I don’t make money from these sites and I’m retired (read that as not much money available). They are here just for me to share things. So, I couldn’t justify that amount.

It’s a bit messiy moving. The DNS registrar was a pain. Hammering on WordPress to import my content correctly was a pain. But I think it’s done. I’m sure someone will let me know if I made a mistake; that’s the new thing on the net these days.

The theme I’m using right now is a bit of a mess. I will change it soon. Suggestions?

I also see that there are links that are broken. 15 year old links do that. That’s on my todo list.

Many YouTube links are failing to embed. They have probably changed things; they used to work. I’ll look into it.

So, I created one myself. If you want a copy, here it is.

I scraped the events from their site, then wrote a command line program in Swift to create the events. I then exported the ics file from Apple’s Calendar app.

No warranty, No lawyer foo, use at your own risk etc. (btw, you can append .txt to the ics file to see the plaintext contents – then you can see there’s nothing weird going on).

So, here it is so far. Most of my posts are back. About 90% of the links work too now. I have some more to fix. The Amazon links are all broken because I used a plugin that no longer exists. It will be quite a task for me to fix them.

The appearance is, um, in need of an upgrade. Just like me personally. I’ll do that soon. The site, not me.

For laughs, try Google translate on a language that you know for an uncanny valley version.

Here is my direct prose (almost literal) translation of Friedrich Schiller’s Ode to Joy as modified by Beethoven for the finale of his Symphony No. 9.

Last night on Independence Mall, Opera Philadelphia showed an HD broadcast of their current production of La Traviata. Here is the online program.

Here is their “preview” video.

To be perfectly honest, ordinarily I would have passed on attending yet another performance of La Traviata. But there is something fun about hearing/watching all’aperto while eating a hoagie (Amato Bros. makes the best in the region)  with thousands of your best friends in front of Independence Hall. Yes, I said thousands. The lawn in front of the hall was packed and there was also a huge crowd across Market St next to the visitor center where they also set up HD screens. BTW., It was great planning to have the visitor center open past its regular closing time. Portable toilets are universally loathed.

One of the reasons to see a repertory opera – besides the great music – is to hear different singers tackle the roles. I was unfamiliar with the soprano in the title role. Her name is Lisette Oropesa (@Lisette_Oropesa on twitter).

You have to hear this "Sempre libera" in person… Performance #4 tonight! #traviataphilly @Lisette_Oropesa pic.twitter.com/7QALQNLlEg

— Opera Philadelphia (@OperaPhila) October 9, 2015

I was half expecting some Pat Racette style sloppy woofing; many singers don’t take Philadelphia seriously. Happily, I was completely wrong. Oropesa was terrific. This was no Can Belto performance. She superbly conveyed the range of emotions and moods that Violetta progresses through. Her technique is nuanced and subtle, but above all, enjoyable to listen to. I’d go out of my way to hear her again.

This event was originally scheduled for October 3, but a hurricane decided that was not to be. That was unfortunate. Instead of functioning as a preview – and an incentive to buy tickets! – it was now a postscript. And in those few weeks it’s become a bit cooler. Also, it was moved from a Saturday performance to Friday night, which was convenient for many people, but for me, there was battling the traffic to get home before hopping onto the train which was late. My agita left once the performance began.

This “tradition” is now 5 years old – and I hope it continues.

But, I couldn’t resist this one, so I’m sharing it here.

Mark Laycock conducts the English Chamber Orchestra with Ofer Falk and Stephanie Gonley as soloists in Philadelphia for a performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. The evening will also feature Robin Holloway’s Ode for four winds, commissioned for the ECO 30 years ago.

This will be a benefit concert for Musicopia.

Musicopia’s mission description:

“to bring a vibrant combination of music performance and education to students and communities throughout the Delaware Valley, with a particular focus on geographical areas that lack adequate music programs or are cut off from the region’s rich cultural life. With the goal of inspiring a deep love and knowledge of great music, Musicopia’s programs promote the transformative powers of music, the value of musical discipline and an appreciation of cultural diversity.”

Scheide Concerts is the sponsor of this concert.

