Month: July 2025

Poulenc’s “Gloria”: Playful and Exuberant

by

When Francis Poulenc’s Gloria was first performed in 1961, some critics derided it as “sacrilegious.” With his setting of the liturgical text, scored for chorus, soprano solo, and large orchestra, Poulenc followed in the footsteps of composers such as Vivaldi and Handel. But here, the exalted text is approached, not with solemnity, but with playful exuberance. Mysticism blends with humor. There is a joyful sense of song, dance, and the sounds of a Parisian …

Read more

Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp: Sunny and Exotic

by

Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124 is filled with charm, virtuosity, and dreamy exoticism. The 72-year-old Saint-Saëns was vacationing in the city of Bridger in the Italian Riviera when, in 1907, he composed this sparkling miniature. He dedicated the work to a musical duo made up of two sisters, harpist Clara Eissler and violinist Marianne Eissler. Set in a single brief movement and bathed in Italian sunshine, the music …

Read more

Remembering Chuck Mangione

by

Chuck Mangione, the American flugelhorn player, trumpeter, and composer, passed away last Tuesday (July 22) at his home in Rochester, New York. He was 84. Born in Rochester to Italian parents who were avid jazz fans, Mangione rose to prominence as a student at the Eastman School of Music. He performed with his brother, Gap Mangione in the ensemble, The Jazz Brothers. In the mid 1960s, at the recommendation of Dizzy Gillespie, Chuck …

Read more

Vivaldi’s “Sonno, se pur sei sonno” from “Tito Manlio”: Lucio’s Lament

by

Antonio Vivaldi’s opera, Tito Manlio, composed over the course of five days in December of 1718, centers around a turbulent moral dilemma. Love and loyalty to family come into conflict with duty and rigid adherence to the law. Here is a brief synopsis, provided by Naxos.com: Titus Manlius is engaged in war with the people of Latium. Conflicts of love and duty arise with his daughter Vitellia, in love with the Latin …

Read more

Remembering Roger Norrington

by

Sir Roger Norrington, the English conductor known for historically informed performances, passed away last Friday, July 18. He was 91. Born in Oxford, Norrington rose to prominence in the 1960s when he revived and championed the choral music of the 17th century German composer, Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). In 1962, Norrington founded the Schütz Choir. He went on to found the London Classical Players, an ensemble he led until 1997. In later years, he …

Read more

Ives’ “The Pond”: A Dreamy Elegy

by

Composed by Charles Ives in 1906, The Pond is a shimmering, atmospheric fragment, or, in the words of the composer, “a song without voice.” Evocative of a rippling pond on a lazy afternoon, the work is so brief that it unfolds as a fleeting dream. The Pond was the composer’s nostalgic elegy for his father, George Ives (1845–1894), a cornet player and bandmaster in the Union Army during the Civil War. In Ives’ musical fragment, …

Read more

Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 1 in B Minor: Classical Foundations

by

The impetus for Sergei Prokofiev’s First String Quartet came from America. In 1930, Prokofiev received the commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation of the Library of Congress. The Brosa Quartet premiered the work in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 1931. At the time, Prokofiev lived in exile in Paris, having fled his native land shortly after the 1917 Russian Revolution. In 1936, he would return home, telling friends, “I must see …

Read more