Monteverdi, Travels 2025
This Week in Classical Music: Could 12, 2025. Monteverdi, Two Frenchmen, and Travels. Claudio Monteverdi, one of many biggest composers in classical music historical past, was born in Cremona and baptized there on Could 15th of 1567. He lived throughout a interval of transition, on the finish of what we name Renaissance music and the start of the Baroque, which he helped to forge. He was additionally an important composer of the nascent artwork of opera. We’ve written about him many occasions: right here, for instance, is the entry celebrating his 450th anniversary. Right here is Magnificat II, from the quantity Vespro della Beata Vergine, printed in 1610. The Magnificat was composed in Mantua, the place Monteverdi served on the court docket of the Gonzagas. The recording (La Capella Reial, Coro Del Centro Musica Antica Di Padova, beneath the course of Jordi Savall) was additionally made in Mantua, on the church of Santa Barbara. And talking of Cremona and Mantua, see under.
Two Frenchmen, Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré, had been born on the identical day, Could 12th, three years aside: Massenet in 1842, Fauré in 1845. Massenet is known for 2 operas, Manon and Werther, although there are 28 extra that he wrote. He was thought-about musically conservative even throughout his life, however, fairly clearly, had a melodic expertise. Fauré, then again, was very a lot forward-looking and influenced many French composers.
Two extra considerably “spherical” anniversaries: the Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov was born 170 years in the past, on Could 12th of 1855. He was recognized for his indolence as a lot as for his expertise. Expelled from Rimsky-Korsakov’s class for absenteeism, he managed to finish his research on the St. Petersburg Conservatory two years later. His best-known compositions are tone poems Baba Yaga, Kikimora, The Enchanted Lake and a few brief piano items. The good German conductor Otto Klemperer was born 140 years in the past, on Could 14th of 1885.
We talked about two cities in reference to Monteverdi, Cremona and Mantua. Classical Join will probably be touring the following two weeks or so and hopes to go to each cities. We’ll write about them upon return.
