On Saturday, September 12, 2014 at 6:00 p.m., the Stockton Symphony performed fourteen pieces by different composers, including Rimsky-Koraskov, Saint-Saëns, and J. Strauss II, to convey the spirit of Cirque du Soleil through their music. The Overture to Die Fledermaus, op.362, the Tarantella from La boutique fantasque, the Danse des boufoons from The Snow Maiden, and the Valse from Swan Lake, op. 20 were just some of the pieces performed by the Symphony under Peter Jaffe, its maestro since 1995. Christina Mok appeared as the concertmaster and violin soloist. Though all the pieces were very impressive, I found that a few pieces stood out for me: the Danse des bouffons from The Snow Maiden by Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky’s Valse from Swan …show more content…
The concertmaster suddenly plays dissonant triple-stops followed by the first theme from the flute soloist. As Saint-Saëns intended, the suspenseful beginning brings pictures of waltzing skeletons in the dead of the night. The second theme is performed by the solo violinist. Fragments of these two themes are interwoven into the piece and performed by alternating sections of the orchestra. The piece climaxes with the full orchestra fluctuating between the first and second themes with dramatized dynamics, piapianissimo and fortissimo. The piece ends with an oboe solo accompanied by soft chords from the rest of the …show more content…
In this piece, the piano and brass were very prominent and provided sections of the melody as half of the antiphonal; the other half was the strings. This piece truly took the reader to a lively rodeo. The evening closed with one of the most recognizable Tchaikovsky waltzes, the Valse from Swan Lake, op.20. It begins with pizzicato from the cellos and basses, who are soon joined by the second violins with the main theme, a lovely phrase that evokes a dreamlike quality present in many of Tchaikovsky’s works. A variation on the theme is emphasized by that bell-like sounds of a triangle and trumpets blowing, followed by a short phrase from the clarinets and oboes. The main theme is repeated at the end by the brass
On Wednesday, June 14, 2017, I had the pleasure of watching the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125 by Ludwig Van Beethoven. The original performance was recorded and put on YouTube, May 7, 2015, in honor of its first premier 191 years before when Beethoven decided to share his 9th Symphony with the world even though he couldn’t hear it himself. The symphonic masterpiece was recorded at the beautiful Symphony Center Orchestra Hall in Chicago and conducted by Riccardo Muti. The performance was completely deserving of selling out every single seat for one hour and twenty-two minutes. In fact, the musicians did not disappoint, Stephen Williamson was in the first clarinet chair, alongside colleagues Mathieu
On Wednesday, November 5th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. the Charlotte Symphony performed seven compositions by various “maverick” composers. Halton Theatre at Central Piedmont Community College’s central campus was pack to near full capacity. The program included the Molto Allegro from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G-Minor, Warehouse Medicine by Mason Bates, Apotheosis by Austin Wintory, Cielito Lindo a traditional Spanish copla, Oaken Sky by Chris Rogerson, Le Tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel, and the 4th movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Charlotte Symphony’s Assistant Conductor, Roger Kalia, conducted and Juan Cajero appeared as a soloist. Although there were several pieces that had a more lasting impression on me, each composition performed
One of the pieces the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra performed was Carnival Overture, op. 92, composed by Antonin Dvorak. The conductor at this concert was Christian Baldini and the main violinist was Shawyon Malek-Salehi. This piece was made in the Romantic era with an orchestra instrumentation. The genre for this piece is concert overture and has a sonata form in a similar formate to other sonata forms from the Romantic era, making it sound dramatic compared to the Classical era’s sonata era. The live performance was true to Dvorak’s original score, which took the traditional sonata form of the classical era and changed it to incorporate a common Romantic era sonata form. Although the live performance focused on the first violinist, it still maintained the dramatic atmosphere from the original piece by keeping the sonata form, rhythm, texture, and instrumentation.
Section 3 is more merry and cheerful with the violins leading what feels like a race to be won. As they slow slightly we are soon dragged back to full speed and the race is on again. The violins and cello play off of each other as if in composition to see who will win the race. The bass brings in a dramatic flair as if building the suspense for the final climax of the music. The music slows to the point where you feel you have reached the end, but soon you are back on the journey again racing with the violins and lower instruments toward the finish line and the conclusion leaves the listener breathless.
Each individual player in this orchestra is a soloist of sorts, playing a completely different piece than the musician seated directly next to them or across the stage. Rather than being written as a concerto, this piece, written in three movements, allows for each of the accomplished musicians to display their skill individually though each solo is not brought to the forefront of the piece, creating a what sounds like a disgruntled compilation of individual pieces that come together. This piece both begins ends with the Funeral March of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony directly tied into the basses, at first it is quiet and difficult to recognize but as the third movement is introduced it becomes more pronounced and evident. Those who were present for this pieces introduction to society were able to see its emotional effect on its composer who had obvious emotional ties to the music. Strauss never showed up to see his work debut instead he attended the dress rehearsal, asked Sacher if he could conduct this work. Strauss was said to have given a beautiful reading of the score that many view as his most...
