WOSU Public Media - Classical

At this time of the year we think of gathering with family and friends to celebrate, tell stories, give thanks, and express gratitude for what we have, knowing that even if things aren’t ideal, good company and good music too, come to think of it,  help make it better.  In the world of music there’s plenty to be thankful for.  When I think of the ideal gathering of great composers, for me always at the head of the table are Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.  Can you imagine the world of music without them?

I find it intriguing and appropriate that Mozart expressed his admiration for Bach and that Beethoven expressed his admiration for both Mozart and Bach.  You can hear examples of it in their music, too.   Bach was the culmination of the development of music of the Baroque Era, but his influence became greater after his lifetime.  Of course, it was Mendelssohn in the 19th century that helped bring about a great revival, or perhaps first large-scale appreciation of Bach by championing performances of his works.  However,  Mozart reportedly said, when studying some of Bach’s music, “here’s a man from whom one can learn something,” high praise considering the source.   A brilliant example from Mozart after his exposure to Bach is the magnificent five-part fugue in the final movement of the Jupiter Symphony from 1788.

Beethoven clearly recognized the genius of Mozart,  loved his opera The Magic Flute for its elevated theme (despite the comic elements) and sublime music, and was influenced by his music early in his composing career as well as by Franz Joseph Haydn, whose music Mozart also loved.  Bach’s influence on Beethoven, however, is felt most strongly in the late works in which Beethoven seems most visionary and beyond his contemporaries.   In the final movement of Piano Sonata 31 (the next to the last sonata Beethoven wrote) there’s a wonderful homage to the great fugal writing of Bach, beginning about three minutes from the end.  There’s the paradox that musical genius can express: combining an old form from the Baroque Era that was considered very old-fashioned by the the musical establishment of Beethoven’s time, with the Romantic spirit to create something uniquely new.

There’s something to be grateful for.  Each succeeding generation strives to produce something new and worthwhile, and yet it is only by fully understanding and honoring the past that the fullest potential for the future can be realized.  Perhaps its true–we don’t know where we’re going unless we know where we’ve been.   Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven are just part of that story.

–John Rittmeyer

Several weeks ago I blogged about hearing Elgar’s trombone.  So imagine my surprise when I saw the headline “Great composer, shame he couldn’t play”  in reference to Elgar in The Independent.  It’s an amuzing story which dovetails nicely with my earlier blog. Enjoy. — Beverley Ervine

To mark its 111th birthday this year, Deutsche Grammophon released a 55-CD box-set containing 111 of its most celebrated recordings with a broad range of great artists and favorite repertoire. AND, if you’re  reading this, you now have a chance to win an abbreviated set from WOSU. No kidding. Our prize is a 6-CD package from DG containing 111 classic tracks featuring their great artists.  (Abbado, Bernstein, Domingo, Heifetz, Lang Lang, Maazel, Pavarotti, Rostropovich, and Segovia to name a few.)  Just click here to register. The deadline is midnight on Sunday, Dec. 13th. (One entry per household, please.) The winner will be notified by e-mail.

Also, Deutsche Grammophon is running a contest with lots of prizes to celebrate its history of 111 years in the recording business. To participate in their contest or to learn more about DG’s past, visit their dedicated 111 website. The contest runs until Dec.31st, 2009.

Good luck! — Beverley Ervine

Swedish soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom died earlier this week at the age of

Elisabeth Soderstrom

82. She was one of my favorite artists. She did a lot of performances at the Metropolitan in New York in the early 1960s, before my time believe it or not, and then confined her appearances closer to home while raising a family. So the U.S. didn’t experience her great performances of Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio and as Countess Madeleine in Richard Strauss’s Capriccio both of which she sang, and thankfully was filmed in, at England’s Glyndebourne Festival. Outside of Scandinavia she didn’t so much with the big Italian operas, but her Butterfly and Mimi were fixtures at the Royal Swedish Opera for years. I loved both the purity and the warmth of her voice. You could get lost in the sound, it was like melted white chocolate. The good artists sing and look well -the great artists connect to the text and leave you with “ah-HA!” moments in music you thought you knew very well.

