El próximo lunes 27 de abril, a las 23:59 horas,
finaliza el plazo para la presentación de solicitudes del IV Concurso
Internacional de Música Antigua, organizado desde la Fundación Municipal
de Cultura, Educación y Universidad Popular de Gijón/Xixón. El tema del
concurso será el canto histórico a solo con acompañamiento
instrumental. El repertorio a interpretar podrá comprender desde la
lírica trovadoresca hasta el clasicismo, es decir, aproximadamente de
1100 a 1800.
El concurso constará de tres fases, una ronda
preliminar (selección), una semifinal (9 de julio) y la final (10 de
julio). Además, los vencedores participarán en el concierto de clausura
del Festival (12 de julio) preparando dos piezas elegidas de común
acuerdo entre los vencedores y los responsables de la Orquesta del
Festival.
Se concederá un Gran Premio del Jurado, dotado con 1.700 €, y un
Premio Especial del Público (mediante votación del público asistente a
la semifinal) dotado con 1.300 €. También se hará una mención especial
al Mejor Correpetidor.
El ganador del Gran Premio del Jurado será invitado a participar en
la temporada de conciertos 2015-2016 de la Sociedad Filarmónica de
Gijón. La proclamación de ganadores se efectuará al término de la final.
La
entrega de premios tendrá lugar en el Concierto de clausura en el
Teatro Jovellanos, el domingo 12 de julio a las 19:30 horas.
El jurado para la semifinal y la fase final estará presidido por el
prestigioso contratenor Carlos Mena y contará con Juan Lucas (La Quinta de Mahler, El Arte de la Fuga) y José Ignacio Suárez (Universidad de Oviedo) como vocales. Desarrollo del concurso
El martes 5 de mayo la Organización hará pública la relación de los
participantes seleccionados. Hasta el viernes 22 de mayo, los
participantes seleccionados deberán confirmar su asistencia a las fases
semifinal y final del concurso.
En la segunda fase, los participantes seleccionados presentarán un
programa de 15-20 minutos de duración, pudiendo contener obras ya
incluidas en la ronda preliminar. El orden de intervención será
establecido por sorteo. Finalizada la actuación de los participantes y
tras la deliberación, el Jurado proclamará a los cantantes finalistas,
que serán un mínimo de dos participantes y máximo de tres. En esta fase
se procederá a la votación del público con anterioridad al fallo del
Jurado.
En la fase final, 10 de julio de 2015, los participantes finalistas
presentarán un programa diferente al de la semifinal, de 25-30 minutos
de duración. El orden de intervención será establecido por sorteo.
Finalizada la actuación de los participantes se efectuará el recuento de
la votación del público mientras el jurado se reúne para deliberar. El
veredicto del premio especial del público será conocido por el jurado
una vez se haya anunciado públicamente el vencedor del gran premio.
Las fases 2 y 3 tendrán carácter público y se celebrarán en el Centro
de Cultura Antiguo Instituto de Gijón/Xixón, en horario a determinar
por la Organización.
La Organización proporcionará a cada participante y correpetidor dos
noches de hotel (jueves 9 y viernes 10 de julio) con pensión completa,
así como dos noches adicionales (sábado 11 y domingo 12) con pensión
completa para los cantantes vencedores, que participarán en el concierto
de clausura.
Donnerstag, 23. April 2015
Today, 23. April born Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev 15/27 April 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous musical genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard works as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet – from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken – and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created – excluding juvenilia – seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, and nine completed piano sonatas.
A graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant and virtuosic works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos. In 1915 Prokofiev made a decisive break from the standard composer-pianist category with his orchestral Scythian Suite, compiled from music originally composed for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev – Chout, Le pas d'acier and The Prodigal Son – which at the time of their original production all caused a sensation among both critics and colleagues. Prokofiev's greatest interest, however, was opera, and he composed several works in that genre, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. Prokofiev's one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and subsequently performed over the following decade in Europe and Russia.
After the Revolution, Prokofiev left Russia with the official blessing of the Soviet minister Anatoly Lunacharsky, and resided in the United States, then Germany, then Paris, making his living as a composer, pianist and conductor. During that time he married a Spanish singer, Carolina Codina, with whom he had two sons. In the early 1930s, the Great Depression diminished opportunities for Prokofiev's ballets and operas to be staged in America and western Europe. Prokofiev, who regarded himself as composer foremost, resented the time taken by touring as a pianist, and increasingly turned to Soviet Russia for commissions of new music; in 1936 he finally returned to his homeland with his family. He enjoyed some success there – notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, and perhaps above all with Alexander Nevsky. The Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. In 1948 Prokofiev was criticized for "anti-democratic formalism" and, with his income severely curtailed, was forced to compose Stalinist works, such as On Guard for Peace. However, he also enjoyed personal and artistic support from a new generation of Russian performers, notably Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich: for the latter, he composed his Symphony-Concerto, whilst for the former he composed his ninth piano sonata.
