DEBUSSY Nocturnes added to our radio playlist

 

Nocturnes, (also known as Trois Nocturnes or Three Nocturnes) is an impressionist orchestral composition in three movements by the French composer Claude Debussy, who wrote it between 1892 and 1899. It is based on poems from Poèmes anciens et romanesques (Henri de Régnier, 1890).

More notes from Wikipedia | Debussy recordings | Debussy Bio

Jean-Yves Thibaudet (born 7 September 1961) is a French pianist.

 

Thibaudet has performed with most of the world's leading symphonic orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Orchestre National de France. He has also performed in the concert halls of Europe and North America and is fond of travelling to Australia where he has a strong fan base. He was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2010. Thibaudet was named Artist-in-Residence for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra during the 2019/20 season to coincide with Stéphane Denève's first season as Music Director. Thibaudet's virtuosity is such that he even impressed the great Vladimir Horowitz, who called a performance he heard on the radio of Thibaudet playing Liszt "amazing". 

Jean-Yves Thibaudet Biography    |    AVALABLE RECORDINGS

New addition: COPLAND The Red Pony Suite

 

The Red Pony is a film score composed for Lewis Milestone's 1949 production which used John Steinbeck's screenplay based on his 1937 book, The Red Pony. It was composed by Aaron Copland in 1948 at Republic Pictures and an LP was issued of the soundtrack. The orchestral suite, originally arranged by Copland for the Houston Symphony Orchestra, lasts approximately 20–25 minutes and consists of six separate pieces: "Morning on the Ranch" "The Gift" "Dream March and Circus Music" "Walk to the Bunkhouse" "Grandfather's Story" "Happy Ending" The premiere of the suite in Houston was on October 30, 1948. In 1966, Copland transcribed selections from the orchestral suite for band.--Wikipeda

1. Copland conducts Copland available recordings

The classical music of The Lone Ranger on radio

The most popular radio adventure show in history, The Lone Ranger held an audience of millions spellbound for over two decades. Key to its success was the music used on it-music rendered so beautifully, chosen with such delicate precision. Listen as we present a small selection of transitional music by Rossini, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn.

 BOOK: The Mystery of the Masked Man's Music   |   BOOKS and AUDIO

Added to playlist: PROKOFIEV Love for Three Oranges suite

 

The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33, also known by its French language title L'amour des trois oranges (Russian: Любовь к трём апельсинам, Lyubov' k tryom apel'sinam), is a satirical opera by Sergei Prokofiev. Its French libretto was based on the Italian play L'amore delle tre melarance by Carlo Gozzi. The original Italian and French titles actually mean The love of the Three Oranges, which makes the word for in the English version of the title a slight corruption or mistranslation. The opera received its premiere performance on 30 December 1921 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, conducted by Prokofiev. It received its first Russian production in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) in 1926 and has since entered the standard repertoire of many opera companies. Probably the best-known piece in the opera is the "March", which was used by CBS in the radio-drama series The FBI in Peace and War that was broadcast from 1944 to 1958. Prokofiev also quotes the march in act 2 of his ballet Cinderella (Op. 87). 

  Composition Background | Prokofiev Bio | Prokofiev on record

NEW ON PLAYLIST Von Karajan BEETHOVEN Symphony No 8

 The Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93 is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1812. Beethoven fondly referred to it as "my little Symphony in F", distinguishing it from his Sixth Symphony, a longer work also in F. The Eighth Symphony is generally light-hearted, though not lightweight, and in many places cheerfully loud, with many accented notes. Various passages in the symphony are heard by some listeners to be musical jokes. As with various other Beethoven works such as the Opus 27 piano sonatas and the later Ninth Symphony, the symphony deviates from Classical tradition in making the last movement the weightiest of the four.

The work was begun in the summer of 1812, immediately after the completion of the Seventh Symphony. At the time Beethoven was 41 years old. The work took Beethoven only four months to complete, and is, unlike many of his works, without dedication. The premiere took place on 27 February 1814, at a concert in the Redoutensaal, Vienna. 

Background | Beethoven Bio | Von Karajan Bio | Available Beethoven Syphonies

New Add to playlist...BRAHMS Piano Concerto No 2

 

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B♭ major, Op. 83, by Johannes Brahms is separated by a gap of 22 years from his first piano concerto. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. It took him three years to work on this concerto which indicates that he was always self-critical. He wrote to Clara Schumann: "I want to tell you that I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo." Ironically, he was describing a huge piece. This concerto is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen. The public premiere of the concerto was given in Budapest on 9 November 1881, with Brahms as soloist and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, and was an immediate success. He proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe.

PC2 Background | BRAHMS BIO | AVAILABLE RECORDINGS

Addition to our playlist by ELGAR

Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, is one of his longest orchestral compositions, and the last of his works to gain immediate popular success. The concerto was composed for the violinist Fritz Kreisler, who gave the premiere in London in 1910, with the composer conducting. Plans by the recording company His Master's Voice to record the work with Kreisler and Elgar fell through, and the composer made a recording with the teenaged Yehudi Menuhin that has remained in the catalogues since its first release in 1932. 

  

Concerto History 

  

Elgar Biography 

  

Available Elgar Recordings

addition to our playlist

 RAVEL: Introduction and Allegro

To showcase its new chromatic harp, the Pleyel company commissioned Claude Debussy in 1904 to write his Danse sacrée et danse profane for harp and orchestra. The Érard company responded by commissioning Maurice Ravel to write a piece to display the expressive range of its double-action pedal harp. Ravel completed his Introduction and Allegro for a septet of harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet in June 1905, dedicating it to Albert Blondel, director of Maison Érard. He wrote it at breakneck speed, as he had to complete it before embarking on a boating holiday with friends.

Ravel omitted the Introduction and Allegro from the catalogue of his works, made no mention of it in his autobiography, and referred to it in only two of his letters. Nevertheless, it was often performed at his concerts and it was the very first of the small number of his own works that Ravel recorded (1923; Gwendolen Mason, harp; Robert Murchie, flute; Haydn P. Draper, clarinet.) In 1906 Ravel wrote a version for two pianos. In a letter to Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht on 26 February 1911, Ravel sanctioned the work being arranged for larger forces. Description from Wikipedia

Maurice Ravel Bio | Ravel Recordings