top of page

Romantic Era
 

1876-1877-1878-1879-1880

1876
Colorado becomes the 38th State of the USA • A Little Big Horne, Mont, Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and his men are massacred by Sioux Indians • Bulgarians rebel against Turkish misrule; massacre by Turkish troops arouses widespread anger; Serbia and Montenegro declare war on Turkey; Russia, too, threatens war • Scottish-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone in the USA • Nicolas-August Otto (Ger) invents an internal combustion engine • Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Fr) paints Le Moulin de la Galette • Winslow Homer (US) paints The Cotton-Pickers •  Lewis Carroll (Eng): poem The Hunting of the Snark

1877
Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep) becomes the 19th President of the USA • Queen Victoria (UK) is proclaimed Empress of India • Russo-Turkish War over Balkans (to 1878) • British annex Transvaal, South Africa, and Walvis Bay in south-west Africa • In Japan, The Satsuma Rebellion led by General Saigo Takamori is suppressed • Compulsory education for young children is introduced in Italy • Thomas Edison (US) invents the carbon microphone • Auguste Rodin (Fr) sculpts The Bronze Age • Leo Tolstoy (Russ): Anna Karenina • Henrik Ibsen (Nor): play The Pillars of Society • Anna Sewell (Eng): Black Beauty • Henry James (US): The American

1878
Russians defeat Turks at Shipka Pass, Bulgaria, and take Andrianople (Edirne) in European Turkey • Britain sends troops to Constantinople • The treaties of San Stefano and Berlin reshape the Balkans; Romania, Montenegro and Serbia gain independence; Russia acquires Bassarabia, south west of Ukraine; Cyprus goes to Britain • Pope Pius IX dies; is succeeded by Leo XIII • Eadweard Muybridge (Eng) creates an early motion picture, Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, using multiple cameras to capture a racehorse in motion • First weekly weather reports published in UK • Pierre Renoir (Fr) paints Madame Charpentier and her Children • Thomas Hardy (Eng): The Return of the Native

1879
British fight Zulus in South Africa; Zulu leader Cetawayo captured and war ends • By agreement, Britain occupies the Khyber Pass between India and Afghanistan • Britain invades Afghanistan after the British Legion at Kabul is massacred; Emir Ya’qub abdicates • Britain and France resume joint control of Egypt • Irish Land League formed to help tenant farmers • Thomas Edison (US) invents an incandescent electric lamp • David Hughes (US) invents the spark-gap transmitter, a pioneering step towards radio • Auguste Rodin (Fr) sculpts St John the Baptist Preaching • Henrik Ibsen (Nor): play A Doll’s House • George Meredith (Eng): The Egoist • Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russ): The Brothers Karamazov

1880
In Ireland, Charles Stewart Parnell, allied with the land league, leads a drive for Home Rule • Transvaal (South Africa) declares independence from Britain and proclaims itself a republic under the Boer leader Paul Kruger • Chile defeats Bolivia and Peru in the War of the Pacific; Chile gains valuable nitrate territory while Bolivia loses access to the Sea • The first cricket test match between England and Australia is played at Melbourne • Camille Pissarro (Fr) paints Washerwoman • Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Eng) paints The Day Dream • Emile Zola (Fr): Nana • Louis Wallace (US): Ben Hur becomes the best-selling US novel of the century

296.jpg

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881), was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Dostoevsky's oeuvre consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

1876

1876

5 January 
Franz von Suppé
Fatinitza

Fatinitza was the first full-length, three-act operetta by Franz von Suppé. The libretto by F. Zell (a pseudonym for Camillo Walzel) and Richard Genée was based on the libretto to La circassienne by Eugène Scribe (which had been set to music by Daniel Auber in 1861), but with the lead role of Wladimir, a young Russian lieutenant who has to disguise himself as a woman, changed to a trousers role; in other words, a woman played the part of the man who pretended to be a woman.

It premièred on 5 January 1876, at the Carltheater Vienna.

Franz von Suppé - Fatinitza 

12 January
Composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari is born.

24 February
Henrik Ibsen’s drama Peer Gynt is staged in Christiania (now Oslo) with incidental music by Edvard Grieg (1875). The production is a great success, running for 37 performances until a fire destroys the theatre. This same year Grieg completes his Ballade in G minor (Op. 24) for piano.

Grieg  - Ballade in G minor Op. 24
Jorge Bolet

London 1987

April
Tchaikovsky completes his ballet Swan Lake. Other compositions this year include the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, the symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini and his Third String Quartet.

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake - The Kirov Ballet

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake

Richard Winsor..........The Swan / The Stranger
Dominic North..........The Prince
Nina Goldman..........The Queen
Steve Kirkham..........The Press Secretary
Madelaine Brennan..........The Girlfriend
Joseph Vaughan..........The Young Prince

New Adventures Dance Company

Directed and Choreographed by Matthew Bourne
New scenario by Matthew Bourne
New scenario by Matthew Bourne

The New London Orchestra
Conductor: David Lloyd-Jones

Recorded live in 2012 in high definition at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London

Synopsis
Act 1: Prince Siegfried, his friends, and a group of peasants are celebrating the Prince's coming of age. Siegfried's mother arrives to inform him that she wishes for him to marry soon so that she may make sure that he does not disgrace their family line by his marriage. She has organised a ball where Siegfried is to choose his bride from among the daughters of the nobility. After the celebration, Siegfried and his friend, Benno, spot a flock of flying swans and decide to hunt them.

Act 2: Siegfried and Benno track the swans to a lake, but they vanish. A woman wearing a crown appears and meets the two men. She tells them that her name is Odette and she was one of the swans they were hunting. She tells them her story: Odette’s mother, a good fairy, had married a knight, but she died and the knight remarried. Odette’s stepmother was a witch who wanted to kill her, but her grandfather saved her. Odette's grandfather had cried so much over the death of Odette’s mother that he created the lake with his tears. Odette and her companions live in the lake with Odette’s grandfather, and can transform themselves into swans whenever they wish. Odette’s stepmother still wants to kill her, and stalks her in the form of an owl, but Odette has a crown which protects her from harm. When Odette gets married, the witch will lose the power to harm her. Siegfried falls in love with Odette but Odette fears that the witch will ruin their happiness.

Act 3: Several young noblewomen dance at Siegfried’s ball, but the Prince refuses to marry any of them. Baron von Rothbart and his daughter, Odile, arrive. Siegfried thinks that Odile looks like Odette, but Benno doesn’t agree. Siegfried dances with Odile as he grows more and more enamored with her, and eventually agrees to marry her. At that moment, Rothbart transforms into a demon, Odile laughs, and a white swan wearing a crown appears in the window. The Prince runs out of the castle.

Act 4: In tears, Odette tells her friends that Siegfried did not keep his vow of love. Seeing that Siegfried is coming, Odette’s friends leave and urge her to go with them, but Odette wants to see Siegfried one last time. A storm begins. Siegfried enters and begs Odette for forgiveness. Odette refuses and attempts to leave. Siegfried snatches the crown from her head and throws it in the lake, saying "Willing or unwilling, you will always remain with me!" The owl flies overhead, carrying away the crown. "What have you done? I am dying!" Odette says, and falls into Siegfried’s arms. The lake rises from the storm and drowns Odette and Siegfried. The storm quiets, and a group of swans appears on the lake.
 

Tchaikovsky -  The Variations on a Rococo Theme
for cello and orchestra

Conductor -- Michail Jurowski
Narek Hakhnazaryan (cello)
Moscow International House of Music, Svetlanov Hall
June 20, 2012

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Francesca da Rimini, Op 32
Symphonic fantasia after Dante

Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, conductor,
 1960

Piotr Illich Tchaikovsky - String quartet n°3 op.30

Borodin Quartet (Rostislav Dubinsky - Yaroslav Alexandrov - Dmitri Shebalin - Valentin Berlinsky)
Moscow, 1950

8 April
Amilcare Ponchielli’s one lasting success, the opera La gioconda, opens at La Scala, Milan.

La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito (as Tobia Gorrio), based on Angelo, Tyrant of Padua, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835. 

La Gioconda - Ponchielli

10 May
Richard Wagner's Grosser Festmarsch, celebrating the centenary of American Independence, is first performed in Philadelphia. The whopping $5,000 commission does not inspire him to produce his best work: 'Unless the subject absorbs me completely, I cannot produce twenty bars worth listening to.'

