Week Twenty-Five: June 19

Once again, it’s a week when all three categories come up for renewal, so that means it’s time to open up a new post.

I think I’m most excited about returning to Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, the “Symphony of a Thousand”, which I first developed a love for in college, when I was voraciously listening through as many LPs as I could get my hands on. This was one of those pieces that made a profound effect on me (likely my first exposure to Mahler, in fact), and I made a dub to tape of the first portion, which I know quite well. The rest, not so much. This summer, I’m excited to be attending a performance at Tanglewood, and I’m very hopeful that we’ll both be well-versed in the whole piece before heading out there in August.

I’ve also picked up yet another Tchaikovsky Symphonic Overture, The Tempest. I might as well fill in my bingo card now as to the features I expect to hear on this piece. Hopefully there will be some interesting bits, and not just a lot of descending bass scales, and off-beat cymbals clashes. Well, it is a tempest after all, so I guess those are warranted.

Update: So, one day I came in to work, and turned on this twenty minute piece on a loop during a project which must have taken me about eighty minutes, as I heard the full piece back to back four times. There are quite a few things that have struck me. Firstly, although it has many elements of a Tchaikovsky composition, it does not, as I joked earlier have the elements that I’d expected. The beginning is reminiscent of Bruckner. Having been written in 1873, I guess it predates Bruckner’s Ninth, still I wonder if Bruckner knew that his opening sounds so much like The Tempest.

And finally, a return to another piece I was first exposed to in college, Pagliacci. Everyone, of course, knows “Vesti la giubba”, but there is a lot more to this opera, very sad. One thing I’ve learned this year is that you don’t really even need to step into the verismo era to find some of the most heart-breaking stories in opera. This one keeps up that tradition extremely well! I had debated whether I needed to pair this with Cavalleria Rusticana, as opera houses typically do, but decided that would be inappropriate. They do that to fill out a night, and not for the sake of finishing what is already a complete story. I think I have more than enough music this week. Thank you, very much, Mahler.

Week Twenty-Six: June 26

I listen to a number of podcasts about classical music. I discovered a few years back that many orchestras and broadcasters will do a series about upcoming performances, audio program note, if you will. One of my favorites is Radio New Zealand’s Curtain Raiser. I’m not sure how they go about choosing which pieces to profile, but each episode tells the full background of a seemingly randomized, well-noted piece, and does so in under 20 minutes. I can often hear two on a commute. The episode from April 25, which I just go to this week, got me very interested in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Yet another piece that I hear “everywhere” but have never sat down to have a real listen. I’ve selected my performance, and retrieved the score from IMSLP, I think I’m ready to go.

Vaughan Williams hasn’t shown up on the Snooch list yet, to the best of my recollection. When I was first deciding to become a professional church musician, and academic, I fell in love with his hymnody, preparing a service surrounding his music for an anniversary of his birth. And, in Chamber Singers at UMass Lowell, one of our most beloved pieces was his short choral work “Valiant-for-Truth”. So, although I haven’t done much discovering in a long time, I would definitely say that RVW and I go back pretty far (some twenty years!).

Week Twenty-Seven: July 3

This is the Fourth of July weekend, and I thought I might be able to come up with something that would work. Looking through my library, the most “American” piece that I could find that I wasn’t already pretty familiar with was Charles Ives’ Orchestral Set No. 2, so that is what I’ve chosen. At this point, not only do I know nothing about it, I’ve never even listened to a measure of it, so I’m unsure the degree to which it sounds like the Ives cliches we all have in our minds. We shall see. Oddly enough, it presented the hardest challenge yet to find a cover or score image for this piece. I’m not even sure that this image is for the same piece.

Next up in choral country, I’ve got a recording of Verdi’s Te Deum. I’d avoided it for some time, thinking it would likely be a monolith like his Requiem, but in fact it’s quite manageable, at just over fifteen minutes or so. It should be fun to have a listen. Earlier this year, I enjoyed seeing how closely related Brahms’ Schicksalslied was to his Requiem. It will be fun to see if there are any similarities between Verdi’s Requiem and his Te Deum.

Week Twenty-Eight: July 10

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a recital given by Bryn Terfel at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall. Following, my wife and I talked about how when done well (as it was on this occasion), Lieder are so much more exciting than when we were forced to try our hand in college. As such, today I’ve chosen Robert Schumann’s Opus 39, the Eichendorff Liederkreis set. I anticipate some familiar songs in the twelve, and likely many that I have never heard before. For whatever reason, Lieder never really clicked with me, I hope to put an end to that by the end of this year, having already worked with Wagner and Strauss earlier in the spring.

Update: My original recording, one that came off a bargain collection of Schumann tracks, proved to be a bit hard on the ears, so I’ve started listening to a YouTube performance from the 1960s by Hermann Prey. Amazing. I saw him in the Le Nozze di Figaro movie a year or so again, but somehow managed to avoid him throughout all my college years of trying to track down basses and baritones. Exquisite performance, which truly brings out the beauty of Lieder. I think I’m on to something: better performers (Prey, Terfel)=more enjoyable Lieder experience!

As for opera, I have a vacation coming up in the next three weeks, which will surely reduce my time with music-listening. For that reason, I’m choosing a piece with which I already have a bit of a head start, Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore. My first exposure was on a PBS broadcast from the late 1990s in which Placido Domingo and Leontina Vaduva performed a few segments. Many years later, I took on learning it from a library CD. So, most of the music will be quite familiar. What is a bit less familiar is the story and background. It was background music for me during that period a few years back. Now, I should try to learn more about the piece itself.

Week Twenty-Nine: July 17

So, on my vacation week, I need to add a choral work and a piece of my choosing. What would be fun in the car? I’ve come up with Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem as the choral piece, having found a recording from Boston University’s Symphony Orchestra on InstantEncore (a fabulous resource for such things). And, surprisingly, the score was available at IMSLP. So, I’m off and running. This should be a fun one. A few weeks ago, I enjoyed his Tallis Fantasia, and my current book The Story of Music by Howard Goodall is currently in the early 20th century for me.

Next up for my “whimsical” piece, I’ve got Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, also from the BU ensemble. Prior to starting out on my “symphonic journey” I didn’t know a lot of Stravinsky, but having refreshed the Rite of Spring, and tackling Firebird and Pulcinella in earnest, not to mention Dumbarton Oaks, I’ve great enriched my understanding of his music and expect good times from this one.

Week Thirty: June 24

The past few weeks have been pretty unusual for me. So, I really haven’t done much with my listening, but I intend to get back on track. This week’s piece is Saint-Saëns’ Symphony in A. I’ve already heard it a few times, and will get a bit more familiar with it soon. One thing that has struck me, which I have not dug very deeply into, is the fact that there is a theme in the piece which is very much like the main theme of the fourth movement of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony. I’m curious is it’s intentional.