Showing posts with label Oistrakh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oistrakh. Show all posts

Monday, April 20, 2015

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015

QUOTE:
"It is incontestable that music induces in 
us a sense of
  the infinite and the contemplation of the invisible."
AUTHOR: Victor de La Prade

MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Music places the listener into whatever

  creative venture the mind can dream up."


COMPOSER
RAVEL

TZIGANE
Violin and Piano
Midori Goto, Violin

Robert McDonald, Piano

TZIGANE
Violin and Piano

TZIGANE
Violin and Piano
Jascha Heifetz, Violin
TZIGANE
Orchestra Version
Ginette Neveu, Violin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZdmEBHKBjA
http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=17996

TZIGANE
Orchestra Version
Isaac Stern, Violin
Eugene Ormandy, Conductor
The Philadelphia Orchestra

TZIGANE
Orchestra Version
Zubin Mehta, Conductor
New York Philharmonic
From the article:
"TZIGANE,"
CONCERT RHAPSODY
FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA
Program Notes
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
By MARC MANDEL
Image result for gypsy violin
First Performance
Original Version for Violin and Piano:
April 26, 1924,
London,
Jelly d’Arányi, violin;
Henri Gil-Marchex,
piano-luthéal (see below).
Image result for gypsy violin
First Performance
Orchestral Version:
November 30, 1924,
Paris, Concerts Colonne,
Gabriel Pierné cond.,
Jelly d’Arányi, soloist.
Image result for gypsy violin
During one of Maurice Ravel's visits to London,
following a private musicale during which the
Hungarian violinist Jelly d'Arányi
Charles Geoffroy-Dechaume:

performed the composer's recent
Sonata for Violin and Cello
SONATA FOR
VIOLIN AND CELLO
Benjamin Bowman, Violin
Franz Ortner, Cello
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=41&v=xDKLJiGt5Hs
with the cellist Hans Kindler,
JohannesKindler.jpg
Hans Kindler
He established Washington, D.C.'s
National Symphony Orchestra
Ravel asked Mlle. d'Arányi, who was a
grandniece of the famed Austro-Hungarian
violinist-composer conductor-teacher
Joseph Joachim,
James Archer:
Doctor Joseph Joachim (1831–1907)
Violinist, Conductor, Composer, and Teacher
to play him some Gypsy melodies.
In 1922 Ravel first heard Jelly d'Aranyi
perform in London when she played Bartok's
First Sonata with Bartok at the piano.
BARTOK FIRST SONATA
FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO
David Oistrakh, Violin
Sviatoslav Richter, Piano
Jelly d'Aranyi and Bela Bartok
Later at a dinner with Bartok in Paris, Ravel
decided to write his own Hungarian style pastiche.
He had been inspired by Bartok's musicological
research on Hungarian folk music and the gypsy
style variations that Ms. d'Aranyi had performed.
Ravel wrote to Bartok:
"You have inspired me to write a short piece of diabolical
difficulty, conjuring up the Hungary of my dreams.
Since it will be for violin, why don't we call it 'Tzigane?'"
This went on until five in the morning and presumably
was the first event in the history of Ravel's
Tzigane for violin and orchestra.
TZIGANE
Orchestra Version
(With Notation)
Joshua Bell, Violin
Andrew Litton, Conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Ravel completed the Tzigane
(which means "Gypsy")
Vincent Van Gogh:
The Gypsy Caravans or Camping Around Arles
just shortly before its premiere in April 1924;
the orchestral version was given for the first
time half a year later. On both these occasions,
the soloist was Mlle. d'Arányi, who was
dedicatee of the violin sonatas by Vaughan-
Williams and Bartók as well as of the present
work. It was also she who spurred the unearthing
of Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in 1937
Robert Schumann
When it was new, a striking feature of Tzigane
in its original violin-and-piano version was Ravel's
use of the recently devised piano-luthéal,
PIANO LUTHEAL
Philharmonia Orchestra (London, UK)
(A piano which combined plucked and struck strings to
suggest the sound of the Hungarian cimbalom.)
modified grand piano that allowed the player to
alter the timbre of the instrument by employing
harmonium-like stops set above the keyboard to
produce a variety of sounds (lute- and harpsichord-
like, as well as the normal timbre of the piano).
One of these stops—fittingly, for Tzigane—
created a sound similar to the Hungarian
cimbalom, a hammered dulcimer
Hungarian Cimbalom
CIMBALOM SOLO
Jeno Farkas, Cimbalom
whose use in that country is
traceable back to the sixteenth
century. Ravel also called for this
instrument in his opera
("The Child and the Magic Spells"),
completed in 1925.
L'ENFANT ET LES SORTILEGES
Philippe Gerard, Musical Director

