2017 GSARCI UNFINISHED COMPOSITIONS MIXTAPE (AUDIO ONLY) thenameisgsarci 2024-10-19 | 2017 GSARCI UNFINISHED COMPOSITIONS MIXTAPE (AUDIO ONLY)
just me playing whatever is on my mind - Ep. 35: something familiar thenameisgsarci 2024-09-30 | so, i was cleaning out my phone and by looking at the videos, i realized that i had one piano improv video from a year ago that i forgot to upload. kekw.for some of the viewers, the melody sounds familiar. right?
just me playing whatever is on my mind - Ep. 34: look ma one hand again thenameisgsarci 2024-09-25 | and i realized too late, my camera work is very wonky :(
A moment of longing for piano (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-09-19 | once again, i apologize for the long absence.
SHOSTA(NOKO NOKONOKO) KOVICH(TANTAN) thenameisgsarci 2024-09-09 | i sometimes marvel at my own genius.... and flabbergast. and sometimes fear. y'know what, mostly fear. let's go along with that.audio sources:(the deer anime, obviously)youtube.com/watch?v=MeLO_vuwenQ (shostakovich - symphony no 10, 2nd movement, performed by leningrad philharmonic orchestra, cond. evgeny mravinsky)youtube.com/watch?v=rdHyFXnzXjc
just testing obs, feel free not to watch... or maybe you can thenameisgsarci 2024-09-09 | just as the title implies.
title this piece or smth idk thenameisgsarci 2024-09-06 | something i spent a couple hours making ,,, yes, that took just a couple hours.i was going with "dance of the secret agent", but i wonder if you can come up with a better title hmmmmand yes, it's my birthday today. WEEEEEEEEEE
24 Novelettes for Shiori Novella (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-09-01 | I doubt it that Shiori will see this, but it's worth a shot at, hopefully enough. This collection of 24 short piano pieces in all major and minor keys took me 8 months to complete. Granted, it could've been finished within like one or two months, but my creative juices went dry at times.While the aim was to produce pieces in her lyrical and simplistic style of composing as presented by the short piano videos that she uploaded on her Twitter account (#ShiorinTunes), I found myself writing a handful of the pieces much more differently, although I do try to keep them as not very technically demanding to play as possible. Nonetheless, I still had fun making them.Some pieces reflect that simplistic style as intended (like No. 1 and No. 10, for example), while some ended up being quite chromatic, as evident in No. 12 and No. 21. Some are intended for mastering a specific technical skill -- No. 18 focuses on alternating repeated notes between hands, No. 20 requires hand leaps and crossings.Her channel: youtube.com/@ShioriNovella?si=7dMOGXcFT5bc7-twSheet music: mediafire.com/file/w3dqg23nebzmklq/24_Novelettes.pdf/file
A Day at the Park for piano solo (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-08-24 | i apologize for the long absence.
A Day at the Park for piano solo (sped-up version) thenameisgsarci 2024-08-24 | somebody please convince me this is an unreleased track from the mario kart games.
the magic trick thenameisgsarci 2024-08-15 | ah yes, a little "choose your own adventure" type of video. yay.note to self: choices are at 2:00, and only last for five seconds.
i wanna try voice acting a tv scene again thenameisgsarci 2024-08-04 | it's been a long time since i did one of thesemake a wild guess what tv scene i'm reenacting ehe
2024 GSARCI UNFINISHED COMPOSITIONS MIXTAPE (AUDIO ONLY) thenameisgsarci 2024-07-31 | and now... ermmm.... more pieces that might or might not see the light of day, ever again, season three. YAYYYYY LOLWfor the past two videos with the same style, you can check them out here:youtube.com/watch?v=fJqW_x7u1dgyoutube.com/watch?v=mbwmrNKcfEQ
just me playing whatever is on my mind - Ep. 33: a love song smth smth thenameisgsarci 2024-07-18 | oh yaysame public piano, different viewas it turns out, one of the two mini audio recorders i have sucks... ;_;
just me playing whatever is on my mind - Ep. 32: mmm sustain pedal thenameisgsarci 2024-07-16 | i think i have used the pedal so much here in this manner that i can get this piano to start rolling out into the streets lolw.is this a sneak peek into a comp that will take me ages to complete? maybe...also, here's the thing why this is a late upload: i have recorded more piano improvs the previous days, but the phone recordings just sounded... very horrible. and then i suddenly remembered, i have like, two mini audio recorders kept away in my room. i hope that solves my problem, at least for now.
just me playing whatever is on my mind - Ep. 31: is it a chaconne or a passacaglia thenameisgsarci 2024-07-09 | ...because apparently, it can be interchangeable, according to some comment i read somewhere.also, this is an edit, the footage here is much more zoomed in... and it kinda has to because i forgot to blur out an important detail. whoops.
just me playing whatever is on my mind - Ep. 30: happy 13 years, ladies and gentlemen thenameisgsarci 2024-07-02 | so the mall in my place decided to have a public piano on display. it's been in there for more than a month now, and welp, i just had to. ehe.also, yay for 68,000 subscribers. thank you very much.once again, i apologize for the late upload. i should've prepared this ahead of time but some circumstances were in the way.
gsarci plays johannes brahms lullaby on kalimba thenameisgsarci 2024-06-26 | im sorry for disappearingalso what the heck am i doing at this time, i need to go to bed
Sketch for an artist for @FAACgaming (Synthesia + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-06-04 | A piano piece that I want to dedicate to a person who has done a lot in his field.
To Rat A-Round for four solo SATB voices (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-05-29 | another attempt at a vocal canon-type composition.yes, it's based on the "crazy, i was crazy once" copypasta.and yes, it's intended to be sung in the mood of a gregorian chant.and yes, it's intended for the vocalists to play this forever until they actually go crazy.
Sonatine facile for toy piano (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-05-23 | my first proper attempt at a piece in sonata form. and once again, it took longer than it should to write down.
Capriccietto in G major (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-05-12 | once again, another piece that i should have worked on a long time ago, the product of a sketch written as far back as 2016. (youtube.com/watch?v=fJqW_x7u1dg -- jump to 2:38)for filipinos listening to this who are born in the 90s, you might be thinking that the tune sounds familiar to you. that's because you might be right that you heard it somewhere for some reason. it sounds like the tune of the 2002 gma-7 art show "art is kool" hosted by robert alejandro. (you can listen to the full theme here: youtube.com/watch?v=cULt0pMomPE -- jump to 8:50)i can assure you that the resemblance is unintentional... or... you know what, it might as well be intentional. a lot of my output has references of certain melodies that i might've heard of somewhere and trying to chase what those actual melodies are... it's like i'm randomly accessing parts of my memory trying to make sense out of them.oh yeah. the first title draft was "theme for an arts and crafts show".
