Category: Classical music

After coming in from one of my woodland hikes recently, (and defrosting with hot chocolate), I realized that despite its challenges, winter has its supporters (ok, and its detractors) in music. Here are a few winter themes to listen to while, maybe, your body is wrapped in a thick wool blanket, and a cup of something warm is by your side.

The most famous winter music is probably the “Winter” concerto from Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. As he did with the other three, Vivaldi wrote a sonnet describing the season, although it is still unclear whether the poems came before or after the music was written. When Etienne Roger published the scores in 1725, markings were included in the sonnets to indicate which part of the music correlated to which part of the sonnets.

L’Inverno (Winter) Op. 8, No. 4, in F minor

I. Allegro non molto

Frozen and trembling in the icy snow, In the severe blast of the horrible wind, As we run, we constantly stamp our feet, And our teeth chatter in the cold.

II. Largo

To spend happy and quiet days near the fire, While, outside, the rain soaks hundreds.

III. Allegro

We walk on the ice with slow steps, And tread carefully, for fear of falling. If we go quickly, we slip and crash and fall to the ground. Again we run on the ice, Until it cracks and opens. We hear, from closed doors, Sirocco, Boreas, and all the winds in battle. This is winter, but it, nonetheless, brings joy.

My favorite rendition of Vivaldi’s “Winter” (and all The Four Seasons) was recorded by violinist Gil Shaham with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Sound familiar? If you’ve been watching the Netflix series, “Wednesday,” based on the character Wednesday Addams (from The Addams Family), you heard “Winter” in Episode 3. The emotionless teenager with psychic powers plays it on her cello!

175 years later, Alexander Glazunov wrote the score to a ballet called The Seasons, scripted by the great Russian choreographer Marius Petipa. It was to be an allegorical ballet, with winter being described as “sleepy” before giving way to spring’s rebirth. It’s hard to think of winter as sleepy, and especially when the ballet dancers portray characters called “Frost,” “Hail,” “Ice,” and “Snow.” Here’s Yevgeny Svetlanov conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

The celebrated ballerina Anna Pavlova danced the role of “Frost” at the ballet’s premiere in February 1900. The entire Royal Court was in attendance at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage, despite having attended another ballet premiere there just three days earlier. Both were acclaimed by the Court.

It seems that snowflakes evoked little dancers in the air for other composers as well. For example, Jacques Offenbach was asked to write a ballet based on Jules Verne’s 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon. The fairy-opera (operas based on fairy tales) premiered in 1875 and featured an odd scene where the temperature of the moon drops to -50 degrees and snowflakes begin to dance. Here’s Neeme Järvi leading the Orchestra of the Swiss Romande.

And while Claude Debussy’s “Snow is Dancing,” from his 1908 Children’s Corner Suite, was not written as dance music, you understand what he’s describing. You can just picture a child looking out the nursery window at falling snow and imagining the snow is dancing. It’s played here by Seong-Jin Cho.

While some composers saw winter snowflakes as inspiration, Sergei Prokofiev thought winter was well-represented by a sleigh ride. “Troika,” about a common Russian 3-horse sleigh, was written originally as part of a score for the 1934 movie Lieutenant Kijé. It’s often heard as a stand-alone piece in Christmas holiday concerts. Antal Doráti conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

Staying with wintry movie music now, there seems to be some confusion as to which came first: a 1947 movie score, or a symphony inspired by the movie’s story. Ralph Vaughan Williams was asked to write the score for Scott of the Antarctic. His wife Ursula later wrote that he was immediately so taken with the epic of the ill-fated expedition that he envisioned writing a symphony which would be worked into the movie score. Whichever came first, the Sinfonia Antartica’s third movement, subtitled “Landscape,” allows the listener to picture what Ursula described as “great white landscapes, ice floes, the whales and penguins, bitter winds and Nature’s bleak serenity…” André Previn conducts the London Symphony Orchestra.

Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 7, Sinfonia Antartica, is a five-movement symphony that ends with the difficult final words written by a dying Robert Scott: “I do not regret this journey; we took risks, we knew we took them, things have come out against us, therefore we have no cause for complaint.”

Vaughan Williams’s Antartica inspired another “Antarctica” 50 years later. In 1997 the British Antarctic Survey commissioned Peter Maxwell Davies to write a new piece to honor the 50^th anniversary of Vaughan Williams’s score. Davies, a known conservationist, agreed to the commission, and to the requirement that he travel to Antarctica before composing. He spent three weeks there, which also inspired a book based on his diary, Notes from a Cold Climate. Unlike other symphonies with distinct movements, Davies’s Symphony No. 8, Antarctic, is a single movement with five sections, his way of paying homage to Vaughan Williams’ piece.

