Pete’s Place Playlist – 2/20/12

Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls “Sora Wima” from Breeding Resistance (Delmark, 2004). Chicago musicians on the Jazz Record Mart’s home label. Guitarist Jeff Parker, especially, plays all around Chicago.

Randy Weston, “African Village/Bedford-Stuyvesant” from “The Spirits of Our Ancestors” (1992). The master work from the stately (6′ 6″) piano player, who spent major portions of his life in Africa absorbing music.

Abdullah Ibrahim, “Bra Timing from Phomolong” from Ekaya (Blackhawk, 1984). The original LP by Ibrahim’s Eyaya (home) band. Never put on CD. Hard to find. Worth looking for. Maybe Pete’s all-time favorite jazz record.

Crusaders “Put It Where You Want It” (1974). 70s groove jazz at its best.

Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, “Hot House” (1945). Original be-bop.

Trombone Shorty, “Hurricane Season” from Backatown (2010, Verve), Shorty’s major label debut. Young funk-jazz player at the top of the local New Orleans scene.

Ken Vandermark/Hamid Drake, “Street Named Hell” from Spaceways, Inc. (Atavista, 2000). CD of Sun Ra and George Clinton songs. Avant, but you can dance to it.

Randy Weston, “Blue Moses” from Spirits of Our Ancestors (1992). Extended composition … and exotic blowing.

Ali Farka (guitar, vocals) and Tourmani Diabete (kora). A reminder of fantastic Carbondale visit by African percussionist and kora (21-string gord instrument) last August.

Herbie Hancock, “Watermelon Man” from Headhunters (1973). Fusion/African update of Herbie’s 1964 soul-jazz hit (a much bigger hit when covered by Mongo Santamaria).

Abdullah Ibrahim, “Sotho Blue” from Ekaya. As fellow South African Dave Mathews says, music from “some place very old.”

Billy Cobham, “Stratus” from classic 1973 fusion LP Spectrum. Tommy Bolin, latter of T-Rex, on guitar.

WDBX Opera Overnight – Handel

So called „Chandos Portrait“ of George Frederic Handel, formerly attributed to James Thornhill. (Image via Wikipedia)

A few days after last week’s show, wherein we heard a wonderful rendition of Georg Friederich Handel‘s Hercules, I discovered that Handel’s birthday is coming up on February 23rd (he would be 327 years old).  As I do like to use birthdays and other such anniversary occasions as a musical programming device (something that I’ve done on The Galaxy for years), I am breaking a personal rule of thumb and playing some more Handel this week.  Of course, its not like the recipient of such special favors is undeserving, as the two works that we have for tonight are more than deserving of special attention.  Not only are they excellent performances of Handel’s great art, but they are also relatively recent recordings that feature a bevy of quality modern talent, something that I’ve always enjoyed doing.

We started the show with a wonderful recording of Handel’s 1718 opera Acis and Galatea.  Composed while Handel was the house composer at Cannons in Middlesex to a libretto by John Gay, and using a story that he had used in a 1708 serenata, the work was revised and adapted by Handel on several occasions over the years.  For a number of years it was his most popular dramatic work, and his only work for the stage that never left the general repertory (Mozart made an arrangement of the piece in 1788).  While most performances use a modified arrangement, including some Handel arias that were not written for the piece, tonight’s recording uses “the Original Cannons Performing Version of 1718″.

The recording, a lovely package that offers an SACD layer as well as standard stereo, was a finalist in the Baroque Vocal category in the 2009 Gramophone Awards, and also won an Opus d’Or.  It makes striking use of smaller vocal and instrumental ensembles, with the soloists also forming the choir (quite unusual these days), and features Susan Hamilton, Nicholas Mulroy, Thomas Hobbs, Nicholas Hurndall Smith and Matthew Brook; the Dunedin Consort and Players was directed by John Butt.  It should be noted that this is one of a series of striking performances of Baroque-era pieces by this ensemble.  They have also made notable recordings of Messiah, and Bach’s Matthaus-Passion and B-minor Mass.

A title page from a printed copy of the Ezio libretto (Image via Wikipedia)

For our second opera, we heard his 1732 composition Ezio.  Set to a libretto by Metastasio that had been used multiple times in the 10 years prior (and which would be used multiple times for the next 50 years, including two separate operas by Christoph Gluck; a title page from one of those later works can be seen at left), Ezio is notable for the complete absence of vocal ensembles, making it an excellent sample of opera seria.

Unlike tonight’s earlier opera, this opera was notably unsuccessful, and in fact may have been Handel’s worst earning opera, seeing only five performances before being shelved (it would not be resurrected until 1977).  However, like tonight’s earlier opera, it comes to us through a lovely recent recording, part of a series of Handel recordings by Alan Curtis with Il Complesso Barocco.  Also like the previous recording, it makes striking use of a smaller instrumental ensemble.  The soloists were Ann Hallenberg, Karina Gauvin, Sonia Prina, Marianne Andersen, Anicio Giustiniani, and Vito Priante.

The Galaxy – All the music you can Handel, and more!

Georg Frideric Handel, from The Royal Collection (Image via Wikipedia)

When understanding the depth of the works of Georg Frideric Handel, I think it is good to start with some of his keyboard works.  Handel had written most, if not all, of his material for keyboard prior to 1717, but did not publish his first volume of keyboard compositions until 1720.  This was prompted in part because, as he put it in the preface to the volume, “Surrepticious (sp) and incorrect copies of them had got abroad.”  Eventually, he would publish and republish a number of harpsichord works, both as individual pieces and as larger suites.  Tonight we heard first an individual piece, the Passacaile in G minor, HWV 432, then we heard the Suite in F minor, HWV 433, both performed by harpsichordist Bob van Asperen.

A band named after an animal this big should be heavy, right? (Image via Wikipedia)

For several weeks now, I’ve been trying to insert some Mastodon into the playlist, primarily material from their most recent album, The Hunter.  I finally managed to do so tonight, mixing a few new tracks in with some material from older albums Blood Mountain and Leviathan.  We heard Black Tongue (from The Hunter), Hand of Stone (Blood Mountain), Blood and Thunder (Leviathan), Dry Bone Valley (The Hunter), Capillarian Crest (Blood Mountain), and ended the set with Hearts Alive, from Leviathan.

I love it when I have the opportunity to premiere new material, and I have the opportunity tonight to play material that is both old and new at the same time.  Allesandro Striggio (b. 1536/37, d. 1592) was a member of the court of Duke Cosimo I di Medici, and was a friend of Vincenzo Galilei, the father of the infamous Galileo Galilei.  Striggio’s son, of the same name, would eventually write the libretto for Monteverdi’s Orfeo.  He wrote both madrigals and dramatic music, and by combining the two is credited with creating the musical form known as madrigal comedy, an important precursor to opera.  The first mention of tonight’s work, the Missa Ecco si beato giorno, comes in early 1567, when Striggio made a rather difficult journey from Florence to visit Vienna, Munich, and Paris as part of a diplomatic mission for Cosimo I de’ Medici, impressing those in attendance (including the great composer Orlando di Lassus, who was at this time working in Munich).  He eventually made his way to London, where the mass is believed to be one of several works performed.  Enough of an impression was made that noted English composer Thomas Tallis composed his own 40 voice masterwork Spem in Alium in response.  Striggio’s mass was believed lost until musicologist Davitt Moroney unearthed it in Paris in 2005.