January 27, 2015, 7:30 PM
Perelman Theater
Kimmel Center
Philadelphia, PA

Mark Laycock
conductor

Ofer Falk
violin

Stephanie Gonley
viola

Here are online copies of my program notes for this concert:

Elgar Serenade for Strings

Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra

Holloway Ode for four winds and strings

Mozart Symphony No.29 in A

Born October 19, 1943 in Royal Leamington Spa, United Kingdom.

Ode for 4 Winds and Strings, Op. 45

Composed 1980.
Instrumentation: 2 Oboes (doubling on English Horn), 2 Horns, Strings.
Duration: ~ 15 minutes.

Robin Holloway was a lecturer in music at Cambridge University between
1975 and 2011, teaching many well-known composers such as Judith Weir and Thomas Adés. He departed from his early “modern” style exemplified by his First Concerto for Orchestra, after completing his doctoral dissertation on Debussy and Wagner. He embraced a more tonal neo-Romantic language with Scenes from Schumann (1969-70).

The English Chamber Orchestra commissioned Holloway to write a tribute for tenor Peter Pears’s (1910-1986) 70th birthday. The ECO gave the world premiere of Ode on Wednesday June 4th, 1980 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, conducted by Steuart Bedford. Peter Pears sang the Lute Song from Gloriana in the same concert, and he (Pears) conducted Les Illuminations with Kathleen Livingstone as soloist.

The second performance of the Ode, once again conducted by Steuart Bedford, took place at Snape Maltings, Suffolk as part of the Aldeburgh Festival on Tuesday June 10th, 1980, This performance was broadcast live by the BBC. Over the intervening years the ECO has presented Holloway’s Ode in many outings, in a great variety of venues worldwide.

There are three movements and an epilogue played without a break.

• Andante Amabile
• Adagio
• Presto (Scherzo)
• Andante molto tranquillo (Epilogue)

The Ode’s opening andante begins with the strings only playing a distinctive theme that alternates metrically between 2 and 3. There are two parts to the theme, four notes (B-D-A# B) that cross themselves, followed by a rising arpeggio. This is then repeated, but with subtle alterations. Throughout the work, we will hear this theme being developed. The andante reaches a climax with the horns paying tribute to Peter Pears’s long time partner Benjamin Britten’s Elegy – the fourth movement from his Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31. Britten based this movement on William Blake’s (1757-1827) poem and illustration The Sick Rose. Likewise, Holloway based much, if not all, of this work on Britten’s themes.

O rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm.
That flies in the night In the howling storm. Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.
- William Blake

Resources

Britten: Elegy (The Sick Rose) from Op. 31.

Born June 2, 1857 in Broadheath, (near Worcester) England.
Died February 23, 1934 in Worcester.

Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20

Composed 1888 – May 1892.
Instrumentation: Violins I & II, Viola, Violoncello, Bass.
Duration: ~ 12 minutes.

The Serenade is possibly a re-working of the now lost Three Pieces for String Orchestra that was performed by the Worcestershire Musical Union on May 7, 1888. The Serenade as we now know it was completed in May 1892. Elgar led the Worcester Ladies’ Orchestral Class, which privately premiered it. The slow movement was heard on its own in Hereford in 1893, but the first complete public performance did not occur until July 23, 1896 in Antwerp. Its first complete English performance was given July 16, 1899 in New Brighton, and then later published that year. It is the earliest of his works to become well known, and to become part of the standard repertoire.

At this time, Elgar was actively performing as a violinist of considerable ability in local orchestras. His inside knowledge of string technique is apparent in this work. For example, he varied the texture so the solo instruments would still be heard over the full ensemble and in many places, the melody was divided into octaves to become more prominent.

He was pleased with the final product commenting to his friend Arthur Jaeger, whom he immortalized in the Enigma Variations, that it was “Really stringy in effect.” The Serenade remained one of Elgar’s favorite works, and he included it in the last of his recordings of his own music, made on August 29, 1933 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Serenade is in three movements:

• Allegro Piacevole 6/8
• Larghetto 2/4
• Allegretto 12/8

The opening Allegro Piacevole movement begins in E minor with the violas playing a dotted-rhythm motif that recurs throughout the movement and unifies the work with reappearance in the last movement. The movement is in a simple ABA form. In the lovely Larghetto middle movement we hear Elgar’s ability to achieve an elegiac mood and lyrical poignancy that would later elevate his famous Nimrod (a tribute and portrait of Arthur Jaeger) to Britain’s national song of mourning.

