Today's Birthdays

Caroline Miolan‑Carvalho (1827-1895)
Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)
Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940)
Nathan Milstein (1904-1992)
Jule Styne (1925-1994)
Jaap Schröder (1925-2020)
Odetta (1930-2008)
Calvin Hampton (1938-1984)
Stephen Cleobury (1948)
Donna Summer (1948-2012)
Jennifer Higdon (1962)

and

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nicholas Sparks (1965)
Junot Díaz (1968)

Today's Birthdays

William Croft (1678-1727)
André Messager (1853-1929)
Joseph Bohuslav Foerster (1859-1951)
Alfred Einstein (1880-1952)
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
Sir David Willcocks (1919-2015)
Bo Diddley (1928-2008)
Bruno Canino (1935)
June Anderson (1950)
Stephen Jaffe (1954)
Antonio Pappano (1959)

and

Theodor Fontane (1819-1898)
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Sara Lidman (1923-2004)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1879 was the premiere of Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta "The Pirates of Penzance," in Paignton at the Royal Bijou (partial preview to insure British copyright). The first full performance of the new work occurred at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York City the following day, with Sullivan conducting and Gilbert in attendance. The New York premiere was arranged to register American copyright of the new work and pre-empt unauthorized "pirate" productions in the U.S.

Today's Birthdays

Tomás Bretón (1850-1923)
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
Lionel Tertis (1876-1975)
Yves Nat (1890-1956)
Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990)
Billy Tipton (1914-1989)

and

William Gaddis (1922-1998)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1903 took place the first concert by the Seattle Symphony at Christensen's Hall in Seattle under the baton of violinist Harry F. West. The program includes music of Massenet, Bruch, Schubert and Rossini.

Today's Birthdays

Christian Cannabich (1731-1798)
Julius Rietz (1812-1877)
B. J. Lang (1837-1909)
Francesco Tamagno (1850-1905)
Roger Sessions (1896-1985)
Earl "Fatha" Hines (1905-1983)
Johnny Otis (1921-2012)
Nigel Kennedy (1956)

and

Charles Portis (1933-2020)

Today's Birthdays

Sir John Goss (1800-1880)
Tito Schipa (1888-1965)
Marlene Dietrich (1904-1992)
Oscar Levant (1906-1972)

and

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Charles Olson (1910-1970)
Wilfrid Sheed (1930-2011)
Chris Abani (1966)
Sarah Vowell (1969)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1841, Franz Liszt performs at the Singakademie in Berlin. Women swooned and the general audience reacts with such uncontrolled enthusiasm that Heinrich Heine coins the term "Lisztomania" to describe their fanatical devotion to the performer, which soon swept through most of Europe.

Today's Birthdays

Maurice Gendron (1920-1990)
Thea King (1925-2007)
Earle Brown (1926-2002)
Phil Specter (1940)
Wayland Rogers (1941)
Harry Christophers (1953)
Andre-Michel Schub (1953)
Gabriella Smith (1991)

and

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
Henry Miller (1891-1980)
Jean Toomer (1894-1867)
Juan Felipe Herrera (1948)
David Sedaris (1958)

Merry Christmas!

Today's Birthdays

Jean‑Joseph de Mondonville (1711-1772)
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint‑George (1745-1799)
Cosima Wagner (1837-1930)
Lina Cavalieri (1874-1944)
Giuseppe de Luca (1876-1950)
Gladys Swarthout (1900-1969)
Cab Calloway (1907-1994)
Noël Lee (1924-2013)
Noel Redding (1945-2003)
Jon Kimura Parker (1959)
Ian Bostridge (1964)

and

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
Clara Barton (1821-1912)
Rod Serling (1924-1975)