Compositions Operas
The Giant (1900)
On Desert Islands (1900; unfinished)
A Feast in Time of Plague (1903, rev. 1908–09; unfinished)
Undina (1904–07)
Maddalena, Op. 13 (1911–13)
Igrok (The Gambler), Op. 24 (1915–16, rev. 1927); after Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33 (1919)
The Fiery Angel, Op. 37 (1919–27)
Semyon Kotko, Op. 81 (1939)
Betrothal in a Monastery, Op. 86 (1940–41)
War and Peace, Op. 91 (1941–52); after Leo Tolstoy
Khan Buzay (1942; unfinished)
The Story of a Real Man, Op. 117 (1947–48)
Distant Seas (1948; unfinished)
Ballets
Ala i Lolli, Op. 20 (1914–15), mostly incorporated into Scythian Suite (see below)
Chout / The Tale of the Buffoon, Op. 21 (1915, rev. 1920)
Trapeze, Op. 39 (1924), mostly incorporated into Quintet, Op. 39 (1924) (see Chamber Music below)
Le pas d'acier / The Steel Step, Op. 41 (1925–26)
The Prodigal Son, Op. 46 (1928–29)
On the Dnieper / Sur le Borysthène, Op. 51 (1930–31)
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (1935–36)
Cinderella, Op. 87 (1940–44)
The Tale of the Stone Flower, Op. 118 (1948–53)
Incidental music
Egyptian Nights (1934)
Boris Godunov, Op. 70bis (1936)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 71 (1936)
Hamlet, Op. 77 (1937–38)
Film music
Lieutenant Kijé (1934), also arranged as an orchestral suite (see below)
Queen of Spades / Pique dame, Op. 70 (1936), after Pushkin
Alexander Nevsky (1938), film directed by Sergei Eisenstein (also exists in the form of a cantata, see below)
Lermontov (1941)
Kotovsky (1942)
Tonya (1942)
The Partisans in the Ukrainian Steppes (1942)
Ivan the Terrible, Op. 116 (1942–45), film directed by Sergei Eisenstein (also exists in various concert forms arranged by various people)
Symphonies
Symphonies - two juvenile (Symphony (1902) and Symphony (1908))
Symphony No. 1 in D Classical, Op. 25 (1916–17)
Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 (1924–25)
Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 44 (1928)
Symphony No. 4 in C (original version), Op. 47 (1929–30)
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat, Op. 100 (1944)
Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 111 (1945–47)
Symphony No. 4 in C (revised version), Op. 112 (1947)
Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1951–52)
Symphony No. 2 in D minor (revised version), Op. 136 (1953; unrealized)
Orchestral suites
Suites (3) from "Romeo and Juliet"
Suite No. 1, Op. 64bis (1936)
Suite No. 2, Op. 64ter (1936)
Suite No. 3, Op. 101 (1946)
Suites (3) from "Cinderella"
Suite No. 1, Op. 107 (1946)
Suite No. 2, Op. 108 (1946)
Suite No. 3, Op. 109 (1946)
Suites (4) from "The Tale of the Stone Flower"
Wedding Suite, Op. 126 (1951)
Gypsy Fantasy, Op. 127 (1951)
Urals Rhapsody, Op. 128 (1951)
The Mistress of Copper Mountain Op. 129 (1951; unfinished)
Scythian Suite, Op. 20 (from "Ala i Lolli") (1914–15)
Suite from "Chout", Op. 21bis (1920)
Suite from "The Love for Three Oranges", Op. 33bis (1919, rev. 1924)
Vocal Suite from "The Fiery Angel", Op. 37bis (1923; incomplete)
Suite from "Le pas d'acier", Op. 41bis (1926)
Suite from "The Prodigal Son", Op. 46bis (1929)
Suite from "The Gambler" ("Four Portraits and Denouement"), Op. 49 (1931)
Suite from "On the Dnieper", Op. 51bis (1933)
Suite from "Lieutenant Kijé", Op. 60 (1934)
Suite from "Egyptian Nights", Op. 61 (1938)
Suite from "Semyon Kotko", Op. 81bis (1941)
Waltz Suite, Op. 110 (1946) (includes waltzes from "War and Peace," "Cinderella," and "Lermontov")
Summer Night, suite from "Betrothal in a Monastery", Op. 123 (1950)
Other orchestral works
Sinfonietta in A (original version), Op. 5 (1909)
Dreams, Op. 6 (1910)
Autumnal, Op. 8 (1910)
Andante from Piano Sonata No.4, arranged for orchestra, Op. 29bis (1934)
Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34bis (based on chamber version) (1934)
American Overture, Op. 42 (1926), for 17 instruments
American Overture, Op. 42bis (1928), for full orchestra
Divertimento, Op. 43 (1925–29) (also exists in a piano transcription, see transcriptions for piano below)
Sinfonietta in A (revised version of Op. 5), Op. 48 (1929)
Andante from String Quartet No. 1, arranged for string orchestra, Op. 50bis (1930)
Symphonic Song, Op. 57 (1933)