My great Soderstrom moments were less Ah-Ha! than slowly burning, simmering memories going back nearly thirty years.  She returned to New York in the early 1980s-the kids were grown-to sing the Marschallin in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. She starred in the Met tour in this opera with Frederica von Stade and Kathleen Battle.  I saw the performance in Boston on June 10, 1983.  OK, I had to look up the date, but do a Google search and you’ll find people still raving about this performance.

But the great Soderstrom moment for me came at the end of Mozart’s Figaro. February 7, 1987-I had been on Texaco Opera Quiz that afternoon so was able to see the performance from the Texaco Box, front and center of the Met’s parterre. In the last moments of Figaro the Countess over hears her husband seducing another woman. It wasn’t so much Soderstrom’s singing, which was indeed applauded to the walls-but the look on her face, that showed us the Countess’s heartbreak and the Countess’s resolve. I was in a theatre with 4,000 other people and I was a good 300 yards away from the stage but I will never forget the look that came over her-came and went-less than five seconds. I remember thinking at the time “This woman is an artist, and I am lucky to be here.”

God bless Elisabeth Soderstrom. She was gorgeous in Mozart and Strauss. Her recitals of Russian and Scandinavian literature won that music new audiences for decades. Off stage I’m told she was warm and fun.  She’s in heaven now, and heaven wins!

Here’s Elizabeth Soderstrom in Dove sono from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, August 20, 1960,  at the Royal Albert Hall in London.   Sir John Pritchard conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

And here’s a bit from Im Abenrot from Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. Antal Dortai conduts the Royal Phiharmmnic at the Royal Festival Hall, London Ocotber 3, 1976.  The last lines translate as:  O vast , tranquil peace/so deep at sunset!/How weary we are of wandering/Is this, perhaps, death?

–Christopher Purdy

Last week our Music Director Beverley Ervine arranged for an interview with Michael Lang, President of the Hamburg based recording consortium including Deutsche Grammophon, known to record collectors as “DGG” or The Yellow Label. I hadn’t been able to find out much about Herr Lang. The Herr Direktor, while correct and certainly articulate was hardly the stereotypical German bureaucrat.  He’s from Ann Arbor (!) and began his career at the Discount Records in his hometown while attending the University of that State Up North. He has an extensive background in music retail and in concert promotion, and was named Managing Director of Deutsche Grammophon in 2001,  and the label’s President in 2006.

I was pleased that while he spoke enthusiastically about DGG’s future, and the wonderful young artists he has brought to the label (Gustavo Dudamel, Yuja Wang, Hilary Hahn, Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko among them) he in no way forgets the legacy of the world’s most dazzling classical label:  Herbert von Karajan, Eugen Jochum, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Nathan Milstein and Rafael Kubelik are among the great artists who have been at home with the label going back to its first days in 1898 (Caruso, Melba, Nikich).

You’ll find my conversation with Michael Lang further on down. First,

Herbert von Karajan

here’s a bit of the legacy. Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic in a 1959 recording of Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben

Also from the legacy, here’s a bit of Schubert. The great Hans Hotter (1909-2003) in the final song form Die Winterreise–Der Leiermann, the blind old hurdy-gurdy man is driven away by the ice and snow and the growling, vicious dogs. Gerald Moore is at the piano:

And now my interview with Michael Lang, President of DGG, from his office in Hamburg outta Ann Arbor, Michigan:

Here’s a superb young artist we talked about in the interview, pianist Yuja

Yuja Wang

Wang. She’ll be part of Michael Lang’s legacy. Ligeti’s Piano Etude 10:

….and so we can really call it a party, here’s the Brindisi from Verdi’s La traviata, from the Salzburg Festival and Deutsche Grammophon, with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon.

Well, you knew it would happen.  The Web has made Beethoven a music video star. 

As we at WOSU Public Media gear up for a special day of Beethoven’s music on the man’s birthday, Dec. 16, I wanted to see just how big a star the master really is.

The answer: big.  One of the world’s most famous composers, Beethoven is an easy target for the exploits of videographers, animators, Web designers and other tech-savvy creative types who like to mix the old with the new.  In the category of “old” are: Beethoven, his music, and the music video genre, which since the days I ran home from school (I won’t say from what grade in school) with a friend to watch the release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video has virtually redefined music as something for the eyes as well as the ears.  In the category of “new” are: the Web 2.0 (still kind of new), YouTube (getting less new by the minute), and using today’s tech gizmos (each one never as new as the next) to do stuff with old things like music Beethoven and the genre of music videos.