The concert I attended was the Liszt, Prokofiev, and Dvořák concert at the Chicago Symphony Center. Emmanuel Krivine is a French conductor who conducted the orchestra to play Liszt’s compositions Les Préludes, Symphonic Poem No. 3. Next was Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 16 in the Andantino, Scherzo: Vivace, Moderato, Allegro tempestoso, the piano soloist was Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin who was accompanied by The Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Lastly was Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 was performed by The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the four movements played was, Allegro con Brio, Adagio, Allegretto grazioso, and Allegro MA non troppo.
As the orchestra draws to a climax the sound is cut-off, and the eerie feeling returns as the bassoon takes its initial theme. This time the orchestra does not burst in afterwards. Instead, a string bridge appears and the next movement greets us. The main emphasis of the orchestration in this movement seems to appear in the strings and the Horns. The initial chord is a polychord of Eb 7 and F minor.
The piano plays the main themes, and it was absent from playing before. The piano plays two octaves in the treble register. There is a viola in the background playing a counter melody, which slows towards
Johannes Brahms, a great German composer and pianist of the Romantic period, composed symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. He is considered as both a traditionalist and an innovator and his music is firmly rooted in structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. He has contributed a lot to music by composing the master pieces such as Symphony no. 3. The Symphony no. 3 is written in F major. The symphony involves the instruments such as flute, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, contrabassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, timpani, and strings. The symphony consists of the four movements. The first one is the Allegro con brio which is written in F major, in sonata form. The three-note motto begins
Kara Beechler - Hist. 137 Song Paper Song Paper Classified as one of the “earliest explicitly black protest songs” (Smith, 1), “Strange Fruit” was recorded in 1939 by artist Billie Holiday. It was originally a poem that was published in a magazine in the year 1937 by Abel Meeropol under the name “Bitter Fruit” under his pseudonym Lewis Allen. He was inspired by a photograph of a double-lynching he had seen. (Carvalho, 111) When Billie Holiday set out to record this song she was criticized by her label for the song’s lyrics.
The brass plays an ascending sequence, followed by pizzicato notes played by the strings, and an ascending and descending scale on the harp. Strings and oboe play the rhythmic melody, whilst the trumpet plays fanfares in syncopation. The oboe is then replaced by the flute. There is an ascending scale played by the strings, then the brass section repeats the string and oboe melody with cymbal crashes at cadence points. The orchestra then plays a loud melody with cymbal crashes and drum rolls. There is an interrupted cadence, followed by crescendo with cymbal crashes and a brass ostinato. The piece ends with a perfect cadence.
Mozart’s Requiem is “one of the most performed and studied pieces of music in history” (Stango, n.d.). The story behind the start of this piece begins with Count Franz von Walsegg, who commissioned a requiem mass for his wife Anna (who had passed away). Throughout his work on this piece, Mozart began to get so emotionally involved with the piece that he believed that he was writing a death mass for himself. Mozart died December 5, 1791, with only half of the Requiem finished (through Lacrimosa). Franz Xaver Süssmayr finished the Requiem based on Mozart’s specifications from notes and what he had already written. The completed work is dated 1792 by Süssmayr and was performed for the first time on January 2, 1793. Mozart’s intent for this mass was specifically for church ceremony, but recently, the Requiem has been used and performed at concerts to showcase Mozart’s musical brilliance (Stango, n.d.).
The last Piece of the program was Symphony No1. In g minor, op7 (1891-1892), features the work of the composer Carl Nielsen (18...
"To me he seemed like a trapped man, whose only wish was to be left alone, to the peace of his own art and to the tragic destiny to which he, like most of his countrymen, has been forced to resign himself." Nicholas Nabokov on meeting Shostakovich in 1949 in New York
Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular of all composers. The reasons are several and understandable. His music is extremely tuneful, opulently and colourfully scored, and filled with emotional passion. Undoubtedly the emotional temperature of the music reflected the composer's nature. He was afflicted by both repressed homosexuality and by the tendency to extreme fluctuations between ecstasy and depression. Tchaikovsky was neurotic and deeply sensitive, and his life was often painful, but through the agony shone a genius that created some of the most beautiful of all romantic melodies. With his rich gifts for melody and special flair for writing memorable dance tunes, with his ready response to the atmosphere of a theatrical situation and his masterly orchestration, Tchaikovsky was ideally equipped as a ballet composer. His delightful fairy-tale ballets, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker are performed more than any other ballets. Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky's first ballet, was commissioned by the Imperial Theatres in Moscow in 1875. He used some music from a little domestic ballet of the same title, composed for his sister Alexandra's children in 1871.