![Igor Stravinsky - Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra [With score] @DamonJHK](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/385KhKIR-Gg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded March 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 -- 6 April 1971)
Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic
Conductor: Ali [Alexander] Rahbari
Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra, written in 1921
00:04 - I. March
01:28 - II. Waltz
03:20 - III. Polka
04:11 - IV. Galop
During the late 1910s and early 1920s, the gestation period of Stravinsky's music grew longer and the peregrinations of movements from work to work grew more circuitous. Les noces, for example, went through three different versions over eight years, while the eight movements of the Three Easy Pieces and the Five Easy Pieces for piano duet migrated to become the two Suites for small orchestra.
The Suite No. 2 takes its first three movements from the Three Easy Pieces of 1914 - 1915 and its fourth movement from Five Easy Pieces of 1916 - 1917. The order of the Three Easy Pieces movements was March, Waltz, Polka. In the Suite No. 2, Stravinsky added the Galop from the Five Easy Pieces to complete the set. Stravinsky orchestrated the movements that make up the Suite No. 2 in 1921 at the request of a Paris music hall that was looking for accompaniment to a stage sketch. He tells an amusing story about the Suite No. 2 in his Chronicle of my Life: "Although my orchestra was more than modest, the composition as I wrote it was given only at the first few performances. When I went to see the sketch again a month later, I found that there was but little left of what I had written. Everything was completely muddled; some instruments were lacking or had been replaced by others, and the music itself as executed by this pitiful band had become unrecognizable."
Scored for two flutes, one oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, one horn, two trumpets, one trombone, and one tuba with piano, percussion, and strings, the Suite No. 2 represents Stravinsky's music in its lightest and most high-spirited mood. The polka was cited by the composer as one of the earliest examples of his emerging Neo-Classical tendencies. Although rhythmically syncopated, occasionally harmonically or melodically dissonant, and stylistically fractured, the Suite No. 2 is among Stravinsky's most amusing works.
[allmusic.com]
Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 -- 6 April 1971)
Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic
Conductor: Ali [Alexander] Rahbari
Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra, written in 1921
00:04 - I. March
01:28 - II. Waltz
03:20 - III. Polka
04:11 - IV. Galop
During the late 1910s and early 1920s, the gestation period of Stravinsky's music grew longer and the peregrinations of movements from work to work grew more circuitous. Les noces, for example, went through three different versions over eight years, while the eight movements of the Three Easy Pieces and the Five Easy Pieces for piano duet migrated to become the two Suites for small orchestra.
The Suite No. 2 takes its first three movements from the Three Easy Pieces of 1914 - 1915 and its fourth movement from Five Easy Pieces of 1916 - 1917. The order of the Three Easy Pieces movements was March, Waltz, Polka. In the Suite No. 2, Stravinsky added the Galop from the Five Easy Pieces to complete the set. Stravinsky orchestrated the movements that make up the Suite No. 2 in 1921 at the request of a Paris music hall that was looking for accompaniment to a stage sketch. He tells an amusing story about the Suite No. 2 in his Chronicle of my Life: "Although my orchestra was more than modest, the composition as I wrote it was given only at the first few performances. When I went to see the sketch again a month later, I found that there was but little left of what I had written. Everything was completely muddled; some instruments were lacking or had been replaced by others, and the music itself as executed by this pitiful band had become unrecognizable."
Scored for two flutes, one oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, one horn, two trumpets, one trombone, and one tuba with piano, percussion, and strings, the Suite No. 2 represents Stravinsky's music in its lightest and most high-spirited mood. The polka was cited by the composer as one of the earliest examples of his emerging Neo-Classical tendencies. Although rhythmically syncopated, occasionally harmonically or melodically dissonant, and stylistically fractured, the Suite No. 2 is among Stravinsky's most amusing works.
[allmusic.com]
![Igor Stravinsky - Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/385KhKIR-Gg/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra [With score]
Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 6 April 1971)
Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic
Conductor: Ali [Alexander] Rahbari
Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra, written in 1921
00:04 - I. March
01:28 - II. Waltz
03:20 - III. Polka
04:11 - IV. Galop
During the late 1910s and early 1920s, the gestation period of Stravinskys music grew longer and the peregrinations of movements from work to work grew more circuitous. Les noces, for example, went through three different versions over eight years, while the eight movements of the Three Easy Pieces and the Five Easy Pieces for piano duet migrated to become the two Suites for small orchestra.