Richard Wagner - Grosser Festmarsch

14 June
Leo Delibes’s Sylvia is first danced at the Paris Opera. Based on Tasso s pastoral poem Aminta, the ballet soon disappears from the repertory but will resurface with great success during the 1950s.

Léo Delibes - Balet SYLVIA
Opéra National de Paris
Chorégraphie John Neumeier

Characters
Lead rôles:
Sylvia – A chaste huntress nymph, loyal to Diana, object of Aminta's desire.
Aminta – A simple shepherd boy who is in love with Sylvia. Parallels can be drawn to Endymion, another shepherd who was Diana's young love.
Eros – The Greek god of love, focal in the ballet as an object of great worship and scorn.
Diana – The Roman goddess of the hunt and chastity. It is at Diana's temple that the bacchanal in the third act takes place.
Orion – An evil hunter who stalks Sylvia and kidnaps her.

Minor rôles:
Hunt attendants—Sylvia's posse of female hunters.
Goats – Two goats that are about to be sacrificed as a tribute to Bacchus, but are saved by the commotion caused by Orion.
Naiads
Dryads
Fauns
Peasants

Libretto

Act I: A Sacred Wood
The ballet begins with a scene of worship as creatures of the forest dance before Eros. Aminta, a lowly shepherd, stumbles in on them, disrupting their ritual. Now Sylvia, the object of Aminta's desire, arrives on the scene with her posse of hunters to mock the god of love. Aminta attempts to conceal himself, but Sylvia eventually discovers her stalker and, inflamed, turns her bow towards Eros. Aminta protects the deity and is himself wounded. Eros in turn shoots Sylvia. She is hit, and though not badly wounded, the injury is enough to drive her offstage.

A hunter, Orion, is revealed to also have been watching Sylvia, when he is seen celebrating the unconscious Aminta. Orion conceals himself again as Sylvia returns; this time she is sympathetic towards Aminta. As the huntress laments over her victim, she is kidnapped by Orion and carried off. Peasants grieve over Aminta's figure until a cloaked Eros revives the shepherd. Eros reveals his true identity and informs Aminta of Orion's actions.

Act II: Orion's Island Cave
Captive in Orion's island hideout, Sylvia is tempted by him with jewels and wine to no avail. Sylvia now grieves over Aminta, cherishing the arrow pulled from her breast nostalgically. When Orion steals it from her, Sylvia gets her captor drunk until he is unconscious, whereby she retrieves her arrow and appeals to Eros for help. Sylvia's invocations are not in vain, for Eros quickly arrives and shows his summoner a vision of Aminta waiting for her. The duo depart for the temple of Diana, where Sylvia's love awaits.

Act III: The Sea Coast near the Temple of Diana
Aminta arrives at the temple of Diana to find a bacchanal but no Sylvia, who will soon arrive with Eros. After a few moments of mirth at the reunion, Orion shows up, seeking Sylvia. He and Aminta fight; Sylvia barricades herself in Diana's shrine and Orion attempts to follow. The goddess of the hunt, outraged at this act, smites Orion and denies Aminta and Sylvia congress. Compassionate Eros gives Diana a vision. The goddess reminisces over her own young love of Endymion, also a shepherd. Diana has a change of heart and repeals her decree. Aminta and Sylvia come together under the deities' good will.

13-17 August
Richard Wagner's epic Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) begins its first complete performance under Hans Richter in the purpose-built Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. Among the impressive list of attendees are Kaiser Wilhelm, King Ludwig II, Nietzsche, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner and Grieg. Although a huge artistic success, the four-opera cycle is a financial failure. It will be several years before the Ring festival becomes a profitable enterprise.

4 November
Johannes Brahms's First Symphony, some 14 years in the making, is premiered to great acclaim under Otto Dessoff in Karlsruhe. Many regard it as the most accomplished symphonic debut of any composer. The work explores the struggles and ultimate triumph of the human spirit, paying homage to Beethoven's Ode to Joy in the final movement.

 Johannes Brahms - Symphony No 1 in C minor op 68
1.Un poco ssostenuto-Allegro
2.Andante sostenuto
3.Un poco allegro e grazioso
4.Adagio-Allegro non troppo ma con brio
Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam
Herbert von Karajan, conductor, IX.1943

7 November
The premiere of Bedrich Smetana’s second most popular opera, The Kiss, is a major triumph at Prague’s Provisional Theatre.

The Kiss (Hubička) is an opera in two acts, with music by Bedřich Smetana and text by Eliška Krásnohorská, based on a novel by Karolina Světlá. It received its first performance at the Provisional Theatre in Prague on 7 November 1876.

Bedrich Smetana - The Kiss (Hubicka)
with English Subtitles

23 November
Spanish composer Manuel de Falla is born in Cadiz.

10 December
Antonin Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings (Op. 22) makes its charming debut in Prague.

Dvořák  - Serenade For Strings in E major Op.22,
RNCM String Ensemble

29 December
Bedrich Smetana completes his String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, subtitled From my Life

Smetana - String Quartet No1 (From My Life)
Seoul String Quartet

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
 

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, (born Jan. 12, 1876, Venice, Italy—died Jan. 21, 1948, Venice), Italian operatic composer who followed both the comic and the realistic traditions.












 


The son of a German father and an Italian mother, Wolf-Ferrari studied music in Munich and then returned to Venice, where he became director of the Liceo Benedetto Marcello in 1902. He wrote Italian operas, of which five are based on the comedies of Carlo Goldoni. His humour, however, was Germanic rather than Italian, and most of his works were produced in Germany. His most successful comic operas, I quattro rusteghi (1906; The School for Fathers) and Il segreto di Susanna (1909; The Secret of Susanne), presented 18th-century styles orchestrated in the manner of the 20th century. Comic points in these operas are delicately underlined. In Sly (1927; based on the opening scenes of The Taming of the Shrew) and in his only tragic opera, I gioielli della Madonna (1911; The Jewels of the Madonna), he was influenced by the realistic, or verismo, style of Pietro Mascagni. He also composed chamber, instrumental, and orchestral works and a violin concerto.


Operas:
Irene, 1895-96
La Camargo, 1897
Cenerentola, 1900
Le donne curiose, 1903
I quuatro rusteghi, 1906
Il segreto di Susanna, 1909
I gioielli della Madonna, 1911
L’amore medico, 1914
Gli amanti sposi, 1916
La veste di cielo, 1925
Sly, ovvero La leggenda del dormiente risvegliato, 1927
La vedova scaltra, 1931
Il campiello, 1936
La dama boba, 1939
Der Kuckuck in Theben, 1943

40.jpg

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - LE DONNE CURIOSE
Pantalone : Renato Capecchi, Colombina : Eugenia Ratti
Eleanora : Ester Orel, Ottavio : Silvio Maionica
Rosaura : Mafalda Micheluzzi, Beatrice : Gabriella Carturan
Florindo : Carlo Franzini, Arlecchino : Carlo Badioli
Lelio : Paolo Pedani, Leandro : Angelo Mercuriali
Asdrubale : Florindo Andreolli, Almoro  :Walter Artioli
Alvise :Renato Berti
Orchestra Sinfonica e coro della Rai di Milano
Direttore  ALFREDO SIMONETTO - Rai Milano, 30.08.1958

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - I QUATRO RUSTEGHI
Lunardo - Fernando Corena, Margarita - Agnese Dubbini, Marina - Alda Noni, Siora Felice - Ester Orell, Filipeto - Mario Carlin, Cancian - Cristiano Dalamangas, Conte Riccardo - Manfred Ponz de León, Lucieta - Gianna Perea-Labia, Maurizio - Pasquale Lombardo, Simon - Carlo Ulivi, Giovane serva - Gilda Capozzi
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della RAI
Direttore ALFREDO SIMONETTO, 1951

Wolf-Ferrari - IL SEGRETO DI SUSANNA
Contessa Susanna - Anna Caterina Antonacci
Conte Gil - Vittorio Prato

Direction musicale Pascal Rophé

Orchestre Philarmonique du Luxembourg

Wolf-Ferrari - I Gioielli Della Madonna (1911)
Maliella - Pauline Tinsley,     Gennaro - André Turp
Rafaele - Peter Glossop,     Totonno - Henry Howell
Biaso - John Winfield,     Carmela - Valerie Cockx
Rocco - Malcolm,     King Ciccillo - Stuart Kale
Stella - Janet Gail,     Concetta - Ann Pashlez
Serena - Joan Davies