Today's Birthdays

Peter Cornelius (1824-1874)
Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944)
Lucrezia Bori (1887-1960)
Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946)
Sir Vivian Dunn (1908-1995)
Teresa Stich-Randall (1927-2007)
Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008)
Arnold Östman (1939)
Libby Larsen (1950)
Hans-Jürgen von Bose (1953)
Vasyl Slipak (1974-2016)

and

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
Anthony Fauci (1940)
Dana Gioia (1950)

and from The Writer's Almanac

Today is Christmas Eve. One of the best modern Christmas Eve stories is a true one, and it happened in 1914, in the trenches of World War I. The “war to end all wars” was raging, but German and British soldiers had been engaging in unofficial ceasefires since mid-December. The British High Command was alarmed, and warned officers that fraternization across enemy lines might result in a decreased desire to fight. On the German side, Christmas trees were trucked in and candles lit, and on that Christmas Eve in 1914, strains of Stille Nacht — “Silent Night” — reached the ears of British soldiers. They joined in, and both sides raised candles and lanterns up above their parapets. When the song was done, a German soldier called out, “Tomorrow is Christmas; if you don’t fight, we won’t.”

The next day dawned without the sound of gunfire. The Germans sent over some beer, and the Brits sent plum pudding. Enemies met in no man’s land, exchanging handshakes and small gifts. Someone kicked in a soccer ball, and a chaotic match ensued. Details about this legendary football match vary, and no one knows for sure exactly where it took place, but everyone agrees that the Germans won by a score of three to two.

At 8:30 a.m. on December 26, after one last Christmas greeting, hostilities resumed. But the story is still told, in a thousand different versions from up and down the Western Front, more than a century later.

On Christmas Eve in 1906, the first radio program was broadcast. Canadian-born Professor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden sent his signals from the 420-foot radio tower of the National Electric Signaling Company, at Brant Rock on the Massachusetts seacoast. Fessenden opened the program by playing “O Holy Night” on the violin. Later he recited verses from the Gospel of St. Luke, then broadcast a gramophone version of Handel’s “Largo.” His signal was received up to five miles away.

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1920, the last operatic appearance ever of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso took place in an evening performance of Halevy's "La Juive" (The Jewess) at the old Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Caruso would die in Naples (where he made his operatic debut on March 15, 1895) at the age of 48 on August 2, 1921.

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Boismortier (1689-1755)
Ross Lee Finney (1906-1997)
Claudio Scimone (1934-2018)
Ross Edwards (1943)
Edita Gruberová (1946)
Elise Kermani (1960)
Han-Na Chang (1982)

and

Harriet Monroe (1860-1936)
Norman Maclean (1902–1990)
Robert Bly (1926-2021)
Carol Ann Duffy (1955)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1989, Leonard Bernstein led the first of two public performances of Beethoven's Ninth at the Philharmonie in West Berlin, with an international orchestra assembled to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. The second performance occurred on December 25 at the Schauspielhaus in East Berlin.

Today's Birthdays

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889)
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Franz Schmidt (1874-1939)
Edgard Varèse(1883-1965)
Joseph Deems Taylor (1885-1966)
Alan Bush (1900-1995)
Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980)
David Leisner (1953)
Jean Rigby (1954)
Zhou Tian (1981)

and

Jean Racine (1639-1699)
Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982)
Donald Harrington (1935-2009)

Today's Birthdays

Zdeněk Fibich (1850-1900)
André Turp (1925-1991)
Frank Zappa (1940-1993)
Roger Lasher Nortman (1941)
Michael Tilson Thomas (1944)
András Schiff (1953)
Kim Cascone (1955)
Thomas Randle (1958)
Jonathan Cole (1970)

and

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
Maud Gonne (1866-1953)
Edward Hoagland (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Henry Hadley (1871-1937)
Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)
Gordon Getty (1933)
John Harbison (1938)
Roger Woodward (1942)
Mitsuko Uchida (1948)

and

Elizabeth Benedict (1954)
Sandra Cisneros (1954)
Nalo Hopkinson (1960)

Kyr's "In Praise of Music" given terrific voice by The Antioch Ensemble

Earlier this year an outstanding recording of a cappella numbers by Robert Kyr was released on the Bridge label. Entitled In Praise of Music, the CD contains pieces that Kyr has written over the last 20 years. All are beautifully sung with impeccable blend by the Antioch Chamber Ensemble, a professional choir based in metropolitan New York, under the direction of Joshua Copeland.