For further reading:

• SFGate CD Review: Alessandro Striggio

Johnny Cash at San Quentin album cover (Image via Wikipedia)

We finished the show with a Johnny Cash set, taken from his Live at San Quentin album.  The San Quentin album was one of his first recordings without his longtime guitarist Luther Perkins, who had passed away 7 months earlier.  The differences between the San Quentin album and the previous Folsom Prison album are striking, as Cash replaced Perkins with not one but two guitarists (including Carl Perkins), and also added a drummer.  We heard Big River, I Still Miss Someone, Wreck of the Old 97, I Walk The Line, Darlin’ Companion (with June Carter Cash), I Don’t Know Where I’m Bound, Starkville City Jail, and San Quentin.

WDBX Opera Overnight – Handel, Puccini

Handel, painted by Balthasar Denner (Image via Wikipedia)

Tonight we are going to focus our efforts on two relatively recent recordings, something that I really enjoy doing.  We opened the show with a lovely recording of Handel’s “musical drama” Hercules.  It was composed in the summer of 1744, using a libretto by the Reverend Thomas Broughton, which in turn was based on Sophocles‘s Women of Trachis and the ninth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.  The work was premiered on 5 January 1745, as a concert, as opposed to a stage drama.  As with other Handel works of his oratorio period, the work was written, and is performed, in English.  The late-Baroque era listening public found the piece, with its description of Hercules as an uncommunicative, war-scarred veteran, and its in-depth psychological examination of Hercules’ psyche, a bit too harrowing, and the piece was a relative failure, with only two performances in its original run (Handel was forced to suspend his season), and three more between 1748 and 1752.  However, such things are more common for our modern audiences, and its recent revival began in Münster in 1925.  More recently, Peter Sellars directed a production of the piece for Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011, with Richard Croft and David Daniels from tonight’s 2001 recording reprising their recorded roles.

For further reading:

• Opera review: Peter Sellars stages Handel’s ‘Hercules’ in Chicago
• OperaToday reviews a Luc Bondy production of Hercules at the 2004 Aix en Provence Festival

Tonight’s recording features Anne Sofie von Otter, Gidon Saks, Richard Croft, Lynne Dawson, David Daniels, and Marcos Pujol.  Les Musiciens Du Louvre were directed by Marc Minkowski.

Original 1896 La bohème poster by Adolfo Hohenstein (Image via Wikipedia)

For our next opera, we are going to hear a fairly recent recording of a great work by Giacomo Puccini, La Bohème.  The libretto was written by  Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, which in turn was based on the novel by Henri Murger, Scènes de la vie de bohème.  It was premiered in 1896, in a performance conducted by a very young Arturo Toscanini.  The work was immediately successful, with its modern instrumentation and soaring tenor and soprano arias and duets, and that success only increased going into the 20th century.  It is ranked as the fourth most frequently performed opera in the repertoire, and is one of the major items in the repertoire for both sopranos and tenors.  The great Enrico Caruso was closely associated with the lead tenor role of Rodolfo, and made recordings of several arias from the opera, going back as far as 1906.  One particular aria, “Che gelida manina“, has been recorded by 500 different tenors between 1900 and 1980, and the aria’s melody is one of the most easily recognized arias in the entire repertoire.  Toscanini, the conductor of the premiere, made a complete recording of the piece in 1946 that is the only Puccini opera recorded by the original director.  More recently, the libretto was turned into Rent, a Tony-winning musical, in 1996.

Puccini with Arturo Toscanini, 1900 (Image via Wikipedia)

Another point to note about Puccini’s operas is that he tends to point the way towards the verismo operatic tradition.  Verismo (from the Italian “vero”, meaning “true”), denotes a shift in plots away from the supernatural (i.e. the gods and goddesses of Wagner, or the ancient Egypt of Aida), towards more realistic characterizations.  The music in verist operas tend to blend together seamlessly, offering fewer identifiable solo “numbers”, although there are still some that are frequently isolated and highlighted.  Verismo is associated primarily with composers such as Mascagni, Leoncavallo, or Giordano, but some experts also classify Puccini as being at least partially “verist”.  There are some who describe La Bohème as possibly being the perfect “realist” opera.   In any case, when one listens to Puccini, one hears a distinct progression into the 20th century.  Puccini used lietmotifs to represent characters and concepts, not unlike Wagner, but his lietmotifs tended to be more static.  Puccini also displayed a bit of influence from a number of contemporary trends, including that of impressionism, and this is something that I think can be heard in his arrangement of strings (not terribly unlike the Debussy that we heard last week).  One might make a comparison between Puccini and Richard Strauss – there are clear differences of style and direction, but each composer’s music shows similar qualities in terms of their use of the string section, and the arrangement of the arias.

Tonight’s recording is an excellent recording from 2008, possibly the most recent rendition available, and features the great combo of Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón in the lead roles, along with Nicole Cabel, Boaz Daniel, Stéphane Degout and Vitalij Kowaljow.  Bertrand De Billy conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.

The Galaxy – Rocking some Carpenters!

The Carpenters, meeting with Richard Nixon, 1972 (Image via Wikipedia)

After last night’s Valentine’s Ball (which was truly a blast, hope you enjoyed it as much as Dana and I did!), I wanted to at least start the show tonight with something that fit into a Valentine’s Day theme.  Of course, as I’ve been playing the Carpenters for my girlfriend for the past couple of days (turns out that she didn’t realize that I have some Carpenters in my library).  So that made the choices for my opening set quite easy.  We heard a lovely selection of their classic material: We’ve Only Just Begun, Top of the World, (They Long to Be) Close to You, A Song for You, and Goodbye to Love.

Dave Brubeck Quartet, 1959 (during the Time Out sessions). l-r: Joe Morello, Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck, Eugene Wright (Image via Wikipedia)

While watching the Grammys this evening, I was saddened to hear of the passing of the great jazz drummer Joe Morello.  He did some great work with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and was a fantastic live drummer.  So we heard a few cuts from their classic 1959 album Time Out: Blue Rondo a la Turk, Strange Meadow Lark, Take Five, and finally Kathy’s Waltz (which was marred by a rather grievous technical disruption).

During our Dave Brubeck set, we received a telephone call from a happy listener who wanted to hear some more Carpenters.  I am always happy to take requests, especially when I can actually fill them.  So although I do not have the song that he specifically requested, we were still able to fulfill the request with two more classics: Superstar, and Rainy Days and Mondays.

Milton Babbitt, 1999 (Image via Wikipedia)

Also during the Grammys, I heard of the passing last year of the avant garde composer Milton Babbitt.  Most folks will not be familiar with the work of Milton Babbitt, who actually worked as a math professor at Princeton from 1943-1945, before joining their music faculty.  From there he moved to the faculty of the Julliard School in 1972.  He was hired by RCA, possibly in the late 50s – early 60s, to work on the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, the first programmable synthesizer, and created a number of works for that early keyboard.  The fact is that, while Babbitt’s work was extremely avant guard, using serialist and twelve-tone compositional techniques (about which he wrote several scholarly papers), his work was instrumental in the establishment of the electronic synthesizer as a viable musical instrument – thus, without the work done by Milton Babbitt, the modern musical world as we know it today would be vastly different.  Tonight we heard recordings of two such pieces, his Reflections for Piano and Synthesized tape, as performed by Robert Miller on piano, then his Philomel for Soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound, with Bethany Beardslee singing (the person for whom it was written).

We close the show with some live Jimi Hendrix, from the recently released Winterland box set, recorded live in October of 1968: Tax Free, and Lover Man.

Your Community Spirit 2012 February 10

News includes Occupy Updates Daily; Wall Street Journal’s Willful Climate Lies; States Require Insurers to Plan for Climate Change; Newly Discovered Fungus Eats Plastic. Happenings include International Coffee Hour; Native American Midwinter Feast and Observance at Rice and Spice; Love at the Glove; Occupy Carbondale Movie Night; Vigil for Peace; Southern Illinois Roller Girls; Transpoetic Playground; Gaia House Stakeholder’s Retreat; WDBX Valentine’s Ball.