BBC Symphony Orchestra - Alberto Erede, London 1976

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - L'AMORE MEDICO
Il Signor Arnolfo - Giuseppe Valdengo, Lucinda - Jolanda Meneguzzer, Clisandro - Agostino Lazzari, Lisetta - Emilia Ravaglia, Dasfonandres - Domenico Trimarchi, Bahis - Florindo Andreolli, Tomes - Elio Castellano, Macroton - Paolo Pedani
Orchestra e coro di Milano della RAI - Direttore: Arturo Basile - Rai MIlano, 18.03.1968

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - SLY

Christopher Sly, költő: László Boldizsár 
Westmoreland gróf: Kelemen Zoltán 
Dolly: Kónya Krisztina 
John Plake, színész: Cseh Antal 
Fogadósnő: Laczák Boglárka 
Snare, a seriff embere: Koczor Kristóf 
Rosalina: Kovács Éva 
Hadbíró: Bocskai István 
 Katona: Taletovics Milán 
Fuvaros: Major Attila 
Szakács: Tóth Péter 
Inas: Szondi Péter 
Francia nemes / Muzsikus: Hanczár György 
Gróf barátja / Mór: Gulyásik Attila 
Gróf barátja / Rézbőrű: Szélpál Szilveszter 
Gróf barátja / Kínai / Gúnyolódó: Altorjay Tamás 
Gróf barátja / Öreg szolga / Gúnyolódó: Andrejcsik István 
Gróf barátja / Orvos / Gúnyolódó: Réti Attila 
Három szolgálólány: Somogyvári Tímea Zita, Horák Renáta, Dobrotka Szilvia 
Három kisfiú: Csepregi Andor, Mari Domokos, Paillot Ábel 

Közreműködik a Szegedi Nemzeti Színház énekkara és tánckara, valamint a Szegedi Szimfonikus Zenekar.

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - LA VEDOVA SCALTRA
Rosaura : Alda Noni,
Marionette : Dora Gatta,
Conte di Bosco: Nero Agostino Lazzari,
Folletto : Florindo Andreolli,
Arlecchino : Renato Capecchi,
Monsieur Le Blau : Amilcare Blaffard,
Don Alvaro di Castiglia : Carlo Badioli,
Milord Runebif : Antonio Cassinelli,
Birif : Giorgio Onesti
Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai di Milano, 1955
Direttore Nino Sanzogno

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - IL CAMPIELLO
Astolfi: Mario Borriello, Gasparina: Elena Rizzieri, Fabrizio: Agostino Ferrin, Dona Cate: Mario Guggia, Lucieta: Silvana Zanolli, Orsola: Laura Zannini, Zorzeto : Giuseppe Savio, Dona Pasqua: Angelo Mercuriali,
Gnese: Jolanda Meneguzzer, Anzoleto: Silvio Maionica 
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della RAI
Direttore ETTORE GRACIS, 1963

Manuel de Falla

Manuel de Falla
 

Manuel de Falla, (born November 23, 1876, Cádiz, Spain—died November 14, 1946, Alta Gracia, Argentina), the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early 20th century. In his music he achieved a fusion of poetry, asceticism, and ardour that represents the spirit of Spain at its purest.









 






Falla took piano lessons from his mother and later went to Madrid to continue the piano and to study composition with Felipe Pedrell, who inspired him with his own enthusiasm for 16th-century Spanish church music, folk music, and native opera, or zarzuela. In 1905 Falla won two prizes, one for piano playing and the other for a national opera, La vida breve (first performed in Nice, France, 1913).
 

In 1907 he moved to Paris, where he met Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Maurice Ravel (whose orchestration influenced his own) and published his first piano pieces and songs. In 1914 he returned to Madrid, where he wrote the music for a ballet, El amor brujo (Love, the Magician; Madrid, 1915), remarkable for its distillation of Andalusian folk music. Falla followed this with El corregidor y la molinera (Madrid, 1917), which Diaghilev persuaded him to rescore for a ballet by Léonide Massine called El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat; London, 1919). Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain; Madrid, 1916), a suite of three impressions for piano and orchestra, evoked the Andalusian atmosphere through erotic and suggestive orchestration. All these works established Falla internationally as the leading Spanish composer.

Falla then retired to Granada, where in 1922 he organized a cante hondo festival and composed a puppet opera, El retablo de Maese Pedro. Like the subsequent Harpsichord Concerto (1926), containing echoes of Domenico Scarlatti, the Retablo shows Falla much influenced by Igor Stravinsky. Falla’s style was then Neoclassical instead of Romantic, still essentially Spanish, but Castilian rather than Andalusian. After 1926 he wrote little, living first in Mallorca and, from 1939, in Argentina.

276.jpg
295.jpg

Manuel de Falla - Nights in Spanish Gardens

Daniel Barenboim piano
Chicago Symphony Orchestra -  Plácido Domingo

1. In the Generalife
2. Distant dance
3. In the Gardens of the Sierra de Córdoba

Manuel de Falla - El Sombrero de tres Picos & El Amor Brujo
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim - conductor

0:25 - Farruca from "El Sombrero de tres Picos"
4:24 - El círculo mágico from "El Amor Brujo"
7:52 - Danza ritual del fuego from "El Amor Brujo"

Manuel de Falla: Three Cornered Hat / El sombrero de tres picos 
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra 
Lawrence Foster, director / conductor 

London Proms 2002

Gitanería de Manuel de Falla, "El Amor Brujo"
versión 1915, Orquesta Sinfónica de la UCAM-
director: Alejandro Curzio
Candelas: Joana Jiménez
Jumilla 20 agosto 2015 - Jardín de la Glorieta

Manuel de Falla -  La vida breve (The Short Life)

Salud: Erica Petrocelli
La Abuela: Brindley McWhorter
Carmela: Morgan Middleton
Paco: David Rivera
Manuel: Nicholas Tocci
El Tío Salvador: Christopher Carbin
Tenor Voice: Rafael Delsid
El Cantaor: Josh Quinn

Chorus

Natalie Bernstein-Park, Grant Braider, Christon Carney, Wei En Chan, Rush Dorsett, Julia Dwyer, Corey Gaudreau, Michael González, Jordan Harrington, Jeongmin Kim, Kaitlin Loeb, Catherine Psarakis, Jordan Reynolds, Whitney Robinson, Austin Vitaliano, Gretchen Werda, Yoonjeong Yoo, Shang Zhang

1877

1877

Karl Goldmark composes his Violin Concerto in A  

minor and the symphonic poem Rustic Wedding. 

Karl Goldmark - A-minor Violin Concerto
Violin-Joseph Lendvay, Budapest Festival Orchestra  
Conductor: Michael Schonwandt

Karl Goldmark - Rustic Wedding Symphony,Op.26
I.Wedding March:Variations:Moderato molto:00:00
II Brautlied (.Bridal Song ): Intermezzo:Allegretto:16:20
III. Serenade : Scherzo:Allegro moderato scherzando:20:26
IV. Im Garten (In the Garden):Andante poco piu lento:25:18
V. Tanz (Dance):Finale:Allegro molto :35:35

New York Philharmonic  Orchestra
Leonard  Bernstein

Modest Mussorgsky takes a break from writing Khovanshchina, beginning work on the opera Sorochintsz Fair and completing his song cycle Songs and Dances of Death (1875).