So easy a target is Beethoven and so easy this tinkering with technology that a whole new subgenre of Beethoven music videos has emerged online.  I bring some of these videos to your attention here because I thought you might get a kick out of seeing them.

Quite possibly the newest Beethoven music video out there is Tom Lloyd’s aptly named “Beethoven Music Video,” uploaded on YouTube just two days ago.  Against the backdrop of the famous beginning of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the minute-long stop-animation video pits a lone violinist (who produces the sound of a full orchestra!) against a thick-haired conductor.  The one saws away on his little claymation violin; the other waves his little arms in wide-eyed detachment.  And there’s a surprise ending that, when you consider how much work it is for the violinist to sound also like a section of cellos, basses, bassoons, oboes, etc., isn’t really a surprise after all.  Here’s the video:

There are several videos out there set to the Scherzo from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and I bring your attention to a few of them.  One video, created by Michael Luckman of Luckman Media, is a stream-of-consciousness extravaganza of colorful jumping boxes, dancing trousers (free of bodies), and can-can lines of sheep (are they sheep?).  Watch this video when you need a postmodern whimsy fix:

Another Beethoven’s Ninth Scherzo video takes an altogether darker approach.  This video, actually a promo for the XBox 360 game Gears of War, has all the makings of a total-devastation film (all the makings, that is, except Bruce Willis, Jean-Claude Van Damme, or Will Smith): the smoke and embers of a destroyed city, a lone armor-clad warrior hurtling himself through the streets to battle a fierce arachnid. (Speaking of Bruce Willis, you may remember that the Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony ran like a leitmotif through the whole Die Hard series.)  My video game-playing days went away with Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, so I can’t comment on the game.  But these images and Beethoven’s grim Scherzo (dark humor if ever there were any) make disturbingly evocative bedfellows:

Contrast these apocalyptic images with those of a video dubbed “Beautiful Music and Nature.”  The maker had a sample of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony Scherzo on his (her?) hard drive and put it together with images of nature scenes.  Trees in full fall colors, mountains, placid lakes reflecting sunset-hued skies, baby penguins - nature in all its awesome splendor.  As unnerving as are the juxtaposition of Beethoven’s music with images of war, the nature scenes with this music are, to me, at least equally destabilizing.

Finally, for fantasy fans, the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata is the soundtrack for a  seven-minute Waterworld-meets-Lord of the Rings saga.  The theme of total devastation runs through this flick, too, as a tsunami washes out an entire village.  The themes of love and isolation are also constantly present, played out in hypnotic images by elusive characters who (not to give away the ending) leave us stranded in the No Man’s Land between dreams and reality.

So is classical music dead?  Hardly.  Roll over (in your grave) Beethoven?  I don’t think so.  Beethoven was, if nothing else, a man at once of his times and brilliantly, if also painfully, ahead of his time.  I think he’d like the idea that his music continues to inspire and accompany creativity, or at least that it continues to be heard and felt.

Don’t forget to tune in to WOSU 89.7 FM Dec. 16 for a day of special Beethoven programming.  See you then!

–Jennifer Hambrick

Thoughts from Beverly about the passing of Jane Burns:

I “inherited” Jane as a then “FM”/Classical volunteer when I began working at the station in Jan. 1986. When another long-time station volunteer, Howard Endter, retired from volunteering in the classical library and in the business office, Jane picked up his hours and worked in both departments until circumstances prevented her from being able to come any longer.

Jane almost reached 25 years with WOSU, and she kept track of the anniversaries. It became a bit of a game for me to see if I could say something first about which anniversary it was before she did. She took great pride in her work and her relationship/service to WOSU. Without fail she had a smile for each of u, and in return, put many smiles on our faces along with many wonderful memories. She was a stand out as a worker and as a person.

Even though this was a non-paid position, Jane was the consummate professional – on time each week, impeccably dressed, and a perfectionist with her assigned tasks in our music library.

Our cataloging books are filled with her beautiful penmanship, so we’ll think of her often with fondness and gratitude every time we flip through these pages as we search our CD library holdings.