In any event, the first performance of Tzigane
astounded both the composer and the audience,
especially given the limited rehearsal time.
Ravel's ability to write for an instrument he had
never studied also attracted notice. The reviewer
for the London Times, however, was skeptical.
Describing the piece as
"rhapsodical in the literal meaning of the
word, being a series of episodes in the
Hungarian manner strung together,"
he was
"puzzled to understand what M. Ravel is at.
Either the work is a parody of the Liszt-
Hubay-Brahms-Joachim school of Hungarian
violin music…or it is an attempt to get away
from the limited sphere of his previous
compositions to infuse into his work a
little of the warm blood it needs."
Such commentary seems superfluous. Tzigane
is, simply and straightforwardly, a virtuoso
showpiece, opening with an extended "quasi
cadenza" for the soloist and, along the way,
using just about every violinist trick in the book.

In this piece Ravel follows the pattern
of a traditional czárdás dance,
Andor Heller: Czárdás
a long, slow solo introduction,
which leads to a rhapsodic friska,
or fast section. The friska is presented
as a festive, frenzied dance in the form of a
loose set of variations. Ravel uses two
themes: one previously used in the czárdás,
and another introduced toward the middle of
the main section. The piece culminates
in a whirlwind finale.

Tzigane opens with an extended solo,
similar to a cadenza or free fantasia,
A cadenza features the soloist
without accompaniment, and if
it isn't improvised on the spot, it
is supposed to sound like it is.
for the violin (Lento, quasi cadenza),
buried in the middle of which is a
theme characterized by a dotted-rhythm,
falling-fifth figure which serves as the
melodic center for much of the work.
Nearly halfway into the length of the work
the piano (or harp, in the orchestra version)
enters with its own chromatic mini-cadenza
as the soloist's fiery technical gestures
and robust double stops subside into
flickering double tremolos and a pair of
unaccompanied trills that usher in the main
body of the piece.
The remainder of Tzigane is worked out in
a clearly sectional manner. After a
restatement of the falling-fifth idea by
the violin, the piano produces its own little
theme, a staccato tune that makes thorough
use of the typically "gypsy" interval of an
augmented second. Some time later, a
bombastic Grandioso breaks in. After a brief
pause, the violin resumes in sixteenth note
perpetual motion, colored by such features
as Paganini-like left-hand pizzicato.
He appeared to be from another world. Many people were convinced that he was in league with the #devil. #Paganini #Violin http://amzn.to/Ri7TR5
Nicolo Paganini
PAGANINI CAPRICE 24
(Excerpt)
Left Hand Pizzicato
time and again until it finally achieves
unstoppable momentum. The work comes
to an end with three incisive chords (marked
pizzicato, but often played with the bow).

LINKS
http://imslp.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel,_Maurice)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane
http://www.gotomidori.com/english/musicnote-200302/musicnote-07ravel.html
http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=62
http://musimelange.com/?p=1044
http://bso.http.internapcdn.net/bso/images/program_notes/Ravel_Tzigane.pdf
http://www.lawrencebudmen.com/program_notes_concert_gluzman_feldman.html
http://www.anne-sophie-mutter.de/back-to-the-future-ravel.html?&L=1
http://www.cpr.org/article/Ravel_Tzigane
http://www.troychromatics.org/114season/pdfs/TCC114-2LaraStJohnProgram.pd
f
http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=17996
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTHAeo0uEAI
http://imslp.org/wiki/Tzigane_%28Ravel,_Maurice%29
http://www.redwoodsymphony.org/history/prognotes.aspx?ID=451
http://img.soundsondemand.com/prd_pdf/00002359.pdf
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/pdf/program-10282011.pdf
http://grsymphony.org/sites/default/files/pdf_downloads/Tzigane.pdf
http://www.njsymphony.org/events/detail/koenig-conducts-dvorak#discover-more