Russian Overture, Op. 72 (1936) (2 differently orchestrated versions)
Symphonic March, Op. 88 (1941)
The Year 1941, Op. 90 (1941)
Ode to the End of the War, Op. 105 (1945), for winds, 8 harps, 4 pianos, percussion, and double basses
Thirty Years, Op. 113 (1947), festive poem for orchestra
Pushkin Waltzes, Op. 120 (1949)
The Meeting of the Volga and the Don, Op. 130 (1951), festive poem for orchestra
Concertos
Piano:
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat, Op. 10 (1911–12)
Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 (1912–13, lost, re-written in 1923)
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C, Op. 26 (1917–21)
Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat, Op. 53 (1931), for left hand (written for Paul Wittgenstein)
Piano Concerto No. 5 in G, Op. 55 (1932)
Piano Concerto No. 6, Op. 134 (1953–unfinished)
Violin:
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, Op. 19 (1916–17)
Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 (1935)
Cello:
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 58 (1933–38)
Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 125 (1950–52)
Cello Concertino in G minor, Op. 132 (1953–unfinished) (one version completed by Kabalevsky, another by Vladimir Blok)
Vocal orchestral
Two Poems for Female Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 7 (1909–10)
The Ugly Duckling, Op. 18 (1914), for soprano and orchestra
Seven, They are Seven, Op. 30 (1917–18, rev. 1933), cantata for tenor, chorus, and large orchestra
Melodie, Op. 35bis (1920), for female voice and orchestra
Vocal Suite from The Fiery Angel, Op. 37bis (1923–incomplete)
Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 (1936), a children's story for narrator and orchestra
Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Op. 74 (1936–37), cantata for 2 choruses, orchestra, military band, accordion band, and percussion band
Songs of Our Days, Op. 76 (1937), for chorus and orchestra
Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78 (1939), cantata for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and orchestra
Zdravitsa, Op. 85 (1939), cantata for chorus and orchestra (also known as 'Hail to Stalin')
Ballad of an Unknown Boy, Op. 93 (1942–43), for soloists, chorus, and orchestra
Flourish, Mighty Land, Op. 114 (1947), cantata for chorus and orchestra
Winter Bonfire, Op. 122 (1949–50), for boy's choir and small orchestra
On Guard for Peace, Op. 124 (1950), cantata for chorus and orchestra
Choral
Six Songs, Op. 66 (1935)
Seven Songs and a March, Op. 89 (1941–42)
National Anthem and All-Union Hymn, Op. 98 (1943 and 1946)
Soldiers' Marching Song, Op. 121 (1950)
Songs
Two Poems, Op. 9 (1910-11)
The Ugly Duckling, Op. 18 (1914)
Five Poems, Op. 23 (1915)
Five Poems after Akhmatova, Op. 27 (1916)
Five Songs Without Words, Op. 35 (1920)
Five Poems after Bal'mont, Op. 36 (1921)
Five Kazakh Songs (1927)
Two Songs from Lieutenant Kijé, Op. 60bis (1934)
Three Children's Songs, Op. 68 (1936)
Three Romances after Pushkin, Op. 73 (1936)
Three Songs from Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78bis (1939)
Seven Songs, Op. 79 (1939)
Twelve Russian Folksongs, Op. 104 (1944)
Two Duets, Op. 106 (1945)
Broad and Deep the River Flows (19??; incomplete)
Chamber music
Humoresque scherzo, Op. 12bis (1915) (for four bassoons)
Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34 (1919) (for clarinet, string quartet and piano)
Quintet in G minor, Op. 39 (1924) (for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass)
String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50 (1930)
Sonata for Two Violins in C, Op. 56 (1932)
String Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 92 (1941)
Instrumental
Violin
Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35bis (1925)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80 (1946)
Violin Sonata No. 2 in D, Op. 94a (1943; based on Flute Sonata in D, Op. 94)
Sonata for Solo Violin / Unison Violins in D, Op. 115 (1947)
Cello
Ballade for Cello and Piano, Op. 15 (1912)
Adagio for Cello and Piano, Op. 97bis (1944)
Cello Sonata in C, Op. 119 (1949)
Sonata for Solo Cello in C# minor (incomplete), Op. 134 (1953?)