Moussorgski - La Khovantchina

Direction musicale : Claudio Abbado
Orchestre de l'Opéra de Vienne, (1989) : Brian Large

Ivan Khovansky, prince, chef des streltsy : Nicolaï Ghiaurov (basse)
Andreï Khovansky, son fils : Vladimir Atlantov (ténor)
Vassili Golitsine, prince : Yuri Maruzin (ténor)
Fiodor Shaklovity, boyard  : Anatoly Kocherga (baryton-basse)
Dosifey, chef des schismatiques (vieux-croyants) : Paata Burchuladze (basse)
Marfa, une schismatique : Ludmila Semtschuk (mezzo-soprano)
Susanna, une schismatique : Brigitte Poschner-Klebel (soprano)
Un scribe : Heinz Zednik (ténor)
Emma, jeune Allemande :  Joanna Borowska (soprano)
Varsonofiev, serviteur de Golitsine : Peter Köves (basse)
Kouzka, strelets : Wilfried Gahmlich (ténor)
Strechnev, boyard : Timothy Breese (ténor)

Streltsy, schismatiques, servantes et esclaves perses d'Ivan Khovansky, soldats, peuple : Chœurs de l'Opéra de Vienne, etc. (dir. : Helmut Froschauer - Karl Kamper)

Modest Mussorgsky - The Fair at Sorochyntsi (1874-1880, unfinished)

Version of Vissarion Shebalin (1931)

Cherevik - Guennadi Troitzki  
Khivrya, Cherevik’s wife  - Antonina Kleschova
Parasya, Cherevik’s daughter - Ludmila Belobraguina 
Gritsko, a peasant lad - Alexei Ousamanov
Afanasiy Ivanovich, a priest’s son  - Iouri Elnikov
The gypsy - Alexander Poliakov
Chornobog - Sergei Troukatchev

Choeurs & Orchestre De La Radio De L'U.R.S.S.
Yuri Aranovich, 
1969

27 April
Jules Massenet Le roi de Lahore ("The king of Lahore") is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet. It was first performed at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 27 April 1877.

August
Franz Liszt completes his third book of Annees de pelerinage for piano, including the impressionistic Les jeux d’eaux a la Villa d’Este.

Liszt - Années de Pèlerinage

Première année : Suisse / Year 1 : Switzerland
La Chapelle De Guillaume Tell (00:00)
Au Lac De Wallenstadt (06:40)
Pastorale (09:46)
Au Bord d'une Source (11:19)
Orage (14:52)
La Vallée d’Obermann (18:50)
Eglogue (33:17)
Le Mal du Pays (36:01)
Les Cloches De Geneve-Nocturne (42:07)

Deuxième Année : Italie / Year 2 : Italy
Sposalizio (48:26)
Il Pensieroso (56:39)
Canzonetta Del Salvator Rosa (1:01:18)
Sonetto 47 Del Petrarca (1:04:07)
Sonetto 104 Del Petrarca (1:09:24)
Sonetto 123 Del Petrarca (1:16:05)
Après Une Lecture De Dante-Fantasia Quasi Sonata (1:23:11)

Supplément : Venice & Naples / Venezia E Napoli
Gondoliera (1:40:10)
Canzone (1:46:10)
Tarantella (1:50:09)

Troisième Année / Year 3
Angélus! (1:59:28)
Aux Cypres De La Villa D'Este #1 (2:09:42)
Aux Cypres De La Villa D'Este #2 (2:17:01)
Les Jeux D'Eaux À La Villa D’Este (2:27:56)
Sunt Lacrymae Rerum, En Mode Hongrois (2:35:40)
Marche Funèbre (2:43:36)
Sursum Corda (2:51:48)

Piano : Lazar Berman, 1977

17 November
Arthur Sullivan  - The Sorcerer

 

 The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of The Sorcerer is based on a Christmas story, An Elixir of Love, that Gilbert wrote for The Graphic magazine in 1876.

The opera opened on 17 November 1877 at the Opera Comique in London.

The Sorcerer (Act 1) D'Oyly Carte Gilbert & Sullivan

The Sorcerer (Act 2) D'Oyly Carte Gilbert & Sullivan

27 January
Gabriel Faure and the violinist Marie Tayau give the first performance of the composer’s Violin Sonata No. 1 at the Societe Nationale de Musique in Paris. Later this year Faure starts work on his richly melodic Requiem, undertaken 'for the pleasure of it’.

Fauré - Violin Sonata No.1 in A major, Op.13
I- Allegro molto
II- Andante
III- Allegro vivo
IV- Allegro quasi presto

Augustin Dumay, violin
Jean-Philippe Collard, piano

28 November​
Emmanuel Chabrier L'étoile is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Emmanuel Chabrier with a libretto by Eugène Leterrier and Albert Vanloo. Premiere Cast, 28 November 1877.

L'Etoile -  "The Star"  -  Emmanuel Chabrier
The Lyric Theatre of San Jose, in Santa Clara, CA, 2012.

4 February
The Imperial Ballet dance to the music of Ludwig Minkus in the first performance of La Bayadere, in St Petersburg.

La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer)  is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first presented by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 4 February [O.S. 23 January] 1877.

Ludwig Minkus  (23 March 1826 – 7 December 1917), was a Jewish-Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher.
During his long career, he wrote for the original works and numerous revivals staged by the renowned Ballet Masters Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa. Among the composer's most celebrated compositions was his score for Don Quixote (1869); and La Bayadère (1877). 

Ludwig Minkus - La Bayadere

Plot outline
Khudekov's libretto for La Bayadère (meaning The Temple Dancer or The Temple Maiden) tells the story of the bayadère Nikiya and the warrior Solor, who have sworn eternal fidelity to one another. The High Brahmin, however, is also in love with Nikiya and learns of her relationship with Solor. Moreover, the Rajah Dugmanta of Golconda has selected Solor to wed his daughter Gamzatti (or Hamsatti, as she is known in the original production), and Nikiya, unaware of this arrangement, agrees to dance at the couple's betrothal celebrations.

In his effort to have Solor killed and have Nikiya for himself, the jealous High Brahmin informs the Rajah that the warrior has already vowed eternal love to Nikiya over a sacred fire. But the High Brahmin’s plan backfires when, rather than becoming angry with Solor, the Rajah decides that it is Nikiya who must die. Gamzatti, who has eavesdropped on this exchange, summons Nikiya to the palace in an attempt to bribe the bayadère into giving up her beloved. As their rivalry intensifies, Nikiya picks up a dagger in a fit of rage and attempts to kill Gamzatti, only to be stopped in the nick of time by Gamzatti’s aya. Nikiya flees in horror at what she has almost done. As did her father, Gamzatti vows that the bayadère must die.

At the betrothal celebrations[1] Nikiya performs a somber dance while playing her veena.[2] She is then given a basket of flowers which she believes are from Solor, and begins a frenzied and joyous dance. Little does she know that the basket is from Gamzatti, who has concealed beneath the flowers a venomous snake. The bayadère then holds the basket too close and the serpent bites her on the neck. The High Brahmin offers Nikiya an antidote to the poison, but she chooses death rather than life without her beloved Solor.

In the next scene the depressed Solor smokes opium. In his dream-like euphoria he has a vision of Nikiya’s shade (or spirit) in a nirvana among the star-lit mountain peaks of the Himalayas called The Kingdom of the Shades. Here, the lovers reconcile among the shades of other bayadères (in the original production of 1877 this scene took place in an illuminated enchanted palace in the sky). When Solor awakes, preparations are underway for his wedding to Gamzatti.

In the temple where the wedding is to take place the shade of Nikiya haunts Solor as he dances with Gamzatti. When the High Brahmin joins the couple’s hands in marriage, the gods take revenge for Nikiya’s murder by destroying the temple and all of its occupants. In an apotheosis, the shades of both Nikiya and Solor are reunited in death and eternal love.

10 March
Alexander Borodin’s Second Symphony in B minor is introduced with only modest success by the Russian Musical Society. Revised two years later, it becomes the most famous symphony produced by any member of 'The Five’.

Alexander Borodin - Symphony No.2 in B minor
(revised by N. Rimsky-Korsakov & A. Glazunov)

I. Allegro
II. Scherzo (Prestissimo)
III. Andante
IV. Finale (Allegro)

L'Orchestre de la Suisse romande (Genève)
Ernest Ansermet

5 April  
Charles Gounod Cinq-Mars, subtitled (Une conjuration sous Louis XIII), is an opera in four acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Paul Poirson and Louis Gallet loosely adapted from Alfred de Vigny's historical novel.

1. Duet Cinq-Mars - De Thou, Act 1 Cinq-Mars - Gounod 
Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Ulf Schirmer

Marquis de Cinq-Mars : Mathias Vidal
Conseiller de Thou : Tassis Christoyannis
Père Joseph : Andrew Foster-Williams

2. Duet Marie - Cinq-Mars, Act 1 - Cinq-Mars - Gounod
Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Ulf Schirmer

Marquis de Cinq-Mars : Mathias Vidal
Princesse Marie de Gonzague : Véronique Gens

7. Duet, scene, finale, Act 4 - Cinq-Mars - Gounod

Marquis de Cinq-Mars : Mathias Vidal
Princesse Marie de Gonzague : Véronique Gens
Conseiller de Thou : Tassis Christoyannis
Père Joseph : Andrew Foster-Williams
Le Chancelier : Jacques-Greg Belobo

2 December
Antonin Dvorak's Symphonic Variations on the Theme “I am a fiddler” are first heard in Prague. Other compositions this year include his Stabat Mater  and Romance in F minor for violin and orchestra.