The first three pieces of the album have text written by Kyr that lauds the music as a balm for our souls. “In Praise of Music” builds upon multilayered lines to a final, vigorous climax. “O Great Spirit” offers echoing, sonic waves. “In the Name of Music” is highlighted by pure tone, and an enchanting siren of women’s voices that wonderfully decay into the distance.

“Veni Creator Spiritus” channels back to a Medieval-sounding recitative style with various Latin texts. The men’s voices rumble in the basement region while the women hover in the upper stories. The piece ends with an eloquent Dona nobis pacem that becomes triumphant – all with no vibrato.

One of the highlights of the “Santa Fe Vespers” is when the women sing a playful Laudate while the men anchor things steadily underneath. Another high point, the choir executes a tricky series sounds that spiral downward. Later, while singing of seraphims, it is easy to imagine these angelic creatures swirling about in the heavens.

“Downsong” is a soothing, meditative vocalise. “Ode to Music” provides a lovely setting of a sonnet by John Donne. The choir raised an intense prayer in “Voices for Peace” and followed that with ardent wailing in “Freedom Song” with Kyr accompanying on a frame drum. The last number, “Alleluia for Peace” gives a final, passionate plea.

The Antioch Ensemble sang each piece with terrific balance and commitment, making In Praise of Music an excellent addition to your choral library.

Today's Birthdays

Louis‑Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)
George Frederick Bristow (1825-1898)
Fritz Reiner (1885-1963)
Paul Dessau (1894-1979)
Edith Piaf (1915-1963)
Dalton Baldwin (1931)
Phil Ochs (1940-1976)
William Christie (1944)
Marianne Faithfull (1946)
Olaf Bär (1957)
Steven Esserlis (1958)
Rebecca Saunders (1967)

and

Italo Svevo (1861-1928)
Constance Garnett (1861-1946)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It’s the birthday of French chanteuse Édith Piaf (1915). Piaf was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother was a café singer and a drug addict, and her father was a street performer who specialized in acrobatics and contortionism. Neither of them particularly cared for Piaf, so she mostly grew up with her grandmother, who ran a brothel. Piaf was looked after by prostitutes and later claimed that she was blind from the ages of three to seven because of keratitis, or malnutrition, though this was never proved.

Her father reclaimed her when she was nine and Piaf began singing with him on street corners until he abandoned her again. She lived in shoddy hotel rooms in the red-light district of Paris and sang in a seedy café called Lulu’s, making friends with pimps, hookers, lowlifes, and gamblers, until she was discovered by an older man named Louis Leplée.

Leplée ran a nightclub off the Champs-Élysées. He renamed Piaf La Môme Piaf, “The Little Sparrow,” dressed her entirely in black, and set her loose on the stage. Piaf was a hit, and recorded two albums in one year, becoming one of the most popular performers in France during World War II.

Édith Piaf died on the French Riviera at the age of 47. More than 40,000 people came to her funeral procession. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina named a small planet after Piaf; it’s called 3772 Piaf. Her songs have been covered by Madonna, Grace Jones, and even Donna Summer.

Édith Piaf’s last words were, “Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.”

Today's Birthdays

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)
Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952)
Rita Streich (1920-1987)
William Boughton (1948)
David Liptak (1949)
Christopher Theofanidis (1967)

and

Saki - H. H. Munro (1870-1916)
Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Christopher Fry (1907-2005)
Abe Burrows (1910-1985)

Today's Birthdays

Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979)
Ray Noble (1903-1975)
Art Neville (1937)

and

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939)
William Safire (1929-2009)
John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It's the day that The Nutcracker ballet was performed for the first time in St. Petersburg, Russia (1892). Czar Alexander III, in the audience, loved the ballet, but the critics hated it. Tchaikovsky wrote that the opera that came before The Nutcracker "was evidently very well liked, the ballet not. ... The papers, as always, reviled me cruelly." Tchaikovsky died of cholera less than a year later, before The Nutcracker became an international success.