Aubade for two kalimbas (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-05-07 | And once again, another original composition... that I should've definitely finished sooner, considering its simplicity. Argh.
Siblings Suite for piano (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-04-27 | I apologize for the lack of upload the past few days. Why was I gone for so long? Because of this. XD
Rodion Shchedrin - Humoresque (sheet music + Synthesia) thenameisgsarci 2024-04-16 | Soviet composer Rodion Shchedrin (born 1932) went back to the original meaning of the word when he put together his little Humoresque for piano: this is two minutes of musical slapstick, "con buffo e elegante," as Shchedrin describes it at the top of the four-page score. The "elegante" doesn't mean that there is really anything elegant, in the proper sense, about the piece. It's just that the Humoresque's comedy works so much better when done with a straight face.The piece is a little polka dance. A punchy (and paunchy) left-hand bass line provides a solid D flat major foundation for a hapless offbeat-driven tune above; but some of the middle voices can't quite get a handle on the simple D flat major harmonic scheme, and the result is a graceless series of tone clusters whose pungent aroma can be dispelled only by an occasional angry outburst in the low register. The opening material is repeated after a ridiculous interlude, and a little countermelody is added -- but this countermelody really belongs in some other piece, and it disappears after just four bars, never to return. After a while, the crude, repetitive, multi-tonal polka humor grows old, but Shchedrin has saved his best joke for last: after an endless run at this farcical D flat major, he suddenly shoots up, for the final closing "burst" (that one last, loud chord that marks the end of a dance), to E flat major. It is a crude, boorish trick (intentionally so, of course), and so absurdly not funny that one cannot help but chuckle for a few moments. As with so much vintage comedy, the humor here is made by inversion: the gag is such an old one (every music student in history, it seems, has pulled the old "slip-into-the-wrong-key-at-the-end" trick when entertaining friends at the piano) that it has become funny just because it isn't anymore.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND program ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to 1080p for the best watching experience.Original audio: MIDI
Edward German - Humoresque in E major (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-04-09 | Sir Edward German (February 17, 1862 - November 11, 1936) was one of the most popular English composers of the first decade of the twentieth century, renowned particularly in the fields of comic opera, incidental theater music, and light classical works.He was born Edward German Jones, the second of five children. German began learning the organ and piano at age five from his father, a church organist, and taught himself the violin. Overcoming his family's insistence that he pursue an engineering career, he entered the Royal Academy of Music at age eighteen. It was during his time at the Royal Academy that, in order to avoid confusion with another student named Edward Jones, he changed his name to J. E. German and later Edward German. He won medals both as a violinist and a composer, and showed a strong facility for writing programmatic music, as well as an operetta entitled The Two Poets. His output during the 1880s and 1890s included a good share of concert music, including a symphony, but he also played violin in theater orchestras. In 1888 became the conductor at the Globe Theater, where his music for a stage production of Richard III won over the public and critics alike. His overture to Richard III quickly took on a life of its own in the concert hall, which heralded the public acceptance of his symphony as well. The dances from a score he wrote for a production of Henry VIII also became extremely popular and established German's reputation for writing orchestral music utilizing traditional old English dance elements. German continued writing for the concert hall in the 1890s, but it was his theatrical work that attracted an ever wider following, culminating with his incidental music for English Nell, a play by Anthony Hope, the author best remembered for the novel The Prisoner of Zenda. After the death of Sir Arthur Sullivan in 1900, German was commissioned to complete Sullivan's score for the operetta The Emerald Isle, which became a major hit. Soon after, he wrote his most enduring work, Merrie England, a lushly tuneful light opera. Steeped in English myth and German's deliberately archaic, old English style, Merrie England was a huge hit and seemed to establish German as the successor to Sullivan, but his follow-up work, A Princess of Kensington, wasn't nearly as well received. During a break from the theater, he wrote his one enduring concert work, the Welsh Rhapsody, and a series of settings for Kipling's Just So Stories. He enjoyed one more great theatrical success, Tom Jones, which he brought to America (where he also conducted his Welsh Rhapsody with the New York Symphony Orchestra). After the failure of the operetta Fallen Faeries (co-authored with W.S. Gilbert), however, German abandoned his career as a composer, apart from pieces written for the 1911 coronation of King George V, one concert work, a set of dances, for the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1919, and one final orchestral piece, The Willow Song.From 1911 onward, he busied himself primarily with preparing the published scores of his works, conducting concerts, walking and bicycling around the countryside, and following the cricket matches. His knighthood was awarded in 1928, and he received a medal from the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1934. German's closest peer as a composer was Sullivan, and much as the latter's concert works fell into neglect after his death, German's concert music (apart from the Welsh Rhapsody) has been forgotten, but his incidental music has its admirers. Merrie England is a staple of British amateur opera companies and was recorded by EMI in 1960.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Alan Cuckston (Marco Polo, 1991)(youtube.com/watch?v=8FCvCaM8ET8)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Humoresque_(German%2C_Edward) (Edwin Ashdown, 1913)
Hugo Wolf - Humoresque in G minor (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-04-04 | Hugo Wolf, a native of Windischgraz (now Slovenjgradec, Slovenia), in the Austro-Hungarian province of Styria, was born on March 13, 1860 and died on February 22, 1903, three weeks before his 43rd birthday -- like Schubert, German music's first great lieder composer, of tertiary syphilis. Like Schumann, the other great lieder composer (also syphilitic), Wolf died in an insane asylum after trying to drown himself in October 1898. (He had committed himself a year earlier, but was discharged after four months.) Also like Schumann, he composed in manic bursts between periods of depression, once the disease entered its second stage, and like two predecessors, was an unsuccessful composer of stage music.Wolf completed only one opera, Der Corregidor (1895-1896), based on the same Spanish comedy Falla later used in The Three-Cornered Hat. Indifferently and with difficulty he also composed incidental music for two plays long forgotten. As a teenager, he began but never finished a violin concerto and two symphonies (in 1879 he lost the manuscript of a third symphony while traveling). His orchestral repertory amounts to Penthesilea (after Kleist; 1883-1885), a turbidly scored, Liszt-Wagnerian symphonic poem; Christnacht, a choral work both naive and sublime (1886-1889), and the Italian Serenade (a 1892 arrangement of his charming 1887 Serenade