A set of three new pieces to study this week. One for each category.
Week Seven: February 13
First off, the newest opera on the list is Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a piece that everyone knows at least a bit of. I expect to get the most out of those arias and ensembles which don’t appear on Bugs Bunny cartoons. It will be interesting to see what else is under the hood. I’m keeping an eye on the popularity of the operas I choose at the outset, not in a prescribed way, but in learning over 15 operas this year, I hope to really make a dent on the core repertory. As such, there is a strong chance that this may be the only Rossini entry on my list this year.
Update: One week in, I find this to be a very approachable opera. I’d read in advance that it is often considered the funniest of the comedic operas. I had a hard time believing that on my initial listen, as it registered at that point as being mostly recitative, hardly fun to listen to, but I see how it lends itself to a lot of visual humor and sight gags. All of the music is charming, much of it exciting, and some of it brilliant. It feels very much like an attempt to complement Le Nozze di Figaro, sharing its source material, of course. I have a strong bias here, though, and find it to be nowhere near as captivating and outstanding as its forerunner. The ensembles may be equally fun, but do not sure the inventiveness or complexity of, say, the Act Two Le Nozze finale, which has been heralded for 250 years. Still, lots of fun, I can’t wait to track down a video of it in the next few weeks.
Update: Now it’s time to put this piece away in favor of my next opera. I’ve really come around on it. At first, somehow it seemed like this was all recits nestled around “Una Voce”s and “La Calunnia”s but upon seeing a great video on YouTube, with Juan Diego Flórez and becoming more familiar with the comedic aspects and ensembles in a fine performance, I have to give it its due. I think that the piece could suffer tremendously in poor hands, but when done well, it’s very enjoyable. I’d love to see it live some day, as with all these pieces!
Also new this week, a little Morten Lauridsen for this snowy Boston season. His Mid-winter Songs is a set that I have been aware of, as it is on a CD of mine, but I have not really ever had a sit down to listen to it intently. I’m looking forward to it. The first Lauridsen piece I ever learned was “Se per havervi, oi’me” from Fire Songs. I sang it as part of a graduate conducting recital of one of my dear friends. That recital remains in my top-five experiences around music, some fifteen years later. I should actually compile that list some time.
The piece of my choosing this week will be the incidental music from Rosamunde by Franz Schubert. I know very little at this point about Rosamunde, but became interested in it, care of a Boston Symphony radio broadcast a few months back. It’s stuck in my mind since then, and I have sought it out for this week.
Update: Having listened to several of the movements this week, I have found that this piece is imminently approachable. Many moments sound very similar to each other, and it upholds a claim I made back in 2012 with the first series of this project, that Schubert is the inheritor of Mozart’s legacy. This feels like something that would’ve been written by someone staying the course, had they lived in both the middle 18th and early 19th centuries.
Week Eight: February 20
This time around, I’ve added my first concerto since 2013, and how can I go wrong with Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in Am, recently played by Johannes Moser with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
I found in the first few listenings that this is a piece that seems to be familiar, though I can’t put my finger on it. Probably, it appears on some cello compilation album or something.
While I was working with the score, I tried to do a bit of analysis of some chord progressions, and was pretty pleased with myself (music theory not being something I was taught in a very robust manner) to find a German Sixth chord on page 68 of the Durand score. I’ve long wished that I were able to hear various interesting chords like Augmented Sixths and Neapolitans, etc., but at least I was able to figure it out using a score. At least, I think I figured it out.
Week Nine: February 27
My new choral piece will be Rachmaninov’s Vespers (All-Night Vigil). My best association with this piece comes from an all-Russian concert that the UMass Lowell Chamber Singers did back in 1998-1999, I’d say. We did the “Bogoroditse Devo” movement, which I’ve since come to learn that everyone does at some time or other. What magnificent music. I can’t wait to force myself into the rest of the score. I know that it will largely be familiar, but I’ve never sat down with score in hand before to see what it’s really all about.
The piece I’m adding at my whim is Shéhérazade by Maurice Ravel. Last year, I started out with the more popular Rimsky-Korsakov setting of the story, I’m very much looking forward to seeing how Ravel tackles the source material. For one thing, there is a solo voice to represent the girl. That alone is enough to set it apart. Once again, I’m looking forward to hearing some new Ravel. As I’ve written many times before, I really have come to enjoy his music across these years. One of those “Where have you been the rest of my life?” kind of guys. The answer? Hiding under Bolero, causing me to assume it was all like that.
Update: So, I quickly found out that it seems as though, on the surface at least, these texts have nothing to do with the traditional folk tale. But they’re still quite moving pieces, requiring amazing virtuosity and skill; these intervals and meter changes are not for the faint of heart!
Week Ten: March 6
This week, I’m adding two pieces with timely significance. One is the opera Carmen, notable to me this month because one of classmates from Westminster Choir College, Danielle Talamantes, performed the role of Frasquita at the Metropolitan Opera throughout this month, singing with Roberto Alagna, Jonas Kaufmann, Ailyn Pérez, and Elina Garanca. Give me a break! I’m so proud of her achievements since we graduated, and there’s no better way to celebrate than to actually learn this piece that I should’ve learned years ago!
And on a Lenten theme, I have chosen Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ. Already, this morning, I’ve had a hard time even finding a score for this piece, on account of the fact that, I’ve learned, he wrote it first as an orchestral piece (the version I own a recording of), which was then adapted as a string quartet, and as a choral oratorio. We are about half way through Lent this week, and even though that makes this subject matter a few weeks early, I assume I might be able to find other relevant material to study in the upcoming weeks. Or maybe not.
Week Eleven: March 13
And here we are at the tenth week of the year already. To the list of choral pieces I’m adding the monolith of western choral music, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. In my days as a solo singer, I performed all the bass solos from this piece, and have familiarity with a few of the choruses, but in general, I’ve managed to not be too aware of the piece as a whole, always having had an affinity to the St. John given an early-on performance in Westminster Choir with the New York Philharmonic, one of the most exhilarating musical experiences of my life. Time to add this larger, more notable work to that list.
As for the piece of my choosing, I’ve kept with the two-week theme of “finality” with the Vier Letzte Lieder of Richard Strauss. I have a recording of Renee Fleming, one of the greatest Strauss interpreters of our time, so I think I’m going to be in good hands. I’m frustrated by the fact that, being comprised of Strauss’ “last” songs, the set falls into the time period which forbids public domain distribution of the score, so I will be scoreless this week on this one.
Week Twelve: March 20
I haven’t thought much about chamber music in my lifetime. It’s always struck me (because it’s true) that it’s music intended to be performed, not listened to. I can’t imagine how much fun it must have been back in the day to gather up your friends and tear through some string quartets on a Friday night. I’ve experienced some of that thrill in chamber choir rehearsals only to find that the pieces weren’t that exciting for the audience, come showtime. That being said, today I unveil Stravinsky’s Concerto in Eb, “Dumbarton Oaks”. As I write this, I’ve already listened to all twelve minutes of it for the first and only time in my life. Pretty fun stuff to listen to, but the thrill of getting through a performance unscathed must be even more exhilarating.