Today's Birthdays

François Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)
Augusta Holmès (1847-1903)
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Turk Murphy (1915-1987)
Steve Allen (1921-2000)
Dame Thea King (1925-2007)
Alice Parker (1925)
Kenneth Gilbert (1931-2020)
Rodion Shchedrin (1932)
Philip Langridge (1939-2010)
Trevor Pinnock (1946)
Isabelle van Keulen (1966)

and

Jane Austin (1775-1817)
George Santayana (1863-1952)
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Sir Noel Coward (1899-1973)
Noël Coward (1899-1973)
V. S. Pritchett (1900-1997)

Today's Birthdays

Michel‑Richard Delalande (1657-1726)
Lotte Schöne (1891-1981)
Stan Kenton (1911-1979)
Ida Haendel (1924-2020)
Eddie Palmieri (1936)
Nigel Robson (1948)
Jan Latham-Koenig (1953)

and

Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917)
Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959)
Freeman Dyson (1923-2020)
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000)
Edna O'Brien (1930)

Today's Birthdays

Maria Agata Szymanowska (1789-1831)
Joseph Jongen (1873-1953)
Georges Thill (1897-1984)
Spike Jones (1911-1965)
Rosalyn Tureck (1914-2003)
Dame Ruth Railton (1915-2001)
Ron Nelson (1929)
Christopher Parkening (1947)
Thomas Albert (1948)
John Rawnsley (1949)

and

Shirley Jackson (1919-1965)
Amy Hempel (1951)

Callaway puts plenty of sparkle into the Vancouver Symphony's holiday concert

The Vancouver Symphony’s holiday concert with Liz Callaway glowed with homecoming atmosphere on Saturday evening (December 11). Patrons of the orchestra enthusiastically greeted the musicians with applause in Skyview Concert Hall for the first time since the pandemic shut down that venue in March of 2020. Because of a ban on outside vendors by the school district, the orchestra performed its first two concerts of the season in Portland’s Newmark Theatre and the Cowlitz Ballroom of the ilani Casino. So, it was heartening to see the auditorium at about two-thirds capacity, and there must have been a good-sized crowd online. They received an outstanding show by Callaway and the orchestra under the direction of Salvador Brotons.

Seasonal decorations, including Christmas lights wrapped around a double-bass, poinsettias lining the front of the stage, and greenery draped around the rail of the conductor’s podium, added to the concert’s festive mood. Brotons gave Callaway a rousing introduction, and she launched into “Something’s Coming” from "West Side Story." Next came a lively, pop-styled arrangement of “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” with principal trumpet Bruce Dunn adding some extra licks.

Flavoring her selections with humorous anecdotes, Callaway recalled singing Grizabella for five years in “Cats” and how fun it is to sing it now “without whiskers.” She gave “Memory” a terrific climax at the end, which elicited sustained applause from the audience. Callaway followed that with “Broadway Baby” from “Follies” and the snippet of lines that she sang in her first Broadway show, “Merrily We Roll Along,” which, she also noted, closed after two weeks.

Acknowledging her longtime collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, who recently passed away, Callaway gave a passionate performance of “Send in the Clowns” from “A Little Night Music.” She closed out the first half of the program with two signature numbers – “Once Upon a December” and “Journey to the Past” – that she has made famous in the Disney animated film “Anastasia:”.” That combo brought down the house, resulting in a standing ovation.

After intermission, Callaway sang a splashy arrangement of “Joy to the World” to a pulsating beat. She also gave poignancy to “Grown-Up Christmas List,” then jolted us with a bracing “Jingle Bells” in a refreshing arrangement by Jack Gold and Marty Paich that required some tricky meters and modulations. She wound things up with “God Bless My Family,” which was written by her sister Ann Hampton Callaway and contains a beautiful message, and finally a soothing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” that I am sure had some online listeners reaching for a glass of eggnog.