The Suite No. 2 takes its first three movements from the Three Easy Pieces of 1914 - 1915 and its fourth movement from Five Easy Pieces of 1916 - 1917. The order of the Three Easy Pieces movements was March, Waltz, Polka. In the Suite No. 2, Stravinsky added the Galop from the Five Easy Pieces to complete the set. Stravinsky orchestrated the movements that make up the Suite No. 2 in 1921 at the request of a Paris music hall that was looking for accompaniment to a stage sketch. He tells an amusing story about the Suite No. 2 in his Chronicle of my Life: Although my orchestra was more than modest, the composition as I wrote it was given only at the first few performances. When I went to see the sketch again a month later, I found that there was but little left of what I had written. Everything was completely muddled; some instruments were lacking or had been replaced by others, and the music itself as executed by this pitiful band had become unrecognizable.
Scored for two flutes, one oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, one horn, two trumpets, one trombone, and one tuba with piano, percussion, and strings, the Suite No. 2 represents Stravinskys music in its lightest and most high-spirited mood. The polka was cited by the composer as one of the earliest examples of his emerging Neo-Classical tendencies. Although rhythmically syncopated, occasionally harmonically or melodically dissonant, and stylistically fractured, the Suite No. 2 is among Stravinskys most amusing works.
[allmusic.com]")
![Robert Schumann - Liederkreis, op. 24 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3DCiOA2vpnQ/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - Liederkreis, op. 24 [With score]
Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 29 July 1856)
Performers: Ian Bostridge (Tenor), Julius Drake (Piano)
Year of recording: 1998
Liederkreis, 9 songs for voice & piano, Op. 24, written in 1840
00:00 - I. Morgens steh ich auf und frage
01:04 - II. Es treibt mich hin
02:12 - III. Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen
05:45 - IV. Lieb Liebchen, legs Händchen
06:38 - V. Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden
10:26 - VI. Warte, warte, wilder Schiffsmann
12:23 - VII. Berg und Burgn schaun herunter
16:00 - VIII. Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen
16:56 - IX. Mit Myrthen und Rosen
Robert Schumann, the son of a book dealer, exhibited an early love for things literary. The resulting bifurcation of his artistic leanings was articulated in a letter from December 1830, in which he lamented that If only my talent for music and poetry would so converge into a single point, the light would not be so scattered, and I could attempt a great deal. The immediate realization of this wish was the beginning of a career in music criticism (he founded a music journal in 1834); however, it would eventually see its fullest expression in the composers outpouring of German lieder. Despite the composers secret disclaimer from 1839 All my life I have considered vocal music inferior to instrumental music...But dont tell anyone this! the following year saw Schumann compose over 125 songs, many of which now constitute some of his most famous and familiar music. Among the first of his 1840 compositions were several settings of poems from Heinrich Heines Buch der Lieder, gathered under the title Liederkreis, and published as Opus 24.
The bouncy boom-chuck of the bass line and chords that accompany the first song, Morgens steh ich auf und frage, might seem to gloss over the grief of the lovelorn speaker, who finds himself unable to sleep at night, yet wanders throughout the day half-conscious. Likewise, Schumanns setting of the fourth song, Lieb Liebchen, legs Händchen, might seem a little cute for the macabre scene: a contemptuous carpenter hammering away in the lovers heart, building him a casket. Both cases, however, illuminate Schumanns particular talent for understatement: his seemingly simple lyrical outpourings are the perfect compliment to Heines often ironic touch. In the first case, as in many of his settings, slight changes in texture reveal the musical surface to be a psychological façade, beneath which stirs a tortured soul; the singers final note lands on an unresolved chord, his love unrequited, while the piano reaches the final cadential resolution alone. In the second example, there is a recurring moment of haunting disjunction: at the end of both verses, on the phrases Der zimmert mir einen Totensarg (There he builds me a coffin) and Damit ich balde schlafen kann (That I may sleep), the final three syllables are postponed by an unexpected and jarring pause; the piano proceeds with the descending minor-mode line, while the voice follows, hesitatingly out of sync, two beats later. That such subtle irony was deeply felt by the composer could be suggested by biography: at the time of his composing the Liederkreis, his attempts to gain the hand of his sweetheart, Clara Wieck, had theretofore been thwarted by her disapproving father. It would be several more months before Schumanns own love life would cease to so resemble the bleak romantic outlook offered by Heine.
