Tranquility, harps and relaxation ... then Vivacious fun!

This Friday on Vivace, we'll devote the first hour to two tranquil works, the Violin Concerto by Ignaz Pleyel and a quintet for clarinet and strings by a Finnish composer you may never have heard about.

The vivacious fun begins at 7 am, when we'll have a delightful harp concerto of Jean-Baptist Krumpholtz -- who knew a thing or two about harps because he taught several harp manufacturers how to improve their products. 

We'll also listen to a splendid Mozart sonata for violin and piano -- and just before 8 o'clock, we'll have one of those catchy tunes that may well stay in your head all day!        

After 8 o'clock, we'll have Beethoven's Violin Concerto -- but not the one you're thinking of!  But surely, you ask, isn't there only one?  All will be revealed!  And, as well as works by Jacob Rosenhain and Louis Spohr, we'll play one of Felix Mendelssohn's early teenage symphonies.

As ever, I hope you'll join me for Vivace on WTJU, for three hours of terrific music this Friday, 6-9 am.

You can also replay the program anytime from the WTJU archives. The program will be available for replay through 9/5/13

Friedrich Gernsheim - Forgotten Genius

Friedrich Gernsheim, 1836-1916
A pretty good composer once you get
to know him.

Beginning this Wednesday, "Gamut" (6-9am Wednesday mornings) will be featuring a cycle of symphonies by German composer Friedrich Gernsheim.

Who?

Although Gernsheim's reputation has lapsed into relative obscurity, it wasn't always the case.

Friedrich Gernsheim (1838-1916) was a well-respected composer, conductor, and teacher in the latter half of the 19th century. Like Mendelssohn, Gernsheim was born into a wealthy Jewish family that valued the arts and supported his efforts.

Young Friedrich had a natural talent for the piano and studied with virtuoso Ignaz Molscheles. But rather than pursue a career as a performer, he chose to concentrate on composition and conducting.

In the late 1850's he lived in Paris, where he associated professionally with Rossini, Lalo, and Saint-Saens. Returning to Germany, he joined the faculty of Conservatory of Cologne, where he taught (among others), Engelbert Humperdink. He was a great friend of Brahms, whose style closely resembled Gernsheim's own. Gernsheim championed Brahms' music, and often programmed and conducted it.

And no wonder. Gernsheim and Brahms had very similar views about music, and wrote in similar styles. Gernsheim's First Symphony (1875) follows the same structure as Brahms' First Symphony (premiered 1876), although the two men worked independently. Gernsheim, like his friend, would write just four symphonies. He also composed a piano concerto, two violin concertos, a cello concertos, as well as an extensive amount of chamber music -- 5 string quartets, 3 piano quintets, 2 string quintets, and more.

But as good as it was (and most of his works were premiered to critical acclaim and widely performed), Gernsheim's music was still overshadowed by that of Brahms.

While I'm not suggesting we should stop playing Brahms and play Gernsheim instead, I do think the latter's music is of a quality that's worthy of the time investment to listen to it -- at least once. Which is why I'll be presenting it to you over the next month or so.

And if I can track down some recordings of Gernsheim's chamber works, I'll share them as well. But for now, between 8 and 9 AM, we can enjoy the symphonies of a perhaps unjustly neglected master. You be the judge.

8/14/13 - Symphony no. 1 in G minor, op. 32 (1875)
8/21/13 - Symphony no. 2 in E-flat major, op. 46 (1882)
8/28/13 - Symphony no. 3 in C minor 'Miriam', op. 54 (1887)
9/4/13 - Symphony no. 4 in B♭ major, op. 62 (1895)

Here's a sample:

 

You can also replay the program anytime from the WTJU archives. The program will be available for replay up to seven days after the original broadcast.

Carlos Chavez Piano Concerto: Muscular Music from Mexico

Carlos Chavez: Piano Concerto
Jorge Federico Osorio, piano
Sinfonica National de Mexico
Carlos Miguel Prietro, conductor
Cedille

Cedille presents pianist Jorge Federico Osorio in an exciting program of Mexican composers. The centerpiece is Carlos Chavez's sole piano concerto. This massive work presents serious challenges to both soloist and ensemble, but the rewards are well worth the effort.

The work fairly crackles with energy, with mercurial changes in moods and timbres. Chavez had a unique compositional voice, one that doesn't neatly fit into the pigeonholes of 20th Century schools. So there are some spiky, atonal sections as well as some modernist tonality -- and running throughout (very subtly) the rhythm and pulse of Mexican traditional music.

This is a live performance by Osorio and the Sinfonica National de Mexico, and an extraordinarily clean one at that. The ensemble plays with pin-point accuracy, a must given the sudden changes and the percussive nature of the score. Osorio is in full command of the material. His phrasing gives logic and shape to the sea of notes before him, Osorio's restrained but heartfelt expressiveness in the slow movement is particularly moving.

The albums is filled out with solo piano works. Meditacion, an early work by Chavez, shows surprising maturity for such a young composer. Jose Pablo Moncayo's Muros Verdes is a spacious-sounding work that blends Mexican musical traditions with a Hindemith-like neo-classicism. Samuel Zyman's 16-minute Variations on an Original Theme is most contemporary work on the album -- both by creation date and sound.