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2ndviolinist uploaded a new video
(2 days ago)
Recorded in 1929.
Found at The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM) was established on 1 April 2004, supporte...
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Recorded in 1929.
Found at The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM) was established on 1 April 2004, supported by a 5-year grant of just under £1m from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
From Wikipedia:
Robert Heger (19 August 1886 -- 14 January 1978) was a German conductor and composer from Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine.
He studied at the Conservatory of Strasbourg, under Franz Stockhausen, then in Zurich under Lothar Kempter, and finally in Munich under Max von Schillings. After early conducting engagements in Strasbourg he made his debut at Ulm in 1908 or 1909. He held appointments in Barmen (1909), at the Vienna Volksoper (1911), and at Nuremberg (1913), where he also conducted Philharmonic concerts. He progressed to Munich and then to Berlin (1933-1950), after which he returned again to Munich.
Heger conducted at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1925 to 1935, and again with his Munich company in 1953, when he gave the first London performance of Richard Strauss's opera Capriccio. He died in Munich.
From Allmusic:
Remembered today more as a conductor than a composer, Robert Heger left a legacy of five operas and a substantial output of choral, orchestral, and chamber works that together divulge a masterly, if somewhat elusive post-Romantic voice. As a conductor, Heger was better known for his work in opera and made several famous opera recordings, including an abridged one of Der Rosenkavalier.
Heger was born in Strasbourg, France, on August 19, 1886. He began serious music study when he was 14 with composer/harpist Franz Stockhausen, from whom he took lessons locally for two years. In Zurich Heger was a pupil of conductor/composer Lothar Kempter from 1902-1905, and in Munich he studied with composer Max von Schillings in 1907-1908. Heger's Op. 14 Piano Trio (1908), probably his first important instrumental work, dates to his period of study with Schillings. Several earlier choral works (Opp. 6 & 13) had already demonstrated the composer possessed a fine grasp of vocal music.
After his study with Schillings, Heger launched his conducting career in Strasbourg, and following brief conducting stints in Germany -- Ulm and Barmen, from 1908-1911 -- he landed his first important post, at the Vienna Volksoper, in 1911. Two years later he began conducting opera in Nuremberg. It was during his Nuremberg period that he composed and premiered his first opera, Ein fest auf Haderslev (1919; rev. 1943). It was not a success, though the following year he tasted success in his new conducting post, this one at the Munich Opera, where he would stay until 1925.
During his Munich years he produced one of his more important choral works, Ein Friedenslied (1924), for soloists and orchestra. From 1925-1933, he conducted at the Vienna State Opera. During this period he wrote two of his finest works, the opera Der Bettler Namenlos (1932) and Variationen über ein Thema aus Verdis Maskenball (1933), for orchestra.
In 1933 Heger was appointed conductor at the Berlin State Opera. Here he remained through the turbulent war years, garnering several important commissions from the arts administrators, two of which resulted in the operas Der verlorene Sohn and Lady Hamilton. Heger left Berlin in 1950 to spend the remainder of his career at the Munich State Opera, where his successful 1967 revival of Der Bettler Namenlos helped give the work much deserved exposure. Heger died in Munich on January 14, 1978.
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2ndviolinist uploaded a new video
(3 days ago)
Found at The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM) was established on 1 April 2004, supported by a 5-year gra...
more
Found at The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM) was established on 1 April 2004, supported by a 5-year grant of just under £1m from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Aline Isabelle van Barentzen (b. Somerville, Mass., July 7, 1897; d. 1981)
Aline van Barentzen still holds the record as the youngest pianist, at 11 years old, to have won the First Prize at the Paris Conservatory. Her first recital was at the age of four, after which her mother moved with her from Boston to Paris for further music studies. Practicing six hours a day, at the age of seven she performed Beethoven's First Piano Concerto with orchestra, and at nine was accepted into the Paris Conservatory. Her teachers there included Marguerite Long and Delaborde. Later she studied in Berlin with Heirich Barth and Ernst von Dohnanyi (among her fellow students were Artur Rubinstein and Wilhelm Kempff), and in Vienna with Leschetizky.
With Paris as her home she became friends with many of the leading musicians and composers of the early twentieth century, including Enesco, Poulenc, Messaien, Roussel, and Villa Lobos, whose works she often premiered. She performed frequently throughout Europe with the leading conductors and recorded for His Master's Voice. She became a French citizen in the 1930's and spent the war in Paris, playing concerts as part of the effort to boost morale. In an interview/article in Clavier magazine, February 1981, she tells of how she was programmed to play Chopin's B minor Sonata and both volumes of the Etudes for the first half of a war-time concert, and of how she barely had the energy to make it through, due to the severe food shortages.
Aline absorbed scores quickly, learning all 24 Debussy Preludes during a vacation, and the Brahms Paganini Variations in five days. At one time she had an active repertoire of over 500 works. Her extensive early training resulted in complete technical mastery, it being told that when she went to study with Leschetizky he declared himself satisfied with her technique and spent his time on interpretation. Even though French music was her specialty she also recorded all of Beethoven's 32 sonatas for French Radio, and included a wide range of repertoire in her programs.
