Four Centuries of Great Music September 29, 2024 Celebration of the Anniversaries of Composer Birthdays in September

Four Centuries of Great Music 09- 29-24

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music is my show on celebrating the anniversary of composer birthdays for the month of September.  And there are so many composers with birthdays in September that I saw four women composers who had birthdays this month.  So on today’s show I will be playing music by
Amy Beach whose birthday anniversary is on September 5th
Clara Schumann    whose birthday anniversary September 13th
Nadia Boulanger    whose birthday anniversary September 16th
Vivian Fine  whose birthday anniversary September 28th

So we open today with American composer Amy Beach who was born on September 5, 1867 and her Symphony in E Minor, Op. 32 (Gaelic).  It is in 4 movements ;
I. Allegro con fuoco
II. Alla siciliana - Allegro vivace - Andante
III. Lento con molto espressione
IV. Allegro di molto

The Gaelic Symphony was Beach’s response to Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák’s call for American composers to explore their musical roots. Known for his own nationalist style, Dvořák had traveled to the U.S. in 1892 to lead the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. He suggested that a distinctly American sound might include Native American and African American elements. Beach, who lived in Boston—which had a large Irish immigrant population—instead turned to Irish melodies, attracted by what she described as “their simple, rugged, and unpretentious beauty.”

The first movement of the symphony marked Allegro con fuoco begins with much energy, borrowing a melody from “Dark Is the Night,” one of Beach’s own art songs.

The lively second movement marked Alla siciliana - Allegro vivace - Andante has a graceful theme that reappears in varied form in the movement’s middle section.

For the third movement marked Lento con molto espressione, Beach sets two melancholy Irish themes in counterpoint, so that they are heard simultaneously.

In the final movement marked Allegro di molto, she returns to the melody of the first movement, though here given even more dramatic expression.

Amy Beach:  Symphony in E Minor, Op. 32 (Gaelic)   I. Allegro con fuoco
Amy Beach:  Symphony in E Minor, Op. 32 (Gaelic)   II. Alla siciliana - Allegro vivace - Andante
Amy Beach:  Symphony in E Minor, Op. 32 (Gaelic)   III. Lento con molto espressione
Amy Beach:  Symphony in E Minor, Op. 32 (Gaelic)  IV. Allegro di molto


Karl Krueger conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Still: Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major (Afro-American) - Beach: Symphony in E minor, Op. 32 (Gaelic) Bridge Records


Next is on today’s Four Centuries of Great Music celebrating the anniversary of composer birthdays for the month of September is American composer Vivian Fine born on September 28, 1913.  

Today I want to play her Songs and Arias, which is an instrumental setting of 7 songs and arias that contrast with both  richly expressive movements and movements that gently poke fun at the classical tradition. Fine ventures through allusions to several styles and eras in the work, from the rhapsodic, romantic quality of the outer movements, “Love Song” and “Canto Hondo (Deep Song)”, to the early music inspired “Elizabethan Song” and “Arioso”, to the Debussy inspired “Duet.” The work’s more humorous moments come in two excerpts from fictional compositions: “Rupert’s Aria from the opera ‘Unfulfilled’” with its raucous horn part and a concertino style aria from a non-existent cantata, “Life, Oh Sweet Terrible Life.”

Borderlands Ensemble - the space in which to see
New Focus Recordings
Vivian Fine- Songs and Arias- 1. Love-Song
Vivian Fine- Songs and Arias- 2. Elizabethan Song
Vivian Fine- Songs and Arias- 3. Rupert’s Aria from the opera “Unfulfilled”
Vivian Fine- Songs and Arias- 4. Arioso
Vivian Fine- Songs and Arias- 5. Duet (homage to Claude Debussy)
Vivian Fine- Songs and Arias- 6. Aria from the cantata “Leben O süsses schreckliches Leben”
Vivian Fine- Songs and Arias- 7. Canto Hondo (Deep Song)



Cracking the Glass: Music for Viola and Piano by 20th Century American Women Composers
Sigrid Karlstrom, viola and Liliya Ugay, piano

Vivian Fine: Leider for Viola and Piano
Allegretto
Molto tranquillo
Allegretto rustico
Lento
Sustained with Fervor
Flowing




Lets open this second hour of Four Centuries of Great Music celebrating the anniversary of composer birthdays for the month of September with Clara Schumann who was born on September 13, 1819.  Clara Schumann is best known as the long suffering wife of Robert Schumann and the friend of and inspiration for Johannes Brahms.  But she was an important composer in her own right.  