Dvorak - Symphonic Variations on the Theme “I am a fiddler" for orchestra, Op. 78, B. 70

BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek
Live at the Proms Royal Albert Hall, August 27, 2007

Antonín Dvořák - Stabat Mater
Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and Chamber Orchestra of Europe

0:09    I. Stabat Mater (Quartett & Chor)
19:50 II. Quis Est Homo (Quartett)
31:45 III. Eia Mater Fons Amoris (Chor)
39:00 IV. Fac, Ut Ardeat Cor Meum (Bass & Chor)
48:57 V. Tui Nati Vulnerati (Chor)
55:11 VI. Fac Me Vere Tecum Flere (Tenor & Chor)
1:03:48 VII. Virgo Virginum Praeclara (Chor)
1:10:50 VIII. Fac, Ut Portem Christi Mortem (Soprano & Tenor)
1:17:02 IX. Inflammatus et Accensus (Alto)
1:23:50 X. Quando Corpus Morietur (Quartett & Chor)

Dvorak - Romance for Violin and Orchestra in f minor op. 11
Isaac Stern: violin
Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy: conductor
1966

2 December
Camille Saint-Saens’s Samson et Dalila (Samson and Delilah), turned down by several French theatres, is staged with the help of Liszt in Weimar. The Martinique-born Ferdinand Lemaire supplies the libretto for the composer's one enduring opera.

16 December
Anton Bruckner steps up at the 11th hour as a replacement conductor in the first performance of his revised Symphony No. 3 in D minor, WAB 103 ("Wagner Symphony") in Vienna. The result is catastrophic: the orchestra play unwillingly and audience members walk out in droves during the performance.

Anton Bruckner - Symphony #3 In D Minor, WAB 103, "Wagner"

I.  Gemäßigt, mehr bewegt, misterioso (00:00)
II. Andante. Bewegt, feierlich, quasi Adagio (21:27)
III. Scherzo. Ziemlich schnell (38:31)
IV. Finale. Allegro (46:01)

Bernard Haitink, conductor
Wiener Philharmoniker

30 December
Johannes Brahms's Second Symphony is successfully premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Hans Richter. In contrast to his First Symphony, written over a period of around 14 years, his second essay in the genre has taken less than a year to complete.

Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Conductor: Kurt Masur

0:28 I. Allegro non troppo
16:15 II. Adagio non troppo
25:48 III. Allegretto grazioso
31:26 IV: Allegro con spirito

1878

1878

Antonin Dvorak  draws on Bohemian folk music in his eight Slavonic Dances, scored for piano duet (Op. 46) and soon after orchestrated.Commissioned by the Berlin publisher Simrock, the collection proves exceptionally popular and establishes Dvorak's international profile. This year also sees the composition of the Three Slavonic Rhapsodies, Op. 45.

Antonín Dvořák  - Orchestral Works
Slavonic Dance In C, Op. 46_1, _Furiant (00:00)
Slavonic Dance In E Minor, Op. 46_2, _Dumka (03:45)
Slavonic Dance In A Flat, Op. 46_3, _Polka (08:41)
Slavonic Dance In F, Op. 46_4, _Sousedská (13:36)
Slavonic Dance In A, Op. 46_5, _Skočná (21:07)
Slavonic Dance In D, Op. 46_6, _Sousedská (24:28)
Slavonic Dance In C Minor, Op. 46_7, _Skočná (28:40)
Slavonic Dance In G Minor, Op. 46_8, _Furiant (32:02)

-
Slavonic Dance In B, Op. 72_1, _Odzemekb (36:07)
Slavonic Dance In E Minor, Op. 72_2, _Starodávny (40:03)
Slavonic Dance In F, Op. 72_3, _Skočná (45:34)
Slavonic Dance In D Flat, Op. 72_4, _Dumka (48:48)
Slavonic Dance In B Flat Minor, Op. 72_5, _Špacírka (54:06)
Slavonic Dance In B Flat, Op. 72_6, _Starodávný (56:15)
Slavonic Dance In C, Op. 72_7, _Kolo (1:00:05)
Slavonic Dance In A Flat, Op. 72_8, _Sousedská (1:03:34)

-
Czech Suite, Op. 39 - 1. Preludium_ Pastorale (1:10:13)
Czech Suite, Op. 39 - 2. Polka (1:13:27)
Czech Suite, Op. 39 - 3. Sousedská - Minuetto (1:18:58)
Czech Suite, Op. 39 - 4. Romance (1:23:23)
Czech Suite, Op. 39 - 5. Finale_ Furiant (1:28:43)

-
American Suite, Op. 98B - 1. Andante Con Moto (1:33:44)
American Suite, Op. 98B - 2. Allegro (1:38:42)
American Suite, Op. 98B - 3. Moderato - Alla Polacca (1:42:49)
American Suite, Op. 98B - 4. Andante (1:47:24)
American Suite, Op. 98B - 5. Allegro (1:51:01)

-
Prague Waltzes, B 99 (1:54:05)
Nocturne, Op. 40 (2:03:05)
Slavonic Rhapsody #3 (2:10:41)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Détroit Symphonic Orchestra 
Conductor : Antal Dorati

April
Peter Ilytch Tchaikovsky completes his optimistic Violin Concerto in D major. A performance of the work is delayed as the original dedicatee of the work, Leopold Auer, finds it too awkward to play. The challenging honour will pass to Adolf Brodsky three years later in Vienna.

Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major, Op 35

1 Allegro moderato
2 Canzonetta: Andante
3 Finale. Allegro vivacissimo

Joshua Bell, violin

National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America
Valery Gergiev, conductor
. London, Proms 2013

25 May
Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan consolidate their creative partnership with HMS Pinafore, produced by the impresario D’Oyly Carte in London. Satirising naval discipline and the English way of life, the operetta enjoys massive success in England and soon afterwards in the USA. Many American productions are unauthorised, but all three men make considerable profits from English performances. Gilbert buys himself a yacht with the proceeds.

Arthur Sullivan - HMS Pinafore
Jon English TV Movie 1997

Pablo de Sarasate's impassioned Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) for violin (virtuoso) and piano is published in Leipzig. Also published this year is his first book of Spanische Tanze (Spanish Dances).

Pablo de Sarasate - Zigeunerweisen Op. 20,
Giovanni Guzzo violin,
Dalasinfoniettan, Bjarte Engeset conductor, 2012

Pablo de Sarasate -- Spanish Dances No.1 -- Malaguena Op. 21

January
Peter Ilytch Tchaikovsky completes his opera Eugene Onegin (Moscow premiere, 29 March 1879), and the orchestral score of the Fourth Symphony in F minor—his first symphony to find a permanent place in the repertory. This year he resigns from his teaching post at the Moscow Conservatory thanks to the provision of a 6,000-rouble annuity from his patron, Mme von Meek, to whom the symphony is dedicated.

Tchaikovsky - 4th symphony f-minor
Danmarks Radio Symfoni Orkestret - Thomas Dausgaard

27 January
The Czech-language comic opera The Cunning Peasant rewards Antonin Dvorak with success at the Provisional Theatre in Prague.

Antonín Dvořák - Šelma sedlák (The Cunning Peasant)
(kníže) Jindřich Jindrák
(kněžna) Alena Miková
(Martin) Karel Berman
(Bětuška) Miloslava Fidlerová
(Václav) Bohumír Vích
(Veruna) Věra Krilová
(Jeník) Jaroslav Kachel
(Berta) Helena Tattermuschová
(Jean) Antonín Votava
Dirigent: Josef Hrnčíř
Pražský rozhlasový orchestr a Pěvecký sbor Čs. rozhlasu v Praze

24 March
Antonin Dvorak's Piano Concerto in G minor (1876) is premiered in Prague.

Antonin Dvorak -  Piano Concerto in G minor, opus 33
Sara Davis with the Victoria Symphony and Bernhard Gueller, Royal Theatre in Victoria, B.C., Canada.