Monday, April 13, 2015

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015

QUOTE:
"Musical compositions, it should be remembered,

  do not inhabit certain countries, certain museums,
  like paintings and statues. The Mozart Quintet is
  not shut up in Salzburg: I have it in my pocket."
AUTHOR: Henri Rabaud
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"Music is an art form that can
  be appreciated everywhere."














COMPOSER
MENDELSSOHN
VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
John Gulich (English, 1864-1898). A Violin Concerto, 1898. Tate
John Gulich: A Violin Concerto, 1898
VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
Isaac Stern, Violin

Eugene Ormandy, Conductor
Philadelphia Orchsta, 1958
http://www.omifacsimiles.com/brochures/mendel_vc.html
This piece is one of the most frequently performed
of all violin concerti in violin literature.

I. Allegro molto appassionato
The opening of the Violin Concerto
Mendelssohn dispenses with the extended
orchestral introduction that was then the norm
and instead launches straight into the turbulent
first movement's soaring, passionate main
theme after just three beats of a quiet,
throbbing vamp in the orchestra. This main
theme is written in classic sonata form having
a variety of thematic expositions, a development,
and recapitulation of the themes.
From the Cadenza
Most concertos include cadenzas, unaccompanied sections in
which the soloist demonstrates his or her technical prowess
through the challenging manipulation of themes from the
body of the piece. In the 18th and very-early-19th centuries,
these spans were usually improvised (at least ostensibly)
by the soloist, but in the course of the 19th century it became
normal for composers to write out their suggestions for
cadenzas, with soloists deciding whether to
follow those ideas or invent their own.
Rather than bringing this movement to a
defined close after the coda, Mendelssohn
has a single bassoon playing a sustained
tone provide the bridge to the overall restful
mood of the second movement.
II. Andante
The main theme of the Andante
This slow movement, which is simple in form but
profoundly expressive, is in ternary (ABA) form.
The principal theme is noble, and the violin
develops it through the whole range of the
instrument in several minutes of unbroken melody.
Again eliminating the standard moments of
silence between movements, Mendelssohn
immediately starts the third movement.
III. Allegretto non troppo-Allegro molto vivace
Composed in hybrid sonata rondo form,
Mendelssohn concludes the concerto with
sprightly, high spirited, vibrant music. The
first theme scampers and flutters; the second
is like a fairy's wedding march. Both main
themes are developed ingeniously ending in
a bustling coda where the music
attains a real noble feeling.

Evidence from Mendelssohn’s correspondence
suggests that he connected the movements into
an uninterrupted span of music because he, as
a performer, found mid-composition applause
to be distracting. It is in part because of
Mendelssohn that the modern tradition of
holding applause to the end of a work came
to be standard practice.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/629700/Violin-Concerto-in-E-Minor-Op-64
http://www.tso.ca/en-ca/Discover-the-Music/Programme-Notes/Violin-Concerto-in-Minor-Op-64.aspx

FROM THE WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
Following his appointment in 1835 to principal
conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,
1871_Altes_Gewandhaus
The First Gewandhaus Building
This was the first concert hall for the orchestra
located under the roof of the Trading Hall
and

the guildhall of Leipzig's cloth merchants.
The Original Gewandhaus Building
A watercolor painted by Mendelssohn
when he was just 26, Mendelssohn
named his childhood friend
Ferdinand David
Ferdinand David
as the orchestra's concertmaster.
Hall of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, 1845
The work's origins derive from this professional
collaboration. In a letter dated 30 July 1838,
Mendelssohn wrote to David:
"I should like to write a violin concerto for
you next winter. One in E minor runs through my
head, the beginning of which gives me no peace."
The concerto took another six years to complete.
There are many possible reasons for the delay,
including self-doubt, his third symphony and an
unhappy period in Berlin after work requests from
his patron King Frederick William IV of Prussia

