May 18th 2009
May 18th 2009
FALLA Dances in Ballet
Dances from The Three-cornered Hat The Three-cornered Hat is that rare thing in ballet, a sexy farce. A buffoon of an official (the hat is his badge of office) fancies the wife of a fanatically jealous miller. He has the miller arrested to clear the way for love, and the miller’s wife dances seductively to lead him on, tumbles him in the river, then partly undresses him to dry him — at which point the miller comes back home … Continue Reading »
May 13th 2009
BORODIN, Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
The Polovtsians were a Central Asian people who fought the Russians in the twelfth century. In 1890 Borodin wrote an opera, Prince Igor, about this war — or rather about the tragic love of a Polovtsian princess for a Russian prince. Continue Reading »
May 13th 2009
BIZET and Carmen the best-known opera in the world
When Tchaikovsky saw Carmen in 1875 he prophesied that it would be the best-known opera in the world. At the time he was the only person who thought so; the rest of the first- night audience was shocked and outraged. Continue Reading »
May 13th 2009
BIZET：Suites from L’Arlisienne
Nineteenth-century theatre-goers liked lavish incidental music, and to provide this most theatres had pit bands, ranging from two or three players to full orchestras. Writing music for plays financed many composers‘ lives. L’Arlésienne (`The Girl from Arles’) was a tragedy by the Provençal writer Alphonse Daudet, first performed in Paris in 18 72. Continue Reading »
May 11th 2009
LISZT, Piano Concerto No 1.
Liszt was reluctant to share the stage with orchestras. When he did, he liked to steal their thunder — by, for example, following their playing of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with his own solo version, outdoing their effects. It was not until he retired from touring that he wrote his first concerto, in which soloist and orchestra compete on equal terms. Continue Reading »
May 11th 2009
MESSIAEN and his erotic music carvings: Turangalila-Symphony
On some temples in India, every square centimetre of wall- surface is covered with erotic carvings: people and animals coupling in every conceivable position, a monument to the exuberance and ecstasy of sex. Continue Reading »
May 11th 2009
Classic Music MOZART，Requiem
Mozart’s last work begins with a solemn prayer that the spirits of the dead may rest in peace. The mood is set by basset horns (tenor clarinets, among Mozart’s favourite instruments), pleading against blaring brass chords, like foretastes of the Last Trump. Continue Reading »
May 8th 2009
RACHMANINOV, Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2.
Rachmaninov wrote this piece when he was nineteen, and sold it to a publisher, outright, for a handful of roubles. He then introduced it at a piano recital, and it made a sensation. Continue Reading »
May 8th 2009
RACHMANINOv, Piano Concerto No. 2
In 1897 Rachmaninov’s first symphony failed in the concert hall, and he plunged into a four-year depression, convinced that he would never work again. He was cured by a psychiatrist who built up his confidence with hours of patient praise and persuasion, and in 1901 he premiered this concerto. It was one of his finest works, and became the best-loved concerto in the entire piano repertoire. Continue Reading »