This blog post began with a sonnet about winter, so I think it’s appropriate to end with another winter poem from one of my favorite American poets, who coincidentally has a last name that fits with the theme! Robert Frost wrote “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” in 1922 at his home in Vermont. In 1959 Randall Thompson was commissioned by the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, to write music for the town’s bicentennial that year. Thompson chose to set seven of Frost’s poems in a collection he titled Frostiana. Here’s the Turtle Creek Chorale with the Dallas Wind Symphony.

These are just eight different views of winter, (out of 34 that I’ve collected so far), but a tidy little collection to start you on your winter’s journey. And I’ll end this with one of my favorite quotes about the season: “Welcome winter. Your late dawns and chilled breath make me lazy, but I love you nonetheless.” ~Terri Guillemets

CODA: How about a fun mashup to put a smile on during this season of chills and icy spills? Vivaldi’s “Winter” woven in with Disney’s “Let It Go” from . . . Frozen. Of course!

Stay cozy!

The next music i’m featuring in my series exploring interesting free music is another soundtrack, again very short, this time from television. It’s something of an oddity, partly because it was never a ‘release’ in the usual sense of the word (and isn’t really available any longer), partly because it’s a blatant exercise in pastiche. Created by Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper, Look Around You is a comedy series, the first season of which (broadcast in 2002) was designed to parody the series of educational films shown to English schoolchildren during the 1980s. The season featured eight episodes (plus a double-length pilot) each focusing on one aspect of the natural – and, in one instance, supernatural – world: calcium, maths, water, germs, ghosts, sulphur, music, iron and the brain. The programmes purported to explore these themes scientifically through a variety of explanations and experiments, all of which were absolute, hilariously absurd nonsense. Every aspect of the show’s presentation was designed to replicate the style of those original films as faithfully as possible, and this extended to the music, created by Popper and Serafinowicz, who were cryptically credited as ‘Gelg’.

The series was broadcast by the BBC, and in keeping with their educational remit they hosted a parody Look Around You website, where viewers could in theory interact with the show’s creators in addition to extending and testing further the hapless “knowledge” gleaned from the programme. The website included a media section where it was possible to download eight excerpts from the soundtrack – simply titled ‘Piece One’ to ‘Piece Eight’ – comprising around 11½ minutes of music. Though each very short, they’re a lovely testament to the care taken by ‘Gelg’ to recreate and evoke an earlier time.

The majority of them revel in analogue synth patterns. Some are quick and lively, filled with dancing arpeggios, as in pieces one, three and five; three was used during the opening and closing narration of each show. Others are more slow and brooding, depending on the nature of the on-screen activities. These include piece two, which accompanied an experiment to summon a ghost, piece eight, which consists of edgy floating music with almost no low registers sounds at all, used as the underscore for an experiment where lab technicians collaborate with ghosts. and piece six, where gentle plinking chords accompany a demonstration of the startling effects resulting from drinking ‘sulphagne’ (sulphur mixed with champagne). The other two excerpts are acoustic: piece four featuring a simple burst of reggae (one of the announced but non-existent “next week” episodes would have explored reggae), piece seven a noodling guitar backdrop to a demented maths problem.

These eight tracks are admittedly a bit of a niche curiosity, but they’re a nice extension of the superb authenticity shown throughout the show. The Look Around You website has been archived since 2006 and many of the links no longer function, but the original eight sound files can be downloaded below. A word of warning: they were released as very low-resolution (128Kbps) MP3s, and some of them feature a surprising amount of audible hiss or dither effects; it’s possible the hiss has been deliberately exacerbated so as to play up the music’s supposed analogue origins, though the quantity of dither squelch is surprising, perhaps suggesting very rudimentary compression (neither the hiss nor the dither are audible when the music features in the actual programmes). Nonetheless, this all feeds into the show’s uniquely askew nostalgic soundworld.

And that proximity suits Sudbin’s way, which is to reveal every intricacy of the works he plays, to allow absolutely everything to be heard. His technical command is unbelievable, particularly as witnessed from within a few feet. I noted that there were a good number of children there; all were impeccably behaved, proof that the effect of being right there up front to hear playing of this quality and depth is very powerful indeed.