The Allegretto finale begins with a flowing G major melody that contains echoes of the dotted-rhythm motif as a foreshadowing, for the work ends “come prima”, as it began, with a restatement of the opening dotted motif, this time in E major, bringing the work to a seraphic ending.

Resources

Public Domain Score at IMSLP.

Born January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria.
Died December 5, 1791 in Vienna, Austria.

Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364 (320d)

Composed Summer, 1779.
Instrumentation: Solo Violin, Solo Viola, 2 oboes, 2 horns, Violins I & II, Viola, Violoncello, Bass.
Duration: ~ 30 minutes.

Mozart loathed working for the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymous Colloredo. In 1777, he petitioned for release from his duties. This led to both him and his father being fired. With the added pressure of providing for the entire family, Mozart and his mother then travelled to Paris, with stops in Munich and Mannheim. Once again, he failed to find employment on this 2 year tour. Even worse were his personal losses on the trip. His mother died in Paris 1778 after a short illness. Then, on way back from Paris, he stopped again in Munich to visit the Webers, and especially Aloysia with whom he was infatuated in Mannheim. Aloysia, like the nobles who refused him employment, was not interested in a former child prodigy and failed composer. (Mozart later married Aloysia’s sister Constanze.) It was a defeated Mozart who returned to Salzburg where he was forced to beg the Archbishop for his old job back.

With Mozart back in Salzburg instead of touring and writing copious letters back home, we have a less detailed account of the genesis of the Sinfonia Concertante. The work was most likely written by the 23 year old composer during the summer of 1779. It is also likely that Mozart himself played the viola part for the first performances as playing the violin was one of his less than favorite duties as Colloredo’s servant.

At that time, the symphonie concertante was a popular form in Paris. It is similar to the Baroque concerto grosso, but places more emphasis on the soloist, or soloists, rather than treating them and the orchestra as equals. The middle class in Paris was growing in importance. It was for them rather than the nobility and their courts that these works were written, offering composers and soloists an opportunity to display their talents outside the courts. Given Mozart’s experience with Colloredo, this was quite appealing. The Sinfonia Concertante is the only complete work by Mozart in this genre; he abandoned four other attempts. (There is the Symphonie Concertante for Winds, K. 297b, which was discovered in the 20th century, but it was not in Mozart’s handwriting. There is debate as to its authenticity.)

It was common for composers to leave it up to the soloists to provide their own cadenzas in which they could display their technique, although with two soloists the task of improvising a cadenza would be daunting, to say the least. While the score to the Sinfonia Concertante is lost, we do have fragments which include fully notated cadenzas for both the first and second movements.

The influence of the Mannheim orchestra is apparent throughout the work. The opening Galant fanfare is quite similar to Mannheim composer Karl Stamitz’s symphony beginnings. The exposition is brought to a conclusion with an effective use of the “Mannheim Rocket” and crescendo.

Mozart departs from the French symphonie concertante, not only by adding a movement to the usual two, but also writing the middle movement in a minor key. As is common with Parisian symphonies concertante, the first movement does not limit itself to the usual sonata two- theme format. Instead it is overflowing with melodic ideas, including a Mannheim “sigh” played by the violin. (m. 17).

The middle movement is slow (andante), with an emotional underpinning to the chords that looks forward to Don Giovanni, displaying the character of an intimate dialogue between the soloists.

The presto finale is in the traditional symphonie concertante rondo, in which a theme returns between divergent episodes. The introspection of the andante is left behind as the work ends in a burst of joyful energy.

As a note of additional interest, the Sinfonia Concertante is written in Eb major but the solo viola part was written a semitone lower in D major. This procedure is called “scordatura”, the Italian word for “mistuning”. In this case, the viola would have tuned all of its strings up one-half step. While this would have made the technical facilitation of playing the notes much easier, modern players simply transpose the part to Eb.

Resources

Public Domain Score at IMSLP.