Flute
Flute Sonata in D, Op. 94 (1943)
Piano sonatas
Piano Sonatas - six juvenile: 1904, 1907 (revised for Op.1), 1907 (revised for Op.28), 1907–08, 1908 (revised for Op.29), 1908–09
Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 1 (1907–09)
Piano Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 14 (1912)
Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28 (1907–17)
Piano Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29 (1908–17)
Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major (original version), Op. 38 (1923)
Piano Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 82 (1939–40)
Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat major Stalingrad, Op. 83 (1939–42)
Piano Sonata No. 8 in B flat major, Op. 84 (1939–44)
Piano Sonata No. 9 in C major, Op. 103 (1947)
Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major (revised version), Op. 135 (1952–53)
Piano Sonata No. 10 in E minor, Op. 137 (unfinished) (1952)
Piano Sonata No. 11, Op. 138 (unrealized)
Other piano works
Four Etudes for Piano, Op. 2 (1909)
Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 3 (1911)
Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 4 (1910–12)
Toccata in D minor, Op. 11 (1912)
Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 12 (1906–13)
Sarcasms, 5 Pieces for Piano, Op. 17 (1912–14)
Visions fugitives, 20 Pieces for Piano, Op. 22 (1915–17)
Tales of an Old Grandmother, Op. 31 (1918)
Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 32 (1918)
Things in Themselves, 2 Pieces for Piano, Op. 45 (1928)
Two Sonatinas for Piano, Op. 54 (1931–32)
Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 59 (1933–34)
Pensées, 3 Pieces for Piano, Op. 62 (1933–34)
Music for Children, 12 Easy Pieces, Op. 65 (1935)
Dumka (after 1933)
Transcriptions for piano
March and Scherzo from "The Love for Three Oranges", Op. 33ter (1922)
Divertissement, Op. 43bis (1938)
Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 52 from a variety of sources (1930–31)
Ten Pieces from "Romeo and Juliet", Op. 75 (1937)
Gavotte from "Hamlet", Op. 77bis (1938)
Three Pieces from "Cinderella", Op. 95 (1942)
Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 96 from "War and Peace" and "Lermontov" (1941–42)
Ten Pieces from "Cinderella", Op. 97 (1943)
Six Pieces from "Cinderella", Op. 102 (1944)
Band music
Four Marches, Op. 69 (1935–37)
March in A-flat, Op. 89bis (1941)
March in B-flat, Op. 99 (1943–44)
Analysis Second Piano Concerto Op. 16
The first and last movements are each around twelve minutes long and constitute some of the most dramatic music in all of Prokofiev's piano concertos. They both contain long and developed cadenzas with the first movement's cadenza alone taking up almost the entire last half of the movement.
Andantino-Allegretto
The first movement opens quietly with strings and clarinet playing a two-bar staccato theme which, Prokofiev biographer Daniel Jaffé suggests, "sounds almost like a ground bass passacaglia theme, that musical symbol of implacable fate". The piano takes over, constructing over a left hand accompaniment of breathing undulation a G minor narrante theme which, in the words of Soviet biographer Israel Nestyev, "suggests a quiet, serious tale in the vein of a romantic legend". This opening theme contains a second idea, a rising scalic theme; as Robert Layton observes, when it is later taken up by unison strings as "a broad singing melody, one feels that the example of Rachmaninov has not gone altogether unheeded".
A brief forte, backed by the orchestra, leads to a third, expansive, walking theme performed again by the solo pianist; Layton notes that this "looks forward to its counterpart in the Third Piano Concerto: there is no mistaking its slightly flippant character". The development section is in effect carried entirely by the soloist's notoriously taxing five-minute cadenza, one of the longer and more difficult cadenze in the classical piano repertoire, taking the listener all the way to the movement's climax. Noted in two staves, the piano plays a reprise of its own opening theme. A third staff, which requires the pianist to perform large jumps with both hands frequently, contains the a motif from the earlier orchestral accompaniment.