Summer 
Johannes Brahms composes his Violin Concerto in D major in consultation with his friend Joachim. Material from a discarded Scherzo will later resurface in the composers Second Piano Concerto (1881).

Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto in D major Op.77
1. Allegro non troppo (Cadenza by Joachim)
2. Adagio  24:41 
3. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace  34:52
Itzhak Perlman, Violin
Chicago Symphony Orchestra 
Carlo Maria Giulini, Conductor, 1986

7 October  
Charles GounodPolyeucte 
 

Polyeucte is an opéra by Charles Gounod based on the play about Saint Polyeuctus by Pierre Corneille. The libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré is more faithful to its source than Les martyrs, Scribe's adaptation for Donizetti, and Gounod hoped to express "the unknown and irresistible powers that Christianity has spread among humanity". 

The opera finally premiered at the Opéra's new house, the Palais Garnier on 7 October 1878.

Gounod - Polyeucte

Polyeucte: Giorgio Casciarri
Sévère: Luca Grassi
Félix: Pietro Naviglio
Néarque: Vincenzo Taormina
Albin: Fernando Blanco
Siméon: Emil Zhelev
Sextus: Nicola Amodio
Pauline: Nadia Vezzù
Stratonice: Tiziana Portoghese

Conducted by Manlio Benzi

Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia
Bratislava Chamber Chorus, 
2004

29 November 
Jacques Offenbach - Maître Péronilla

Maître Péronilla
is an opéra bouffe in three acts of 1878 with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was by the composer with Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter and Paul Ferrier.

Jacques Offenbach - Maître Péronilla

Péronilla ........ Dominique TIRMONT
Manuela ......... . Claude BERGERET
Alvarez ......... . Michèle HERBE
Fimouskino  ....... Monique STIOT
Riccardo ......... Joseph PEYRON
Léona .......... Janine CAPDEROU
Guardona ......... René LENOTY
Don Enrique ...... Aimé DONIAT
Velasquez major  ......... .. Jacques VILLA
Velasquez junior ......... . Jean HOFFMANN
Le majordome ..... ..... Marcel VIGNERON
Le notaire . ....... Pierre SAUGUEY
Le Corregidor ... .... Michel FAUCHEY

Chœur et orchestre lyrique de l'ORTF ROBERT MARTIGNONI

Radio broadcast, ORTF, 15. November 1970

1879

1879

Antonin Dvorak composes his Violin Concerto in A minor for Joachim. The great virtuoso rehearses the work but seems to lose interest, never playing it in public. 

Antonin Dvorak - Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op.53

I.   Allegro ma non troppo (00:21)
II.  Adagio ma non troppo (11:22)
III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo (21:24)

Kyung-Wha Chung, violin
Riccardo Chailly, conductor   
Rundsfunk Berlin Sinfonieorchester

29 March
N. Rubinstein directs students of the Moscow Conservatory in the first performance of
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (1878). As Pushkin’s story offers few dramatic opportunities, the opera meets with a muted response. Only in the second half of the 20th century will audiences begin to embrace the opera’s intimate moods and emotions.

Cesar Franck completes his finest religious work, the oratorio Les Beatitudes.

César Franck - LES BEATITUDES 
Soprano - Lella Cuberli
Mezzo soprano I - Viorica Cortez
Mezzo soprano II  - Ida Bormida
Tenore I - Jean Dupouy
Tenore II - Piero Visconti
Christus - William Stone
Satan - Boris Carmeli
Basso - Mario Chiappi
Orchestra Sinfonica e coro di Milano della RAI
Direttore Gianandrea Gavazzeni, 1978

George Grove publishes the first volume (A to Impromptu) of A Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Three further volumes appear over the next ten years.

1 January
Johannes Brahms welcomes the New Year by conducting the premiere of his Violin Concerto (1878), with Joachim as soloist, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Classical in form, the symphonic concerto is a vehicle for great lyricism and poetic reflection, while boasting an invigorating final movement flavoured by Hungarian folk music. However, the public reception is lukewarm and Bulow, normally supportive of Brahms, asserts that he has written a ‘concerto against the violin’. Most critics are equally unconvinced.

1 February 
Franz von Suppe’s operetta Boccaccio opens and enjoys overwhelming success in Vienna.
 

Boccaccio, oder Der Prinz von Palermo (Boccaccio, or the Prince of Palermo) is an operetta in three acts by Franz von Suppé to a German libretto by Camillo Walzel and Richard Genée, based on the play by Jean-François Bayard, Adolphe de Leuven, Léon Lévy Brunswick and Arthur de Beauplan, based in turn on The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.

The opera was first performed at the Carltheater, Vienna, on 1 February 1879.

An English translation was done by Oscar Weil and Gustav Hinrichs around 1883.

Franz von Suppé "BOCCACCIO" Part 1
Conducting - Roland Bader
Wolfsburg. DE. 1999
Lviv Philharmony orchestra 
Lviv choir 'ANTEJ'
Art director - Zinovij Demtsiukh

Franz von Suppé "BOCCACCIO" Part 2

8 February  
Camille Saint-Saëns – Étienne Marcel

Étienne Marcel
is an 1879 opera in 4 acts by Camille Saint-Saëns to a libretto by Louis Gallet.

Camille Saint-Saëns - Etienne Marcel 

Alain Fondary — Etienne Marcel
Michèle Lagrange — Béatrix
Daniel Galvez-Vallejo — Robert de Loris
Franck Ferrari — Eustache
Philippe Fourcade — Jehan Maillard
Antoine Garcin — Robert de Clermont
Alexandra Papadjiakou — Le Dauphin Charles, Marguerite
Wojtek Smilek — L'Evêque
Jean-Luc Maurette — Denis, Pierre
Franck Bard — L'hôtelier, Un héraut, Une sentinelle
Hervé Martin — Un artisan

Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon
Solistes de Montpellier-Moscou
Chœurs des Opéras du Rhin et de Montpellier, 1994

9 July
Italian composer Ottorino Respighi is born in Bologna.

19 October
Charles-Marie Widor premieres his Organ Symphony No. 5, furnished with the adored toccata, at the Trocadero in Paris.

Charles-Marie Widor - Symphony  No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42, No. 1
Wolfgang Rubsam in recital

9 November
Distinguished by its strong Czech flavours, Antonin Dvorak’s String Sextet is performed for the first time, in Berlin. This year also marks the completion of the String Quartet No. 10 in E flat.

Antonin Dvorak - string sextet in A Major, Op. 48
The Smetana Quartet 

Antonín Dvořák - String quartet n°10 op.51

I. Allegro ma non troppo 0:00
II. Dumka. Andante con moto - Vivace 8:21
III. Romanza. Andante con moto 16:31
IV. Finale. Allegro assai 24:36

Janáček String Quartet (Jiří Trávníček - Adolf Sýkora - Jiří Kratochvil - Karel Krafka)
Studio recording, Hannover, 16-18.II.1957

31 December
The Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s follow-up operetta to the hugely successful HMS Pinafore, is staged at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York. Sullivan has only just met the deadline, composing the overture in the early hours of the morning. Instantly popular, the production follows an incomplete amateur British premiere the day before at the humble Royal Bijou Theatre in Paignton, South Devon.

Arthur Sullivan -The Pirates of Penzance 
Indiana Wesleyan University presents Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, on Saturday, February 27th 2016 at the Phillippe Performing Arts Center in Marion, Indiana.

297.jpg
Ottorino Respighi

Ottorino Respighi
    

(b. Bologna, July 9, 1879; d. Rome, April 18, 1936)

Italian composer. His orchestral works - including suites for chamber ensemble, as well as some of the largest and gaudiest symphonic blockbusters ever written— stand as the most successful contributions to the repertoire by any Italian of the 20th century.