Pete’s Place Playlist – 2/6/12

George Benson, “White Rabbit” (CTI, 1972). Vintage fusion, covering Jefferson Airplane.

Dave Douglas and Keystone, “Moonshine” (2008). Electo-trumpet. Top modern jazz cat plays different styles with different bands.

Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya “Sotho Blue” (2010). Recalls his great Ekaya (home) band of the early/mid-1980s.

Afro-Cubism, “Jurab” (Nonesuch, 2010)

Gato Barbieri, “Milonga Triste” from Chapter Four: Live in New York (Impluse, 1975 — last of the great Latin Chapters series of early 70s recording by Argentine saxist.

Max Roach, “Driva Man” from We Insist! Freedom Now Suite (1960). Powerful record at dawn of civil rights movement. Earned Max years of being blackballed by the recording industry of America.

Ronald Shannon Jackson, “Lola” from Mandance (1982, Antilles). Harmalodic world music.

Brown/Roach Quintet, “George’s Dilemma” from Study in Brown (1955). The great but ill-fated young trumpeter featured by Max.

Steve Lehaman Octet, “Echos” from Travail, Transformation, and Flow (PI, 2009). Nice modern jazz with vibes in rhythm section.

Don Pullen, “At the Cafe Centrale” from New Beginnings (Blue Note, 1989). Great trio record with Tony Williams on drums. Power Trio jazz.

Bobby Hutcherson, “Little Niles” from In the Vanguard (1986 recording at Village Vanguard). More good vibes.

Dave Holland, “Sands of Time” from Not for Nothing (2001, ECM). More vibes in the great bassist’s tight band that performed at SIU in 2004 or so.

John Scofield (under and out)

WDBX Opera Overnight – Debussy, Stravinsky

Mary Garden, the original Mélisande (Image via Wikipedia)

We began the show with a rather distinctive piece of music, the only opera completed by Claude Debussy.  Debussy began Pelléas et Mélisande in 1893, although he had wanted to write an opera for at least a decade prior.  His delay was in part because he was having difficulty finding a play that would fit the vision that he had for “musical theater”.  He suffered through several aborted attempts, including a libretto based on the legend of El Cid, as he was wanting to avoid the standard operatic plot devices that were popular in that period.  Also important was the influence of Richard Wagner, in an odd sort of way – by 1892 he was tiring of the Wagnerian operatic style, and wanted to go in a completely different direction.  In an 1890 letter, he wrote:

“The ideal would be two associated dreams. No time, no place. No big scene [...] Music in opera is far too predominant. Too much singing and the musical settings are too cumbersome [...] My idea is of a short libretto with mobile scenes. No discussion or arguments between the characters whom I see at the mercy of life or destiny.”

Jean Périer, the original Pelléas (Image via Wikipedia)

In 1892, he found a stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck that he thought would be perfect for the concept that he had envisioned.  Materlinck’s plays were quite popular in the avant garde community in Paris, and Maeterlinck’s Symbolist work was perfectly in line with the material that Debussy was at that time using for his numerous chansons.

The result is like nothing else in the opera canon, a work which is uniquely and distinctively Debussy’s.  Whereas Wagner’s work brings across images of heroes and heroines (i.e. Wotan, Brunhilde, Tristan, Isolde), Debussy’s work is the stuff of dreams, manifested in music.  Instead of writing music, Debussy is sculpting sound.  This sort of thing pretty much falls in line with the rest of Debussy’s work, i.e. La Mer, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, or aforementioned chansons, and easily ranks among Debussy’s best work.  The opera was premiered in 1902 with great success, and is still regularly performed.

In researching other recordings of this great masterpiece, I have stumbled upon this rather revelatory reminiscence by Andre Messager, the conductor who convinced the Opera-Comique to schedule the opera’s premiere, and who conducted it quite successfully.  It is quite interesting:

Andre Messager, who conducted the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande

“The singers read through Pelléas at my house, with no one else present. Debussy played his score on the piano, singing all the roles in that deep, cavernous voice of his which often meant transposing lines an octave down, but whose delivery gradually became irresistible. The impression produced by that music on that occasion was, I believe, unique. To begin with there was a kind of mistrust, a resistance, then an ever closer attention, with the emotional temperature rising until the last notes of ‘Melisande’s death’, which fell amid silence and tears. At the end all of us were carried away with excitement, burning to get down to work as soon as possible.

During the weeks that followed, rehearsals took place amid growing enthusiasm; each scene was gone over twenty times without any of the singers showing the least sign of temper in the face of the composer’s demands – and he was very difficult to satisfy. With the first orchestral read-through began a series of gloomy days and discouraging rehearsals. Debussy had had the generous but unfortunate idea of getting the orchestral material copied by a friend who was hard up, but who was a mediocre copyist and a somewhat rudimentary musician, and it took three or four rehearsals simply to get the corrections sorted out. In the meantime a new difficulty had arisen, of some seriousness, to do with the changes of scene. Although the stage of the Opera-Comique looks fairly large, it has such small exits and such narrow wings that it is impossible to manoeuvre even a flat through them, and we were having to make on average three rapid changes per act! Debussy, imagining that these changes would be more or less instantaneous, had linked the different scenes with music that was far too short. He had to return to work, grumbling and raving, and I went to see him every day to snatch away the notes he had written between one rehearsal and another; that is how he wrote the wonderful interludes which provide such a moving commentary on the action.”

Andre Messager, ‘Les premieres representations de Pelleas,’ ReM, 7, 1 May 1926, pp. 110-12, as quoted in from “Debussy Remembered” by Roger Nichols

Tonight’s recording is a 2000 recording that features Anne Sophie von Otter, Wolfgang Holzmair, Laurent Laouri, with Orchestre National De France and the Choeur de Radio De France, under the baton of Bernard Haitink.

The last of the paintings in A Rake's Progress, by William Hogarth, in which Tom Rakewell has gone insane and has been committed to an asylum (Image via Wikipedia)

For our second opera this evening, we’re going to hear Igor Stravinski’s The Rake’s Progress.  Stravinski wrote the opera in 1951, using a libretto written by his friend W.H. Auden and Chester Kalmann, which in turn was based on a series of paintings by William Hogarth (called A Rake’s Progress) done in 1732-1733.  It was premiered on 9/11-1951, with noted soprano Elisabeth Schwartzkopf creating the role of Anne Trulove (we’ve heard a number of her recordings in the last few months).  The Rake’s Progress was the last work of Stravinsky’s neo-classical period, and he would begin writing serialist music in 1952 (I personally think that one can detect a hint of that sort of direction throughout the opera, although it is definitely in a neo-classical mode; I also think that I detect a bit of Broadway musical influence as well).  Stravinsky was living in the United States at the time, having left Europe in 1939 upon the outbreak of WWII, and I have no doubt that this is part of the reason why this opera was written in English, which we are told was quite a struggle for him.

Igor Stravinsky (Image via Wikipedia)

Tonight’s recording is a 1994 recording, currently out of print but can be acquired used (possibly reissued here), that features Jon Garrison, Jayne West, Arthur Woodley, Shirley Love and John Cheek.  The Orchestra of St. Luke, and the Greg Smith Singers, are directed by Robert Craft, who was a close confidant of Stravinsky’s during the writing of the opera.  Interestingly enough, a bit of research suggests several recordings can be found with Stravinsky himself conducting, including a recording of the world premiere, with Elisabeth Schwartzkopf and Robert Rounseville.