A similarly effective song from Op. 24 is Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden. The graceful melody and pulsing accompaniment suggest an earnest outpouring of sorrow, even resignation; however, lingering under the surface is a bitterness made even more sour by its restrained tone. Together with other charming examples, including Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen and Mit Myrten und Rosen, this song exemplifies the variety of expression and succinct lyricism that are most characteristic of Schumanns songs.
[allmusic.com]")
![Franz Schubert - Fantasy for Violin and Piano [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4fskKDq9bgw/mqdefault.jpg "Franz Schubert - Fantasy for Violin and Piano [With score]
-Composer: Franz Peter Schubert (31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828)
-Performers: Szymon Goldberg (Violin), Radu Lupu (Piano)
Fantasy for violin and piano in C Major, D. 934 (Op. posth. 159), written in 1827
This easygoing, mainly lighthearted work makes it an exception to the despair and rejection that haunts many of the compositions Schubert wrote in 1828, the last year of his short life. Indeed, it can easily be imagined that in all seven movements the composer was consciously seeking the approval of the notoriously fickle Viennese musical public. Schuberts natural fluency, succulent melodies and elaborate figuration are well-displayed; nevertheless, after its first performance the work which lasts approximately 25 minutes earned only a sour comment from one critic: that it occupied rather too much of the time the Viennese are prepared to devote to the pleasures of the mind.
The striking opening Adagio makes free use of the sounds and idioms of traditional gypsy music, the piano capturing the tremolando of the Hungarian cimbalom (a sort of hammered dulcimer) while the violin swoops and pirouettes around it in extravagant arabesques. The Fantasia adopts a plan remarkably similar to that of the better-known (and, let it be said, more profound) Wanderer Fantasy for solo piano. In the third section Schubert again makes use his own song Sei mir gegrüsst, and its inclusion lifts the work onto an altogether higher plane. As with much of Schuberts chamber music, the harmonic scheme is complex, oscillating in strange ways around the keys of C major (in which the work begins and ends) A major, A minor, and the softly glowing A flat major.
(allmusic.com)")
![Edvard Grieg - 6 Reminiscences from Mountain and Fjord, op. 44 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/52iKumD7b9Y/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 6 Reminiscences from Mountain and Fjord, op. 44 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Monica Groop (Voice), Roger Vignoles (Piano)
Rejseminder fra Fjeld og Fjord {Reminiscences from Mountain and Fjord}, Songs for Voice and Piano, op. 44, written in 1886
00:00 - I. Prologue
03:00 - II. Johanne
05:39 - III. Ragnhild
07:49 - IV. Ingeborg
09:59 - V. Ragna
12:11 - VI. Epilog")
![Claude Debussy - La plus que lente (Orchestral Version) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5OiClD0X-Yk/mqdefault.jpg "Claude Debussy - La plus que lente (Orchestral Version) [With score]
-Composer: Claude-Achille Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)
-Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Bernard Herrmann
La plus que lente [English: The more than slow], L. 121, written in 1910 [actually for Piano solo], arranged by Debussy himself:
-Instruments: Flute, Clarinet, Piano, Cimbalom, Strings
The history of Debussys celebrated waltz La plus que lente is an engaging one. The composer kept on his mantelpiece a small sculpture by Claudel entitled La valse, and so skilled was its creator in transforming rhythmic movement into mass, writes Paul Roberts (in his book Images: The Piano Music of Claude Debussy), that one has the impression of being able to touch a waltz, of experiencing its essence in another medium. Like Ravel, who saw the waltz as the touchstone of decadence, and in La valse used it to suggest the inevitable collapse of imperial Vienna, Debussy was fascinated by the waltz form as much for its human and social implications as for its purely musical ones. Whereas in Debussys virtuoso piano piece Pour les octaves the music expresses the inner meaning of the form in Roberts words, its energy, movement, and line, and its power to excite and take the dancers out of themselves the intentions, and indeed the effect of La plus que lente are quite different.
