The bad news: The Metropolitan Opera has closed due to the health crisis.
The good news: The Metropolitan Opera is providing nightly encore opera performances for free on its website. A different opera every night! The webcasts will continue for the duration of the closure. The performances may also be viewed on all Met Opera on Demand apps.
“I shall not alter a single note,” I answered, “I shall publish the work exactly as it is!”
So said Tchaikovsky after receiving blistering criticism from pianist Nikolai Rubinstein after hearing Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto a few days after the composition was completed. [1] Rubinstein, who is known for debuting Balakirev’s insanely difficult Islamey, [2] deemed the concerto “unplayable” and “vulgar.”
It would appear Tchaikovsky was vindicated. The first piano concerto met with great audience acclaim at its debut in Boston, and has become one of Tchaikovsky’s most popular works. Rubinstein later came around, both playing and conducting the work he once vilified.
By the way, you should really read George Antheil’s bio. It’s rare to find a composer who developed a radio guidance system for torpedoes (with actress Hedy Lamarr, no less; I am not making this up), and who was a friend of the poet Ezra Pound.
On Friday, June 2, 2017 at 10:45AM EDT (GMT -5), the Detroit Symphony Orchestra will offer a free live online concert that will include a new work by Wynton Marsalis featuring violinist Nicola Benedetti. Here is her official website. Here’s the program:
The circus polka was composed for a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine for Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was performed by fifty elephants and fifty ballerinas. Balanchine said he phoned Stravinsky:1
“I wonder if you’d like to do a little ballet with me,” Balanchine said.
“For whom?”
“For some elephants.”
“How old?” Stravinsky asked.
“Very young,” Balanchine assured him.
There was a pause. Then Stravinsky said gravely, “All right. If they are very young elephants, I will do it.”2
I have to hear this now. By the way, the elephant ballet was only performed for a short time, after which it became popular among solely human dancers.
I’m also eager to hear Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto. From the reviews I’ve read, it is a thoroughly American concerto, with movements titled Rhapsody, Rondo, Blues, and Hootenanny. Marsalis packs the work to overflowing with musical ideas and notions, and the work you hear on Friday may differ from previous performances—it seems to be a work in evolution. A documentary has been created, The Making of a Concerto, which you can see at the link. Here is the trailer.
Rounding out the program is Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, in which Tchaikovsky wrestles with the concept of fate. And in the finale, the wrestling becomes fierce. Check out this wild review from 1892, written by William Foster Apthorp, who was no great fan of “modern” music:8
In the Finale we have all the untamed fury of the Cossack, whetting itself for deeds of atrocity, against all the sterility of the Russian steppes. The furious peroration sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy, the music growing drunker and drunker. Pandemonium, delirium tremens, raving, and above all, noise worse confounded!9
Wow. Elephants, a hootenanny, and pandemonium. Don’t miss it!
What can you do when
Music gets stuck in your head?
I guess it depends.
If it’s some horrid
Tune, ill conceived or performed,
You must replace it.
But a fine tune can
Resonate through the day, a
Personal soundtrack.
It’s happened to all of us: something sparks the memory of a tune, or you hear a snippet on the radio, or from a passing car.
And suddenly it’s stuck, your brain rehearsing the notes in an infinite loop. If you’re lucky, it’s more than a few lines.
Some people call it an earworm, a uniquely unappealing term, though I suppose it’s apt if the song in question is something you probably didn’t want to hear the first time you heard it. For me, there is an abysmal song from the 80s that, once sparked, will.not.go.away until I Berlioz-blast it from my brain. I won’t tell you what it is, because that would be wrong.
But sometimes, the sticking of a tune can be a delight, and that happened to me yesterday. I’m not saying I want it to get stuck in your head, but I think you’d like to hear it.
Everything stopped when I played Tchaikovsky’s Romance in F Minor (Op. 5) performed by Joseph Moog (here’s the album listing from the record company). It caught my ear. It stayed with me all afternoon, and I was ok with that. It begins with a sentimental minor-key melody that reminds me of a thought-filled walk along a riverside in the fall, the ornaments glistening like sun sparkling on the water. The middle section is suddenly lively, as if one had to cross a busy intersection before continuing along the river. The middle section gradually subsides into calm and returns to the main theme.
This is Opus 5?
Then I found out Tchaikovsky had written a cantata, overture, symphonic poem, symphony, and two operas before he got around to writing the Romance. But he was so exacting that he destroyed the poem and the operas, and probably winced every time someone brought up the cantata, overture, and symphony. But he kept the Romance, and it is a well-loved piece.
Of course, before I found this YouTube video, I found two other interesting performances, by Mikhail Pletnev and Sviatoslav Richter, that I thought you might enjoy.
Kelly Jakubowski, Sebastian Finkel, Lauren Stewart, and Daniel Müllensiefen, “Dissecting an Earworm: Melodic Features and Song Popularity Predict Involuntary Musical Imagery,” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, November 3, 2016, http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/aca-aca0000090.pdf
Ice has turned the trees
Into a fine filigree:
A shawl of white lace,
Tracery beaded
With berries, ‘til cardinals
And jays replace them.
Water droplets cling
To the tips of icicles,
Forming pearl-edged fringe.
Winter’s shawl remains
Until spring smiles and dons her
New leafy green dress.
Snowy winters have been a great source of inspiration to countless composers. I thought I’d present a few and give you some resources to find more if you would like a playlist that provides the sonic image of a snowy day (whether you’re in the midst of one looking out at the falling snow with a cup of hot cocoa, or sipping a cool drink while looking for a little relief from sweltering heat).
Want more? Check out WQXR’s page “10 Pieces That Sound Like a Winter Wonderland”, as well as Classic fm’s “Winter Music.” If you subscribe to a music streaming service, I’m sure you can find more classical winter playlists for your listening pleasure.
So how do you get that magical tinkling sound? The celesta.
The celesta is a keyboard instrument that produces its sound through the striking of metal plates with little hammers connected to the keys, in the same way that pianos strike strings.
If you are interested in a more in-depth treatment of the mechanics and the manufacturing of celestas, see this video from Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH.
Would you like to see The Nutcracker in its entirety? You can! EuroArts presents it on YouTube (with minimal commercial interruption). You can find the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy at time stamp 1:29:00. If you would like to see a purely orchestral version, you can see The Nutcracker performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (with the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy at 1:22:00).
But the celesta doesn’t go back in the storage room after the Christmas season! It is used in a number of other works, namely Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, Symphony No. 8, and Das Lied von der Erde, as well as several symphonies by Shostakovich. A wonderful use of the celesta can be found in Gustav Holst’s The Planets in the mystical final movement Neptune.
Undeterred, I searched the internet for a replacement.
I have found you hours and hours of opera. And I don’t mean The Ring cycle.
The Vienna State Opera is currently offering for free Wagner’s Parsifal and Götterdämmerung (ok, some of The Ring; click here for details). The opera company typically offers livestreams by subscription (single, monthly, by season). You can watch at the time of event, or slightly time shifted to accommodate your time zone.
Catapulting into Classical 