MusiLLection

  A page from the score of Handel's Water Music written in 1717. This work is the most popular and most beloved of all his numerous compositions. Handel's Water Music, one of the composer's most popular and beloved works, was first presented on the evening of Wednesday, July 17, 1717. An orchestra of fifty musicians sailed next to King George I and several aristocrats, as the royal yacht led a huge fleet of boats on a tour of the Thames toward Chelsea. As the royal procession passed majestically between Lambeth in the east and Chelsea in the west to return, the King was so fascinated by Handel's music that he ordered the orchestra to replay the play three times. The exhausted musicians got permission to stop at two o'clock in the morning! Suite I in F major (HWV 348) 1. Overture (Largo – Allegro)  2. Adagio e staccato  3. Allegro – Andante – Allegro da capo  4. Passepied  5. Air  6. Minuet  7. Bourrée  8. Hornpipe  9. Andante  10. Allegr...

Tchaikovsky's Overture 1812 expresses Russia's nationalist spirit for the Russians' magnificent victory over Napoleon. In 1880, when he was writing the charming Serenade for Strings, Tchaikovsky undertook to compose a "ceremonial introduction" for an exhibition of industrial art in Moscow. As a theme of his introduction he chose Napoleon's Russia Campaign, which ended with the great victory of the Russian Army. At first the composer intended the introduction to be for outdoor performance and felt that it should be "very loud and noisy". Since then the introduction has become his most famous and most popular concert work. The "1812 Overture" is in fact an introduction to a concerto, in other words is a stand-alone work of orchestral music and not an introduction to opera or a more extensive work. The play describes the invasion of Russia by Napoleon's troops in 1812 and their retreat and defeat in the winter of the same year. Despite ...

These two works for solo piano were written between 1888 and 1891, when Claude Debussy lived in the colourful Parisian suburb of Montmartre. The exuberant existence of young artists, writers and musicians produced an intense atmosphere, which Debussy glorified by reproducing its unmistakable feeling in his music. These two pianist works, in E Major and G Major, Debussy was inspired by the decorative style of Islamic art. These are early compositions and as in the case of "Clair de Lune" they are not typical of the composer's mature style. At the same time they are perfect metaphors in the music of the spiral decorations of Islamic art. I. Arabesque No. 1 in E Major - Andantino con moto II. Arabesque No. 2 in G Major - Allegretto scherzando

In his time the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann was more popular even than his co-local and contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach. In fact, he was offered the position of Kantor in the church of St. Thomas of Leipzig and only his refusal - he bid Hamburg to keep him close - resulted in Bach's recruitment. Baroque music discovered in Telemann a genuine, inspiring, unbound and accomplished composer. His ability to co-talk creatively with any kind of musical expression was truly enviable. Cosmic and religious, instrumental and vocal music had no secrets for him. Testimony undeniable are his works, the ones that were saved. They provoke immediate admiration both with the variety of their style and with their quantity. He composed a thousand and seven hundred or so Cantatas, numerous operas - forty only for the Hamburg Opera - and a host of others extremely prolific and pioneered in the effort to detox the composers from the royal courtyards and the patrons. Telemann's music wa...

The Piano Concerto in G major was composed between 1929 and 1931. Ravel was ill at the time and did not perform at the premiere himself, although he conducted the orchestra. Ravel claimed that the work was composed in the manner of Mozart and Saint-Saëns , although influences from Stravinsky and Gershwin , as well as from the Spanish folk music of the composer's hometown, the Basque region, can be seen. The concerto was Ravel's penultimate composition. Μovements : Ι. Allergamente This concerto has no orchestral introduction. At the beginning of the first part marked Allegramente , the piano appears immediately, although the original theme in a folk style, is introduced by the piccolo. The melody is repeated by the trumpet. In the theme of the piano that follows, the influence of jazz, which exists throughout the work, is felt for the first time. The piano then introduces a third theme, which adopts the saxophone and the trumpet. The lively part of the development continues t...

Set design by Philippe Chaperon for Act 4, Scene 2 of Aida by Verdi Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, commissioned Giuseppe Verdi to compose an opera for performance to celebrate the opening of the Khedivial Opera House, but the premiere was delayed because of the Siege of Paris, during the Franco-Prussian War.  Aida eventually premiered in Cairo in 24 December 1871, conducted by Giovanni Bottesini. It was an immediate success and has remained Verdi's most popular opera ever since. Aida is an opera in four acts and the libretto was writter by Antonio Ghislanzoni. - Celeste Aida - Gloria all' Egitto - Triumphal March - Vieni, o guerriero vindice - O terra, addio "Aida" is a story of love, war and betrayal and focuses on the love between a captive Ethiopian princess Aida by the Egyptians and Radamès, the Egyptian captain of the Guard who defeats the invading troops of her father. Radamès, struggles to choose between his love for her and his loyalty to the King of E...

In the summer of 1853, twenty-year-old Johannes Brahms was desperate. He had just had a fight with his best friend, the Hungarian violonist Eduard Remènyi, who had mediated for a meeting with the great pianist Liszt , whom he hoped to impress. But Brahms failed to praise Liszt's latest work, thereby undermining any hope of progress from that direction. Faced with failure, Brahms wrote to violonist Joseph Joachim, who had supported him along the way, asking for his help. Joachim recommended him to visit Dusseldorf in order to meet the distinguished composer Robert Schumann and his pianist wife Clara. On September 30th, thronging with excitement, Brahms sat down to play in front of the woman who was destined to steal his heart forever. A brilliant young pianist The sketch of 20-year-old Brahms. It was done on Robert Schumann's behalf. Robert Schumann , middle-aged and afflicted by various nervous disorders, distinguished Brahm's face as the billiant young pianist he once had...