The title might be translated into English as The Even Slower Waltz; at the time it carried subtle connotations beyond the evocation of a popular style. La plus que lente appeared soon after the publication of Book I of Debussys Preludes, in 1910. It represented Debussys laconic reaction to the pervasive influence of the slow waltz in Frances coffee-houses, dance-halls, and salons. But, writes Frank Howes, La plus que lente is, in Debussys wryly humorous way, the valse lente to outdo all others. Apparently Debussy handed the manuscript of this piece to the gypsy fiddler Leoni, whose Romany band played to great popular acclaim in the ballroom of the New Carlton Hotel in Paris. It was almost certainly here that Debussy got the idea for the work in the first place. Perhaps the composer was deliberately aiming La plus que lente at a less sophisticated audience than he normally wanted to address through his music, but it contained a vaguely condescending Stravinskyan irony that a hotel audience might or might not have detected.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Sigurd Jorsalfar, op. 22 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5j0NS_X4Hd8/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Sigurd Jorsalfar, op. 22 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Vocal soloist: Håkan Hagegård
-Choir: Bergen Philharmonic Choir
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Sigurd Jorsalfar, incidental music, op. 22, written in 1872
00:00 - I. Introduction to Act 1
02:14 - II. Borgilds dream
06:00 - III. At the Matching Game
09:42 - IV. Northern Folk
15:40 - V. Homage March
25:03 - VI. Interlude I
26:50 - VII. Interlude II
30:28 - VIII. The Kings Song
Edvard Grieg began to compose his incidental music for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons play Sigurd Jorsalfar (Jorsalfar the Crusader) in 1873, two years before he undertook his much better known Peer Gynt music for Ibsens verse drama. The play itself is rarely staged, although its roots in the mystical world of Nordic folklore still remain compelling, but it should not surprise us that Griegs incidental music has achieved greater success than the original stage drama. The plot concerned the joint rulers of twelfth-century Norway, two brothers Sigurd and Øystein, and the maiden Borghild, who is loved by the first, but whose own feelings for the second go unheeded.
Grieg subsequently issued a set of three orchestral fragments and two songs from Sigurd Jorsalfar, the most famous of which is the splendid and patriotic Homage March, with its rousing introductory fanfares, broad main melody, and touchingly reflective trio section. The march is heard only during Act III of the play, when the brothers are reconciled following a contest, The Matching Game, which takes place in the Kings Hall, as the monarchs and their respective supporters debate who shall be sole ruler, and which shall claim the hand of Borghild. She has chosen Sigurd, but he declares that his destiny lies elsewhere he must first seek the glory of his nation abroad, and sings the patriotic song The Northland Folk with his warriors.
The play ends with The Kings Song, a further noble pledge to deeds of valor both at home and elsewhere, but the latter stages of the work are again dominated by the strains of the Homage March itself. At its second appearance, ushered in by four solo cellos, the march builds impressively toward a statement in double note values as the procession of devoted subjects of the two brothers fill the stage. Griegs incidental music also includes Borghilds Dream, a dramatic representation of the heroines inner turmoil and confusion over her troth. The incidental music was scored for orchestra, tenor or baritone soloists, and chorus. Only the stirring Homage March is regularly performed, and any revival of the complete play is indeed a rare event.
[allmusic.com]")
![Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 6 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5ryR1OHx34w/mqdefault.jpg "Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 6 [With score]
-Composer: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975)
-Orchestra: WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne [WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln]
-Conductor: Rudolf Borisovich Barshai
Symphony No. 6 in b minor, op. 54, written in 1939
00:00 - I. Largo
18:53 - II. Allegro
24:39 - III. Presto
When Shostakovich was writing this symphony in 1939, the artistic atmosphere in Soviet Russia was in a transitional state. Though government censorship was still pervasive, composers were encouraged to write anti-German propaganda, at least until the period of the Nazi-Soviet treaty. When Germany invaded, of course, Soviet cultural bosses were forced to turn their attention to the war, and anti-German music came back into fashion.
