MusiLLection

Johann Strauss II composed "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka"  in 1858 after a successful tour of Russia where he performed in the summer concert season at Pavlovsk, Saint Petersburg. It was first performed in a concert in Vienna on 24 November 1858. The German word "trarch" means gossip, while the word "tritsch" has no meaning. The title is a sample of Johann Strauss II's habit of creating puns. In this case he wanted to imitate sonically the English expression "chit-chat" (drizzle, gossip). The music is lively and Strauss hypothesized that many dancers could wait while chatting until a waltz is played. The composer wrote in his diary that at the time he was conducting a series of concerts in London, the audience asked for this polka 38 times!  It is a lively, rhythmic work, in A major, which uses brilliant brass and percussion instruments and is widely decorated with trills and a multitude of musical ornaments. Interpretively it is a demanding work, ...

Costume designed for the Italian woman in Algiers.    Gioachino Rossini was only 20 years old when he composed this work, which proved to be his first major success in the "opera buffa" and gave him international recognition. It took less than a month to complete the score and the premiere of the play was given at the San Benedetto Theatre in Venice on May 22, 1813. After this success, young Rossini began a career that would make him the most popular opera composer in Italy. Surprised by the favorable acceptance of his opera, Rossini commented: "I believed that when the Venetians would listen to my opera, they would consider me crazy. But they proved they're crazier than me." Indeed, the French writer Stendhal considered it "an organized and absolute madness". The opera was written within a few weeks in order to fill an unpredictable gap in the San Benedetto program. Rossini had just emerged with the recent opera "Tancredi", which was a huge...

  "The Bay of Naples" by William James Muller When Mendelssohn visited Naples, he was shocked by the great poverty he saw, but he liked the Neapolitan saltarello dance, on which he based the main theme of his "Italian" Symphony in A Major. At the urging of his good friend, the German poet Goethe, Mendelssohn made a long journey to Italy in 1830-31. He arrived in October and was berested by the noise and vitality of the country. He visited Venice and then Rome, where he was impressed by a procession of cardinals and a choir at the church of St. Peter's.The echo of that chorus can be heard in the second part of the symphony. Mendelssohn was shocked by the poverty she saw in Naples, but fascinated by its folk dances. The impetuous saltarello at the end of the symphony is directly influenced by these local folk dances. Movements : Ι. Allegro vivace The first part, Allegro vivace , begins with a cheerful and energetic outburst that soon subsides. After a transitiona...

The graceful and lyrical music, which brings to mind the clean atmosphere and the serenity of the countryside, characterizes many orchestral works composed by Carl Maria von Weber during his short life.   Just as Mozart and Brahms composed works for clarinet for a specific performer, so Carl Maria von Weber , again, was inspired by the performance of Heinrich Joseph Baermann, the first clarinetist of the Munich Court orchestra. In 1811, the King of Bavaria, Maximilian the First, ordered Weber to compose two concertos for Baermann, which he would perform in Munich. After the premiere of this concerto, Weber wrote in his diary about "the tumultuous applause caused by Baermann's divine performance." This concerto follows the usual classical form, although in this interpretation there are no cadences - extensive sections only for solo instruments. Movements : Ι. Allegro The inaugural Allegro begins in a heroic style with the participation of the entire orchestra. The secon...

The dark and dramatic mood expressed in Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony is represented in this romantic setting, painted by his older brother, Ferdinand. Schubert's S ymphony No.8 puzzles why it's a masterpiece and why no one knows why he didn't complete it. By October 1822 he had finished the two opening parts and had started working on the third, the Scherzo . At this point he stopped and turned his attention to another work, the Wonderer Fantasie . The following year Schubert sent the unfinished score of the 8th Symphony to his friend Joseph Hüttenbrenner who gave it to his brother Anselm, who kept it for forty years. In 1865, Hüttenbrenner was persuaded to assign Schubert's scores by Johann Ritter von Herbeck, director of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The Symphony was first performed in Vienna on September 17, 1865 in front of an ecstatic audience. Around 1890, Symphony No. 8 acquired the nickname "Unfinished" and since then the fans...

The hungarian violonist Jelly d'Aranyi In 1922,  Maurice Ravel was deeply impressed by the hungarian violonist Jelly d'Aranyi, when he heard him play the gypsy music of his homeland. The composer's interest in this style resulted in this workd for violin and piano - and later for orchestra - which he composed in 1924. The work contains many elements of gypsy music. A long and complex solo segment on violin, begins this wonderful and unusual concerto rhapsody. The passionate play of the soloist, immediately takes us to old Hungary. The oriental scales with the strangeness for the western ear style, which so fascinated Ravel, dominate dearly here from the beginning. Other features are the chords of the violin and a multitude of string techniques, which make up this wonderful concerto-style work. A long trill leads to the second half of the play. At first we hear the harp that combines fiery grabs and glisanti with the violin trills. We alos hear the exotic string techniques....

Chopin's first nocturnes, Op.9, dates back to 1831. In England, in an effort to increase their sales, they were given the impressive title "Murmures de la Seine" (Whispers of the Seine). Nocturne in B flat minor, Op.9, No.1 When Chopin composed this nocturne, he was going through an intensely emotional period. At the time, he was breaking up with Konstancja Gladkowska, a goung singer with whom he was in love. We inevitably recognize the echo of his personal feelings in a part of the music, although that does not mean that there is always a connection between a composer's work and his personal life. This composition features all the characteristics of Chopin's nocturne: a soft, melancholic melody with a lacy texture, played with the gentle accompaniment of the open chords of the left hand. Nocturne in E flat Major, Op.9, No.2 This nocturne expresses the mood of the private evening "lounges", where Chopin was feeling relaxed. It has a serenity full of gr...