The Galaxy – Carbondale’s own little Schubertiade

An 1897 painting of a Schubertiade, by Julius Schmid (Image via Wikipedia)

There are several things that I enjoy doing on an annual basis as part of my Galaxy schedule.  One of these things came about last week, my annual observance of Mozart’s birthday.  I also enjoy doing Bach’s birthday when it comes along.  This week finds us doing another one of those things, my observance of the birthday of Franz Schubert.  I like to call it my own little “Schubertiade“, after the annual celebrations of Schubert’s life and music that are held in many places around Europe, most notably the annual festival held in Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, in western Austria (near Lake Constance).  The Austrian Schubertiades are the result of a tradition that extends back to Schubert’s lifetime (he is said to have attended many), and the Schwarzenberg/Hohenems festival annually attracts some of the biggest names in lieder and chamber music performance, many of whose recordings can be heard on this program (and on WDBX Opera Overnight, which follows The Galaxy) on a regular basis.

Schubert's autograph of the Octet, according to some scholars a possible version of his so-called Gastein Symphony

We started tonight’s set with a favorite recording of Schubert’s Octet in F major, from 1987.  The Octet was composed in 1824, during the same time period as two of his other major works, Rosamunde and Der Tod und Der Madchen string quartets.  The composition was requested by Ferdinand Troyer, an Austrian nobleman and renowned amateur clarinetist, who wanted a work similar to Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat major (Op. 20).  Schubert took the concept but fleshed it out by adding a second violin, making it an octet.  The composition was completed on 1 March 1824, and Troyer participated in the work’s premiere.  Tonight’s recording is by a combo led by Gidon Kremer, with Isabelle van Keulen, Tabea Zimmermann, David Geringas, Alois Posch, Eduard Brunner, Radovan Vlatkovic, and Klaus Tunnemann.

Der Tod und das Mädchen, Hans Baldung Grien, 1517 (Image via Wikipedia)

1824 was an important year for Schubert, as he wrote, in addition to the Octet and the Rosemunde string quartet, his Die schöne Müllerin song cycle, 20 individual songs, a number of light piano pieces, and the String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, a string quartet that he based on one of his songs, Der Tod und das Mädchen (from 1817).  The quartet was first performed in a private home in 1826, and was not published until 3 years after Schubert’s death, yet has become one of the staples of string quartet performance.  The original lied is quoted at the beginning of the second movement, and another lied that is associated with death, Der Erlkönig, is quoted in the fourth movement.  Tonight’s recording is a 1994 recording by the Lydian String Quartet.

We closed out the show with a brief but lovely selection of Schubert’s lieder.  Really, it is hard to have an effective retrospective of Schubert’s crucial works without the inclusion of at least some of his lieder.  Through the lied one not only hears his amazing ability at composing a cunning melody, but also his ability to write a piano line that is simultaneously light yet virtuosic, a part that supports the vocalist yet stands on its own as being worthy of attention.  He wrote over 600 songs, many of which fit into specific song cycles such as Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.  We heard a pair of songs tonight that do not come from such song cycles, starting with Das Lied im Grünen, D.917, an 1827 setting of verses by the Austrian actor Frederich Reil.  Lastly, we heard his 1817 setting of a Goethe verse, Liebhaber In Allen Gestalten, D. 558.  These come from a classic set of recordings from 1972 and 1973 by the fine Dutch recitalist Elly Ameling, accompanied by Dalton Baldwin.

Your Community Spirit 2012 February 03

News includes Occupy Updates Daily; Save Gaia House; Vegetarianism Becomes Passe; Ads on School Buses. Happenings include International Coffee Hour; Ethiopian at Rice and Spice; Vigil for Peace; International Day of Solidarity with Leonard Peltier; Transpoetic Playground; Interveg.

Pete’s Place – 1/30/12

Charlie Hunter Trio “Greasy Granny” (Bing, Bing, Bing – Blue Note, 1995). Leader’s 8-string guitar with sax and drums.

Charles Mingus “Moanin’” from Blues & Roots (Atlantic, 1960?). Pepper Adams on baritone sax.

Lounge Lizards “Harlem Nocturne” (1981). Punk jazz reading of Ellington’s tune (the Mike Hammer theme).

James Farm, “Polliwag” from 2011 album (Nonesuch) with Joshua Redman sax. Very mature sounding jazz.

Mose Allison, “It Didn’t Turn Out That Way”. Beat philosophy.

Poncho Sanchez and Terrance Blanchard, “Chano Pazo Medley” from Chano Y Dizzy (2011, Concord). Cubano jazz.

Grachan Moncur III, “The Coaster” from Evolution (1964, Blue Note). New Thing from 60s. Slightly avant; interesting.

Vijay Iyer, “Polytheism” from Tirtha (ACT, 2011). Piano player explores Indian heritage with guitar and tabla.

11th House with Larry Coryell, “Low Lee Tah” (1974, Vanguard). Fusion with guitar and “electric” trumpet.

Charles Tolliver, “Paper Man” from 1968 recording of same name. Nice New Thing/Hard Bop trumpet.

Freddie Hubbard, “Far Away” from Breaking Point (1964, Blue Note). More New Thing with Indianapolis trumpeter’s most out record, featuring fellow Nap Town player James Spaulding on flute.

Stanton Moore, “Stanton Hits the Bottle” from All Kooked Out (1998 debut for Galactic drummer.

(archive playlists at Peteplace.wordpress.com)

WDBX Opera Overnight: Mozart and Haydn

Cherubino hides in the chair as the Count arrives - anonymous 18th century watercolor (Image via Wikipedia)

We are celebrating Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s January 27^th birthday with some appropriate music.  Mozart wrote 23 operas, starting when he was 11 years old.  11 of them are still in the regular opera repertoire, and they comprise some of the greatest works in the operatic canon.  We’re going to hear one of those works tonight, Le Nozze di Figaro – the Marriage of Figaro.  This opera buffa (comic opera) was written in 1784, with a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte that was based on a stage play by Pierre Beaumarchais.  The stage play was quite controversial in its day (it was actually banned in Vienna), to the point where Mozart and Da Ponte edited some anti-Imperial speeches out and replaced them with arias that complained about unfaithful wives.  Although Emperor Joseph II approved the opera (he approved the libretto before any music was written), he may not have if the editing had not occurred, and he was present at the premiere.  His admonition concerning the length of performances and encores:

“To prevent the excessive duration of operas, without however prejudicing the fame often sought by opera singers from the repetition of vocal pieces, I deem the enclosed notice to the public (that no piece for more than a single voice is to be repeated) to be the most reasonable expedient. You will therefore cause some posters to this effect to be printed.” (quoted from Mozart: A Documentary Biography, by Otto Erich Deutsch)

A 1786 libretto (Image via Wikipedia)

The emperor must have really liked the opera, as he requested a special performance at his palace theater the next month.  The emperor was not alone.  Joseph Haydn is said to have told a friend that he heard the opera in his dreams, and he attempted to produce the work in the Eszterhazy palace, but was prevented from doing so by his patron’s death.

The Wiener Realzeitung reviewed the opera on 17 July 1786.  It noted the presence of hecklers that interfered with the performance, which are suggested to have possibly been paid.  But the review was generally positive:

“Mozart’s music was generally admired by connoisseurs already at the first performance, if I except only those whose self-love and conceit will not allow them to find merit in anything not written by themselves.

The public, however … did not really know on the first day where it stood. It heard many a bravo from unbiassed connoisseurs, but obstreperous louts in the uppermost storey exerted their hired lungs with all their might to deafen singers and audience alike with their St! and Pst; and consequently opinions were divided at the end of the piece.

