Twentieth Century

Remembering Gary Graffman

by

Gary Graffman, a renowned American pianist, teacher, and administrator, passed away last Saturday, December 27, at his Manhattan home. He was 97. A child prodigy, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 7, and studied with Isabelle Vengerova. In 1946, he made his professional debut, appearing with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. After winning the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1949, he studied extensively with Vladimir Horowitz …

Read more

John Adams’ “El Niño”: “A Palm Tree”

by

By coincidence, a recent post exploring John Adams’ El Niño was published on the 25th anniversary of the work’s premiere in Paris on December 15, 2000. Now, let’s return to El Niño to hear the nativity oratorio’s surreal final moments. In the drama, Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus are on the road to Egypt. They flee the persecution of King Herod, who has decreed that the child be killed. A setting of a poem …

Read more

Arnold Bax’ “I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless”: The Choir of Westminster Abbey

by

Anonymously penned, the 15th century poem, I syng of a mayden, is a mystical meditation on the Annunciation and Nativity of Christ. Elements of Elizabethan polyphony blend with dreamy chromaticism in English composer Arnold Bax’ 1923 five-part a cappella setting of the text. As the five verses unfold, the majestic melody gives way to variation, only to return in the triumphant final moments. This 2017 recording features The Choir of Westminster Abbey, …

Read more

Barber’s Overture to “The School for Scandal”: Reflecting a Playful Spirit

by

Composed in 1931, the Overture to The School for Scandal, Op. 5 was Samuel Barber’s first orchestral work. Barber was completing studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, and the piece served as a graduation thesis. Two years later on August 30, 1933, it was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Smallens. The eight-minute-long concert overture appeared on programs across the country, helping to establish Barber as one of the …

Read more

Shostakovich’s Second Violin Concerto: Mournful, Introverted, and Singing

by

“Very slowly, with difficulty, squeezing it out note by note, I am writing a Violin Concerto,” Dmitri Shostakovich confided to a friend in the spring of 1967, adding, “Otherwise everything is going splendidly.” The Violin Concerto No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 129 is a shadowy, introverted work. It is mournful and endlessly singing. “Gone are the instantly memorable images, the brightly etched colors and coruscating ferocity,” writes commentator Gerard McBurney. “Instead we …

Read more

Scriabin’s Etude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 42, No. 5: Daniil Trifonov

by

“Scriabin wished to combine all aesthetic experience in a single, mystical musical vision,” writes pianist Daniil Trifonov. Described as a “poet, philosopher, musician, mystic, visionary and egotist,” Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) pushed Romanticism to the breaking point. Experiencing a blending of senses known as synesthesia, he associated musical keys with colors. Scriabin composed the solo piano Etudes, Op. 42 in 1903. The tempestuous Etude No. 5 in C-sharp minor has been …

Read more

Remembering Leon Bates

by

American pianist Leon Bates has passed away at the age of 76. Born in Philadelphia, Bates became drawn to the piano at the age of 6 after his kindergarten teacher played for the class. Initially excelling at both violin and piano, he studied at the Settlement Music School, and later at Temple University. Bates went on to appear on the world’s most prestigious stages. Bates was a bodybuilder, a discipline which he …

Read more