In the past decade since this review, Sudbin has kept going to develop his careful art of constructing recitals contrasting different periods of music, as pioneered by Horowitz. And he has also been thinking about it, a lot: the detailed and often provocative six-page programme note about the works in last night’s programme, and also on the links between them, was researched, written and meticulously thought through…all by Sudbin himself.nThat sense of bringing a logic to a programme has consequences, namely that the listener is taken on a specific journey on the evening. And somehow never short-changed. Sudbin has an astonishing way of balancing things up, of making the whole recital being much bigger than the sum of its parts.

That was certainly true of the contrast and balance he brought between the opening two works. When he writes about Haydn’s B minor Sonata, one of the few sonatas which Sviatoslav Richter also played in his day, Sudbin mentions in his note a “frenzy and despair” which is perhaps the rarest thing of all in Haydn’s music. And yet I couldn’t help noticing that Sudbin’s way with this work is make it airy and infinitely delicate, with a particularly appealing way of holding back and allowing the music to breathe, hovering over a delicate arabesque at the end of a phrase, letting it hang in the air for a moment, loving it, enjoying it. Then, by contrast, Sudbin clearly wanted Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 to sound darker, more laden with foreboding than, say, the version which he recorded in around 2010. And yet, in its context in the recital, it was the kind of reading which felt totally right. Similarly, in the last programmed piece, Ravel’s “Scarbo” from Gaspard de la Nuit, Sudbin has written in his note “even the pauses are scary” and those moments when there might have been momentary release through delighting in a fragment melody were eschewed. But that was resolved more or less straight away by the pair of encores, both sonatas by Scarlatti, Kk466 in F minor and Kk455 in G major, which provided the complete contrast, the release, the balance which was needed. 

The centrepiece was Scriabin’s Fifth Sonata. In his programme essay, Sudbin is fascinating on the subject of quite how many varying moods a single Scriabin chord can evoke in different contexts. In his playing, the way in which Sudbin opens up the listener to Scriabin’s world is surely as persuasive as that of any pianist of our time.

More on the venue (pictured above by Paul Tanner): it’s in Vauxhall, just a couple of minutes’ walk from the new Nine Elms Northern Line station. It also serves as a gig venue for up to 200, and as a resource for performance and recording for the music education charity which runs the space. This was an early event in the new hall, mainly for supporters of the charity. World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens might never be a name that trips off the tongue easily, and Londoners can be so sniffy about the feel of new spaces: I can’t help wanting to wish it well. After all, it took several years and hundreds of broadly-programmed events for Kings Place to shrug off its doubters, and WHBEG hasn’t even begun on that journey. Good luck!

A vine-covered, boarded-up Queen Anne-style mansion sits on Apple Street in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood. While the building might not look like much now, it was once home to the National Negro Opera Company, the first and the longest-running Black opera company in the U.S. And its creator, Mary Cardwell Dawson, was the leader of a movement to make classical music more accessible to Black audiences in Pittsburgh and around the country.

Although her life was defined by multiple cities, Pittsburgh community members are trying to give her musical legacy and activism a permanent home in Pittsburgh.

Samuel Black, director of African American Programs at Heinz History Center, said Dawson is not just a prominent figure in music, but enterprising in music.

“I would kind of classify her as one of the individuals who took place in these sort of monumental periods of Black history,” he said.

She was born in the South, but moved to Pittsburgh in 1920. When she arrived in the city, Dawson wanted to open a music school, one where children — specifically Black children and those from low-income communities — could come to learn. She ran her first school out of a storefront on Frank Street in Homewood.

Then, she heard about a house owned by William “Woogie” Harris, the brother of trailblazing photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris. He gave her a loan and she began holding classes in the house on Apple Street. She offered lessons for piano, violin, voice and music theory, and the house functioned as a rehearsal space for her adult choir. She would visit Black churches around Pittsburgh to recruit gifted young singers.

“She [was] adopted by Pittsburghers, very well-respected,” Black said. “Her music school, as far as I know, had one famous pupil. And that was the jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, and he remained close to her throughout his life.” Jamal, a graduate of Westinghouse High School, began lessons with Dawson at age 7 and has been a jazz band leader for six decades.

In 1941, Dawson organized the United States’ first African-American opera company. They debuted with a performance of Verdi’s “Aida” at the Syria Mosque in Oakland. Professor and musicologist Karen Bryan has written extensively on Dawson. She said that a goal of Dawson’s was not just equal representation in classical music, but equal working conditions in classical music.

“She had a vision,” Bryan said. “And that vision was that opera particularly should be accessible. And should involve everyone.”