The concert opened with Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess: Selections for Orchestra” in a superb arrangement by Robert Russell Bennet that put the spotlight on various members of the orchestra and a fun exchange between the woodwinds and the brass when they played “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” The orchestra served a delectable slice of Viennese pieces with Suppe’s “Poet and Peasant Overture,” Strauss Jr’s “Emperor Waltz” – both of which featured fine solos by principal cellist Dieter Ratzlaf. After transitioning to Strauss Jr’s lighthearted “Tritsch-Tratsch Polka,” the orchestra wrapped up the evening with the Strauss Sr’s “Radetzky March” in which Brotons got the entire audience clapping rhythmically with gusto.

Today's Birthdays

Alexis de Castillon (1838-1873)
Josef Lhévinne (1874-1944)
Eleanor Robson Belmont (1879-1979)
Samuel Dushkin (1891-1976)
Victor Babin (1908-1972)
Alvin Curran (1938)

and

Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882)
Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972)
James Wright (1927-1980)
Lester Bangs (1948-1982)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1836, at a musical soiree at Chopin's apartments in Paris, the female writer "George" Sand, determined to make a good impression with her host, arrives wearing white pantaloons and a scarlet sash (the colors of the Polish flag). Paris Opéra tenor Adolphe Nourit sings some Schubert songs, accompanied by Franz Liszt. Liszt and Chopin play Moschele's Sonata in Eb for piano four-hands.

Today's Birthdays

Andrey Schulz‑Evler (1852-1905)
Kurt Atterberg (1887-1974)
Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
Philip Ledger (1937-2012)
Donald Maxwell (1948)
Margaret Tan (1953)
Jaap van Zweden (1960)
David Horne (1970)
Evren Genis (1978)

and

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
John Osborne (1929-1994)

Today's Birthdays

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Joseph Jongen (1873-1953)
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876-1909)
Leo Ornstein (1893-2002)
Elliott Carter (1908-2012)
David Ashley White (1944)
Neil Mackie (1946)

and

Grace Paley (1922-2007)
Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006)
Grace Paley (1922-2007)
Jim Harrison (1937-2016)
Thomas McGuane (1939)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1918, Russian-born conductor Nikolai Sokoloff leads the first concert of the Cleveland Orchestra at Gray's Armory, presented as a benefit for St. Ann's Church. His program included Victor Herbert's "American Fantasy," Bizet's "Carmen" Suite, two movements of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Liadov's "Enchanted Lake," and Liszt's "Les Préludes".

Preview of Vancouver Symphony holiday concert with Liz Callaway in The Columbian

The Columbian newspaper published my preview of the Vancouver Symphony's concert with Liz Callaway, but they made it available only to subscribers. Here is the link to the article. 

Today's Birthdays

César Franck (1822-1890)
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Morton Gould (1913-1996)
Sesto Bruscantini (1919-2003)
Nicholas Kynaston (1941)
Julianne Baird (1952)
Kathryn Stott (1958)
Sarah Chang (1980)

and

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Melvil Dewey (1851-1931)
Adolf Loos (1870-1933)

Oregon Symphony's "Messiah" breaks into the fast lane

David Danzmayr led the Oregon Symphony in a super-fast performance of Handel’s “Messiah” on Saturday evening (December 4) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. This daring decision by the orchestra’s new music director gave the sense of rushing ahead, but at the cost of leaving much of the music’s emotion in the dust. If only someone had walked on stage and issued a speeding ticket.

The orchestra performed it all immaculately, with the strings excelling in creating clean lines with no vibrato, much like you would hear from a baroque ensemble. Jeffrey Work’s accompanying “The trumpet shall sound” was a highlight of the evening, and the addition of the theorbo, as part of the continuo team (with Garrett Bond switching between the harpsichord and portative organ), came across very strongly, albeit a little too strongly at times.

The Portland State Chamber Choir was well prepared by Ethan Sperry, but it could not articulate the numerous runs without resorting to da-ga-da-ga-da-ga iterations because of the fast tempos. That became really annoying. Transitions from the soloists to the choir went well except for the disjointed exchange from Jonathan Woody’s singing of “Why do the nations so furiously rage together” to the chorus’ “Let us break their bonds asunder.” It was also impossible for the chorus to create explosive fortes, for example in the last lines of “Lift up your heads” and “Since by man came death.”