Born into a musical family, he received his musical education at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna. Between 1900 and 1903, while working as an orchestral violist in Russia, he had the opportunity to study composition and orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov, whose colorful palette would have 
a profound impact on his own approach to scoring. (In 1902, he studied briefly, though without much benefit, with Max Bruch in Berlin.) From 1903 to 1908 he continued to make his living as a violist, playing in orchestras as well as in the Magellini Quartet, while composing on the side. In 1913, after failing to land a permanent teaching position in Bologna, he was appointed professor of composition at the Liceo Musicale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he would live the rest of his life; in 1919 he married one of his students, the singer and composer Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo (1894-1996). In 1932 the government of Mussolini honored him with a membership in the Reale Accademia d’Italia. While the extraordinary popularity of his symphonic poems Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome; 1915-16) and Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome; 1923-24) made it unnecessary for him to hold a “day job” during the 1920s and 1930s, he nonetheless served as director of the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia (successor to the Liceo) from 1923 to 1926, and taught an advanced composition class at Rome’s prestigious Accademia di Santa Cecilia until the year before he died. From the mid-1920s he traveled extensively, appearing frequently as pianist and conductor in performances of his own music.
 

After Puccini, Respighi was the most famous Italian composer of his day. Though he dutifully and repeatedly sought success in the operatic sphere, none of the eight works he completed in the genre has attained a place in the repertoire; some have never even been performed. As an orchestral colorist, however, he was unsurpassed. He deservedly achieved worldwide fame with Fontane di Roma, whose brilliant pictorialism he trumped in the even more successful Pini di Roma, complete with a recorded twittering nightingale and offstage flugelhorns depicting the advance of a triumphal consular army.  Both works partake of the harmonic subtleties of Debussy, Ravel, and Richard Strauss, but are decked out in splashy orchestrations that recall the Russians—Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky in particular. Following the breakthrough with Fontane di Roma, Respighi showed his range in scores reflecting a variety of approaches: In 1917 he produced the first of three collections of Antiche danze ed arie per liuto (Ancient Dances and Airs for Lute), spirited transcriptions for small orchestra of Italian Renaissance lute pieces; in 1918, he wrote a breezily scored ballet for Diaghilev called La boutique fantasque, based on music by Rossini. The luminously scored Vertrate di chiesa (Church Windows) and Trittico botti-celliano (Botticelli Triptych) appeared in 1925-27, followed in 1928 by the sumptuous Impressioni brasiliane (Brazilian Impressions) and in 1932 by the unabashedly opulent ballet Belkis, regina de Saba (Belkis, Queen of Sheba), a tour de force of symphonic belly dance that repays Respighi’s debt to Rimsky-Korsakov with exuberant interest.

Respighi had an intimate side as well, which he showed in II tramonto (1918), a lovely chamber cantata (text by Shelley) for mezzo-soprano and %% string quartet, and in his Violin Sonata (1917). His pronounced antiquarian streak is exhibited not only in the Antiche danze ed arie but in a number of works that make use of plainchant and church modes—including Tre preludi sopra melodie gregoriani (1919-21), the Concerto gregoriano (1921) for violin and orchestra, the Concerto in modo misolidio (1925) for piano and orchestra, and Detail from the Quartetto dorico (1924) for string quartet—as well as in the charming 1928 orchestral suite Gli uccelli (The Birds), based on Baroque keyboard pieces. Whether in works such as these, where his touch was light as a feather, or in more grandiose efforts—not least Feste romane (1928), the over-the-top three-quel to Fontane di Roma and Pini di Roma— Respighi showed his mettle as an orches-trator, developing an arsenal of effects that Hollywood soundtrackers have been looting ever since.

298.jpg

Ottorino Respighi - Maria Egiziaca
- Intermedio I (21:26) 
Secondo Episodio (25:00) 
- Intermedio II (47:46)
Terzo Episodio (54:34)

Maria: Veronika Kincses 
il Marinaio / il Lebbroso: János B. Nagy 
il Pellegrino / l'Abate Zosimo: Lajos Miller
la Cieca / un Compagno: Mária Zempléni 
un altro Compagno / il Povero: Ildikó Komlósi 
una Voce dal mare: Mihály Kálmándi 
la Voce dell'Angelo: Katalin Farkas 

Hungarian Radio & Television Chorus 
Hungarian State Orchestra / dir: Lamberto Gardelli 

Ottorino Respighi - BELFAGOR (1/4), 1923

Prologo - La piazzetta di un piccolo paese del litorale toscano.

Ottorino Respighi - BELFAGOR (3/4)

Atto secondo - Sala ottagonale in una torre del castello del Signor Ipsilonne.

Ottorino Respighi  - ROMAN TRILOGY
Giuseppe Sinopoli - New York Philharmonic Orchestra

FONTANE DI ROMA (1917):
0:00 - La fontana di Valle Giulia all'Alba
4:01 - La fontana del Tritone al mattino
6:35 - La fontana di Trevi al meriggio
10:13 - La fontana di Villa Medici al tramonto

PINI DI ROMA (1924):
16:21 - I pini di Villa Borghese
19:10 - Pini presso una catacomba
26:23 - I pini del Gianicolo
33:31 - I pini della Via Appia

FESTE ROMANE (1928):
39:45 - Circenses
44:34 - Giubileo
51:25 - L’Ottobrata
59:20 - La Befana

Ottorino Respighi - Christus,
cantata biblica per soli, coro e orchestra su testo dell'Autore (P. 24) (1898/1899) --
San Matteo: Carlo Gaifa, tenore; Cristo: Roland Hermann, baritono; Giuda: Gastone Sarti, basso -- Coro della Radiotelevisione della Svizzera Italiana e Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana diretti da Marco Balderi ---

Ottorino Respighi: La pentola magica (P. 129) (1920)
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra diretta da Adriano

1. Preludio (Grecianninov) 
2. Canzone armena - 2 bis. Danza 
3. Entrata dello Tzar coi fidanzati (Arenski) 
4. Scena dello Tzarewich (Paciulski) 
5. Danza degli arceri tartari (Rubinstein) 
6. Introduzione e danza
7. Danza cosacca (Kosaciok) 
8. Danza della seduzione 
9. Scena dei baci e arrivo dello Tzar 
10. Finale (Rabikaff). 

 

Ottorino Respighi - "La Primavera"
"La Primavera",Lyric poem for soli, chorus
and orchestra by Ottorino Respighi
Richard Haan, baritone
Miroslav Dvorsky, tenor
Jana Valásková, soprano
Vladimir Kubovcik, Bass
Henrietta Lednárová, soprano
Beata Geriová, soprano
Vera Rasková, Flute solo
Slovak Philharmonic Chorus
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Adriano, conductor - Bratislava 1994

Respighi - La bella dormente nel bosco
La Principessa  Sofia Nekrasova
La fata Azzurra  Elisaveta Sveshnikova
La vecchiettaAnastasia Meshchanova
Il principe  Hylia Selivanov
L'amasciatore e il Re Giovanni Romeo
L'usignolo  Sara Rossini
Il cuculo Carlotta Vichi
Orchestra e coro del Teatro Rubinstein  di San Pietroburgo
Direttore Marco Pace
Regia Sonia Grandis
Costumi Daniela Casati Fava
Pittore di scena  Gek Tessaro
San Pietroburgo 7/12/2012

Ottorino Respighi - LA CAMPANA SOMMERSA
Rautendelein : Slavka Taskova Paoletti,
Magda : Gabriella Tucci
La strega : Nicoletta Ciliento,
Enrico : Carlo Millauro, Il fauno :
Nicola Tagger, L'ondino : Lorenzo Saccomanni,
Il curato : Agostino Ferrin,
Tre elfi : Giovanna Di Rocco, Licia Falcone, Katia Kolceva Angeloni, Il barbiere : Fernando Jacopucci,
Il maestro : Alberto Carusi,
Due bimbi : Stefano Balzola e Maurizio Balzola
Orchestra Sinfonica e coro di Roma della RAI
Direttore Bruno Bartolettiб 1976

Respighi - LA FIAMMA
Barcelona, 1989
Montserrat Caballé, Juan Pons, Martha Szirmay, Vera Baniewicz, Antonio Ordóñez, Maria Gallego

Ottorino Respighi - BELFAGOR (2/4)

Atto primo - Una specie di strana sala un po' da pranzo, un po' da ricevere, e che serve poi anche da cucina e da laboratorio farmaceutico. In casa di Mirocleto

Ottorino Respighi - BELFAGOR (4/4)

Epilogo - La piazzetta come nel Prologo.

1880

1880

Max Bruch takes up the conductorship of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society, holding the post for the next three years. This year he composes his folk-tune inspired Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra.