Dawson demanded that her leads be paid standard union wages, so that they would make the same as white performers. The company traveled across the country, and Dawson insisted on only performing at desegregated venues. This included Syria Mosque and the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.

“Her activism expanded not only to getting people on the stage and to producing Black performances of these operas; it extended to demanding that they be treated equitably by the union,” Bryan said.

Pittsburgh gave Dawson the opportunity to train hundreds of young mostly Black and minority musicians and start her opera company, but she also had aspirations elsewhere. She left for D.C. in 1943, but the opera company house remained in Pittsburgh.

Now, nearly a century after Dawson’s arrival in the city, today’s young people are helping restore the former music school. The Young Preservationists Association, in collaboration with the house’s owner Jonnet Solomon, submitted a nomination for historical preservation in 2020.

The association’s founder, Daniel Holland, said he was touched by how many students gathered for a clean-up day at the house.

“We had 100 students from various places, including University of Pittsburgh, Westinghouse High School and Tepper School sent some students over. It was a great day,” Holland said.

In addition to Young Preservationists, many local organizations and community members have fought to protect the house. This May, groundbreaking began after it was announced that $2 million through various grants and donations would be dedicated to its restoration.

The house is a reminder of Dawson’s legacy and community-building. She was passionate about giving young Black people the spaces and opportunities to explore and perform genres of music they otherwise wouldn’t have.

Article content

Music to his ears.

The owner of a Texas 7-Eleven has come up with a way to discourage homeless people from hanging out near his store.

Article content

Jagat Patel, who owns a location in Austin, plays classical music and opera blaring from speakers to stop those individuals who he says are harassing customers.

“A lot of my female customers and my young customers are scared to come here, because there are people constantly hanging out in the parking lot soliciting for money,” he told KTBC.

Article content

Patel has also had to hire a company to clean up needles left around the store, while others who work in the area say they’ve been attacked.

“I have to carry this big old knife with me just to defend myself,” a nearby worker told the outlet. “It’s sad that you have to do that.”

Patel’s scheme has gotten mixed reviews from patrons who either support Patel’s choice or are annoyed by the loud music, the outlet reported.

The city said they have received eight noise complaints at that location since Jan. 1, stating that they respond if the noise complaints are ongoing (which Patel’s “noise” is).

They will also issue a verbal warning and if they have to return within a certain amount of time from the warning, a citation could be issued.

Article content

Patel, however, said he hasn’t received a visit.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Local residents, however, don’t love it.

“I believe, just talk to them, and ask them not to hang around, or not to live around, whatever, I think that’s the best solution,” Frederick Carter, who lives nearby, said, adding that he will go to a quieter 7-Eleven for his needs.

For now, the music will play on — but at a lower level.

“We are in the process of turning it down, because people who live across the parking lot are also my customers, and we don’t want to make their life difficult,” Patel clarified.

“Studies have shown that the classical music is annoying. Opera is annoying, and I’m assuming they are correct because it’s working,” Patel said, adding that other stores in the area inspired him to do it.

“Now since they’ve had this music going on, we have less traffic down with the homeless out here.”

Orange Mountain Music, PRS for Music and Dunvagen Music Publishers have announced the release of Philip Glass: Refractions on 27 January 2023.

The four track EP features works by UK composers Dan Samsa, NikNak, Carmel Smickersgill and felix taylor, inspired by the music of Philip Glass. The commissioned project was announced in March 2022 as a development initiative for PRS members, encouraging the selected artists to engage with Glass’ music through their own practice. Refractions will be launched at an invite-only event on Philip Glass’ 86th birthday at PRS for Music’s headquarters in London Bridge on 31 January.

Speaking on the project, PRS for Music Classical Relationship Manager Dan Lewis says, ‘We’re harnessing the incandescent creativity of contemporary composers across the UK. Refractions encouraged composers to interpret Philip Glass’ music through their own lens. And beyond celebrating the release of this recording and Philip Glass’ iconic career, we’re also making sure these amazing creators meet the UK music supervision and sync community to build more revenue-generating connections and find new places for this music to live.’

American composer and PRS member Philip Glass says, ‘I am pleased that my music is a part of this innovative and development initiative in partnership with PRS for Music, Orange Mountain Music, and Dunvagen. It’s often interesting when music, new and old is reimagined. This next generation of composers bring something to this music which is connected uniquely to them through time and culture. In other words, we are hearing something we have never heard before, and that’s what interests me. These new pieces, variously composed, re-composed, rearranged and performed by NikNak, Dan Samsa, Carmel Smickersgill and felix taylor embody many of the virtues of what will be the future classical music.’