Apart from that, it is true that the first performance was none of the best, owing to the difficulties of the composition.

But now, after several performances, one would be subscribing either to the cabal or to tastelessness if one were to maintain that Herr Mozart’s music is anything but a masterpiece of art.

It contains so many beauties, and such a wealth of ideas, as can be drawn only from the source of innate genius.” (also quoted from Deutsch)

The overture is one of the more easily recognized pieces of classical music, but it is interesting to note that, unlike most overtures, the themes stated in the overture are not used anywhere else in the opera, except for two brief phrases that are used in Act 1.  Another interesting technical note is that, except for one aria in Act 4, Le Nozze di Figaro was written entirely in major keys.

The opera achieved immediate and long-standing success, and is now ranked as the fifth most performed opera in the catalog.

Tonight’s recording is a 1994 recording (apparently recently reissued last year by Deutsche Grammophon, the original label), with the following cast:

• Lucio Gallo,
• Sylvia McNair,
• Cheryl Studer,
• Boje Skovhus – Danish baritone who has worked frequently in Vienna
• Cecelia Bartoli – considered a coloratura mezzo-soprano with an unusual timbre.  She is one of the most highly regarded modern opera singers, and is well known for her Mozart and Rossini roles, as well as for her work in the baroque and early classical repertoire.

The Vienna State Opera Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic are conducted by Claudio Abbado.

Josef Haydn, c. 1772 (Image via Wikipedia)

For our second opera of the evening, we heard a recording that I’ve been working to acquire for several weeks, Armida, by Mozart’s friend Joseph Haydn.  In his time, Haydn was actually better known for his operas than for his other material, even though the reverse might be true today (he is considered the “father” of the symphony and the string quartet, and made important contributions to the piano trio and sonata forms).  But opera was in fact a staple of the entertainment options preferred at the Esterházy court, and it served as Haydn’s ticket to success – indeed, an opera, Der Krumme Teufel, often translated as “The Limping Devil,” is one of Haydn’s early works, dating to his freelance days (the music is lost, although two librettos survive).  While he wrote a total of 24 operas, he considered Armida to be one to be one of his best.  He premiered it on Feb. 26, 1784, and it was quite successful in his time.  However, it disappeared from the opera repertoire for a number of years (I suspect for the same reasons that the works of men like Lully, Gluck and Hasse were also seldom performed), before being revived in 1968 in Berlin.  Happily, with the advent of the interest in early music performance and practices, works such as this have reemerged into the public consciousness.

To my knowledge, there are only two recordings of this opera: a 1993 recording with Jessye Norman in the title role, and that which we have here tonight.  Tonight’s performance, like our previous opera, features Cecilia Bartoli (just worked out that way), with the following cast:

• Cecilia Bartoli
• Christoph Prégardien – German lyric tenor who has done much work with Mozart, recital and oratorio material.
• Patricia Petibon – French coloratura soprano who specializes in French Baroque music.
• Oliver Widmer – Swiss baritone who studied with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.  He married Cecilia Bartoli in 2011.
• Scot Weir – American lyric tenor who is noted for his performance in the Bach Evangelist roles (re: Bach’s two Passion works)
• Markus Schäfer – German tenor who specializes in music from the Baroque and earlier eras.  He has also done lieder recitals.

The Concentus Musicus Wein is conducted by Nicolas Harnoncourt.

The Galaxy – The special music of a special man

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, painted c. 1780 (Image via Wikipedia)

January 27th marks the 256th birthday of the great composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  It seems only fitting that we mark the occasion with some appropriate selections from this great composer.

We started off the set with a fine recording of the Requiem Mass, KV. 626.  The story behind the work is the stuff of legend: the mysterious commission from an anonymous benefactor (which eventually proved to be Count Franz von Walsegg), Mozart’s attempts at multi-tasking (he completed Die Zauberflote, wrote his well-known Clarinet Concerto and did some other things while working on the Requem), his illness (he first became ill on 20 November 1791), and eventual passing on 5 December; the struggle by his widow, Constanze, to assemble some form of a finished product, with the help of Mozart’s closest associates (most notably Franz Xaver Süßmayr), so that she might receive the balance of the fee owed by von Walsegg.  Indeed this is the sort of stuff that makes for good movies (which, in fact, it did).  But, while the fact is that we are listening to a work that Mozart left unfinished, which was completed by others, this should not diminish in our eyes the exquisite beauty of this masterpiece.  The fact is that the Requiem represents part of a chain of events and compositions which suggests the composer was in the process of exploring a number of interesting new ideas and directions at the time of his passing.  Tonight’s recording is a 1995 recording by Les Arts Florissants, with William Christie directing.

We followed the Requiem with the aforementioned Clarinet Concerto, K. 622.  The Clarinet Concerto was actually written for a new variety of clarinet then being championed by noted clarinetist Anton Standler, a basset clarinet that extends the range of the B flat and A clarinets down to a low C.  Interestingly, Mozart’s publisher made an arrangement of the concerto with the low notes transposed into a normal clarinet’s range, but never published the original, and the original itself has been lost.  Although there have been attempts at reconstructing the original, with special clarinets built to accommodate the range required for the work, the work we hear tonight I believe to be the altered version.  Regardless, the melodies set forth by this work are instantly memorable and strikingly beautiful, truly a joy to the ear, and the work ranks among the key parts of the clarinet musical catalog.  Tonight’s recording is a 1972 recording by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, under the baton of Sir Neville Marriner, featuring Jack Brymer on clarinet.

We closed the evening with one of Mozart’s early works, his Serenade No. 1 in D major, K100/62a.  It was written in the summer of 1769 (he was 14), and apparently was written for a party given for the retirement of a Salzburg University professor.  It was most likely written for outdoors performance (remember our discussion of serenatas from a few weeks ago?).  Here we have demonstrated his considerable technical skills, even at such a young age.   Tonight we heard a 1970 recording by the Vienna Mozart Ensemble as directed by Willi Boskovsky.

Related articles

• WDBX Opera Overnight – Johann Adolf Hasse, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (wdbx.wordpress.com) – our discussion of the composition of serenatas from a few weeks ago

Your Community Spirit 2012 January 27

Today’s song is Brighid’s Kiss by Triniti. News includes Occupy Updates Daily; Land Swap on Shawnee National Forest Received Negatively; Schoolkids Want Lorax To Be More Tree-Huggy; McDonald’s Discovers Social Media Can Backfire When People Hate You; Agriculture Gets Climate Pass. Happenings include Raw Foods at Rice and Spice; Winter Folkstravaganza at Cousin Andy’s Coffeehouse; The People vs. Monsanto; Vigil for Peace; Music Showcase at Big Muddy IMC; Presentation by Two Regional Anarchists.

Pete’s Place playlist – 1/23/12

Stanton Moore, “Green Chimneys” from All Kooked Up, the drummer’s 1998 debut album away from his jam-band group Galactice.

Poncho Sanchez and Terrance Blachard, “Groovin’ High” from Chano Y Dizzy (2011). The Gillespie be-bop classic.

Stephon Harris, David Sanches, Christian Scott, “Black Action Figure” from Ninty Miles. The jazz vibist, tenor saxman, and trumpet dude travel the 90 miles to Havanna to record with Cuban rhythm section. Nice 2011 record (from Pete’s annual music Christmas music present from Pat).

Arthur Blythe , “Down San Diego Way” from Lennox Avenue Breakdown. One of the great records of 1980s jazz. The leader’s distinctive high-pitched alto sax surrounded by cello, chunka guitar (Blood Ulmer), tuba, and flute. What a band!