The colossale portion of the cadenza is profuse with giant runs and large chords.
The accumulated charge is eventually released in a premature climax (G minor), fff and colossale, which consists of oscillating triplet semiquaver runs across the upper four octaves of the piano, kept in rhythm by a leaping left-hand crotchet accompaniment. Prokofiev himself describes this as one of the hardest places in the concerto. The last bars before the absolute climax are marked tumultuoso and reach supreme discord as C sharp minor collides with D minor.
As both hands move apart, to embrace the piano fff in D minor, an accent on every note, the orchestra announces its return, strings and timpani swelling furiously from p to ff. The listener is exposed to the apocalyptic blare of several horns, trombones, trumpets and tuba, which, as Jaffé describes it, "balefully [play] the opening 'fate' theme fortissimo", while piano, flutes and strings still shriek in unison up and down the higher ranges. Two cymbal crashes end the cataclysm in G minor.
A decrescendo brings the music back to an almost spooky piano in which the piano timidly puts forth the second narrante theme, echoes its last notes, repeats it pianissimo, ever fading. Pizzicato strings point several more times to the opening theme, the significance of which has now been revealed.
Scherzo: Vivace
The scherzo is of an exceptionally strict form considering the piano part. The right and left hand play a stubborn unison, almost 1500 semiquavers each, literally without a moment's pause: Robert Layton describes the soloist in this movement being like "some virtuoso footballer who retains the initiative while the opposing team (the orchestra) all charge after him". At around ten notes a second and with hardly any variations in speed, this movement lasts circa two-and-a-half minutes and is an unusual concentration challenge to the pianist. It displays the motor line of the five "lines" (characters) Prokofiev describes in his own music. (Other such pieces include Toccata in D minor and the last movement of Piano Sonata No. 7). One fleeting motif, to make a major appearance in the final movement, appears (fig. 39 in the score) in the cellos' part – "a chromatically inflected triplet plus quaver, played twice before tailing off".
Unlike the other three movements, it is mainly in D minor.
Intermezzo: Allegro moderato
Instead of a lyrical slow movement which might have been expected after a scherzo (cf Brahms's Second Piano Concerto), Prokofiev provides an Intermezzo. Layton characterises this movement as "in some ways the most highly characterized of all four movements, with its flashes of sardonic wit and forward-looking harmonies".
The movements starts with a heavy-footed walking bass theme – directed to be played heavily (pesante) and fortissimo. The music has returned to G minor. Strings, bassoon, tuba, timpani and gran cassa (bass drum) march along with moody determination. Trombones sharply pronounce a D, followed by tuba and oboe in a sudden diminuendo. For several bars, the orchestra issues ever waning threats, at the same time making inexorably for the tonic. At which point the piano enters and the music immediately gains force. There is one moment of respite from this "sarcastically grotesque procession" with the single appearance of "an introverted theme of numbed lyricism".
Finale: Allegro tempestoso
Five octaves above the intermezzo's end note, a fortissimo tirade pounces out of the sky, written in four-four-time but played in seven-eight (one-two-three-four-one-two-three etc.). After six bars it settles down in the vicinity of middle C. Running up to an acid semitonal acciaccatura in both hands, the piano goes over into a sprint of octave-chords and single notes, jumping manically up and down the keyboard twice a bar. An audible theme is picked out, and during a piano and staccato repetition of the theme, the strings and flutes rush up, bringing the music to the briefest of halts. A moment later the piano goes back to forte and the sprint sets off anew. It is repeated three more times in total before the piano performs a stormy gallop of triads (tempestoso), the hands flying apart more or less symmetrically, while the strings throw in a frantic accompaniment of regular staccato eighths. The piano puts a momentary end to its own fury with a barely feasible manoeuvre, both hands jumping up three or four octaves simultaneously and fortissimo in the time of a semiquaver. But by then the sprint has transformed into a "fearful pursuit with an obsessively repeated triplet motif [first heard fleetingly in the Scherzo movement] overshadowed by the baleful roars of tuba and trombones".Only moments later, the orchestra has reached a halt and the piano, unaccompanied, plays soft but dissonant chords which, Jaffé suggests, are "reminiscent of the bell-like chords which open the final piece in Schoenberg's Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19" which were composed in homage to Mahler shortly after his death. (Jaffé points out that Prokofiev had introduced Schoenberg's music to Russia by playing the Op. 11 pieces, and suggests that Prokofiev may have known and been inspired by Schoenberg's Op. 19 to use a similar bell motif to commemorate Schmidthoff.)