in G for String Quartet).Despite haphazard education that ended in a series of expulsions, Wolf the lieder composer was possessed of (and by) a psychological insight that revealed as early as 1878 what poured forth later between arid stretches -- some 300 songs, the finest of them both emotionally penetrating and musically profound. Mörike, Goethe (the Mignon - Lieder are incomparable), Kleist, Lenau, and Heine were his favorite German poets, plus Eichendorff when Wolf reached the expressive summit in 1887. For three years prior he had been an outspoken critic -- the only job he ever held -- in Vienna's weekly Salonblatt. Pro-Wagner and anti-Brahms, he was as honest as Berlioz had been, and thus made powerful enemies who took revenge later on. Wolf habitually lived hand to mouth, supported by a circle of friends who provided shelter and sustenance for ten years, and finally in 1896 gave him his own apartment. By then, however, the disease had entered its third stage, and his mood swings alienated many who cared deeply. On September 19, 1897, he cracked -- blaming Mahler, his friend of 20 years and onetime roommate, of sabotaging Der Corregidor at the Hofoper.In October 1889, Wolf had turned his attention from German poetry to translations of Spanish poets. Between Halloween and the following May, he composed 44 songs called the Spanish Songbook. Then, between September 1890 and December 1891, he composed 22 song translations comprising Part I of an Italian Songbook. Thereafter he didn't write a note of original music until March 1895, when he undertook Der Corregidor, completing all four acts in piano score within twelve weeks. After laboriously scoring it, he wrote twenty-four songs in isolation between 25 March and 30 April 1896 -- Part II of the Italian Songbook. He spent the next months revising Der Corregidor. After setting his last songs in March 1897, three somber sonnets by Michelangelo, Wolf worked tirelessly on another Spanish opera, Manuel Venegas, which amounted to 60 pages of piano score, before his breakdown. Following his death, he was buried alongside Beethoven and Schubert in Vienna's Central Cemetery, impoverished to the end but officially a cultural hero.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Ana-Marija Markovina (Genuin, 2007)(youtube.com/watch?v=4h6y5xtpE4I)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Humoreske_(Wolf%2C_Hugo) (Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag, 1974)
Jules Massenet - Valse folle for piano solo (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-04-01 | To those who know Massenet as the composer of Manon, Werther and the ‘Méditation’ from Thaïs, his Valse folle is the aural equivalent of being hit in the face with a brick. Composed in 1898 (by which time Massenet had become wildly wealthy and famous from his success as an opera composer), the ‘Mad Waltz’ was dedicated to his friend Raoul Pugno (1852–1914). Pugno himself, one of the first internationally acclaimed lions of the keyboard to commit his art to disc, recorded the work in April 1903 for the Gramophone and Typewriter label. Its innocent main theme contrasts with abrupt changes of tempo and (for Massenet) unexpected discords and harmonies, to say nothing of the violent ending, providing a brief glimpse of an unexpected side to the elegant, urbane Massenet.(Hyperion)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Aldo Ciccolini (EMI France, 1992)(youtube.com/watch?v=1R6wT0UugpI)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Valse_folle_(Massenet%2C_Jules) (Heugel, 1898)
Friedrich Kalkbrenner - 3 Romances sans paroles Op. 189 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-30 | Friedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner (November 2, 1785 - June 10, 1849) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer of the Romantic period known for his piano concertos, chamber music, and numerous works for piano. As a pianist, he was admired for his brilliant tone, virtuosity, and highly refined finger control.Kalkbrenner was born in 1785, while his parents were traveling from Kassel to Berlin. He began studying music at a very young age from his father, who was the kapellmeister to the queen of Prussia. He received a privileged schooling at Rheinsberg Castle, and when he was six years old, he performed a concerto by Haydn for the queen. He enrolled at the Paris Conservatory in 1796, where he studied with François Nicodami, Louis Adam, and Charles-Simon Catel. He was an excellent student and received first prizes in both piano and harmony when he graduated in 1801. For the next few years, Kalkbrenner supported himself by touring and performing in Germany and he became very well-known as a virtuoso pianist.He settled in Vienna in 1803 and studied composition with Antonio Salieri, Johann Albrechtsberger, and Joseph Haydn, and he also befriended Beethoven, Clementi, and Hummel. After completing his studies in 1805, Kalkbrenner resumed his career as a pianist in Germany. He returned to Paris in the following year, where he became more focused on composing but saw less activity as a performer. In 1814, he moved to England and quickly rose to the upper ranks of the musical community there. His sensational style attracted a large following of both students and patrons, and he quickly became very wealthy. Kalkbrenner's success and popularity peaked from 1825 to 1835, and it was also around this time that he published his famous Méthode pour apprendre le piano-forte à l’aide du guide-mains, Op. 108. He started teaching his piano training course, which he recommended to the young Frédéric Chopin in 1831, but Chopin politely declined. However, the composer had great admiration for Kalkbrenner, and they remained friendly and supportive of each other's careers.As Liszt, Chopin, and Thalberg ascended to fame in the late 1830s, Kalkbrenner's popularity declined, but he was a shrewd entrepreneur and became a partner in the successful Pleyel piano manufacturing company. He retired from performing in 1839 due to poor health, but he composed and taught until he died from cholera in 1849.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Sayuko Someyayoutube.com/watch?v=uqLqAh3rCM8youtube.com/watch?v=ASTGErJUv68youtube.com/watch?v=H688ShV1FucOriginal sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/3_Romances_sans_Paroles%2C_Op.189_(Kalkbrenner%2C_Friedrich_Wilhelm) (Prilipp et Cie, 1849)
Clara Schumann - 3 Romances for piano Op. 11 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-26 | Clara Wieck Schumann has often been misleadingly referred to as the wife of composer Robert Schumann, and as one of the leading pianists of her day, rather than as a composer in her own right. Beginning in the last quarter of the twentieth century however, her stature as a composer finally became recognized. Still, she cannot by any reasonable measure be ranked as a major composer, owing in great part to her relatively small output. She nonetheless wrote significant compositions in both the keyboard and vocal realms. Had she been able to devote more time to composition -- she was occupied by maternal matters much of the time, having given birth to eight children -- she might well have risen to the artistic heights of her husband. Some of her later works -- the Six Lieder, Op. 23, for instance -- demonstrate considerable subtlety and depth.Clara Wieck was born on September 13, 1819, in Leipzig. She began studying the piano with her domineering and difficult father, whom her mother, a talented singer, later divorced. Mr. Wieck was a piano teacher of high repute. Clara gave her debut concert in Leipzig at the age of seven playing Kalkbrenner's duet, Variations on a March from Moses, with him.In 1830, Robert Schumann began study with Wieck, at which time he first met Clara. At twelve Clara toured Europe with her father, achieving great success in