Tenor Miles Mykkanen stood out for his clarion voice, diction, and dynamic ability to reach into the furthest corners of the hall. Soprano Yulia Van Doren sang gorgeously – with some very creative ornamentation – but she left off the ending consonants of her words. Mezzo-Soprano Gina Perregrino had much success with the upper range of her arias but lacked power in the lower portion. Bass-Baritone Jonathan Woody delivered his arias forcefully but could not be heard as well in the deepest passages.

It is terrific that Danzmayr is trying out new ideas, especially in finding out what works and what doesn’t work with the new sound system. And I have nothing against setting a quick pace through a famous oratorio that can become weighty and sag, but a slightly slower tempo would have gone a long way in making this “Messiah” more enjoyable.

Today's Birthdays

Emile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)
Conchita Supervia (1895-1936)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915-2006)
Dennis Eberhard (1943-2005)
Christopher Robson (1953)
Donny Osmond (1957)
Joshua Bell (1967)

and

John Milton (1608-1674)
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)
Léonie Adams (1899-1988)
Ödön von Horváth (1901-1938)

From the Writer's Almanac:

Milton coined more than 600 words, including the adjectives dreary, flowery, jubilant, satanic, saintly, terrific, ethereal, sublime, impassive, unprincipled, dismissive, and feverish; as well as the nouns fragrance, adventurer, anarchy, and many more.

Today's Birthdays

Claude Balbastre (1724-1799)
Frantisek Xaver Dussek (1731-1799)
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Manuel Ponce (1882-1948)
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)
Gérard Souzay (1918-2004)
Moisei Vainberg (1919-1996)
James Galway (1939)

and

Horace (65-8 B.C.)
Diego Rivera (1886-1957)
James Thurber (1894-1961)
James Tate (1948)
Mary Gordon (1949)
Bill Bryson (1951)

Today's Birthdays

Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710)
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876)
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Ernst Toch (1887-1964)
Rudolf Friml (1879-1972)
Richard Franko Goldman (1910-1980)
Daniel Jones (1912-1993)
Helen Watts (1927-2009)
Harry Chapin (1942-1981)
Daniel Chorzempa (1944)
Tom Waits (1949)
Kathleen Kuhlmann (1950)
Krystian Zimerman (1956)

and

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
Willa Cather (1873-1947)
Joyce Cary (1888-1957)
Noam Chomsky (1928)
Susan Isaacs (1943)

The Brentano String Quartet sheds light on esoteric Stravinsky - but Beethoven shines brighter

The Brentano String Quartet incisively delivered an eclectic concert (December 3) in Lincoln Recital Hall that centered on Stravinsky’s music for string quartet. Since Stravinsky wrote just a couple of brief string quartets, the program, sponsored by Chamber Music Northwest, was filled out with pieces that sounded similar to Stravinsky's and pieces that may have influenced him – plus a sprinkling of poetry of Amy Lowell. But despite the Brentano’s passionate playing, Stravinsky’s austere style came across as a dry and intellectual exercise. Fortunately, Beethoven’s String Quartet No 16, which the foursome played outstandingly, rescued the evening.

It probably comes as no surprise that Stravinsky’s ability to push boundaries and put his stamp on whatever he created extended all the way to some of his most obscure music. His dissonant “Concertino for String Quartet,” written in 1920, teeters between furious and relaxed passages that become more disjointed.

This number was sandwiched by two movements from John Cage’s “Quartet in Four Parts” (1950). Employing no vibrato, the Brentanos (violinists Mark Steinberg and Serena Canin, violist Misha Amory, and cellist Nina Lee) created a probing spirit from “Quietly Flowing Along” and explored a medieval-sounding “Quodlibet.”

Stravinsky’s “Three Pieces for String Quartet,” composed in 1914, had an odd, lopsided effect. “Danse” and “Excentrique” featured aggressive phrases with sporadic outbursts. The sorrowful, dirge-like “Cantique” was performed with pristine, carefully placed tones. Three evocative poems by Amy Lowell (played in a recording by Barbara Sukowa) were inspired by the “Three Pieces.” But his “Anthem,” written as a choir piece in 1962, just didn’t resonate without the corresponding text.

