Liszt and extra, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: October 14, 2024. Liszt and way more. Although this week overflows with expertise, we’ll be transient. At the start, Franz Liszt was born on October 22nd of 1811 in Doborján, a small village within the Kingdom of Hungary, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now it’s a city known as Raiding which lies in Austria. Liszt is taken into account Hungary’s nationwide composer, although he by no means spoke Hungarian. His first language was German, he moved to Paris on the age of 12 and most popular to talk French for the remainder of his life. However Hungarians have lived in Doborján for hundreds of years, and Liszt was uncovered to Hungarian music as a baby. Although Liszt was a completely German composer closely concerned in German musical life, he used Hungarian (and Gipsy) tunes in lots of compositions, beginning with many variations of Rákóczi-Marsch, the Hungarian nationwide anthem on the time, to Hungarian Rhapsodies, nineteen of them for the piano, of which he later orchestrated six (or eight, however there are doubts about two of the orchestrations), to the symphonic poem Hungaria, and different items. Right here is Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody no. 1, carried out by Gyrgy (Georges) Cziffra, the nice Hungarian pianist of Romani descent. The recording, later remastered, was initially made in 1957.
Alexander von Zemlinsky, a really attention-grabbing Austrian composer whose music isn’t carried out as of late, was born on October 14th of 1871 in Vienna. Zemlinsky was central to the musical lifetime of Vienna on the finish of the 19th – early 20th century. He knew “everyone,” from Brahms and Mahler to Schoenberg; you may learn extra in one in all our earlier posts right here.
Luca Marenzio, an Italian composer of the Renaissance well-known for his madrigals, was born in Northern Italy on October 18th, 1553. A century and 1 / 4 later, on October 16th of 1679, the Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka was born close to Prague. From 1709 to 1716 he labored in Dresden, first for Baron von Hartig after which for the royal court docket. He then moved to Vienna, later returning to the Dresden court docket. Zelenka knew Johann Sebastian Bach, who extremely valued his music. Right here are Lamentations for Maundy Thursday, from Zelenka’s The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet. Jana Semerádová conducts Collegium Marianum.
1 / 4 of a century later, on October 18th of 1706, Baldassare Galuppi, was born on the island of Burano, subsequent to Venice. He authored many operas, each comical, written to librettos of the playwright Carlo Goldoni, and “critical” (seria), usually collaborating with Metastasio, one of the well-known librettists of the 18th century.
Lastly, two Individuals: Charles Ives, probably the most authentic American composer of the early 20th century, on October 20th of 1874, and Ned Rorem, on October 23rd of 1923. Ives’s 150th anniversary requires a separate entry and we’ll do it quickly.