Shostakovich had indicated his intention to write a choral symphony about Lenin in 1938, but would not get around to it for another 22 years, until the Symphony No. 12 (1960-1961). He undoubtedly felt compelled to write patriotic music or to promise to do so since he had already incurred the wrath of party censors with his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which was banned in 1936. His decision to abandon the idea of composing a Lenin symphony instead of his purely instrumental Symphony No. 6 probably had something to do with fears that if such a patriotic work were greeted unenthusiastically by party arts officials, he might end up in a labor camp or cemetery with some of his less fortunate colleagues. Perhaps he sensed that Stalin may not have wanted all the glory and attention of the Revolution attributed to Lenin, and thus decided to steer clear of the idea for the time being.
In any event, Shostakovich produced a work whose gloomy and intense opening panel is counterbalanced by a pair of jovial and light movements. Put together, they are shorter than the opening Largo, and the contrast presented by their cheerfulness and wit gives the symphony a somewhat split personality. The main theme of the first movement is presented in the lower strings: it is a muscular, dark melody that is repeated in many guises during the exposition. A new theme finally appears on the English horn to launch the second subject group, and then the material is reprised, but in a much more compact way.
The second movement is marked Allegro and immediately takes on a playful character. While the music and orchestration sound like Shostakovich, the spirit of Prokofiev seems to hover above. Although there is some tension and conflict in the middle section, the impression left by this Scherzando is one of joy and good humor.
The finale, marked Presto, is exuberant, almost ecstatic throughout most of its duration. Even the subdued and brief middle section seems eager to hand the reins back to the infectious good spirits of the main material. The ending is one of the most joyous, colorful, and unpretentious the composer ever wrote. There is neither bombast here nor an extraneous note.
Shostakovichs Symphony No. 6 was premiered on November 5, 1939, and received little notice. Coincidentally, Prokofievs Alexander Nevsky, a product of the anti-German tendency then prevalent, also received its first performance at the same concert, garnering much acclaim. Some have conjectured that Shostakovich may have been fortunate that his symphony drew little attention, for Soviet censors might have singled out the tragic first movement as too cerebral and confusing. A typical performance of the work lasts just under 30 minutes.
[allmusic.com]")
![Olivier Messiaen - Prelude for Piano (1964) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5yQ00rL6_j0/mqdefault.jpg "Olivier Messiaen - Prelude for Piano (1964) [With score]
-Composer: Olivier-Eugène-Prosper-Charles Messiaen (10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992)
-Piano: Roger Muraro
Prélude pour piano [Prelude for Piano], writen in 1964
Olivier Messiaen, one of the best-known French composers of the twentieth century, worked for much of his life as an organist. He was also a fine pianist, and he wrote several major works for that instrument as well as featuring it in many of his orchestral compositions. After his death in 1992, his widow, Yvonne Loriod, also a fine pianist, discovered a few unpublished manuscripts amongst Messiaens papers. One of these was a short Prelude for piano, dating from 1964. By this point in his career, Messiaen had achieved what could be termed his mature style, including all the elements that would remain part of his music throughout the rest of his life. He had already composed most of his solo piano music by then: Vingt Regards sur lEnfant-Jésus in 1944 (religious theme, rich modal harmonies, chant-inspired melodies, distinctive virtuosity); Quatre Études de Rythme in 1949 - 1950 (serial techniques, very influential on younger composers such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen); and Catalogue dOiseaux in 1956 - 1958 (use of birdsong as primary determinant of melody, texture, and form).