Bruch - Scottish Fantasy For Violin And Orchestra
Midori, violin - Israeli Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta 

Tchaikovsky composes his Serenade for Strings and Capriccio Italien. This year also sees the commission of his programmatic 1812 (Festival) Overture. 

Pyotr Tchaikovsky - Capriccio Italien, Op 45
Berlin Symphony Orchestra, conductor - Peter Wohlert

Tchaikovsky The year 1812 Festival Overture in E flat major op.49

Tchaikovsky - Serenade for Strings in C major, Op 48

The Moscow Virtuosi
Vladimir Spivakov, conductor

17 January
Cesar Franck’s heartfelt Piano Quintet is successfully introduced at the Societe Nationale, Paris. 

César Franck - Piano Quintet in F minor, M. 7
The Schubert Ensemble (of London) - 2001 

00:00 - I. Molto moderato quasi lento 
16:06 - II. Lento, con molto sentimento 
26:38 - III. Allegro non troppo, ma con fuoco 

3 May
Johannes Brahms introduces his third and fourth books of Hungarian Dances for piano four hands with Clara Schumann, in Mehlem, near Bonn. This year also marks the composition of his Tragic Overture (Op. 81).

Saint-Saëns - Piano Concerto No. 4 in C Minor
Anna Malikova, piano - WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Thomas Sanderling conductor

Johannes Brahms ‎– Hungarian Dances

Book 1. (Published in 1869)​

No.1 In G Minor  0:00
No. 2 In D Minor 3:09 
No. 3 In F Major 6:22 
No. 4 In F Sharp Minor 8:45 
No. 5 In G Minor 14:02 
Book 2. (Published in 1869)​
No. 6 In D Minor 16:56 
No. 7 In F Major 21:09 
No. 8 In A Minor 23:19 
No. 9 In E Minor 26:13 
No. 10 In F Major 28:26 
Book 3. (Published in 1880)​
No. 11 In D Minor 30:19 
No. 12 In D Minor 33:10 
No. 13 In D Major 35:57 
No. 14 In D Minor 37:29
No. 15 In B Flat Major  39:06
No. 16 In F Minor 42:13 
Book 4. (Published in 1880)​
No. 17 In F Sharp Minor 44:37 
No. 18 In D Major 48:06 
No. 19 In B Minor 49:45 
No. 20 In E Minor 52:06 
No. 21 In E Minor 55:09

London Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi

Brahms - Tragic Overture Op.81
Leonard Bernstein

12 July 
Giacomo Puccini
Messa di Gloria

Giacomo Puccini - Messa di Gloria
for solo voices, choir and orchestra
1:06 Kyrie
6:15 Gloria
26:59 Credo
42:06 Sanctus - Benedictus
45:28 Agnus Dei
Rafał Bartmiński - tenor
Wojciech Gierlach - bas/bass
Henryk Wojnarowski - dyrygent/conductor
Orkiestra i Chór Filharmonii Narodowej
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, 2016

11 February
Gabriel Faure
combines elegance and passion in his Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, premiered with the composer at the piano at the Societe Nationale, Paris.

Gabriel Fauré - Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, op.15 
Marc-André Hamelin and the Leopold Trio.

24 July
Composer Ernest Bloch, is born in Geneva.

5 October
Jacques Offenbach dies in Paris from a gout-related illness, aged 61.

299.jpg

10 March
John Knowles Paine’s Second Symphony is first performed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is widely regarded as the most important symphony by a native composer up to this time.

John Knowles Paine - Symphony No. 2 
I. Introduction - Adagio sostenuto; Allegro ma non troppo - 00:00
II. Scherzo - Allegro - 15:39
III. Adagio - 25:44
IV. Allegro Giojoso - 40:03

15 October
Arthur Sullivan conducts his oratorio The Martyr of Antioch at the Leeds Festival. With text by Gilbert, the pairs one ‘serious’ work divides critics.

THE MARTYR OF ANTIOCH - Arthur Sullivan
Stephen Chaytow, tenor  (Olybius)
Penelope Beavan, soprano (Margarita)
Chorus and Orchestra of the IMPERIAL COLLEGE OPERA SOCIETY and IMPERIAL OPERA conducted by Michael Withers.  

Ernest Bloch

Ernest Bloch
 

Ernest Bloch, (born July 24, 1880, Geneva, Switzerland—died July 15, 1959, Portland, Oregon, U.S.), composer whose music reflects Jewish cultural and liturgical themes as well as European post-Romantic traditions. His students included Roger Sessions and Randall Thompson.
















Bloch studied with noted Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and in Belgium with violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. From 1911 to 1915 he taught at the Geneva Conservatory. He toured the United States in 1916 with the English dancer Maud Allen, and after the tour company went bankrupt he settled in New York. In 1920 he became the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music, a position he held until 1925. Bloch became a U.S. citizen in 1924. He directed the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1925 to 1930. In 1930 he went to Switzerland, but he returned to the United States in December 1938. In June 1939 he received an offer to teach at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1941 he bought a house in Agate Beach, Oregon, near that of his married son, where he produced one-third of his compositional output when he was not teaching or traveling. His association with Berkeley lasted until his retirement in 1952.
 

Bloch’s music reflects many post-Romantic influences, among them the styles of Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. His interest in the chromatic sonorities of Debussy and Maurice Ravel is evident in the tone poem Hiver-Printemps (1905; Winter-Spring). Bloch composed a significant group of works on Jewish themes, among them the Israel Symphony (1916), Trois poèmes juifs for orchestra (1913; Three Jewish Poems), the tone poem Schelomo for cello and orchestra (1916; Solomon), and the suite Baal Shem for violin and piano (1923). His sacred service Avodath Hakodesh for baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1930–33) represents the full maturity of his use of music appropriate to Jewish themes and liturgy. Many of Bloch’s works show a strong neoclassical trend, combining musical forms of the past with 20th-century techniques. Examples include his Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1925) and his Quintet for piano and strings (1923), which utilizes quarter tones to colour and heighten the emotional intensity of the music. His other notable works include an “epic rhapsody” for orchestra (America, 1926), the Suite for viola and piano (1919), and five string quartets (1916, 1945, 1952, 1953, 1956).

 

300.jpg

Ernest Bloch with his children Suzanne, Ivan and Lucienne.

301.jpg

Macbeth is an opera in three acts, with music by Ernest Bloch to a libretto by Edmond Fleg, after the eponymous play of William Shakespeare.  

Ernest Bloch - MACBETH 
Macbeth - Nicolai Rossi-Lemeni,
Lady Macbeth - Inge Borkh,
Macduff - Franz Petri, 
Banquo - Jean Angot,
Duncan - Michel Hamel,
Malcolm - Michel Lecocq
Orchestra de la Suisse Romande diretta da Pierre Colombo, Geneva, 1968

Ernest Bloch - Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service)
- Orchestra: New York Philharmonic
- Choirs: Metropolitan Synagogue Choir, New York Community Church Choir
- Conductor: Leonard Bernstein
- Soloists: Robert Merrill (baritone), Rabbi Judah Cahn (spoken vocals)
- Year of recording: 1960

Ernest Bloch - Suite Hébraïque, per viola e orchestra (1951).

Gérard Caussé, viola
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - da Lior Shambadal.

Bloch - Symphonie Israël (1916)
Orquesta Sinfónica Estatal de Rusia dirigida por Evgeny Svetlanov.
Galina Bokyo, Natalia Gerassimova, sopranos.
Elena Alexandrova, Galina Borissova, altos/contraltos. Anatoly Safiulin, bass/bajo.

Ernest Bloch: America, an Epic Rhapsody (1926) 
Orquesta  Sinfónica de la Radio Eslovaca - Dalia Atlas

I. 1620: The Soil – The Indians – England – The Landing of the Pilgrims  (0:00)
II. 1861-1865: Hours of Joy – Hours of Sorrow (19:39)
III. 1926: The Present – The Future (35:25)

Block- Schelomo – Hebräische Rhapsodie
Rostropovich - Orchertre Nacional de France - Bernstein

Bloch - Sonata No.2 per violino e pianoforte "Poème Mystique" (1924).

The Weilerstein duo:
Donald Weilerstein, violino
Vivian Hornick Weilerstein, pianoforte.

Ernest Bloch - Concerto grosso No 1 (1925)
par l'Orchestre de chambre d'Israël

275.jpg

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Le Moulin de la Galette

fusli
bottom of page