Month: August 2023

Schumann’s Blumenstück in D-Flat Major: Vladimir Horowitz, Live in 1966

by

Robert Schumann described his Blumenstück (“Flower Piece”) in D-flat Major, Op 19 as “variations, but not upon any theme,” adding that “everything is interwoven in such a peculiar way.” Indeed, the brief solo piano piece unfolds in a series of dreamy episodes through which runs a common thematic thread. Following its initial statement, the opening episode fades into the background, and it is the second section of the piece which recurs as …

Read more

Schumann’s “Genoveva” Overture: Dramatic Music From a Neglected Opera

by

Genoveva was Robert Schumann’s only opera. The tragic drama in four acts premiered in Leipzig in June of 1850. The unsuccessful original production received only three performances, and, with the exception of the Overture, the work fell into obscurity. As with Wagner’s Lohengrin, which was written during the same period of time and premiered in August of 1850, Genoveva is based on a medieval German legend. Genoveva, the wife of Siegfried, Count of Brabante, …

Read more

Manuel Ponce’s Serenade, “Estrellita”: Heifetz in Mexico

by

“When he was on world tour, Jascha Heifetz liked to include music on the program by a composer of the country in which he was performing,” recalled Ayke Agus, a former student of the great violinist. She continued, In 1923 he was in Mexico City and realized he didn’t have any work by a Mexican composer. While in a cafe there, he heard a local musician sing a popular song written by …

Read more

Gloria Coates’ String Quartet No. 7, “Angels”: Mystical Spaces in Sound

by

Gloria Coates, a prolific American composer who in 1969 relocated to Munich, passed away last week. She was 89. Coates’ works include 16 symphonies, 11 string quartets, and numerous songs. Additionally, she was active as an abstract expressionist painter, creating art which appeared frequently on her album covers. The music critic, Mark Swed, wrote, “Coates is a master of microtones, of taking a listener to aural places you never knew could exist …

Read more

Couperin’s Trio Sonata, “La Superbe”: Florence Malgoire and Les Dominos

by

The trio sonata, which consists typically of two violins (or flutes, recorders, or oboes) and basso continuo, originated in Italy in the late sixteenth century. At first an instrumental adaptation of three-part vocal music, the form was refined and developed by Arcangelo Corelli. It is François Couperin (1668-1733), harpsichordist and court composer for Louis XIV, who is credited with introducing the trio sonata to the insular music world of France in the …

Read more

Remembering Renata Scotto

by

Renata Scotto, the eminent Italian soprano, passed away last Wednesday, August 16 in her native city of Savona. She was 89. Scotto made her operatic debut in 1952, performing the role of Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata in Savona. The next day, she performed the same role at Milan’s Teatro Nuovo. Her La Scala debut came in 1957, when she appeared in the title role of Catalani’s La Wally in a production …

Read more

Henry Cowell’s Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 10: Early American Strains

by

Among the twentieth century’s boldest and most innovate musical mavericks was the American composer, Henry Cowell (1897-1965). Cowell’s occasionally riot-inducing experiments included tone clusters (approaching the piano keyboard with arms and fists), graphic notation, polytonality, non-Western modes, and “a complex pitch-rhythm system that correlated the mathematical ratios of the pitches of the overtone series with rhythmic proportions.” (Richard Teitelbaum) Cowell treated the piano as a percussion instrument. Through “prepared piano” techniques, and …

Read more