Paris and throughout Germany. By 1837 she was recognized as one of the leading virtuosos in Europe, and her career as a composer was blossoming as well. Her first compositions date from 1830, but her 1836 Soirées musicales, Op. 6, already shows considerable sophistication. In 1837 she and Schumann became engaged, with boisterous objections from her father.Clara seems to have broken from her father's influence when she toured Paris alone in 1839. The break was made complete the following year when she married Robert Schumann. They would have eight children, and Clara would slowly watch her sensitive husband lose his sanity. The couple at first lived in Leipzig, where both taught at the University.Clara did not write much in the early years of her marriage, though she did complete the Six Lieder, Op. 13 (1842-1843), and some piano pieces, including the Three Preludes and Fugue (1845). In 1853, the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, and Clara had a very productive summer, producing several significant works, including her Op. 20 Variations on a theme of Robert Schumann and the aforementioned Op. 23. In 1854, Robert Schumann suffered a mental collapse and attempted suicide, after which he was committed to an asylum where he lived for the rest of his life. He passed away in 1856.Johannes Brahms, who had been introduced to the Schumanns in 1853 through the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, became an increasingly important figure in Clara's life. To this day, their exact relationship is unclear, but it is difficult to refute claims they had an affair. Brahms was 14 years Clara's junior, and possibly felt their age difference too great an obstacle for marriage.Clara composed little in the years following Robert's death, even after her children were grown. She lived in Berlin from 1857 to 1863, at which time she moved to Baden-Baden. After briefly returning to Berlin in 1873, she took a teaching post at the Frankfurt Hoch Conservatory (1878). She continued to concertize until 1891. She died of a stroke on May 20, 1896.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Yoshiko Iwai (Naxos, 1999)youtube.com/watch?v=YmaX4tNyJL0youtube.com/watch?v=KKU18ScyQzMyoutube.com/watch?v=0-igegLjhbUOriginal sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/3_Romances%2C_Op.11_(Schumann%2C_Clara) (G. Henle Verlag, 1986)
Charles Gounod - 6 Romances sans paroles (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-21 | Charles Gounod is best known for his operas Faust and Romeo et Juliette and for his Ave Maria based on the first Prelude of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (1859). Except for concertos, he composed music in the major genres, but with varying success in the instrumental realm. Gounod was more at home in the vocal arena, particularly in opera and sacred music. Though his reputation began to fade even before he died, he is still generally regarded as a major figure in 19th century French music. Stylistically, he was a conservative whose influence nevertheless extended to Bizet, Saint-Saëns, and Massenet, although he could not be called a trailblazer or the founder of any movement or school. His works are tuneful, his vocal writing imaginative, and orchestral scoring masterly. Gounod's compositions, even his two symphonies and lesser known operas, are occasionally explored today, and the aforementioned Faust and Romeo et Juliette and, particularly, the Ave Maria are widely performed and recorded.Gounod was born on June 17, 1818. His mother was a pianist who served as the young boy's first teacher. While still in his youth she arranged for him to receive composition lessons from Anton Reicha. After Reicha's death, Gounod began studies at the Paris Conservatory, where he won a Grand Prix in 1839 for his cantata Fernand.After further composition studies in Rome, where he focused on 16th century church music, particularly the works of Palestrina, he became deeply interested in religion and by 1845 was contemplating the priesthood. Though he would eventually reject the idea and marry, he remained religious throughout his life and wrote many sacred works, including masses, the most popular being the 1855 St. Cecilia Mass. In that year Gounod also turned out two symphonies, which achieved attention, but not lasting success. It was the 1859 opera Faust, however, that, after a slow start, became Gounod's calling card and is now core to the operatic repertoire. Mireille (1864) and especially Romeo et Juliette (1867) added to his reputation, not only in France, but throughout Europe.From 1870-1875 Gounod lived in England owing to the exigencies of the Franco-Prussian War. In his years there and in the period following his return to France, Gounod wrote much music, especially religious music, but never again attained the kind of success he experienced in the 1850s and '60s. Among his more compelling and imaginative late works is the 1885 Petite Symphonie, scored for nine wind instruments. Gounod died in St. Cloud on October 18, 1893.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Roberto Prosseda (Universal Music Italia, 2018)youtube.com/watch?v=x3vgLQ09tb4youtube.com/watch?v=V9vwoRyz50Eyoutube.com/watch?v=J_jSPtUD9FEyoutube.com/watch?v=uIv8spaolhcyoutube.com/watch?v=OY7zK0s0Aogyoutube.com/watch?v=pOw7OCh3Vl8Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/6_Romances_sans_paroles_(Gounod%2C_Charles)
Benjamin Godard - Concerto romantique for violin and orchestra Op. 35 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-18 | Benjamin Louis Paul Godard (18 August 1849 – 10 January 1895) was a French violinist and Romantic-era composer of Jewish extraction, best known for his opera Jocelyn. Godard composed eight operas, five symphonies, two piano and two violin concertos, string quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, piano pieces and etudes, and more than a hundred songs. Godard was born in Paris. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1863 where he studied under Henri Vieuxtemps (violin) and Napoléon Henri Reber (harmony) and accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany. In 1876, his Concerto romantique was performed at the Concerts Populaires, and other of his large works were also performed at these concerts. In 1878, Godard was the co-winner of the Prix de la Ville de Paris. His winning composition, a dramatic symphony entitled Le Tasso, remains one of his most admired works. From that time until his death Godard wrote a large number of compositions. These include eight operas, among them: Jocelyn (the "Berceuse" from which remains Godard's best-known composition), performed in Paris in 1888; Dante, played at the Opéra-Comique two years later; and La Vivandière, left unfinished and completed by Paul Vidal (1863–1931). The last of these was heard at the Opéra-Comique in 1895, and was played in England by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. He became a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1887, and was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1889. He died at the age of 45 in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) of tuberculosis and was buried in the family tomb in Taverny in the French department of Val-d'Oise.Godard's long list of works includes five symphonies: Symphonie gothique (1883), Symphonie orientale (1884), and Symphonie légendaire (1886); Concerto romantique for violin and orchestra (1876), two piano concertos, three string quartets, four sonatas for violin and piano, a sonata for cello and piano, two piano trios, and various other orchestral works. Among his piano pieces may be mentioned Mazurka No. 2, Valse No. 2, Au Matin, Postillon, En Courant, En Train, and Les Hirondelles. Florian's Song is also very popular and has been arranged for many instruments. Godard's fourth sonata for violin and piano contains a scherzo written in the unusual time signature of 5/4. He wrote more than 100 songs. Godard was opposed to the music of Richard Wagner and also highly critical of Wagner's antisemitism. Godard's musical style was more in tune with those of Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.(Wikipedia)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Aaron Rosand (violin), Luxembourg Radio Orchestra (cond. Louis de Froment) (Vox Box, 1993)(youtube.com/watch?v=HmXj8Y2fTDA)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Concerto_romantique,_Op.35_(Godard,_Benjamin) (Bote & Bock, ca. 1877)
