A Morning of Marvelous Musical Treats!

This Friday on Vivace, we have some special musical treats for you. 

We start gently at 6 am with a Sonata for Flute and Piano by Danish composer Friedrich Kuhlau and, for viola fans, a viola concerto by Carl Stamitz. We will also salute British composer Herbert Howells on his 122nd birthday - appropriately with his arrangement of Psalm 122.

Herbert Howells and Domenico Zipoli

At 7, we find Franz Schubert in lively mood as we listen to his Five German Dances, and we'll also have a short work by Domenico Zipoli, whose 326th birthday will be on Friday.

      Felix Mendelssohn at 22

On October 17, 1831, the 22 year-old Felix Mendelssohn gave the first performance of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in G, Op. 25 in In Munich. To commemorate the occasion we'll hear it at about 7:30 am, in a sparkling performance by Sir Andras Schiff, who returned to the same hall in Munich to perform it with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. 

The real star of this week's show may well turn out to be the Cello Concerto No.6 by Jean Balthasar Tricklir, which we'll hear just after 8 am. We're anticipating a good audience reaction, so here's a photo of the CD cover, just in case you want to buy it.

We'll round out the show with music of Hummel and Mozart. As ever, I hope you'll join me for Vivace, 6-9 am Friday, right here on WTJU-Charlottesville.

The Rare and the Familiar

When you start your Friday with Vivace, as we hope you always do, it sometimes means hearing music by rarely-heard composers, and that will certainly be true this week.  We'll start with a symphony by Carl Loewe and a flute quintet by Andreas Romberg. At 7 o'clock, we have a delightful harpsichord concerto by Simon Mayr and a piano fantasy by Franz Schubert ... 

 

... and we'll find out if you know which famous composer wrote the music for the US Marine Corps hymn as we celebrate the 216th anniversary of the US Marine Band, which was established by an act of Congress on July 11, 1798.

After 8 o'clock, we'll have music of Hummel and Mozart and we'll celebrate the 153rd birthday of Russian composer Anton Arensky.

Anton Arensky

As ever, I hope you'll join me for Vivace, Friday morning 6-9 am, here on WTJU-Charlottesville.

Hoffmeister and Hummel, Mozart and Salieri

This Friday on Vivace, we'll have some melodic treasures to share with you.

In the first hour, there will be a rare broadcast of Hubert Parry's Symphony No. 1 in G-Major which has not been played on WTJU since we started keeping records  And after that, we'll hear a short work by Anton Bruckner - really!  Such things do exist!

After 7 am, the emphasis is on sweet, melodious music.  We have a superb clarinet concerto by Franz Anton Hoffmeister, an Impromptu by Vorisek and a remarkable serenade by Johann Hummel. 

And after 8 o'clock, we'll hear some exquisite music by two composers wrongly thought to be fierce rivals who were in fact friends: Mozart and Salieri.

In reality, Antonio Salieri was one of the few mourners who attended Mozart's sparse funeral and later trained Mozart's son, Franz Xaver, as a musician.  We'll hear music by both of them as well as a violin concerto by Johann Stamitz and a piano sonata by Haydn. 

So do join me, as ever, for Vivace, Friday morning, 6-9 am, on WTJU-Charlottesville, 91.1 FM for three hours of Vivacious fun!

You can also replay the program anytime from the WTJU archives. The program will be available for replay through 9/12/13

Review: Hummel at the Opera - Piano Arrangements by a Classical Master

Hummel At the Opera
Madoka Inui, piano
Naxos

Like many virtuoso composer/performers of the day, Johann Nepomuk Hummel wrote arrangements and variations on popular melodies. And in that day (the early 1800’s), the best-known melodies were to be found in operas.

This collection features a number of Hummel’s operatic arrangements for solo piano. All show a wealth of musical imagination. Some of the source material is familiar to us today, such Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail and Gluck’s Armide. Others are a little more obscure. In a few cases,  such as Hummel’s own fairy opera Eselshaut, his piano arrangements are the only surviving versions of the work.

As may one might expect, these variations and grand fantasias are full of attractive melodies. Compared to Liszt’s operatic transcriptions – or Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations,” these works can seem a little tame. But Hummel’s inventiveness runs closer to  that of Mozart and Haydn. So while they’re  excessively showy, they’re all solidly constructed pieces of music.

Especially attractive is his variations of “Vivat Bacchus” from Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung. Hummel takes the aria through several permutations that vary in tone from humorous to serious.  I also found his simple counterpoint in the Grand Fantasi on Oberons Zauberhorn particularly charming.

Pianist Madoka Inui plays these works with precision and sensitivity. Her phrasing is impeccable, giving the music a sense of forward motion while maintaining a little of the emotional reserve characteristic of Hummel’s late-classical style.

Pleasant – and in some cases – thought-provoking arrangements that make for an enjoyable listening experience.