini wrote ‘Madame Butterfly’, a tragic story of a little Japanese geisha girl called Cio-Cio-San and an American naval lieutenant called Pinkerton who fall in love but are separated as he returns to the United States after his tour of duty. The two lovers pour out their love for each other and Cio-Cio-San (the lieutenant’s Butterfly) and now pregnant sing the duet “One fine day” with the hope that Pinkerton will return. However Madame Butterfly learns later that Pinkerton has taken an American wife and preceding that news the beautiful “Humming Chorus” is played. However a dejected Tosca decides to die with honour on the sword of her father. This opera seems to be a similar story to the romance between Lt. Cable and Liat in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical ‘South Pacific’, but that is only my opinion.
After his previous three operas all with tragic endings, Puccini decided to compose the music for his first comic opera ‘Gianni Schicchi’ with the libretto written by Giovovaccino Forzano about one of Dante’s fables, which included the solo “Oh, my beloved father” and had its premiere in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York in December 1918. The last of his operas ‘Turandot’ was completed in the year of his death from throat cancer in 1924. He had been a chain smoker for much of his life, and although he always insisted that he was not interested in politics, it is recorded that he twice met with Benito Mussolini, the leader of the fascist party. Nevertheless his operas outshone those of his compatriot Guiseppe Verdi and are still popular to this day.
ISAAC ALBENIZ 1860/1909
Albeniz was born in Camprodon in the Province of Girona, Spain and passed the entrance examination for piano to the Paris Conservatory, but was refused admission because of his young age. He ran away from home on more than one occasion and is reputed to have absconded on a ship bound for Buenos Aires, but certainly gave performances in Cuba, New York, San Franciso, Liverpool, London and Leipzig before he was 15 travelling with his father who was a customs agent. Altogether he wrote over 200 works of music including 4 comic operas called ‘The Magic Opal’, ‘Pepita Gimenez’, ‘Henry Clifford’ and ‘Merlin’, but the majority of his compositions were for the piano including 7 Sonatas, 6 Ballads, 6 Grand Waltzes, 6 Dances, 3 Minuets, 2 Mazurkas and 2 Piano Concertos, I have to confess that I’m not conversant with any of his works except his Tango from his ‘Espana Suite’ which I came across played by the late Danish humourist and piano player Victor Borge. It has also been recorded on the guitar by both Julian Bream and John Williams, although I much prefer it as a piano piece as it is acknowledged as one of the greatest tangos ever written, and for that alone deserves to be included as a piece of classical music that is as popular today as it was when composed in 1890.
The apex of Albeniz’s musical compositions occurred between 1889 and 1992, and his final years were spent in France where he died in Cambo-Les-Bains aged 48.
GUSTAV MAHLER 1860/1911
Gustav Mahler was born in Iglau, Bohemia in 1860 and at the age of 4 years started piano lessons and 6 years later made his first public appearance at the town theatre. When he reached the age of 15 he attended the Vienna Conservatory where he gained his first experience as a musical conductor of his fellow students’ orchestra, although most of the time he was participated as a percussionist. At the age of 18 he attended the University in Vienna, not studying music but German philosophy and literature. After finishing his education his thoughts turned to music again and he accepted the post of principal conductor at the Royal Municipal Theatre in Olomouc in Moravia. At that time he hadn’t turned to the field of being a musical composer until he came across a collection of German folk-style poems that had been published in the early 1800’s. He was so attracted by the rustic expression of these poems, that he set more than 14 of them to music which he named ‘The Magic Horn of Youth’.
Mahler’s First Symphony was composed in 1888, but it was his Second Symphony entitled the “Resurrection” which brought him recognition, especially the Scherzo. The mighty Third Symphony written in 1895 included the evocative use of children’s and ladies’ voices. The finale of the Fourth Symphony was entitled ‘Life in Heaven’. However it seems almost paradoxical that the general public who idolised Mahler’s conducting and uncompromising artistic bent, showed indifference to his compositions. Apart from a small circle of adulators, it seemed incongruous that the same musical public that cheered Mahler as a conductor were unable to respond to him as a composer. Today though his music is more appreciated and the beautiful adagietto from his Fifth Symphony was used as the climax to the 1971 film ‘Death in Venice’ starring Dirk Bogarde as a composer who becomes obsessed with a young boy.
Mahler wrote 9 complete symphonies, but his 10th remained unfinished as he died in 1911 before it could be completed. Little wonder then that the last movement should be named “Purgatorio”.
FREDERICK THEODORE ALBERT DELIUS 1862/1934
Delius was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1862 although his parents were of German and Scandinavian heritage and he was actually christened Fritz as his parents previously lived in Bielefeld, Westphalia before he was born. Delius didn’t change his Christian name to Frederick until he was 40 years old, but prior to that his father always hoped that Fritz would help him in the woollen trade business even though both Fritz’s parents and siblings were a musical family. Fritz was educated at Bradford Grammar School where his musical talents led him to improvise on the piano and to learn to play the violin. After his Bradford education, his father sent him to Florida to manage an orange plantation, but instead young Fritz composed his first piece of music entitled ‘The Florida Suite’. In 1886 Fritz returned to Europe and enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory where he met Edvard Grieg who assured him that he had the talent to become a musical composer.
In 1892 he composed his first opera ‘Irmelin’, the prelude of which is the only part of the opera to achieve wide popularity, and his second opera ‘The Magic Fountain’ is rarely performed today. It was after that when Fritz Delius decided to change his name to Frederick before composing his third and last opera ‘Margot-La-Rouge’ which also was not particularly successful. The turning point of his career came when he was 45 years old and his composition of an English Rhapsody entitled ‘Brigg Fair’, where the brief pastoral introduction evokes the dewy freshness of an early summer morning with the delicate usage of muted strings, woodwinds and harp bringing us to the actual folk song played by an oboe with woodwind accompaniment. The tune is then repeated until the central part of the rhapsody introduces the music of the lovers played softly by the stings. The climax is a new melody for trumpet and trombone, but finishes with a serene pastoral note as the lovers are briefly recalled amid the gathering shadows of the evening. If ever a rhapsody of English country life was painted on canvas, ‘Brigg Fair’ would evoke such a painting.
In 1908 Delius wrote ‘In a Summer Garden’, probably describing his own garden at Grez-sur-Loing in France as it evokes a walk through a drowsy village street before opening a rustic gate into a garden with its sights and smells of summer. Three years later Delius wrote ‘On hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring’ where the cuckoo call is heard by the oboe and cleverly repeated by the clarinet; a tenuous tone poem in an atmosphere of pastoral serenity. The final work of note was ‘Hassan’ composed in 1923 by which time Delius was forced to dictate to his wife because of his illness. Altogether Delius composed almost 120 pieces of music including 31 orchestral works and 31 songs. However if ever a musical composer could paint a picture of pastoral bliss, it was Frederick Delius who died aged 72 in his home of Grez-sur-Loing 70 kms south of Paris.