Wes Montgomery, “4 on 6″ from The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. Second LP for Riverside records, considered his all-time best straight jazz session by many aficianados. The thumb-strumming, the “ocatives” device.

Vijay Iyer, “Duality” from Tirtha. More Christmas music — favorite record from 2011. Pianist with Indiana heritage leading trio with guitar and tabla. Nice.

McCoy Tyner, “Celestial Chant” from Trident (1975, Milestone). Tyner’s power block chords played on celeste?! With Elvin Jones (fellow member of John Coltrane’s great mid-60s quartet) on drums and Ron Carter on bass. Great record that’s long appealed to listeners with “rock ears”.

Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Positivos “Aurroa En Pekin”. Easy jazz y cubano (1998).

Sonny Clark, “Blue Minor” from Cool Struttin’ (1958, Blue Note). Classic soul jazz with leader on piano, Jackie McLearn’s arid also sax, and Art Farmer on trumpet. Deeply swinging.

Pat Martino “Inside Out” from Undesirable (2011). Guitarist recorded in 2009 at a Washington DC nightclub.

WDBX Opera Overnight: Donizetti, Verdi

We started tonight’s show with a classic recording of Gaetano Donizetti‘s Lucia di Lammermoor.  The opera was written in 1835, and loosely based on Sir Walter Scott’s Bride of Lammermoor, which itself was loosely based on real-life events that occurred (or may have occurred – the events themselves are shrouded in mystery) in 1669, involving the Scottish Lord Stairs and his Dalrymple family.  In Donizetti’s time, Scottish lore and folklore was quite popular, rife as it was with at times violent melodrama.  This, along with the various Scottish stereotypical characters that were popular at the time, were the ideal formula for an opera, and Donizetti’s opera became a opera house staple, a showpiece for coloratura sopranos and lyric tenors.

This is especially the case with Lucia’s “mad scene” (Spargi d’amaro pianto) that takes place near the end of the opera, where she sings solo, in some instances without orchestral accompaniment.  The “bel canto” tradition (of which Donizetti was a leading proponent) called for performers to augment the written parts with ornamentation so as to demonstrate their technical abilities, and this is usually the case with the “mad scene”.  But it is not just a piece dominated by the sopranos – there are significant parts for lyric tenors, and a baritone-bass part is quite prominent as well.

Donizetti actually wrote the opera in Italian and French versions, with the French version being premiered in 1839.  French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay famously participated in a well-received revival of the French version in 1998 at the Opéra National de Lyon, a 2002 recording of which is available through EMI (Dessay actually made two recordings of the French version that year).  Chandos Records has also released a recording of the Italian version performed in English.

Image via Wikipedia

Tonight’s performance is a classic from 1972, with the following cast:

• Joan Sutherland – Australian who was possibly one of the greatest coloratura sopranos of the 20th century.  Although she was not known for the correctness of her diction, her singing technique was legendary, and her upper range was superlative, almost supernatural.  She was best known for her bel canto roles, and Lucia di Lammermoor was her breakthrough role.  Her technical demonstration during the aforementioned “mad scene” is quite spectacular.  The vast majority of her recordings were made under the baton of her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge.
• Luciano Pavarotti – Pavarotti made his American debut in 1965 in Lucia di Lammermoor, opposite Sutherland, and it was his bel canto singing that helped drive his success.  In particular, Pavarotti credited Sutherland with teaching him the breathing technique that he felt sustained him over the course of his career.  So this proves to be an important recording document in Pavarotti’s catalog.
• Sherrill Milnes – a Downer’s Grove, Illinois native who studied music education at Drake and Northwestern (he pledged with the Alpha Beta chapter of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha at Drake in 1954).  He was well known for his performances in various Verdi operas, and was one of the more prominent Verdi baritones during the ’70s and ’80s.  He is currently a professor emeritus in voice at Northwestern.
• Nicolai Ghiaurov – a Bulgarian bass who was considered the most prominent bass of the post-WWII period.  He was often associated with Verdi roles, and at some point we have an excellent recording of him doing the title role in Moussorgsky’s Boris Godunov that will be featured in a future WDBX Opera Overnight broadcast.
• Ryland Davies – lyric tenor from Britain who is known for a variety of roles.  In addition to his performance schedule, he currently teaches voice at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
• Huguette Tourangeau – a 1964 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, the French-Canadian mezzo-soprano became a frequent collaborator of Sutherland and Richard Bonynge.  She was featured in a recent article in OperaNews, where she credits Bonynge for helping her understand and improve her technique and range.
• Pier Francesco Poli

Richard Bonynge, Sutherland’s husband, conducts the Royal Opera House Orchestra & Chorus.

Kirsten Flagstad as Aida (Image via Wikipedia)

Our second opera of the evening is Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, sometimes spelled Aïda.  Verdi was commissioned to write the opera in 1871 by Is’mail Pasha, then the Khedive (term for viceroy used by the then-ruling Ottoman Empire) of Egypt, who paid him 150,000 francs.  Verdi used a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni based on an idea by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette.  The opera was premiered on December 24, 1871 in Cairo, but Verdi was irritated when he discovered that the attendance was limited to special invited guests of the Khedive.  So he considered its European premiere, at La Scala in Milan on February 8, 1872, to be the true premiere, and involved himself extensively in the production.  Verdi purposefully wrote the opera without an opening overture, using a brief prelude instead.  Eventually he did write an overture, but was quite dissatisfied with the outcome (he disliked its “pretentious insipidity”), and declined to have it performed; the overture is rarely performed today.

The aforementioned Milan performance was vastly successful, and major opera houses across Europe and the rest of the world quickly moved to include the opera in the repertoire.  Its dynamic and demanding roles for soprano and tenor often attract the best talent.  Aida is now ranked as the 13th most performed opera, and has been performed more than 1,100 times at the Met.  It was also the first opera to be televised (with Arturo Toscanini conducting, in 1949), and the story was recently used by Elton John and Tim Rice as the basis for a Broadway musical.

Leontyne Price in 2008 (Image via Wikipedia)

Tonight’s recording is a 1962 performance featuring:

• Leontyne Price – One of the first African American singers to regularly take leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera.  She is officially considered a “lyrico spinto”,  a “pushed lyric” soprano – one that can easily achieve the high notes of a lyric soprano, yet who can also handle dramatic climaxes; lyrico spintos usually have a darker timbre than lyric sopranos, and can handle heavier roles that would potentially damage lyric soprano voices; Verdi wrote many roles for spintos, as did Puccini, and there are a number of roles in Wagnerian pieces that attract spintos.  Her vocal type meant that she was considered ideal for Verdi roles.
• Jon Vickers – Canadian heldentenor who was highly regarded for his vocal quality and acting technique.  His presence is an excellent indicator of the frequency at which Wagnerians will cross over to do Aida.
• Robert Merrill – born Moishe Miller to Polish immigrants, Merrill was a widely admired baritone who made more than 700 appearances at the Met in 21 different roles.  He made at least 23 recordings of complete operas.
• Rita Gorr – Belgian mezzo-soprano who was especially noted for her portrayal of Amneris in Aida.  Her other roles ranged from Ortrud in Lohengrin to Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, and sang the role of the Countess in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades in 2007, at age 81.  She passed away Sunday, January 22nd (indeed, yesterday), a fact that was completely unknown to me until I was actively composing this blog entry (I’m still having difficulty finding info on this fact).
• Franco Riccardi.

Sir Georg Solti conducted the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro del’Opera di Roma.