The piano stands aside for eight bars while the strings, still mf, embark on a new episode. The soloist then plays a wistful theme similar in character to the first movement's piano opening theme, characterised by Jaffé as "lullaby" while noting (as does Nestyev) its affinity to Musorgsky. The bassoons take up the wandering piano-theme, while the piano itself goes over into a pp semiquaver accompaniment. The music eventually winds down, with "a despondent-sounding version of the lullaby theme on bassoon abruptly cut off by a sharply articulated and very final sounding cadence from the orchestra". But, as Jaffé notes, "The pianist won't let things rest... but hammers out the 'pursuit' theme", so initiating "not so much a cadenza... but a post-cadential meditation on the 'bell' chords". The orchestra joins in after some time, reintroducing the piano's "lullaby" theme, while the soloist's part still flows across the octaves. The key regularly changes from A-minor to C-minor and back again, the music becomes ever broader and harder to play. Rhythm and tune then fall into an abrupt piano, no less threatening than the previous forte. Trundling chromaticism has the music roll up to a fortissimo, the orchestra still proclaiming the originally wistful piano-theme. This is the only place outside the andantino where the piano exceeds the older range of seven octaves, jumping two octaves up to B7 just one single time.
A long diminuendo of gliding piano rushes brings the volume to a minimum pp (Prokofiev does not once use a ppp in the concerto's piano part). Then a ferocious blast (ff) from the orchestra starts off the reprise.
Ballet: Ivan Le Terrible
Ballet. Romeo and Julia
Sergei Prokofiev House and Museum
Sergei Prokofiev Grave
Freitag, 17. April 2015
Sommer Musin Academy Sinaia
It is said that once a year, in the summer, stories come to life.
Sinaia, the stone paved city with paths that lead to the Castle, with
royalty stories and idyllic scenery - the long-dreamt holiday place.
Here, it is said that yesterday and tomorrow have met today, in the
present, and since then they are telling stories.
Summer Music
Academy Sinaia, through its master-classes, workshops and concerts give
you the opportunity to taste the magic of the place, a city at the base
of mountains, called "The Touristic Pearl of the Carpathians". Sinaia
invites you to live, for a few days, in her everlasting present,
enjoying musical chords, away from the city buzz.
Summer Music
Academy Sinaia is a program with tradition, organized by jmEvents and
the European Music Academy, run by Luigi Gageos - Director and
Constantin Serban - Artistic Director.
After 5 successful years in France this program was moved in Romania .
The project includes both concerts and master-classes for violin,
viola, cello and flute.
Workshops and master-classes are
developed under the direction of renowned professors from the Royal
Academy of Music London, Nantes Conservatory, the University of Music in
Cork, the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Hochschule für Musik Berlin,
Lille Conservatory, National University of Music Bucharest .
Address:
C.P. 13 - 63, Bucuresti 13
Telephone
+40 720 31.61.62
Fax
+40 213 236 600
E-mail
office@jmEvents.ro
Freitag, 3. April 2015
What the Earth would look like if all the ice melted
A
disturbing video you can see how it will change our planet if all the
ice in glaciers and peaks melt has been published on the Net. In it you
can see many of the effects of climate change, which would raise sea
level up the point of making cities and regions disappear completely from the face of the Earth.
The portal "Business Insider" has released a video showing the drastic changes that could occur on Earth if all the ice melts. How big cities like Tokyo, Buenos Aires, New York, Miami, Lima,
London, Barcelona, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, San Francisco,
among others, disappear under water is appreciated.
The magazine 'National Geographic' prepared, in turn, an interactive
map showing what would happen if the more than 20 million cubic
kilometers of ice melt.
According
to estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC,
for its acronym in English) sea level grow one meter at the end of the
century.
Mittwoch, 1. April 2015
Today, 1. April was born Ferrucio Busoni
Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and piano teacher.
Biography
Ferruccio Busoni was born in the Tuscan town of Empoli, Italy, the only child of two professional musicians. His father, Ferdinando, was a clarinetist. His mother, Anna, was a pianist from Trieste. They were often touring during his childhood, and he was brought up in Trieste for the most part.
Busoni was a child prodigy. He made his public debut on the piano with his parents, at the age of seven. A couple of years later he played some of his own compositions in Vienna where he heard Franz Liszt play, and met Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Anton Rubinstein.
