For Your Listening Pleasure

"Sibelius: Symphonies nos. 4 & 7" When Sibelius was in his mid-40s, he thought he was going to die. His doctors had found a growth in his throat and after several operations his prognosis was still not good. He was a hard-living, hard-drinking cigar smoker. For a time, he gave it all up and wrote his dark, inward-looking, modern-sounding Symphony No. 4, a work that baffled not only many listeners but conductors as well. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/2063IlTempLargo [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

"Opening Concert Of 1990 Prague Spring Festival" Rafael Kubelik suffered from near-debilitating arthritis, and he was forced into retirement in the mid-1980's. Then, there were radical political changes in Eastern Europe, and Czechoslovakia was transformed. In 1990 (as Prague was undergoing these changes) Kuubelik was invited by his old orchestra to come and conduct the opening concert of that year's Spring Festival - this memorable performance was recorded for posterity, and we should be glad that it was! Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/rafael-kubelik-ceska-filharmonie-opening-concert-of-1990-prague-spring-festival_202004 [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

"Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)" Nielsen wrote his Symphony No. 3 "Sinfonia Espansiva"between 1910 and 1911 following his tenure as bandmaster at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Nielsen himself conducted the premiere of the work (along with the premiere of his Violin Concerto) on February 28, 1912 with Copenhagen's Royal Danish Orchestra. The symphony is unique in Nielsen's symphonic output for having vocal parts, specifically wordless solos for soprano and baritone in the second movement. Details on our archives page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast276

"A Gift of Flowers for Mother’s Day" I have put together music from several composers revolving around “flowers”: Chrysanthemums, lilacs, sunflowers, and just plain flowers. You will recognize a couple of nice ones in there, including Delibe’ Flower Duet from Lakme among them. As a feature work, I chose “Nights in the Gardens of Spain”. Three symphonic "impressions" about gardens and the mood of the composer as he walks through them. Details on our archives page @ https://archive.org/details/AGiftOfFlowersForMothersDay

"La Traviata (Act 2 Scene 2, Act 3)" Verdi had probably read Alexandre Dumas fils's semi-autobiographical novel La dame aux Camelliasnovel some time before he and Giuseppina Strepponi had visited Paris and attended a performance of the play based on it. After seeing the play and returning to Italy, he was already setting up an ideal operatic cast for it in his mind and immediately set to work on Trovatore for the January 1853 premiere in Rome, but at the same time seemed to have ideas for the music for Traviata in his head. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Toscaninis1946BroadcastOfLaTraviata [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

"La Traviata (Act 1, Act 2 Scene 1)" Verdi had probably read Alexandre Dumas fils's semi-autobiographical novel La dame aux Camelliasnovel some time before he and Giuseppina Strepponi had visited Paris and attended a performance of the play based on it. After seeing the play and returning to Italy, he was already setting up an ideal operatic cast for it in his mind and immediately set to work on Trovatore for the January 1853 premiere in Rome, but at the same time seemed to have ideas for the music for Traviata in his head. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Toscaninis1946BroadcastOfLaTraviata [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

Arr! This week's montage is a collectlon of works inspired by the High Seas and its favourite outlaws - works by Berlioz, Sullivan, Clara SChumann, Cui, Bellini and Korngold. Read our commentary on May 8 @ https://itywltmt.blogspot.com/, details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast338-Playlist

"Musikalische Akademie der 7. Mai 1824" This montage is a reconstruction of the concert programme from 7th May 1824, held at Vienna’s Kärntnertortheater, where Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 was first performed. This was the composer's first on-stage appearance in 12 years. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/MusikalischeAkademieDer7.Mai1824

"Dvořák: Symphony no. 9" Dvorak scholars suggest that some of the themes found in the Ninth Symphony are based on native or African American music, as was for example Delius’ American Rhapsody. In fact, the haunting theme of the symphony’s famous “largo” movement was later adapted into the spiritual-like song "Goin' Home" by Dvořák's pupil William Arms Fisher, who wrote the lyrics in 1922, 30 some years after the symphony had been premiered. What is factual, however, is that an African-American National Conservatory student, Harry T. Burleigh, sang traditional spirituals to Dvořák and said that he had absorbed their `spirit' before writing his own melodies. Details at our archive page https://archive.org/details/pcast164