The Galaxy – Etta James; Burns Night

Album cover from At Last, Etta James' first album (Image via Wikipedia)

We started off tonight’s show with a remembrance of the great r&b vocalist Etta James, who passed away Friday at the age of 73.  Millions of listeners will remember her for her great ’60 classic At Last.  But her catalog goes far beyond that, with samplings of classic r&b, soul, and early ’60s pop.  Although she recorded right up to the point where Alzheimer’s wouldn’t let her go anymore, we focused tonight on a nice sampling from her prime period, between ’60 and ’68.  We heard At Last, All I Could Do is Cry, If I Can’t Have You, A Sunday Kind of Love, My Dearest Darling, Security, and I’d Rather Go Blind.

Related articles

• Beyonce Mourns Etta James’ Death (juseebuzz.wordpress.com)
• Etta James’s legacy will live on (Boston Globe article)
• Etta James, the husky-voiced R&B singer, dies at 73 (Philadelphia Inquirer article)

Cover of Brilliant Corners

Then we heard two songs from the great jazz pianist, Thelonious Monk, from his great ’56 album Brilliant Corners.  Sonny Rollins was hired for the date as a sideman, right as his own breakthrough album, Saxophone Colossus, was about to be released.  Monk was a bit of a challenge to work with, so to have a great saxophonist like Sonny Rollins leads to some absolutely tremendous music, which is certainly the case here, as is demonstrated by these recordings of Brilliant Corners and Pannonica.

Being of Scottish descent, it seems only appropriate that I find a way to celebrate Burns Night musically.  Of course, when doing this, one must take care to actually play Scottish music, as opposed to Irish music (nothing against Irish bands, of which there are a great many fine examples that I have enjoyed playing on the show).  But this is, after all, a SCOTTISH holiday, celebrating the life and work of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (you may know his song Auld Lang Syne, or his poem A Red, Red Rose).

Robert Burns (Image via Wikipedia)

When listening to Celtic music, it is good to note the practice of blending songs and melodies together to form new combinations that make up the larger song.  This is a long-standing practice in Celtic music, and one will find this in both traditional folk settings and in recordings and performances of bagpipe bands.  This is actually one of the interesting facets of Celtic music, given the strong tradition of folk music among Celtic peoples.  This allows the numerous traditional melodies and songs (many of which were collected and transcribed by Robert Burns) to take on new life and new contexts.

It is also interesting to note the numerous, intertwining connections between Celtic music and other forms of music.  Like with other forms of music, Celtic music does not live in a vacuum.  For many years Celtic music has influenced, and in turn has taken influence from, numerous other musical roots and forms, ranging from English folk music to pop and rock music.  Also, as Scottish families have emigrated to various locations around the world (i.e. the US, Canada, Australia, etc.), they brought their music with them.  I personally would categorize at least some of the roots of bluegrass music as having come from various forms of Celtic music, as there were many settlers of Scottish and Irish descent who settled in the Appalachians.  So, the act of examining the roots of Celtic music also has the potential to bring one to a better understanding of  some of the roots present in American music.

Members of Silly Wizard perform at Celtic Connexions with Phil Cunningham and Friends - February 2007 (Image via Wikipedia)

So we started this set with a few from The Boys of the Lough (especially appropriate coming from me, as their fiddler, Aly Bain, hails from the Shetland Islands, the same region that my own family lived in for 125 years) : Da Cold Nights o’ Winter/Da Blue Yow/Da Spirit o’ Whiskey, Da Fields o’ Foula/Garster’s Dream/Da Brig (Foula is one of the islans in the Shetland Islands chain, located halfway between Shetland and Norway and owned by Scotland), Da Day Dawn/The Papa Stour Sword Dance/The Cross Reel (Papa Stour is another island in the Shetland Islands chain), and The Greenland Man’s Tune/Da Forfit o’ Da Ship/Green Grow da Radishes (all from their album Midwinter’s Night Dream).  Then we heard a few from the fine Scottish band from the ’80s, Silly Wizard: A Scarce O’ Tatties/Lyndhurst, Donald McGillavry/O’Neill’s Cavalry March, The Valley of Strathmore (all from their album So Many Partings), and A.B. Corsi (The Lad from Orkney)/Ril Bheara/Richard Dwyer’s Reels (from their album Wild and Beautiful).  Then we heard from Nomos – Wing Commander Donald MacKensie’s/Andy Renwick’s Ferret/Diaran Tourish’s Reel and All The Ways You Wander, from their album I Won’t Be Afraid Anymore.  Quite a toe-tapping set!

Next, for a change of pace, we heard from a gospel group that toured various local churches during the mid-70s, The Family.  Comprised of a group of missionaries who met while at Youth With A Mission’s evangelism school in Switzerland, they made an album, Fresh Fruit, which has some great songs with some exquisite vocal harmonies.  While I don’t remember the event, I’m certain that I have to have been present at one of their performances, with my parents, at which point my mother bought one of their LPs (on the MannaFest Music label, out of San Diego).  It is a shame that such lovely music like this might be forgotten in this modern digital age.  Happily, modern technology allows us to capture and archive such past glories.  Tonight, we heard Teach Us Dear Lord, Temple Song and Two Roads.

We closed the show with a few songs from Keith Green, an early member of the “Contemporary Christian” trend in the ’70s.  Interestingly enough, there is a hidden connection between Keith Green and the previous set from The Family – Steve Greisen, member of The Family (now a film executive), eventually married Nelly Ward, member of another Contemporary Christian act, 2nd Chapter of Acts.  Nelly’s sister, Annie Ward (later Annie Herring), co-wrote The Easter Song, one of Green’s best-known songs.  From Keith Green, we heard Trials Turned to Gold, Asleep in the Light, and My Eyes are Dry.

Your Community Spirit 2012 January 20

Today’s song was End of the World by Danny Dolinger. News includes Occupy Updates Daily; Land Swap on the Shawnee National Forest; Pedestrians Get Blamed For Getting Killed While Wearing Headphones; Keystone XL a Win For Now. Happenings include International Coffee Hour; Chinese New Year at Rice and Spice; Vigil for Peace; Environmental Policy Workshop; Teach-In in Honor of Margie Parker.

WDBX Opera Overnight – Johann Adolf Hasse, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Johann Adolf Hasse (Image via Wikipedia)

One of the things that I’ve found most interesting during the course of WDBX Opera Overnight is the chance to get to know some really interesting pieces of music written by composers who, for one reason or another, have become forgotten over time.  Sometimes this happens because the material is mediocre, but sometimes it happens because of circumstances beyond the composer’s control.  Oftentimes the material is perfectly good, yet the composer gets caught up in a time of transition, when the changing tastes of a fickle public leave him behind.  Such a thing happened to Johann Sebastian Bach, whose works were ignored by the listening public for almost a hundred years.

It was with this thought that we started tonight’s WDBX Opera Overnight with a 2011 Grammy nominated recording of a 1725 work by Johann Adolf Hasse.  Marc Antony and Cleopatra is actually referred to as a serenata, defined at the time as a large-scale work with a minimal amount of staging, intermediate between a cantata and an opera, and often performed outdoors, which would allow for the use of certain louder instruments (i.e. trumpets, horns and drums). The work was popular enough that it secured for Hasse a commission to write an opera for the Holy Roman Court (ruled at the time by Charles VI).