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7, was composed by Clara Wieck, better known as Clara Schumann after her later marriage to Robert Schumann. She completed her only finished piano concerto in 1835, and played it at the premiere that year with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn.  When she was 15 years old.  

Virtuoso writing for the piano dominates the composition.  A reviewer of a 2004 recording noted that it is a "truly remarkable piece. It is a work with memorable themes and a sunny vision throughout”.    It has been favourably compared to Chopin's piano concertos.

The opening movement marked Allegro maestoso begins dramatically, with the piano entering in a virtuosic manner.

The first movement segues into the second, called a "Romance" marked Andante non troppo con grazia was written for piano and cello, without orchestra. It begins with an extended solo piano passage, then the solo cello enters.

At the end, a timpani drum roll segues into the final movement. This movement marked  Allegro non troppo-Allegro molto is the heaviest, dancing in a triple metre. The woodwinds and the piano enter with counterpoint.

Here is a performance of Clara Wieck’s, better known as Clara Schumann, Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7



Clara Schumann;  Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7   I. Allegro maestoso
Clara Schumann;  Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7   II. Romanze_ Andante non troppo con grazia
Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7   III. Finale_ Allegro non troppo-Allegro molto


Now you tell me what composer of any gender can write a piece like this at 15 year old.

Francesco Nicolosi, piano  and Stephania Renaldi conducting the  Alma Mahler Sinfonietta from the album Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto and Piano Trio. Naxos


Nadia Boulanger    September 16, 1887

NNadia Boulanger:  3 Pieces for Cello & Piano_ No. 1, Modéré. (Moderate)
Nadia Boulanger:  3 Pieces for Cello & Piano_ No. 2, Sans vitesse et à l’aise  (Without speed and at ease)
Nadia Boulanger:  3 Pieces for Cello & Piano_ No. 3, Vite et nerveusement rythmé.   (Fast and nervously paced)
Amit Peled, cello and Lucy Mauro, piano
Mademoiselle – Première Audience: Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger
Delos Records


Trois pièces: “Modéré,” “Sans vitesse et à l’aise” and “Vite et nerveusement rythmé” were composed in 1914. The first two of these are Boulanger’s reworkings of two earlier organ pieces from 1911 (“Improvisation” and “Petit Canon”), which we will also hear on today’s episode. Published in 1919, Boulanger later omitted the second of the three pieces, presenting just the first and third and renaming the work Diptyque. In this performance, Amit Peled plays a French cello – a Vuillaume, ca. 1865: the “Servais Stradivarius Copy.”

The opening piece is mournfully somber: a yearning, achingly romantic work that still seems to end on a vaguely positive note. The second also projects a sorrowful tone, seeming to take on an almost Celtic harmonic flavor. The third piece in C-sharp Minor is lively, with an underlying sense of nervous agitation, somewhat atypical of Boulanger’s other compositions.  A fascinating rhythmic anomaly appears in the slower middle section, where the composer employs an irregular 5/4 meter. In this final piece, Boulanger manages the exchange of melodic material between cello and piano in a particularly adroit manner.

Nadia Boulanger:  3 Pieces for Organ -  No. 3, Improvisation
Nadia Boulanger:  3 Pieces for Organ -  No. 2, Petit canon
François-Henri Houbart, organ
Mademoiselle – Première Audience: Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger
Delos Records

Much of “Improvisation,” revolves around a rather mystery-laden melody that develops beneath an airy and persistent tonal umbrella.


“Petit canon,” is a cunningly interwoven tapestry of related polyphonic themes and textures.

I will close todays Four Centuries of Great Music celebrating the anniversary of composer birthdays for the month of September, all of whom are women composers who had birthdays this month with 5 songs by Nadia Boulanger.  The first two

Nadia Boulanger:   Versailles
Nadia Boulanger:  Mon coeur
Performed by Nicole Cabell, soprano and Lucy Mauro, piano

And the last three
Nadia Boulanger:  Chanson (1909)
Nadia Boulanger:  Chanson (1922)
Nadia Boulanger:  Poème d'amour
Alek Schader, tenor  and Lucy Mauro, piano
And these are all world premiere recordings From the album Mademoiselle – Première Audience: Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger
Delos Records

You have been listening to 5 songs by Nadia Boulanger performed  by Nicole Cabell, soprano;  Alek Schader, tenor and Lucy Mauro, piano

Mademoiselle – Première Audience: Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger
Delos Records

Thank you for joining me today on Four centuries of Great Music and join me again next Sunday from 3-5pm for a new episode and remember the encore of this episode is this coming Saturday also from 3-5pm