Manuel Ponce - Trio romantico for violin, cello and piano (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-12 | One of the first Mexican composers to achieve international acclaim, Manuel Ponce (December 8, 1882 - April 24, 1948) was a Mexican pianist and composer whose style underwent a profound change in midlife; his works are clearly divisible into two types. The earlier style was derived primarily from the brilliant salon style of Moszkowski and Chaminade, and is represented by numerous light works for the piano and a huge quantity of sentimental songs. After studying with Dukas, Ponce developed a style that combined French Impressionism and neo-Classical contrapuntal techniques. Most of his guitar music and the majority of his more serious and larger works were written in this style. In addition to the songs and early piano works, Ponce composed a piano concerto, several large symphonic works for orchestra, the Concierto del sur for guitar and orchestra, which was premiered by Segovia, some chamber music, two piano sonatas, and a large quantity of guitar music.Born in 1882, Ponce had no important teachers during his childhood in Mexico. In 1895 he was made organist of Saint Diego, Aguascalientes, and in 1900 he went to Mexico City to study piano with Vicente Mañes. From 1901 until 1904 he supported himself as an organist, teacher and music critic back in Aguascalientes. Ponce left for Europe in 1904, giving his first recital abroad in St. Louis on the way. He stayed in Berlin, teaching and concertizing until his return to Mexico City in 1909 to succeed Castro as the piano instructor at the Mexico City Conservatory. During this time, his compositions became fairly popular in Latin countries, and his renown grew; he became conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1917-1919. In 1925, Ponce moved to Paris and edited a music periodical; it was during this period that he studied with Dukas and reformulated his compositional style. He returned to Mexico in 1933, and remained there until his death. Many of Ponce's earlier works have faded into obscurity, but some of his songs, particularly Estrellita (1914), became enormously popular, and are still occasionally performed. Although most of his guitar pieces have become part of the standard repertory, his major works are seldom performed outside of Mexico.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Kazimierz Olechowski (violin)Bozena Slawinska (cello)Josef Olechowski (piano)(youtube.com/watch?v=uWayKEFP44o)(youtube.com/watch?v=p--gsFh9Kb8)(youtube.com/watch?v=Zjby_-60Bhg)(youtube.com/watch?v=ZmjmWZTCCvM)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_'Romantico'_(Ponce%2C_Manuel) (Clema M. de Ponce, 1948)
Édouard Lalo - Romance-sérénade for violin and orchestra (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-08 | Author of the popular Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra, a work which captivates the listener with its melodic charm and great passion, Édouard Lalo (January 27, 1823 - April 22, 1892) was a major composer of orchestral and chamber music at a time when French musicians were dominated by an impulse to compose for the theater. His lesser known, but by no means little accomplished, works include the powerfully emotional Cello Concerto in D minor, a work which aptly makes use of the instrument's expressive potential, and the ballet, Namouna.Lalo left home at the age of 16 because his father did not want him to be a professional musician. He studied the violin at the Paris Conservatoire, also learning composition privately. While supporting himself as a violinist, performing and giving lessons, Lalo also composed. His early works, published in the 1840s, include pieces for the violin. In the 1850s, Lalo became an important member of a movement to revive chamber music in France. By the mid-1850s, he had already composed two piano trios, which show a considerable mastery of that form. In 1855, Lalo helped found the Armingaud Quartet; this ensemble was created to promote the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and Mendelssohn. Lalo, who was the quartet's violist and second violinist, composed a string quartet in 1859, thus enhancing his stature as a composer of chamber music. In 1865, Lalo married Julie Bernier de Maligny, a singer who eventually became a leading performer of his songs.Nevertheless, Lalo wished to compose for the stage, and in 1866 he started writing Fiesque, an opera based on Friedrich Schiller's play Fiesko. While Lalo was pleased by his opera, the Paris Opera decided against producing this work. However, despite this setback, Lalo's career flourished. The creation, in 1871, of the Societe Nationale de Musique, whose program was to promote the works of contemporary composers, provided Lalo with an impetus to continue composing for the orchestra. Thus, during the 1870s, Lalo composed several impressive works, including a Violin Concerto in F major, the famous Symphonie espagnole, the Cello Concerto, and the Fantaisie norvegienne for violin and orchestra.In 1875, Lalo started work on Le Roi d'Ys, an opera based on a Breton legend. Feeling that his work was nearing completion, Lalo offered it to the Opera in 1881. Once again, theaters refused to produce Lalo's work; however, perhaps wishing to somehow compensate the composer, the Opera asked him to compose a ballet. During 1881 and 1882 Lalo wrote Namouna, based on a story from Casanova's Memoires, and the ballet was performed in 1883 to a less-than-appreciative audience. Throughout the 1880s, however, Lalo continued promoting Le Roi d'Ys. The opera was finally performed at the Opera-Comique in 1888, and the reception was extremely favorable. Following this belated triumph, Lalo embarked on several new projects, including Neron, a pantomime, which was performed in 1891. A new opera, La jacquerie, remained unfinished.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Juri Toschmakov (violin), Frankfurt Brandenburg State Orchestra (cond. Nikos Athinaos) (Christophorus, 2011)(youtube.com/watch?v=mN9x5k2B5oE)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Romance-s%C3%A9r%C3%A9nade_(Lalo%2C_%C3%89douard) (G. Schirmer, 1908)