While this unpublished prelude from 1964 is relatively minor, at some two and a half minutes in duration, it actually incorporates all of the features Messiaen had introduced in his more important piano works of the previous two decades. The piece opens with a stately, joyous theme, harmonized with open intervals and major triads. Low pedal points add a dissonant note, though, and soon flurries of birdsong break out of the texture. A rootless, serial passage is sounded in plain quarter notes, before the birdsong returns and swoops down to the low register. The second statement of the material includes additional elements such as high-register flutters and chordal-rhythmic elements such as a short-short-long progression. A cadential major triad closes the prelude, ornamented with one last flutter of birdcall.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - Haugtussa {The Mountain Maid}, op. 67 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6TronoEtXds/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Haugtussa {The Mountain Maid}, op. 67 [With score]
-Composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (Voice), Love Derwinger (Piano)
Haugtussa {The Mountain Maid}, Song Cycle for Voice and Piano, op. 67, written in 1895
00:00 - I. Det syng {The Enticement}
03:30 - II. Veslemöy {Veslemöy. The Young Maiden}
06:20 - III. Blåbær-Li {Blueberry Slope}
09:14 - IV. Møte {The Tryst}
13:30 - V. Elsk {Love}
16:05 - VI. Killingdans {Kids Dance}
17:42 - VII. Vond Dag {Hurtful Day}
20:22 - VIII. Ved Gjætle-Bekken {At the Brook}")
![Francis Poulenc - Les mamelles de Tirésias [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6tdF3lYDRtg/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Les mamelles de Tirésias [With score]
-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
-Librettist: Guillaume Apollinaire
-Orchestra, Choir: Orchestre et Chœur du Théatre National de l’Opéra Comique
-Conductor: André Cluytens
-Performers: Denise Duval (Thérèse), Jean Giraudeau (The Husband), Emile Rousseau (The Gendarme), Gilbert Jullia (A Bearded Gentleman), Frédéric Leprin (Lacouf), Julien Thirache (Presto), Serge Rallier (The Journalist), Robert Jeantet (The Manager), Marguerite Legouhy (The Newspaper Vender, A Fat Lady), Jacques Hivert (The Son)
00:00 - Prologue
Act I
06:43 - Scène 1
11:36 - Scène 2
13:25 - Scène 3
13:53 - Scène 4
15:42 - Scène 5
19:33 - Scène 6
23:43 - Scène 7
26:46 - Scène 8
30:11 - Entracte
Act II
32:56 - Scène 1
34:09 - Scène 2
38:23 - Scène 3
39:57 - Scène 4
42:16 - Scène 5
42:58 - Scène 6
43:31 - Scène 7
49:02 - Scène 8
Poulenc wrote four operas and they fall into three distinct categories. His grand opera is Les Dialogues des Carmelites. The work is serious in demeanor, with little of the humor that characterizes much of Poulencs output. In subject matter, and in much of the writing, the work resembles Poulencs numerous religious works. La Voix Humaine is a monologue for a soprano who is, on the phone, begging her lover not to leave her. It is an revealing look at intimate thoughts and personal despair. The second of these monologues was La Dame de Monte Carlo. And then there is Les Mamelles de Tiresias. Witty, zany, rambunctious, ridiculous, and outrageous are appropriate terms for this Opera-bouffe in two acts and a prologue. However there is also a touch of seriousness in the opera. Poulenc stated; Whenever in the midst of the worst buffoonery a phrase can effect a change in the lyric tone, towards a certain melancholy, I have not hesitated thus to alter the character of the music, well knowing what sadness was hidden behind Apollinaires smile. Completed in 1947, the work was originally paired, in performance, with Puccinis La Boheme or Bizets Les Pecheurs des Perles. It is not surprising that it did not please lovers of those two examples of extreme lyricism. The original play was set in 1903 in Zanzibar. Poulenc updated the story to 1917, and changed the location to somewhere between Nice and Monte Carlo. The settings were by Erte. The story comprises a number of sketches that somehow make enough sense to push the opera along. The title character is a feminist, who, by making her breasts fly away, turns her husband, with the help of an incubator, into a baby factory, with an output of thousands of children a day. Around this central theme is interwoven other odd plot devices like the simultaneous dueling deaths of Lacouf and Presto, and the creation of sons, one of whom hoards skim milk, another a journalist turned blackmailer. Poulencs music contains many amusing devices, including the then popular, now forgotten dance, the Boston. The vocal writing is wordy but still trips lightly. The often conflicting influences of Emmanuel Chabrier, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, Jules Massenet, Darius Milhaud, and especially Jacques Offenbach scamper through the piece. It is just this cross fertilization of styles that makes Poulenc so captivating, for he was as capable of sentimentality as hi-jinx. The orchestration, utilizing the same orchestra as Carmen, is clever without being cute, and Poulenc said: The truth is that I believe much more in the novelty of mind than of matter. Occasional revivals of this work prove its viability as a theater piece, although the first recording, with many of the originators of the parts, especially Denise Duval and Jean Giraudeau, is as close to a perfect realization of the characters as one is likely to get.
