Galina Vishnevskaya Sings Tchaikovsky: “Iolanta’s Aria” and “Lullaby”

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Composed in 1891, Iolanta, Op. 69 was Tchaikovsky’s eleventh and last completed opera. On the evening of December 18, 1892, it shared a double premiere with the ballet, The Nutcracker, at Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. Mahler conducted the Vienna premiere in 1900. Then, the work fell into relative obscurity. Set in one act, Iolanta is based on a story by the Danish writer, Henrik Hertz (1798–1870). Iolanta is a fifteenth century French …

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Ives’ “Decoration Day”: Lingering Ghosts

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In his Essays Before a Sonata, first published in 1920, Charles Ives reflected on a vivid memory from his Danbury, Connecticut childhood: In the early morning of a Memorial Day, a boy is awakened by martial music—a village band is marching down the street, and as the strains of Reeves’ majestic [Second] Regiment March come nearer and nearer, he seems of a sudden translated—a moment of vivid power comes, a consciousness of …

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Handel’s “Un ‘Alma Innamorata”: A Secular Cantata for the Wounded Lover

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Before television, internet, movies, and rock and roll, there was the secular cantata. During the late Baroque period in Italy, these dramatic vocal works were popular entertainment in wealthy, aristocratic circles. Made up of a brief sequence of recitatives and arias, the secular cantata amounted to a kind of highly condensed opera. Between 1706 and 1709, the young George Frideric Handel traveled throughout Italy and produced at least 40 solo cantatas, most …

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Chopin’s Mazurka in A Minor Op. 17, No 4: Evgeny Kissin

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Frédéric Chopin’s Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4 inhabits the ephemeral world of dreams. Emerging out of silence, the opening bars are hazy and harmonically ambiguous. They contain a rising three-note cell which searches for the “right” note and soon spins into a melody. It is music which seems to be composing itself in realtime. Traditionally, the mazurka is a lively Polish folk dance in triple meter, with strong accents …

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Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung”: Siegfried’s Rhine Journey

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Completed in 1874, Götterdämmerung (“Twilight of the Gods”) is the fourth and final opera in Richard Wagner’s epic Ring cycle. Wagner composed the Ring cycle, which is based on Norse mythology, over the course of 25 years. Its themes include the conflict between love and the pursuit of power, the violation of nature, self-sacrifice, annihilation, and rebirth. Dramatic orchestral sequences occur throughout Götterdämmerung. In these moments, we move beyond the literal meaning of the …

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Milhaud’s “Le Boeuf sur le Toit”: An Homage to Charlie Chaplin

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Between 1919 and 1920, the French composer Darius Milhaud set out to create “fifteen minutes of music, rapid and gay, as a background to any Charlie Chaplin silent movie.” The result was Le Boeuf sur le toit, a jubilant and colorful work for chamber orchestra. The title translates as “The Ox on the Roof.” It may have been taken from the sign-board of a tavern. Or perhaps it was inspired by a …

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Fauré’s Élégie: Jacqueline du Pré

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In 1880, immediately following the completion of his First Piano Quartet, Gabriel Fauré began work on a sonata for cello and piano. Often, when composing a new chamber work, Fauré began with the slow movement. Ultimately, the sonata failed to materialize, but the intended slow movement was published as a stand-alone piece—the solemn and lamenting Élégie, Op. 24. As with the First Piano Quartet, the Élégie is set in C minor. Its …

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