Her early teaching assignments included the Philadelphia Musical Academy and the Buenos Aires Conservatory. In 1954 she became Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatory and can count Jean-Philippe Collard and Cyprien Katsaris among her famous students. She was decorated three times by the French government: the "Chevalier des Arts et Lettres" (1962), the "Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur" (1966), and the "Officier de l'Ordre National du Merite" (1975). In 1976 the Brazilian government bestowed upon her the Villa-Lobos Gold Medal. She was a frequent jury member of leading piano competetions and was at one time the president of the Bach-Leveque piano competition. She also composed piano pieces under her married name of Hoyle.
A quote from a critic in Budapest sums her up as a performer (taken from the Clavier article, Feb. 1981): Aline van Barentzen is an artist of great temperament who possesses magnificent dynamism and a technique above all praise which permits her to bring all the finesse and the lyric poetry necessary to the works she interprets.
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2ndviolinist uploaded a new video
(3 days ago)
Wales - one of my favorite places, beautiful, friendly, and full of music lovers. I especially enjoyed staying with a family who ran a B & B o...
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Wales - one of my favorite places, beautiful, friendly, and full of music lovers. I especially enjoyed staying with a family who ran a B & B outside Llangollen on 3 occasions, the first time to attend the Eisteddfod. What a beautiful area. They took us down to an old pub, The Sun, and we played music until after hours.
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2ndviolinist uploaded a new video
(3 days ago)
Gabriel Fauré: Requiem in D op.48
1 Introït et Kyrie
2 Offertoire
3 Sanctus
4 Pie Jesu
5 Agnus Dei
6 Libera me
7 In Paradisum
Recorded: 3/10/1930
Ch...
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Gabriel Fauré: Requiem in D op.48
1 Introït et Kyrie
2 Offertoire
3 Sanctus
4 Pie Jesu
5 Agnus Dei
6 Libera me
7 In Paradisum
Recorded: 3/10/1930
Choeur de la Société Bach Orchestra conducted by Gustave Bret
Alexandre Cellier: organ
Louis Morturier: baritone
Malnory fanny-Marseillac: soprano
Found at satyr78lp.blogspot.com, a great site with many wonderful downloads available. Thanks to Rolf for his many fine, hard to find transfers.
Gustave Bret, French conductor, composer, organist and critic (1875-1969). He studied with Widor and D'Indy, and was organist of the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice. In 1904 he founded the Bach Society.
Fanny Malnory-Marseillac (Soprano), 1887 - 1979, (stage name Madame Malnory-Marseillac), was soloist of the Schola Cantorum and Concerts de la Société du Conservatoire (Concert Society of the Conservatory), performed often in the role of Lénore in Chant de la Cloche by Vincent d'Indy. She formed a trio, Trio vocal de Paris, the singers Marie-Louise Asso and Arlette Taskin (1925). She often sang in concerts with the pianist Déodat de Séverac. Even before World War I, the scientist Jacques Monod (who later won the Nobel Prize for his disovery of the operon) performed J.S. Bach's Christmat Oratorio (BWV 248) at Salle Gaveau, the most important concert hall in Paris at that time, with a pick-up ensemble, named by Monod as La Cantate. They hired the best musicians and soloists, including the French soprano Madame Malnory-Marseillac and the Swiss tenor Hugues Cuénod. The concert-goers responded warmly and the journals gave them rave reviews.
Alexandre Eugène Cellier, 1883 -- 1968, was a French organist and composer. Cellier studied organ with Alexandre Guilmant until 1908. In 1908 he won first prize for organ at the Conservatoire de Paris. Before that he also studied with Henri Dallier and Charles-Marie Widor. He was the organist/Titulaire of the Temple de l'Étoile in Paris from 1910 until his death in 1968. The organ he used was a 3-manual Cavaillé-Coll organ with 32 stops, which was extended by Mutin in 1914. He also made a career as concert organist in France and abroad. In Louis Vierne's biography Mes Souvenirs, he describes Alexandre Cellier as a highly "cultivated musician" with perfect skills in improvisation. His compositions were typical of the modern French style (in the view of Vierne) and "highly aesthetic". He wrote a book about organ registration and is known as the French translator of the texts of the Bach Chorales.
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1887 and 1890. This choral--orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead is the best known of his large works. The most famous movement is the soprano aria Pie Jesu.Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, "Just as Mozart's is the only Ave verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu."