Busoni had a brief period of study in Graz with Wilhelm Mayer (who published his own compositions under the pseudonym of W. A. Rémy and also taught Felix Weingartner) and was also helped by Wilhelm Kienzl, who enabled him to conduct a performance of his own composition Stabat Mater when he was twelve years old, before leaving for Leipzig in 1886 where he studied with Carl Reinecke (a former pupil of Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann). He subsequently held several teaching posts, the first in 1888 at Helsinki, where he met his wife, Gerda Sjöstrand, the daughter of Swedish sculptor Carl Eneas Sjöstrand, and began a lifelong friendship with Jean Sibelius. In 1890 he won the Anton Rubinstein Competition with his Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 31a. He taught in Moscow in 1890, and in the United States from 1891 to 1894 where he also toured as a virtuoso pianist.
Commemorative plate in Berlin
In 1894 he settled in Berlin, giving a series of concerts there both as pianist and conductor. He particularly promoted contemporary music. He also continued to teach in a number of masterclasses at Weimar, Vienna and Basel; among his pupils were Egon Petri and Stanley Gardner.
In 1907, he penned his Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music,
lamenting the traditional music "lawgivers", and predicting a future
music that included the division of the octave into more than the
traditional 12 degrees. His philosophy that "Music was born free; and to
win freedom is its destiny," greatly influenced his students Percy Grainger and Edgard Varèse, both of whom played significant roles in the 20th century opening of music to all sound.
Most of Busoni's works are for the piano. Busoni's music is typically contrapuntally complex, with several melodic lines unwinding at once. Although his music is never entirely atonal in the Schoenbergian sense, his mature works, beginning with the Elegies, are often in indeterminate key. He was in contact with Schoenberg, and made a 'concert interpretation' of the latter's 'atonal' Piano Piece, Op. 11, No. 2 (BV B 97), in 1909. In the program notes for the premiere of his own Sonatina seconda of 1912, Busoni calls the work senza tonalità (without tonality). Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt were key influences, though late in his career much of his music has a neo-classical bent, and includes melodies resembling Mozart's.
Some idea of Busoni's mature attitude to composition can be gained from his 1907 manifesto, Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music, a publication somewhat controversial in its time. As well as discussing then little-explored areas such as electronic music and microtonal music
(both techniques he never employed), he asserted that music should
distill the essence of music of the past to make something new.
Many of Busoni's works are based on music of the past, especially on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (see below). The first version of Busoni's largest and best known solo piano work, Fantasia contrappuntistica,
was published in 1910. About half an hour in length, it is essentially
an extended fantasy on the final incomplete fugue from Bach's The Art of Fugue. It uses several melodic figures found in Bach's work, most notably the BACH motif
(B flat, A, C, B natural). Busoni revised the work a number of times
and arranged it for two pianos. Versions have also been made for organ and for orchestra.
The tomb in Berlin
Busoni used elements of other composers' works. The fourth movement of An die Jugend (1909), for instance, uses two of Niccolò Paganini's Caprices for solo violin (numbers 11 and 15), while the 1920 piece Piano Sonatina No. 6 (Fantasia da camera super Carmen) is based on themes from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen.
Busoni also drew inspiration from non-European sources, including Indian Fantasy
for piano and orchestra. It was composed in 1913 and is based on North
American indigenous tribal melodies drawn from the studies of this
native music by ethnomusicologist, Natalie Curtis Burlin.
Busoni was a virtuoso pianist, and his works for piano are difficult to perform. His Piano Concerto, Op. 39
(1904) is one of the largest such works ever written. Performances
generally last over seventy minutes, requiring great stamina from the
soloist. The concerto is written for a large orchestra with a male voice
choir that is hidden from the audience's view in the last movement. British pianist John Ogdon, one of the champions of the work, called it "the longest and grandest piano concerto of all."[2] (However, it was not the first piano concerto to include a chorus, as is often assumed; Daniel Steibelt wrote a similar work in 1820.)
Busoni's Turandot Suite (1905), probably his most popular orchestral work, was expanded into his operaTurandot in 1917, and Busoni completed two other operas, Die Brautwahl (1911) and Arlecchino (1917). He began serious work on his best known opera, Doktor Faust, in 1916, leaving it incomplete at his death. It was then finished by his student Philipp Jarnach, who worked with Busoni's sketches as he knew of them, but in the 1980s Antony Beaumont,
the author of an important Busoni biography, created an expanded and
improved completion by drawing on material that Jarnach did not have
access to.
