Week Nineteen: May 8

Time for a clean slate of music this week. I’ve been on vacation this past week, and now it’s time to get back to business.

First off, the new opera will be Puccini’s Tosca. I was a bit dismayed last session with Prince Igor, since I had a hard time finding a reliable libretto, and was put off by the fact that he had left no authoritative version, making my various versions not even agree with each other. So, I went this week with something in the top ten, which is well-documented, and for which I can easily get a score and a libretto.

Following that, is a piece of chamber music for which I have no prior awareness. It’s Brahms’ Trio in Am for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano. I have my score in hand, and am well-prepared for a good time. I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog that I’m pretty new to chamber music. I think it will be enjoyable. I used to play clarinet, and never really have developed a passion for its sound. So, I’m not sure how much I’ll like it, but I’m still anxious to learn a new piece, especially one by Brahms.

My choral piece for the fortnight is Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, his Opus 42, following on last week’s spell with the Hebrides overture. I know very little about it at this point, aside from the fact that I have a copy of it. Hopefully, I’ll get a little more into it than that.

Update: After my initial week, I’m having a hard time deciding whether I like this piece or not. I had thought it would a potential for my own choir, but I think it poses too much of a challenge, so I have resorted to just listening to it.

Week Twenty: May 15

Right now I’m listening to Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber for my first time. One of those pieces I’ve heard of, but didn’t know. I was surprised to find a score available on IMSLP, so I’ll be able to read along to learn it more. My first two experiences with Hindemith were in college. Both were absolutely wonderful memories. The first was Mathis der Maler, which featured on a music listening test. It remains one of my favorite pieces. The other were the Six Chansons, which our Chamber Singers performed, after quite a long semester of work!

Week Twenty-One: May 22

Burleske for Piano and Orchestra is one of the new pieces this week. Written by Richard Strauss, it’s a piece I’ve heard a few times recently from a recording by the Cleveland Orchestra with Lang Lang. I look forward to hearing more from it this week. I had to look up what the word mean, given the English equivalent seems an odd choice. I see that it translates from the German as “farce”.

Chorally-speaking, I’m adding Schubert’s Mass No. 6 in Eb. I do not know anything significant about it by title, alone, but I likely know some portions from hearing excerpts here and there. Doing a bit of quick research, I see it is one of Schubert’s late masses, with score indications of 1828, the year he died. I also noticed that Schubert was a torch bearer at Beethoven’s funeral. I had had no idea about that. Pretty interesting, too.

Week Twenty-Two: May 29

Today I add an opera and a piece of my choosing. I actually had another opera in mind as I browsed the collection, and then when I went to enter it in my repertoire list, I realized that we’re already to June and I haven’t looked at any German language opera. And surprisingly, I’ve already had two French operas. I settled on Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera. And as I start to listen to the overture now, and am reminded of how much I enjoy Beethoven’s overtures and, of course, the rest of his music, I’m looking forward to seeing what this opera is all about, finally.

Update: This piece reminds me quite a bit of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The most obvious connection is that it is a Singspiel, but there are other similarities, it being a caper about escape, multiple couples, etc. That’s my two cents.

I’ve been feeling a bit sluggish on my pieces lately, like I am not keeping up with the listening as well as I could, so this week, I’ve chosen a shorter piece to digest. I think that in order to really enjoy the “assignment”, I need to balance the lengths and difficulties of each of the pieces that are on my slate any given week. So, with a brand new opera in hand, I thought a briefer overture could do the trick. I’ve chosen Robert Schumann’s Manfred overture, at just thirteen minutes. I’m not sure whether it’s from another piece, or incidental music, or just a concert overture. Lots to learn.

Week Twenty-Three: June 5

A choral piece and a piece of my choosing this week.

For the choral selection, I’m going with Randall Thompson’s Frostiana. I’m sure that anyone who’s ever sung in a choir has done at least one of these movements. Mine was in high school, “The Road Not Taken”. Although hard to imagine, I didn’t recognize any of the other titles in this seven song set. Surprising, but that will change this week. I’m looking forward to it. The version I came across is from the great site www.instantencore.com, a performance by Joshua Harper and his combined Williston choirs.

As for the piece of my choosing, I’ve selected Dvořák’s Carnival overture. I had to actually go through my previous repertoire lists in order to determine if I’d ever done this piece before. I seemed to recall it, and realized that I had studied (obviously not very well!) a Berlioz piece of the same name. This is a short piece, in keeping with last week’s realization that I may need to do pieces that are less complex at times, in order to catch up, and feel better about my progress. It’s not like I’m getting graded. I can do whatever I want!

Week Twenty-Four: June 12

I had a long weekend away from the computer, and now I have a shortened listening period in which to choose a piece of my own selection. So I looked through my library and came upon Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict Overture. I could have sworn that I had worked with this piece before, but my lists suggest otherwise. I have it on now, and it’s not recognizable. At eight minutes in length, it should become quite familiar in the next few short days. Already looking ahead to my next assignments at the end of the week, when I will have to choose one from each category. It should be a great week of music!