May she rest in peace.
(Courtesy of Beverly, the entire classical staff, all of WOSU)

Obit:
Jane Staiger Burns
Jane Staiger Burns passed away Thursday, November 5, 2009 at The Sanctuary at Tuttle Crossing. She was born January 12, 1918, the daughter of the late John and Gertrude Staiger. Graduate, magna cum laude, University of Toledo. Jane was a World War II veteran, retired as Lieutenant Commander, United States Naval Reserve, with 20 years service. Life member of Military Officers Association of America, member of Military Officers Club of Central Ohio. 1994 recipient of a Certificate of Appreciation in recognition and gratitude for outstanding service to our Supply Corps, Navy and Nation. She is survived by sister-in-law, AnnaBelle Staiger; nieces, Jeanne (Michael) Schatzki and Deborah (Benjamin) Newberry; grand-nieces, Megan and Andrea Newberry. She was a longtime associate of The Ohio Academy of Science, was a WOSU volunteer for over 20 years and a two time recipient of the WOSU Spirit Award. A Memorial Service will be held 3:30 p.m. Thursday, November 19, 2009 at the RUTHERFORD FUNERAL HOME at Powell, 450 West Olentangy St., Powell, Ohio 43065 (614)-792-1471. (The funeral home is located on West Olentangy St./Powell Rd./SR 750 mile east of Sawmill Parkway.) Interment with military honors will be held at Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery, Rittman, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to consider memorial contributions to WOSU or the Ohio Academy of Science, in Jane’s memory. Condolences may be forwarded to the family at: www.rutherfordfuneralhomes.com

Well, it’s just one of those things I noticed on a Friday afternoon.  Nora The Piano Cat not only has her own YouTube videos of herself playing, but now a composer has written a concerto for her as well.

You might, or might not, be aware that Nora the piano playing cat was quite a hit awhile back.  Here’s a reminder:

It turns out that Lithuanian conductor, composer, and artist Mindaugas Piecaitis composed and directed the CATcerto For Nora The Piano Cat and Orchestra, in which Nora, the soloist, was brought in via video.  The world premier was performed by the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra in Lithuania on June 5th of this year.  While I think there was quite a bit of editing to get Nora’s part purr-fectly synchronized,  her paw work is quite impressive and her feline nonchalance elicits a hearty meow of approval.  And, oh yes, the orchestral part played by the humans is a pretty nice piece of work, too.  Enjoy:

–John Rittmeyer

Courtesy of Indiana University

In case you were wondering what to do tonight, or in case you’re too scared to venture forth into the world on the evening Friday the 13th, or in case you just need another opera-via-technology fix, I’ve got just the thing for you!

Tonight at 8 p.m. the Opera Theater of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music will stream its brand-new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.  According to Philip Ponella, director of Indiana University’s William and Gayle Cook Music Library, you need have only a relatively recent computer and standard broadband connection to tap in.  To test your computer’s capabilities and to tune in to the opera tonight, click here:

http://music.indiana.edu/iumusiclive/streaming/

But wait!  There’s more.  While tonight’s performance of The Magic Flute will not be the first opera production IU has streamed, it will be the university’s first streamed opera production to be annotated in real time.  Two Indiana University musicology doctoral students will blog along with the stream, “providing commentary and information on the opera,” Ponella wrote in an e-mail mesage.

Is this the operatic equivalent of MTV Pop-Up Videos?  Is this just another gimmick  to get classical music and information about it before real people who may perceive it to be too stuffy for the hipness of cyberspace?  The real question is: Who cares?  If people watch the stream and read the blog posts, that means technology is bringing people to opera.  And isn’t that good news!

Enjoy!

–Jennifer Hambrick

Alondra de la Parra

Barbara Zuck of the Columbus Dispatch and I recently had a conversation about the status of the Columbus Symphony music director search. Specifically, we discussed the recent appearances in the Ohio Theater by conductors Alondra de la Parra and Jean-Marie Zeitouni. A shortened version of our talk was broadcast on WOSU radio. Here’s the whole conversation…don’t forget to visit the Columbus Symphony website, and join me for the CSO’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony 9 conducted by Gunter Herbig on Saturday, November 28 at 8 pm on WOSU 89-7 FM.

–Christopher Purdy

Jean-Marie Zeitouni