Concert Notes
Ernest Chausson, Poeme de l’amour et de la mer, Op.19
Ernest Chausson, Poeme de l’amour et de la mer, Op.19 By Paul Griffiths Written for the concert Pioneering Influence: César Franck, performed on Jan 7, 2007 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. “A beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.” This was Debussy’s mature assessment of Wagner, and of the French passion for Wagner…
Read MorePaul Dukas, Symphony in C
Paul Dukas, Symphony in C By Paul Griffiths Written for the concert Pioneering Influence: César Franck, performed on Jan 7, 2007 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Like many in Franck’s circle, Dukas was drawn to the senior composer more as a model and master than as a formal teacher. His training he received…
Read MoreAlbéric Magnard, Hymn to Venus, Op. 17
Albéric Magnard, Hymn to Venus, Op. 17 By Fred Kirshnit Written for the concert Pioneering Influence: César Franck, performed on Jan 7, 2007 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Most of us are remembered, if at all, for the way that we lived, but there are those who are memorialized because of how they died.…
Read MoreCésar Franck, Symphony in D minor
César Franck, Symphony in D minor By Vincent Giroud Written for the concert Pioneering Influence: César Franck, performed on Jan 7, 2007 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Born in 1822, César Franck was 65 when he set to work on his Symphony in D minor. An isolated figure for many years despite an early…
Read MoreSymphonic Mexico
Symphonic Mexico By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Symphonic Mexico, performed on Nov 17, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The fact that too many Americans, even those with a college education, know as little about the history of Mexico as they do is a cause for consternation and wonderment. The relations…
Read MoreSilvestre Revueltas, La noche de los Mayas
Silvestre Revueltas, La noche de los Mayas By Peter Laki Written for the concert Symphonic Mexico, performed on Nov 17, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The life of Silvestre Revueltas was tragically short, but certainly not uneventful. He was born in Mexico and spent several years studying and working in the United States…
Read MoreManuel Ponce, Violin Concerto
Manuel Ponce, Violin Concerto (1943) By Leonora Saavedra, University of California Riverside Written for the concert Symphonic Mexico, performed on Nov 17, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. In 1943, shortly after the premiere of Manuel M. Ponce’s Violin Concerto (with a young Henry Szeryng and the Orquesta Sinfónica de México, led by Ponce’s…
Read MoreCarlos Chávez, Symphony No. 1, Sinfonía de Antígona
Carlos Chávez, Symphony No. 1, Sinfonía de Antígona By Leonora Saavedra, University of California Riverside Written for the concert Symphonic Mexico, performed on Nov 17, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. In 1948, when the French composer Edgard Varèse was asked to give a series of lectures on twentieth-century music at Columbia University, he…
Read MoreThe Art of the Psalm
The Art of the Psalm By Leon Botstein Written for the concert The Art of the Psalm, performed on Oct 22, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Romanticism in the nineteenth century followed the so-called Age of Enlightenment, in which reason was celebrated and religion was tarnished as superstition, rigid doctrine, and the…
Read MoreAnton Bruckner, Psalm 150
Anton Bruckner, Psalm 150 By Christopher H. Gibbs, Bard College Written for the concert The Art of the Psalm, performed on Oct 22, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. The celebrated violinist Fritz Kreisler, who as a boy studied theory with Bruckner in Vienna, remarked that the composer was a “combination of genius…
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