took up much of his time.
Neverthe-less, Mendelssohn and David
kept up a regular correspondence during
this time, with Mendelssohn seeking
technical and compositional advice. Indeed,
this violin concerto was the first of many to
have been composed with the input of
a professional violinist, and would influence
many future collaborations.
The autographed score is dated
September 16, 1844, but Mendelssohn was still
seeking advice from David until its premiere.
The concerto was first performed in Leipzig on
March 13, 1845 with Ferdinand David as soloist.
Mendelssohn was unable to conduct due to illness
and the premiere was conducted by the
Danish composer Niels Gade.
Mendelssohn first conducted the concerto
on October 23, 1845 again with
Ferdinand David as soloist.
An Anecdote:
About a month after this
second performance,
Clara Schumann
Clara Wieck im ihrem 21. Lebensjahr
Clara Schumann (1840)

was scheduled to play her husband Robert's
piano concerto in Dresden, but fell ill
and was unable to take the stage.
Ferdinand Hiller
the conductor,
substituted the Mendelssohn
violin concerto. David had a prior
engagement, however, and sent a
pupil, the prodigy, 14-year- old
Joseph Joachim, who had been
studying the work in his stead.
Joachim Daguerreotype
Joseph Joachim:
He performed masterfully in this outing,
beginning a career that was to make him
the undisputed king of Europe's
19th-Century violinists.
bn_joachim
http://josephjoachim.com/
Since Joachim,
Joseph Jos Joachim. Portrait of Joseph Jos Joachim 1831-1907, jewish hungarian violinist and composer. Chromolithography, end of the 19th century
Joachim
this work, with its frequent
lyric and virtuoso passages providing ample
opportunity for a young star to show off
his or her technique and interpretive
talents, has been used to introduce
many  talented young violinists.
Mendelssohn's piece is so important to the
violin teaching repertoire that the famous
violinist/teacher Otakar Ševčík
wrote a set of studies called
Analytical Studies for
Mendelssohn's Violin
Concerto, Op.21

specifically for violinists learning this
concerto. These exercises give a walk-
through of all the technical issues the
player will face, with exercises based

on every phrase in the work.

VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
"Finale"
Eugene Ysaye, Violin
(One of the first recordings of
the Mendelssohn Concerto)
LINKS
931-uso20101204-004-mendelssohn-violin-concerto-mvtIII.mp3
http://www.classicfm.com/composers/mendelssohn/guides/facts/david-4/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_%28Mendelssohn%29
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/629700/Violin-Concerto-in-E-Minor-Op-64
https://archive.org/details/MendelssohnViolinConcertoInEMinormenuhin
http://www.lasr.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/prognotes/mendelssohn/violinCon.html
http://cso.org/uploadedfiles/1_tickets_and_events/program_
notes/programnotes_mendelssohn_violinconcerto.pdf
http://nyphil.org/~/media/pdfs/program-notes/
1314/Mendelssohn-Violin-Concerto.pdf
http://www.tso.ca/en-ca/Discover-the-Music/Programme-
Notes/Violin-Concerto-in-Minor-Op-64.aspx
http://www.violinschool.org/violin-repertoire/mendelssohn-violin-concerto/
http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/b/b0/
IMSLP91999-PMLP189293-Mendelssohn_solo_col.pdf
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/explore/films/514/
listening_guide_mendelssohns_violin_concerto


COMPARE THE PERFORMANCES
OF THESE FAMOUS VIOLINISTS:

VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
Jascha Heifetz, Violin

Sir Thomas Beecham, Conductor
Royal Philharmonic, 1949
VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
Yehudi Menuhin, Violin

Georges Enesco, Conductor
Orchestre des Concerts Colonne, 1938


VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
Nathan Milstein, Violin

Walter Hendl, Conductor


VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
Igor Oistrakh, Violin

Franz Konwitschny, Conductor
Leipzig Gewandhaus Chamber Orchestra, 1955


VIOLIN CONCERTO
IN E MINOR OPUS 64
Shlomo Mintz, Violin
Zubin Mehta, Conductor
Isarel Philharmonic Orchestra