Piano Transcriptionen
F. Busoni: Introduction & Fugue on the Chorale Herzliebster Jesu, for orchestra (after J.S. Bach, BWV 244/3; incomplete)
F. Busoni: Improvisation on the Bach Chorale Wie wohl ist mir, o Freund der Seele, for 2 pianos (after BWV 517)
Prelude & Fugue in D major ("Little"), BWV 532, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Prelude & Fugue in E minor, BWV 533, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Prelude & Fugue in C major, BWV 545, transcribed for piano [Schirmer]
Prelude & Fugue in E flat major ("St. Anne"), BWV 552, transcribed for piano [Rahter]
Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C major, BWV 564, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (I), BWV 599, transcribed for piano [actually BWV 659]
Chorale Prelude In dir ist Freude, BWV 615, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf, BWV 617, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Komm, Gott, Schöpfer!, BWV 631, transcribed for piano
Chorale Prelude Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verdebt, BWV 637, transcribed for piano
Chorale Prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 (II), transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, BWV 665, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Komm, Gott, Schöpfer!, BWV 667, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (V), BWV 675, transcribed for piano
Chorale Prelude Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 686, transcribed for piano
Chorale Prelude Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verdebt, BWV 705, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chorale Prelude Nun freut euch, lieben Christen, BWV 734, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Two-Part Inventions (15), BWV 772-786 & Three-Part Inventions (Sinfonias) (15), BWV 787-801, transcriptions for piano
Four Duets BWV 802-805, arrangements for piano
WTC 1 BWV 846-869, arrangement for piano
F. Busoni: Widmung, arrangement for piano (after Fugue No. 1 in C major, BWV 846 from WTC 1)
WTC 2 BWV 870-893, arrangement for piano
WTC 2: Fugue No. 15 in G major, BWV 884, transcribed for 2 pianos [Breitkopf]
Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, arrangement for piano
Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, arranged for cello & piano
Fantasia & Fugue in A minor, BWV 904, transcribed for piano
Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV 905, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Fantasia, Fugue, Andante & Scherzo, BWV 905/969/844, transcribed for piano
Fantasia, Adagio & Fugue, BWV 906/968, transcribed for piano
Goldberg Variations BWV 988, free arrangement for piano (Part 1: Aria, Variations, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13; Part 2: Variations 17, 15, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25; Part 3: Variations 26, 28, Allegro finale, Quodlibet, Reprise) [Breitkopf]
Aria & Variations in the Italian Style in A minor, BWV 989, arrangement for piano
Sarabande & Partita in C major, BWV 990, transcribed for piano
Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother in B flat major, BWV 992, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Prelude, Fugue & Allegro in E flat major, BWV 998, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Chaconne (Mvt. 5) from Partita for solo violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, transcribed for piano [Breitkopf]
Partita for solo violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, transcription for orchestra (incomplete)
Concerto for harpsichord, strings & continuo No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052, transcription for piano & orchestra
Concerto for harpsichord, strings & continuo No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052, transcription for 2 pianos [Breitkopf]
Canonic Variations & Fugue from Musical Offering BWV 1079, transcribed for piano
F. Busoni: Grosse Fuge, contrapuntal fantasy for piano (based on Die Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080)
F. Busoni: Fantasia contrappuntistica (I), for piano ("Edizione definitiva") (described as an attempt to complete the unfinished final three-subject fugue in Die Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080, or an hommage to J.S. Bach & Die Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080)
F. Busoni: Fantasia contrappuntistica (II), for piano ("Edizione minore")
F. Busoni: Fantasia contrappuntistica (III), for 2 pianos
Kenneth Leighton: Fantasia contrappuntistica (IV), for organ (arrangement of Busoni's composition)
Wilhelm Middelschulte: Fantasia Contrappuntistica (Homage to Bach) for piano, (arrangement of Busoni's composition)
F. Busoni: Fantasia nach J.S. Bach, for piano
El próximo lunes 27 de abril, a las 23:59 horas,
finaliza el plazo para la presentación de solicitudes del IV Concurso
Internacional de Música Antigua, organizado desde la Fundación Municipal
de Cultura, Educación y Universidad Popular de Gijón/Xixón. El tema del
concurso será el canto histórico a solo con acompañamiento
instrumental. El repertorio a interpretar podrá comprender desde la
lírica trovadoresca hasta el clasicismo, es decir, aproximadamente de
1100 a 1800.