[allmusic.com]")
![Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind instruments [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/72V_OTSiAkM/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind instruments [With score]
-Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
-Orchestra: London Sinfonietta
-Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Symphonies of Wind instruments [Symphonies dinstruments à vent], written in 1920, revised in 1947
If we discount the tribute that Igor Stravinsky composed in 1908 on the occasion of the death of his beloved teacher Rimsky-Korsakov (the work was lost during the Revolution, found in 2015), the composers long string of In memoria by which he pays homage to some of the foremost musical, literary, and even political figures of the twentieth century begins in 1920 with the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy.
Here Stravinsky consciously used the term symphonies in the old French meaning of a sonorous piece, as in Symphonies and Fanfares for the Kings Supper. The composition dates from 1920 and grew from a short chorale-like work he wrote in Debussys memory; this became the last section of a work about 10 minutes in length, composed for a rather large ensemble of 23 winds. The style and melodism of the work usually results in its being listed as the last of the composers Russian Period works, but because of its austerity this writer tends to regard it as being the first important indication that Stravinsky was ready to shift to an aesthetic that leaves behind sensual appeal. He would soon find the style of neo-Classicism; meantime, there is a sense that the idea behind the work is the realization of the harmonic clashes that result from Stravinskys usual method of mixing two separate chords. The work is of more than just historical interest; Stravinsky was constantly treading new ground here, with effective even if not lovable music. The score was revised in 1947, presumably to obtain copyright for the composer in the U.S.
Obviously the sound of a piece for 23 woodwinds is something that the audience at the 1921 London premiere of the work (with Serge Koussevitzky at the helm) found quite disconcerting (many audiences today still find it so), but coincident with that textural streamlining is an even more significant and startling architectural streamlining: the entire work is based on a handful of sharply defined themes and motives that Stravinsky makes little or no attempt to connect in any way; he instead chooses to isolate them via a very careful and almost thematic use of silence. As a result of this trimming of extraneous detail, the work is extremely brief.
description: [allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - 2 Elegiac Melodies, op. 34 (Piano, String Orch.) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8OyhcFDIxqA/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 2 Elegiac Melodies, op. 34 (Piano, String Orch.) [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer (Piano): Einar Steen-Nøkleberg
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
2 Elegiac Melodies (from op. 33-3 and op. 33-2) for Piano or String Orchestra, op. 34, written in 1880
Piano
00:00 - I. Hjertsår (The wounded heart)
03:47 - II. Våren (Last Spring)
String Orchestra
08:34 - I. Hjertsår (The wounded heart)
11:54 - II. Våren (Last Spring)
The Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34, (1880) of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg are piano/string orchestral transcriptions of two songs from his Op. 33 set on texts by Norwegian poet Aasmund Olavsson Vinje. While Grieg has neither expanded nor re-composed the songs for string orchestra, his scoring is so magnificent so full of poignant touches and tender nuances that the works sound almost as beautiful in this guise as they did in their original form. The first Elegiac Melody, The Wounded Heart, begins with two heartbreaking phrases in the minor and closes with two heart-consoling phrases in the major. In three verses, the melody of The Wounded Heart is first quietly stated in the violins, then more emphatically in the cellos, then passionately in the violins with an ardent countermelody in the cellos. The second Elegiac Melody, Last Spring, has one of the most moving tunes Grieg ever composed, a tune that loves the goodness of life and the beauty of the world even as it fades away into infinity. In two verses, Last Spring is quintessential Grieg and replete with felicities: the moment when four solo violins take the tune up to the top of the world in the second verse may be the single most affecting passage in all Grieg.
[allmusic.com]")