Metastasio

The libretto was written by Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, usually known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, the premiere librettest of his day and one of the primary writers of opera seria libretti.  Metastasio is said to have worked so closely with Hasse that, at one point late in his career, Hasse was given first shot at all of Metastasio’s texts

One of the more interesting things about Johann Hasse is the fact that he was admired by both Bach, and years later by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Johann Forkel, a noted early Bach biographer (he corresponded with C.P.E. and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach), writes:

“In Dresden, at the time that Hasse was maestro di capella, the orchestra and opera were quite brilliant and excellent. Bach had, even in his earlier years, many acquaintances there, all of whom honoured him. Also Hasse, with his wife, the celebrated Faustina, had come often to Leipzig and admired his great talents. He was therefore always received in an especially respectful manner at Dresden, and often went there to hear the opera. His eldest son usually accompanied him. A few days before he left, he would say in joke, Friedemann, shall we not go again to hear the lovely little Dresden songs?’. As innocent as this joke is in itself, I am convinced that Bach would not have said it to anybody except his son, who, at that time, already knew what is great in art and what is pretty and pleasant”

Later, in 1765, a 9 year old Mozart wrote as a dedication for his Opus 3 the following:

“Let me live, and one day I will offer to her [the queen ] a gift worthy of her and of you [ the Genius of Music]; because with your help, I will equal the glory of all the great men of my country, I will become as immortal as Handel and Hasse, and my name will be as famous as that of [ Johann Christian ] Bach.”

So, then, if Hasse was so well-regarded, how did he get relegated to the forgotten music file?  During the 1760s, as composers such as Christoph Gluck brought about stylistic changes that moved tastes away from the opera seria style that Hasse wrote in, Hasse represented a sort of conservative old guard.  Charles Burney, the noted music historian, explained it thusly:

Party runs as high among poets, musicians and their adherents, at Vienna as elsewhere. Metastasio and Hasse, may be said, to be at the head of one of the principal sects; and Calsabigi and Gluck of another. The first, regarding all innovations as quackery, adhere to the ancient form of the musical drama, in which the poet and musician claim equal attention from an audience; the bard in the recitatives and narrative parts; and the composer in the airs, duos and choruses. The second party depend more on theatrical effects, propriety of character, simplicity of diction, and of musical execution, than on, what they style flowery description, superfluous similes, sententious and cold morality, on one side, with tiresome symphonies, and long divisions, on the other.

Of course, something similar happened with the music of Bach.  Of course, the advantage Bach had was that not only did he write music for performance, but also music for instruction.  Even when his music wasn’t being performed, Bach’s music was still influential, with Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms all learning their lessons from the master’s works.  Hasse, on the other hand, wrote music meant to be performed, and when it wasn’t being performed, it became forgotten.

Tonight’s recording was recorded in 2010 by the Ars Lyrica Houston, with Matthew Dirst, conducting from the harpsichord, and features Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano, as Marc Antony, and Ava Pine, soprano, as Cleopatra.

Original libretto to Idomeneo, printed in Italian and German (Image via Wikipedia)

Our second opera of the evening is Mozart’s Idomeneo (full title: Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante; translated – King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante), K 366.  The libretto was written by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been used for a similarly titled opera by André Campra in 1712.  Mozart and Varesco were commissioned by Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, to write an opera for a court carnival in 1780, and the Elector may have chosen the subject (as was common with these sorts of commissions).  The libretto clearly draws inspiration from the above-mentioned Metasasio, and as such acts as a return to the opera seria form that had been championed by Hasse, and which had recently fallen out of popularity (a fact that dovetails with our discussion of Mozart’s appreciation of Hasse).  It was premiered on 29 January 1781 in Munich, with the 25 year old Mozart conducting, and achieved considerable success.  This success began a chain of events which led to Mozart’s relocation from Salzburg to Vienna.

Tonight’s recording, from 2001, features Ian Bostridge, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (a most excellent mezzo-soprano, who sadly passed away a few years ago from breast cancer; several of her recordings have won posthumous Grammy awards), Lisa Milne, Barbara Frittoli, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Paul Charles Clarke, and John Relyea. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Dunedin Consort (an excellent early-music organization), along with the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, are conducted by Sir Charles MacKerras.

The Galaxy – Enjoying some chop suey

The Heebie Jeebies single (Image via Wikipedia)

One of my constant joys that come from my weekly presentation of the Galaxy is the opportunity to present historical music – that is, music of great historical significance.  I’ve got quite a bit of that sort of thing lined up for tonight, and the pleasure that I get from it has no end.  Of course, I get the most pleasure when the music is of the highest quality, and the early recordings of Louis Armstrong provide just that.  He is credited as being one of the early innovators in jazz, and that reputation is justly deserved.  Some of the innovations that he is credited with occurred during the course of these recordings.

Lil Hardin Armstrong (Image via Wikipedia)

The recordings that we are hearing tonight come from the sessions that he recorded with his Hot Fives combo, which was put together in part by his wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong.  She was the second of his four marriages, but her role in the shaping of his career was crucial.  She convinced him to come to Chicago, and then when he was playing second trumpet to King Oliver, she convinced him that he could do more, and that he should front his own band.  Of course, no great jazz achievement is made without ample instrumental assistance, and the Armstrongs put together a top-notch team – Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet and occasional alto sax, Johnny St. Cyr on banjo, with Lil herself on piano.  Tonight we heard My Heart (a composition of Lil’s), Come Back, Sweet Papa, Heebie Jeebies (probably the first recorded sampling of Armstrong skatting, and one of the earliest examples of recorded scat singing, period), Cornet Chop Suey, Georgia Grind (featuring Lil singing), Oriental Strut, Muskrat Ramble, I’m Gonna Gitcha (with a rather striking Armstrong vocal), and finally Don’t Forget to Mess Around.

(I think it is important not to miss one of the most interesting side-notes that one never hears – in the midst of a male-dominated musical genre – even today, one doesn’t often see female jazz instrumentalists, although they are more common than they once were – not only do you have a female performing on one of the notable historic recordings in jazz history, but without her intervention, we might not have heard of Louis Armstrong.  Indeed, had not Lil Hardin Armstrong pushed Louis to first move to Chicago, and then to form the Hot Five, jazz may have been totally different from what we now have.)

Billie Holiday, NYC, c. Feb, 1947

Next up on the list is the great Billie Holiday, in some of her earliest recording dates, and matched up with some of the greatest instrumentalists in jazz.  We started with What A Little Moonlight Can Do (with Roy Eldridge, Benny Goodman, and Ben Webster, among others), These Foolish Things, Summertime (with Artie Shaw and Bunny Berigan swapping lead lines), Easy To Love, I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (with a lovely Ben Webster solo), I Must Have That Man (an early match-up between her and Lester Young, with Buck Clayton also in there on trumpet and Benny Goodman on clarinet), Me, Myself and I (note Buck Clayton’s riffing under Billie’s singing), I Can’t Get Started (a great Gershwin tune that features a fine Lester Young solo break), The Man I Love (this time with a larger band).  Small group recordings, before small group jazz became popular.

Olivier Messiaen (Image via Wikipedia)

We then heard two pieces by Olivier Messiaen.  Messiaen was enamored by the musicality of bird songs, so much that he worked for years to turn what he was hearing into works of music.  At first, he put out what he called a “manifesto”, his Réveil des oiseaux for piano and orchestra, published in 1953.  Later he published a Catalogue d’oiseaux in 1958, and then La fauvette des jardins in 1971.  From Catalogue d’oiseaux, we heard La Bouscarle, and L’Alouette Lulu, as performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, in a recording celebrating the 100th anniversary of Messian’s birth.

We then heard some Faron Young – Hello Walls, Apartment 9, Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young, Wine Me Up, and Face to the Wall.

We closed the set with some Charlie Parker, an interesting set from the sessions he did with strings – but this one also has a full big band in addition to the string session, something that is unusual among Parker’s catalog of recordings.  We hard Temptation, Lover, Autumn in New York, Stella by Starlight, and finally Repetition.