Fauré's reasons for composing his Requiem are uncertain. One possible impetus may have been the death of his father in 1885, and his mother's death two years later on New Year's Eve 1887. However, by the time of his mother's death he had already begun the work, which he later declared was "composed for nothing ... for fun, if I may be permitted to say so!" The earliest composed music included in the Requiem is the "Libera Me", which Fauré wrote in 1877 as an independent work. In 1887--88, Fauré composed the first version of the work, which he called "un petit Requiem" with five movements (Introit and Kyrie, Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei and In Paradisum), but did not include the "Libera Me". This version was first performed January 16, 1888 under the composer's direction in La Madeleine in Paris. The treble soloist was Louis Aubert, and the occasion was the funeral of one Joseph La Soufaché, an architect. In 1889, Fauré added the "Hostias" portion of the Offertory and in 1890 he expanded the Offertory and added the 1877 "Libera Me". This second version, known today as the chamber orchestra version, was premièred January 21, 1893, again at the Madeleine with Fauré conducting. In 1899--1900, the score was reworked for full orchestra. There is some question as to whether this was the work of Fauré himself or one of his students (see below). This version was premiered April 6, 1900, with Eugène Ysaÿe conducting. It was the best known version until John Rutter rediscovered Fauré's original manuscript of the chamber orchestra version in theBibliothèque Nationale in Paris in the early 1980s. In 1924 the Requiem was performed at Fauré's own funeral. It was not performed in the United States until 1931, and then only at a student concert at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. It did not reach England until 1936.
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2ndviolinist uploaded a new video
(4 days ago)
Recorded in 1935.
(Serenata Notturno)
1. Marcia
2. Menuetto
3. Rondo
Found at The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (C...
more
Recorded in 1935.
(Serenata Notturno)
1. Marcia
2. Menuetto
3. Rondo
Found at The AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM) was established on 1 April 2004, supported by a 5-year grant of just under £1m from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Boyd Neel, 1905 - 1981
The English-born Canadian Conductor, administrator, lecturer, and writer, (Louis) Boyd Neel, wanted to be a pianist as a child. His mother, Ruby Le Couteur, was a professional accompanist, and his father was an engineer. Neel went to Osborne naval college and then to Dartmouth. Neel left the navy to study medicine at Caius College Cambridge, specializing in surgery. After graduating, he became House Surgeon and Physician at Saint George's Hospital, London, and Resident Doctor at King Edward VII's Hospital, London. While practising medicine, he went on to study theory and orchestration at the Guildhall School of Music in 1931 (or 1930).
For Boyd Neel, at this stage, music was still a hobby. He conducted amateur groups and was persuaded to form an orchestra of 17 young professionals, whom he recruited in 1932 from the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. Several of them were Canadians living in London. (Frederick Grinke, another Canadian, became concertmaster in 1937). The Boyd Neel London String Orchestra (later The Boyd Neel Orchestra) made its successful debut at the Aeolian Hall, London, on June 22, 1933. After the concert, Neel returned to his surgery and delivered a baby. By December 1933, the orchestra was invited to broadcast by the BBC. When Decca offered Neel and the orchestra a contract, he left medicine to devote his full time to music. Its concerts frequently offered music of contemporary British composers and it premiered works of Arnold Bax, Gordon Jacob, and others. The orchestra was in the vanguard of the Baroque revival and between 1934 and 1954 it committed to disc for Decca much of the chamber orchestra repertoire, notably (1936-1938) the first complete recording ever made of the George Frideric Handel's Concerti grossi Opus 6.
Neel conducted the first music heard in the new Glyndebourne opera house in 1934, in private performances, at John Christie's invitation. In 1937, Neel and his orchestra were invited to the Salzburg Festival, for which Neel commissioned Benjamin Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. The orchestra toured Great Britain and Europe until 1939. B. Britten wrote his Prelude and Fugue for 18 string instruments as a 10th birthday present to the Boyd Neel Orchestra in 1943.
During World War II, Boyd Neel served as a medical officer in the Navy, but contined o conduct when time permitted, and also did a lecture tour of the Mediterranean for the Admiralty. With the Sadler's Wells orchestra, gave several hundred concerts to troops in England. After the war, Neel resumed his musical career, conducting for Sadler's Wells Opera (1950 Rigolettos' he recalled) from 1944 to 1946 (or 1945-1947) and the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for its 1947 and 1948 London seasons at Sadler's Wells, performing the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Beginning in 1947, with the Boyd Neel Orchestra, he embarked on a series of world tours.
In 1953 Boyd Neel was appointed dean of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto), holding the position until 1971. He was a leader in the campaign to build a new home for the faculty. The campaign was a success and resulted in the Edward Johnson Building.
Boyd Neel was the founder in 1954 and the conductor until 1971 of the Hart House Orchestra (with which he toured and made several recordings), conducted the CBC Symphony Orchestra in some 27 performances 1953-1964, and conducted several TV programs of opera for 'L'Heure du concert' 1954-1955, including Il Tabarro with Louis Quilico. He conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for the first time on February 15, 1955, after which John Kraglund (Toronto Globe and Mail) wrote 'Neel's conducting is conservative and undemonstrative. Indeed, it has about it the restraint which suits the intimacy of a chamber concert'.
Boyd Neel is one of a handful of conductors who can rightfully take credit for discovering (or, more properly, rediscovering) an entire performing genre. The fact that music was his second career, makes his achievement even more remarkable. Since the 1970's and the growth of popularity of early music, the existence of string orchestras has been very common, with dozens springing up every year. But in the 1930's, the idea of a professional ensemble of chamber orchestra dimensions was virtually unknown until Boyd Neel decided to found one.
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