Max Bruch - Romance for viola and orchestra Op. 85 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-05 | It was to be expected that Bruch would write a Romance for violin (his Op 42), given that he was so famous for his violin concertos; but a romance for viola was unheard-of when he essayed Op 85 in 1911. Product of a late love affair with this most plangent-sounding of the stringed instruments, it was intended for Maurice Vieux (1884-1951), the father of the modern viola in France, who received the dedication; but the first performance was actually given by the great violinist Willy Hess, a champion of Bruch’s music, at a private concert in Berlin on 25 April 1911, attended by the composer. Bruch then made revisions during the summer. The romance is best heard in his sensitive orchestration, but like other works of similar length, it fits awkwardly into today’s concert programmes.The composition is in F major, in one movement marked Andante con moto. However, during the movement Bruch makes the viola express a variety of moods, more and more agitated, through the use of mixed rhythms, triplets and dotted notes, a series of fast arpeggios and abrupt chords, with the head of the theme always recognisable throughout the piece, played by one instrument or the other one, whilst the viola elaborates.After only two bars of introduction played by the strings of the orchestra, the viola starts with a very melodic, calm and romantic character, marked dolce (sweet). After the exposition, the beginning of the theme is repeated by the violins and the flute, with the whole orchestra playing forte.Then the viola starts a sort of throbbing phrase, gently accompanied by the strings playing pizzicato and long notes in the woodwinds. All this becomes more intense and all winds join in.Then there is a serene, new theme all in triplets, presented by the viola and taken by the whole orchestra. Soon the character changes again, with a faster pace in the viola part, going through many distant keys, to culminate in the slightly faster and agitated section of the arpeggios and chords, all the time with different instruments in turn reminding us of the initial theme.After all this tension, the first theme comes again, initially only mentioned by the viola with the other instruments replying to it, then played nearly completely as it was at the beginning. Also the other musical ideas are repeated here, as a summary of the whole work, to end with less and less energy in a pianissimo long chord.(Hyperion, Potter Violins)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Gérard Caussé (viola), Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon (cond. Kent Nagano) (Erato Classics S.N.C., 1990)(youtube.com/watch?v=jLvlmCxarYY)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Romanze,_Op.85_(Bruch,_Max) (B. Schott's Söhne, 1911)
Richard Strauss - Romance for clarinet and orchestra (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-03-02 | This romance for clarinet is an important work because it is the composer's first attempt at writing a concert piece with orchestra. Richard Strauss wrote it in 1879 for a fellow pupil. In a letter to Ludwig Thuille he remarked: 'I have been very industrious - maybe I have told you already - composing a romance in E flat major for clarinet and orchestra, which has turned out quite well; the continuous theme turns after the cantilena into a 6-part orchestral fugato.'(Schott)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Sabine Meyer (clarinet), Munich Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (cond. Michael Helmrath)(youtube.com/watch?v=8j7FnUZxxqw)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Romanze_for_Clarinet_and_Orchestra%2C_TrV_80_ (Strauss%2C_Richard) (Schott, 1991)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Romance for violin and orchestra Op. 39 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-02-29 | Remembered today as the composer of the once enormously popular cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, the career and music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (August 15, 1875 - September 1, 1912) are -- more, even, than Elgar's -- emblematic of the Edwardian era in its opulence and its squalor. The son of a Krio doctor from Sierra Leone and an Englishwoman, he rose above the constrictions of class and race to become one of the most acclaimed composers of his time.Coleridge-Taylor was born in the Holborn district of London. Musically precocious, his talent was recognized early and supported by a series of patrons who saw him through composition studies with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music. While still a student, his Clarinet Quintet (1895) achieved critical praise and, through the good offices of Stanford, performance in Berlin by the Joseph Joachim Quartet. A meeting with the Black American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar -- on a reading tour in England in 1896 -- prompted a lifelong preoccupation with "African" themes, including a number of songs to lyrics by Dunbar. Upon graduation from the RCM in 1897, Coleridge-Taylor embarked upon the poorly paid, precarious career of composer, teacher, adjudicator of musical competitions, and conductor, which took him throughout England and Wales and led, eventually, to visits to the United States in 1904, 1906, and 1910. His marriage to Jessie Walmisley on December 30, 1899, and the birth of their children, Hiawatha in 1900 and Gwendolen Avril in 1903, brought, with happiness, increased responsibilities.His first break came when Elgar suggested Coleridge-Taylor for a commission from the prestigious Three Choirs Festival to be held at Gloucester in 1898. The performance there of his attractive orchestral Ballade in A minor proved a decisive hit while demonstrating a ready assimilation of Tchaikovsky, Grieg, and, above all, Dvorák. Meanwhile, Coleridge-Taylor had composed Hiawatha's Wedding Feast for chorus and orchestra and -- still an obscure musician -- accepted the sum of £15.15 outright for it from the music publishing firm Novello. Its premiere in a Stanford-led concert at the RCM on November 11, 1898, launched what may be said to have been a cataclysmic success, with performances following rapidly in England, throughout the United States and Canada, and in venues as unlikely as New Zealand and South Africa. Commissions and invitations to conduct poured in, though small fees and the composer's carelessness with money kept financial security an elusive goal. Pressure to produce yet other large, earnest works for the great choral festivals resulted in such stillborn efforts as The Blind Girl of Castel Cuille (1901) and Meg Blane (1902). From 1900 through 1911, he also wrote incidental music for some half-dozen plays, five of which were staged by Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Innumerable practical details inseparable from concert-giving, and the constant uphill struggle against rank amateurism, also took their toll. The year 1905 saw the publication of 24 Negro Melodies for piano by the American firm Oliver Ditson, with a long, glowing preface by Booker T. Washington. In the final years of Coleridge-Taylor's brief life, the spontaneity of his early music returned with a new deftness in handling -- an impassioned blitheness rife with happy invention -- in such things as the cantata Bon-bon Suite (1909), the Petite Suite de concert (1910), and the Violin Concerto. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor died of pneumonia, exacerbated by chronic overwork.If his best music hovers between the concert hall, the palm court, and the drawing room, it may nevertheless be said to represent a gentility and graciousness, poise and sentiment, elegance and flair for which there will always be an ardently nostalgic audience.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Rachel Barton Pine (violin), Encore Chamber Orchestra (cond. Daniel Hege) (Cedille Records, 2000)(youtube.com/watch?v=ziV99r2mRSI)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Romance_for_Violin%2C_Op.39_(Coleridge-Taylor%2C_Samuel) (Novello & Co., Ltd., 1900)
Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély - Le chant du cygne for harmonium Op. 190 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-02-26 | Louis James Alfred Lefebure-Wely (November 13, 1817 - December 31, 1869) is historically associated with the development of French organ music, as well as with organ technique. As a composer he was instrumental in the evolution of the French symphonic organ style and his works include many pieces for church use, and lighter fare like marches and sorties. It is probably in the latter genre that Lefebure-Wely scored his most enduring successes on the organ, with pieces like the sorties in B flat and E flat. But Lefebure-Wely's output also includes works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, harmonium, and for the theater, most notably the opéra comique Les recruteurs (1861), probably the composer's most ambitious work. Lefebure-Wely inaugurated many organs built by his friend, the iconic Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who had few, if any, peers in the realm of organ building in the nineteenth century. Throughout his life Lefebure-Wely remained active as both an organist and composer: he held some of the most prestigious organ posts in Paris and produced more than 200 compositions. In addition, he often gave harmonium recitals and was also a gifted pianist. While his reputation as a composer faded after his death, Lefebure-Wely was one of the most respected and popular artistic figures on the Parisian scene of his day, with composers like Franck and Alkan dedicating works to his memory.Louis James Alfred Lefebure-Wely was born in Paris. His father, Isaac-François, was a talented organist who was the boy's first teacher. Young Louis caught on quickly and began serving as a substitute organist for his father at Saint-Roch in Paris from the age of 11, the time when his father had suffered a stroke. In 1833 young Louis was appointed to replace his father at Saint-Roch.Lefebure-Wely enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire around this time to study organ with François Benoist and composition with Jacques-François Halevy and Henri-Montan Berton. At 17 Lefebure-Wely won first prize in organ performance at the Conservatory.From 1847-1858 Lefebure-Wely served as organist at L'Église de la Madeleine in Paris. He produced many compositions during his decade there, including the Six Offertories and Six Grande Offertories (Opp. 34 & 35, respectively), circa 1857. In 1863 Lefebure-Wely was appointed organist at Saint-Sulpice, also in Paris. He held the post until his death. Among his more important later works are Hommage à Mr. l'Abbé Hamon, Curé de St. Sulpice (1867-1869).(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Christian Ott (IFO Classics, 2009)(youtube.com/watch?v=ickbJnycdRY)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Le_chant_du_cygne%2C_Op.190_(Lef%C3%A9bure-W%C3%A9ly%2C_Louis_James_Alfred) (Charles Gambogi et Cie., 1870)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk - The Dying Swan Op. 100 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-02-24 | American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 - December 18, 1869) was a virtuoso pianist and the first American composer to establish a reputation overseas. Gottschalk garnered fame through such American-styled works as Bamboula (1845). In the United States, his pieces Le Banjo (1855) and The Dying Poet (1853) proved enormously popular. The impact of Gottschalk's music on the later development of ragtime might seem obvious, yet there is no proven link from him to the syncopated popular music he anticipated in works like Bamboula. The music of Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton show traces of his melodic shape and rhythmic pulse. Nickelodeon pianists did a great disservice to Gottschalk by loving him too well; pieces like The Dying Poet and Morte!! turned many a dramatic corner in silent movie houses, and the public began to identify these themes as cliché. By the 1940s, Gottschalk was condemned as hopelessly old-fashioned, and it would take decades of work by scholars to improve his fortunes. In his best music, Gottschalk was an American original; masterpieces like Souvenir de Porto Rico, L'Union, and O Ma Charmant, Épargnez-Moi! transcend time through their emotional power, technical mastery, audacity, wit, and charm.Louis Gottschalk was the eldest son of a Jewish-English New Orleans real estate speculator and his French-Creole bride. Gottschalk may have heard the drums at Place Congo in New Orleans, but his exposure to Creole melody likely came through his own household. Piano study was undertaken with Narcisse Lettellier (who would also teach Morton), and at age 11, Gottschalk was sent to Paris. Denied entrance to the Conservatoire, he continued with Charles Hallé and Camille Stamaty, adding composition with Pierre Maleden. His Paris debut at the Salle Pleyel in 1845 earned praise from Chopin. By the end of the 1840s, Gottschalk's first works, such as Bamboula, appeared. These syncopated pieces based on popular Creole melodies rapidly gained popularity worldwide. Gottschalk left Paris in 1852 to join his father in New York, only to encounter stiff competition from touring foreign artists. With his father's death in late 1853, Gottschalk inherited support of his mother and six siblings. In 1855, he signed a contract with publisher William Hall to issue several pieces, including The Banjo and The Last Hope. The latter is a sad and sweetly melancholy piece, and it proved hugely popular. Gottschalk found himself obliged to repeat it at every concert, and wrote "even my paternal love for The Last Hope has succumbed under the terrible necessity of meeting it at every step." With an appearance at Dodsworth Hall in December 1855, Gottschalk finally found his audience. For the first time he was solvent, and after his mother's death in 1857, he was released from his familial obligations. He embarked on a tour of the Caribbean and didn't return for five years. When this ended, America was in the midst of the Civil War. He supported the north, touring Union states until 1864. Gottschalk wearied of the horrors surrounding him, becoming an avid proponent of education, playing benefit concerts for public schools and libraries. During a tour to California in 1865, he entered into an involvement with a young woman attending a seminary school in Oakland, and the press excoriated him. He escaped on a steamer bound for Panama City. Instead of returning to New York, he pressed on to Peru, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina, staying one step ahead of revolutions, rioting, and cholera epidemics, but he began to break down under the strain. Gottschalk contracted malaria in Brazil in August 1869; still recovering, he was hit in the abdomen by a sandbag thrown by a student in São Paolo. In a concert at Rio de Janeiro on November 25, he collapsed at the keyboard. He had appendicitis, which led to peritonitis. Gottschalk died at the age of 40.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Patrice Reich(youtu.be/1U50HicdKrA)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/The_Dying_Swan%2C_Op.100_(Gottschalk%2C_Louis_Moreau) (Kunkel Brothers, 1870)
Fritz Kreisler - Romance for violin and piano Op. 4 (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-02-22 | Violinist Fritz Kreisler (February 2, 1875 - January 29, 1962) was one of the most beloved and best known of early recording-era musicians. His burnished tone and patrician phrasing were quintessentially Viennese, and the warmth of his playing won him devoted followers wherever he appeared. So great was his fame and the affection in which he was held that he survived a blaze of controversy when he revealed in 1935 that many of the short pieces he had performed as transcriptions of such composers as Couperin, Vivaldi, and Pugnani were, in fact, his own work. While the critics fumed, the public expressed little concern and continued to pack his concert appearances.Kreisler was the son of a famous surgeon, a good amateur musician who gave young Fritz his first violin lessons. Kreisler made his public debut at seven in a collection of short works. Shortly thereafter, he was permitted to enter the Vienna Conservatory despite a policy that no one younger than 14 be accepted. After three years of study with Joseph Hellmesberger, he was awarded a gold medal. Kreisler was sent to Paris for further studies with Delibes and Massart. At the age of 12, he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome gold medal, competing against 40 other players, all of whom were at least 20 years old.In 1888, Kreisler sailed to the United States