"Max Bruch (1838-1920)" Bruch had a long career as a teacher, conductor and composer, moving among musical posts in Germany: Mannheim (1862–1864), Koblenz (1865–1867), Sondershausen, (1867–1870), Berlin (1870–1872), and Bonn, where he spent 1873–78 working privately. At the height of his career he spent three seasons as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society (1880–83). He taught composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik from 1890 until his retirement in 1910. His complex and unfailingly well-structured works, in the German Romantic musical tradition, placed him in the camp of Romantic classicism exemplified by Johannes Brahms, rather than the opposing "New Music" of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his time he was known primarily as a choral composer.Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast193

"May the Fourth" Be With You" Steven Spielberg recommended John Williams to his friend and fellow director George Lucas, who needed a composer to score his ambitious 1977 space epic film Star Wars. Williams delivered a grand symphonic score in the fashion of Richard Strauss and Golden Age Hollywood composers Steiner and Korngold. Its main theme, "Luke's Theme" is among the most widely recognized in film history, and the "Force Theme" and "Princess Leia's Theme" are well-known examples of leitmotiv. Both the film and its score were immensely successful—it remains the highest grossing non-popular music recording of all-time. In 1980, Williams returned to score The Empire Strikes Back, where he introduced "The Imperial March" as the theme for Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, "Yoda's Theme", and "Han Solo and the Princess". The original Star Wars trilogy concluded with the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, for which Williams' score provided most notably the "Emperor's Theme", "Parade of the Ewoks", and "Luke and Leia". Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast232

"Filumena (Act 2)" n 1920's Alberta, many entrepreneurial individuals had a hand in smuggling liquor across provincial lines. Chief among them was “Emperor Pic”, Emilio Picariello, who had befriended an innkeeper and his wife, Florence Lassandro. Bootlegging was a “family business” for the Picariellos, and Emilio’s son Steven would make runs through the Crowsnest Pass between BC and Alberta. During one of these runs, he was intercepted by the APP, and Picariello believed he had been killed in the process. The story is sketchy, but it is undeniable that Florence and Emilio were at the APP barracks in Coleman, Alberta when APP Corporal Stephen Lawson was shot and killed in front of this building on September 21, 1922. Both Lassandro and Picariello were tried and convicted of capital murder, and subsequently hanged at the penitentiary at Fort Saskatchewan om May 2nd, 1923. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Filumena-Opera [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

"Filumena (Act 1)" n 1920's Alberta, many entrepreneurial individuals had a hand in smuggling liquor across provincial lines. Chief among them was “Emperor Pic”, Emilio Picariello, who had befriended an innkeeper and his wife, Florence Lassandro. Bootlegging was a “family business” for the Picariellos, and Emilio’s son Steven would make runs through the Crowsnest Pass between BC and Alberta. During one of these runs, he was intercepted by the APP, and Picariello believed he had been killed in the process. The story is sketchy, but it is undeniable that Florence and Emilio were at the APP barracks in Coleman, Alberta when APP Corporal Stephen Lawson was shot and killed in front of this building on September 21, 1922. Both Lassandro and Picariello were tried and convicted of capital murder, and subsequently hanged at the penitentiary at Fort Saskatchewan om May 2nd, 1923. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Filumena-Opera [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

[Project 366 Listener Guide #337] For May Day, I programmed bonbons, sweet, tasty works for orchestra (or marching band) by probably two of the great masters of the genre: John Philip Sousa and Franz von Suppé. Read our fresh take on May 1st @ https://itywltmt.blogspot.com. Details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast121-Playlist (ITYWLTMT Montage #121 - 06 Sep, 2013)

"Wagner: Tristan Und Isolde Act 3" The re-discovery of mediaeval Germanic poetry, including Gottfried von Strassburg's version of Tristan, the Nibelungenlied and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, left a large impact on the German Romantic movements during the mid-19th century. Again, we note here subject matter that Wagner has mined to form the core of his epic operas. Tristan took five years to compose with the bulk of the work between 1857 and 1859. Sections of the opera and libretto were composed in Switzerland and Italy. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/wagner_tristan_je_51_muss_i_etc [First time on our podcasting channel]