The “Three Pieces” may have been influenced by Machaut’s music. The Brentanos performed an arrangement of his “Quant en moy” and the “Ave Maria” from Verdi’s “Quattro pezzi sacri.” (Violinist Mark Steinberg in his program notes mentioned that Stravinsky admired Verdi’s music.) The ensemble also played Shostakovich’s delightfully off kilter “Polka for String Quartet” (1931).

“Three Madrigals” by Carlo Gesualdo, whose music Stravinsky helped to champion by arranging for orchestra, had a lovely serene effect. The first two madrigals were arranged for string quartet by Steinberg and the third by Bruce Adolphe.

The Brentanos closed out the concert with a sterling performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 (Opus 135), which he finished about three months before he died. The ensemble conveyed the volatile emotion of the piece. I loved how the sound could swell up in a huge forte and die down – with the sound from all four musicians balanced perfectly. The group also excelled with the tender, pleading sections of the piece. It was a stunningly beautiful way to bring the concert to an end.

Today's Birthdays

Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605)
Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)
Ira Gershwin (1896-1983)
Dave Brubeck (1920-2012)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
Henryk Górecki (1933-2010)
Tomas Svoboda (1939)
John Nelson (1941)
Daniel Adni (1951)
Bright Sheng (1955)
Matthew Taylor (1964)

and

Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529)
The Encyclopedia Brittanica (1768)
Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762)
Vitezslav Novák (1870-1949)
"Little" Richard Wayne Penniman (1935-2020)
José Carreras (1946)
Krystian Zimerman (1956)
Osvaldo Golijov (1960)

and

Christina (Georgina) Rossetti (1830-1894)
Joan Didion (1934)
Calvin Trillin (1935)
John Berendt (1939)
Lydia Millet (1968)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1704, George Frideric Handel (age 19) refuses to turn over the harpsichord to Johann Mattheson (age 23) during a performance of Mattheson's opera "Cleopatra," leading to a sword duel between the two. It is said that during the swordplay, Handel was saved by a button on his coat that deflected Mattheson's mortally-directed blade. The two reconciled on December 30 that year, dining together and attending a rehearsal of Handel's opera "Almira," becoming, as Mattheson put it: "better friends than ever."

Today's Birthdays

André Campra (1660-1744)
Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1667-1737)
Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1949)
Alex North (1910-1991)
Yvonne Minton (1938)
Lillian Watson (1947)
Andrew Penny (1952)

and

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1891)
Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968)

Today's Birthdays

Nicolo Amati (1596-1684)
André Campra (1660-1744)
Antonio Soler (1729-1783)
Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Halsey Stevens (1908-1989)
Nino Rota (1911-1979)
Irving Fine (1914-1962)
Charles Craig (1919-1997)
Paul Turok (1929-2012)
José Serebrier (1938)
Matt Haimovitz (1970)

and

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Anna Freud (1895-1982)
Zlata Filipović (1980)

Today's Birthdays

Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Rudolf Friml (1879-1972)
Harriet Cohen (1895-1967)
Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970)
Robert Moevs (1920-2007)
Maria Callas (1923-1977)
Jörg Demus (1928-2019)

and

Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859-1891)
T. Coraghessan Boyle (1948)
George Saunders (1958)
Ann Patchertt (1963)

And from the Composers Datebook: On this day in 1717, J.S. Bach is allowed to leave the Duke’s Court at Weimar. He had been imprisoned since Nov. 6th by his former employer Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar for accepting a new post at Prince Leopold’s court at Cöthen without first asking permission.

Today's Birthdays

François‑Xavier Richter (1709-1789)
Ernest (Louis-Etienne-Ernest) Reyer (1832-1909)
Agathe Grøndahl (1847-1907)
Lou Rawls (1933-2006)
Gordon Crosse (1937-2021)
Bette Midler (1945)
Rudolf Buchbinder (1946)
Leontina Vaduva (1960)