for a concert tour with pianist Moriz Rosenthal, earning many complimentary reviews. When he returned to Vienna, he applied to the Vienna Philharmonic for a position but was turned down. Feeling discouraged, he resolved to abandon music and chose to pursue a career in medicine. After several years, he rejected that course and began the study of painting. First in Paris, then in Rome, he worked toward mastering his technique, but soon this, too, became tiresome. He returned to Vienna and enlisted in the army.A full year as a soldier was sufficient to cause yet more rethinking, and Kreisler resigned his commission and returned to the study of violin. He spent eight weeks in country solitude, readying himself for his return to the concert stage. His "second debut" in Berlin was successful, but widespread acclaim came during several American tours between 1901 and 1903. In the U.S., he was hailed as one of the foremost violinists of his time, and, soon after, Europe followed suit in recognizing his extraordinary artistry.In 1910 in London, Kreisler gave the premiere performance of Elgar's Violin Concerto, a work dedicated to the composer. While vacationing in Switzerland in 1914, Kreisler received the news that Austria was at war. Returning to his native country, he rejoined his former division, now stationed in Galicia. An attack by the Russians resulted in an injury and his discharge with high honors. Wishing to help his country, Kreisler embarked on a lengthy concert tour of America. U.S. entry into the war, however, put him in the awkward position of being an ex-Austrian officer aiding what was now an enemy nation. Negative reaction obliged him to withdraw from concertizing and retire to Maine to pass the remaining period of hostilities.At his return to the New York concert stage in 1919, however, he was given a tumultuous reception. He took up residence in Berlin for ten years, beginning in 1924. With the Anschluss in 1938, he moved to France but returned to the U.S. before the Nazi invasion and lived his remaining years in America, where he gave his final public concert in 1947. He continued to perform on broadcasts until 1950.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Itzhak Perlman (violin), Samuel Sanders (piano) (Warner Classics, 1987)(youtube.com/watch?v=ZAzflhDPPzE)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Romanze,_Op.4_(Kreisler,_Fritz (Charles Foley, 1910)
Miguel Llobet - Romanza in C minor for guitar (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-02-20 | During his time, Miguel Llobet (October 18, 1878 - February 22, 1938) was better known for his virtuosity on the guitar than for his compositions. He was instrumental in establishing the classical guitar on the international concert scene; hitherto, it had typically been regarded as a novelty to audiences. Llobet pioneered the way for guitarists in succeeding generations, not least of whom was Andrés Segovia, an admirer of Llobet's virtuosity, as well as of his compositional skills: Segovia often programmed Llobet's arrangement of the Catalan folk song El mestre, from the collection Diez canciones populares catalanas. Llobet was a trailblazer on other fronts: though his acoustical recordings of 1915 did not satisfy him and were not released, his electrical recordings of 1925 were the first ever made by a guitarist. These and several later recordings have been reissued now, and, since the 1990s, a number of modern guitarists have been reviving interest in Llobet's original compositions and arrangements via both the concert hall and the recording studio.Llobet was born in Barcelona, Spain. Though he turned to the guitar at the relatively late age of 11, he had studied both piano and violin from his early childhood. His first teacher was Magín Alegre; by 16 Llobet was studying with Francisco Tárrega at the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory of Music.Llobet launched his concert career in 1898 and, with the aid of Tárrega's patron Concepción Jacoby, embarked on his international career with a series of Paris concerts in 1904. The following year Llobet apparently relocated to Paris, using it as a base of operations from which to tour Europe until 1910.That year he seemed to have moved to Buenos Aires and thereafter made numerous tours of Central and South America. His U.S. debut came in 1912 and included performances in New York and Boston. Although accounts differ, Llobet seems to have spent the war years in the U.S. where his concert schedule was quite full.In the postwar era, Llobet was active touring Germany, Austria, England, Italy, Hungary, and other European locales, as well as the U.S. He resettled in Barcelona in the 1930s, primarily to teach. Among his students was the talented Cuban José Rey de la Torre. Llobet rarely concertized in his last years, his last major tour coming in 1934 with appearances in Germany, Austria, and the U.S. Llobet died in Barcelona.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Michael Tröster (Thorofon Records, 1998)(youtube.com/watch?v=MvWyyhXFeBM)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Romanza_(Llobet,_Miguel) (Juan Carlos Anido, 1923)
Victor Herbert - Devotion: A Love Sonnet (audio + sheet music) thenameisgsarci 2024-02-17 | Victor Herbert (February 1, 1859 - May 26, 1924) was arguably the most important theatrical composer of the early 20th century, spearheading the transformation from the traditional Viennese operetta form of the past to the Americanized musical comedies which dominated the decades to follow. Herbert was born in Dublin, Ireland; after his father's death, at age three he was sent to live with his grandmother in Kent, England, before re-joining his mother in Stuttgart in 1867. After playing cello in orchestras throughout Europe -- including Eduard Strauss' in Vienna -- he returned home to study composition at the Stuttgart Conservatory. Upon marrying Therese Forster, a soprano with the Stuttgart Opera, Herbert followed his bride to the U.S. after she signed on with the New York Metropolitan Opera. With bandleader Patrick S. Gilmore's 1892 death, Herbert took over direction of his 22nd Regiment Band, which he helmed until accepting the position of principal conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1898. In the intervening years, he completed his first operetta, 1894's Prince Ananias, for the Boston Ideal Opera Company.Although early Herbert productions like 1897's The Serenade (his first major success), 1898's The Fortune Teller, and 1899's Cyrano de Bergerac remained steeped in operetta tradition, over time his work adopted an increasingly modernized American sensibility anticipating the breakthroughs of Jerome Kern. Broadway hits including 1903's Babes in Toyland, 1906's Mlle. Modiste, 1910's Naughty Marietta, and 1913's Sweethearts launched a number of popular favorites like "Gypsy Love," "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!," "Every Day Is Ladies' Day With Me," "Because You're You," "Kiss Me Again," "Indian Summer," "A Kiss in the Dark," and "Moonbeams"; authored with a series of lyricists including Rida Johnson Young, Buddy De Sylva, Harry B. Smith, and Gene Buck. In 1916, Herbert also composed music for the film The Fall of a Nation, believed to be the first American score ever written specifically as accompaniment for a silent movie. He was working on music for the next Ziegfeld Follies when he suffered a fatal heart attack on May 26, 1924; the 1939 film biopic The Great Victor Herbert starred Walter Connolly in the title role.(AllMusic)Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.Original audio: Victor Herbert and his Orchestra (1924 recording)(youtube.com/watch?v=EHEs7APT1tI)Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Devotion_(Herbert%2C_Victor) (T.B. Harms and Francis, Day & Hunter, 1921)
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