4/23 Lectures on Conductors and Aliens

http://www.etsy.com/people/needlelite

Vanderbilt University in Nashville has an incredible Youtube channel where you can literally spend days - maybe weeks, watching their educational videos, lectures and concerts.  It's pretty incredible that this kind of programming is free on the internet.  Several universities do this nowadays and you can find filmed classroom lectures on everything from electronic music synthesis to copyright law to brain surgery (I think).

Here's "What Does a Conductor Actually Do?" (1 hr. 20 min.)
Giancarlo Guerrero leads a penetrating and intimate exploration of the role and responsibilities of the symphonic conductor. Through the use of personal stories, DVDs, recordings and demonstration, class participants learn firsthand the actual components of the conductor's leadership and job requirements. The world's great conductors will be compared and contrasted, illuminating the central and sometimes surprising role the conductor plays in the musical interpretation, production, sound, personnel and importantly the enjoyment of the audience.
Beethoven  - Symphony 7 (excerpts)
Sir Georg Solti, Vienna Phil
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony
Carlos Kleiber, Concertgebouw Amsterdam
Tchaikovsky (excerpts)
Leonard Bernstein, NY Phil

How to Listen to Classical Music: What Does A Conductor Actually Do?

Here's an 1 hr 15 min. lecture/demonstration called "Symphony 101"
Giancarlo Guerrero, music director and conductor of the Nashville Symphony, leads an engaging and invigorating discussion about the elements and structure of the music of the symphony orchestra. What is a symphony? Maestro Guerrero will dissect the symphonic form exploring scherzo, minuet, theme and variation, and more. The great composers of symphonies and their works are also explored through their different approaches to the form and their unique and recognizable voices.

How to Listen to Classical Music: Symphony 101

Check out Vanderbilt's channel for more lectures and concerts including:
OCTUBAFEST at the Blair School of Music (lots of tubas on stage)
and
"Life in the Universe" (Jodie Foster character in the movie Contact is largely based on this real-life researcher)...

3/13 Performance Today's "50 Essential Classical"

NPR Radio has always been an incredibly rich source of information and education about classical music.  One of my favorite features, especially when I was just getting into classical music, is The "PT 50" - that is, the "Performance Today 50 Essential Classical Music CDs" show.  This is a series of - guess what - 50 half-hour programs where 2 radio hosts basically "sell" their favorite classical records and play excerpts from them.  The 3 shows about Beethoven works were these:

BEETHOVEN:
Piano Sonatas Nos. 21 "Waldstein", 23 "Appassionata" & 26 "Les Adieux"
Emil Gilels, piano
(Piano Sonata #26 In Eb, Op.81A, "Les Adieux" (1810) is performed in its entirety starting from 6:30)

The String Quartets
Emerson String Quartet (Op.95 M1, Op.18,No.2 M2, Op.135 M2, Op.59,No.3 M4)

Symphony No. 5 in c minor, Op. 67
Vienna Philharmonic,Carlos Kleiber, conductor

By clicking on the above links you should be able to launch your RealMedia player (or whatever browser plug-in you have set to play RAM streams).  Personally, I have Media Player Classic assigned in my Firefox Options/Applications to play RAM files. 

These programs were hosted by Fred Child and featured selections and commentary by Ted Libbey, who I also paraphrased in 1/5 Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas: An Overview (Libby).

To go to the full listing of the PT 50 see below:
The NPR PT 50 w Ted Libby

11/11 Symphony No. 4, Pt 2 (Analysis, Kleiber)

(Kandinsky Boogie)

Beethoven, Symphony 4, Movements III and IV (continued from yesterday)
Now we're gonna boogie...

Movement III

Minuet 1

-A Jagged rhythmic motifs w chromatic middle phrase

-A 2nd time

-B - Jagged motif now in Db followed by fugal counterpoint

-A1 - bigger version with add'l arching figures and tutti cadence

-B, 2nd time (jagged, counterpoint)

-A1 , 2nd time

Trio 1 - slower

-C - rustic winds

-D - bassoon and horns join in

-C1 w trilling strings and thicker orchestration

Minuet 2

Trio 2

Coda (Minuet 3)

-A1 - Joyous conclusion to set the mood for riotous final movement

Movement IV

Exposition

-Theme 1 in Bb

--Pt 1 - scurrying strings start off high and low

--Pt 2 - partner harmony melody

--Pt 3 - lyric motif is inverted previous motif

--Pt 4 - tutti into closed cadence

-Modulating Bridge - arpeggios

-Theme 2 in F

--A - oboe and flute melody

--A1 - low strings counter subject

--B - winds motif alternates w string phrase

--C - tutti, leading into theme 1 motif variations tutti syncopations

-Cadence phrase

--Pt 1 - theme 2 motifs

--Pt 2 - Accents ending into F Major closed cadence

Exposition Repeat

Development

-Pt 1 - quiet Theme 1 motifs build

-Pt 2 - false climax

-Pt 3 - modulating from G minor to foriegn keys

-Pt 4 - Theme 1 motifs re-emerge

-Pt 5 - 2nd false climax

-Pt 6 - energy drops to prepare for bassoon cadenza

Recapitulation

-Theme 1, abbreviated

-Modulating Bridge, extended

-Theme 2 winds theme

--A, A1

--B

--C

-Cadence

--Pt 1 - Theme 2 var

--Pt 2 - accented tuttis

Coda

-Pt 1 - quiet Theme 1

-Pt 2 w Clarinet and Bassoon solo 2, dramatic tutti leading to another...

-Pt 3 - ...last go around

-Pt 4 - winds and strings play quiet Theme 1 motifs, a pregnant pause before final tutti...

I really love the 4th movement - it's like an unlimited energy source!

(Analysed with the assistance of Robert Greenberg's Teaching Company Wordscore guide.)

11/10 Symphony No. 4, Pt 1 (Analysis, Kleiber)

(Kandinsky)

Today and tomorrow I tackle Beethoven's Symphony 4 in B flat major, op.60 (1806) - a real underrated masterpiece.  It's much more sprightly than the 3rd and much less stormy than the 5th and that makes it the "fun cousin" of the bunch. And yet it starts out very mysteriously....

I've been using performances by Paavo Järvi for Symphonies 1 thru 3, but for Symphony 4 I'll use Maestro Carlos Kleiber's live rendition - he wasn't too shabby this weekend on the 7th, right?
As usual I don't annotate the repeats as much because it's a good test for ones memory ;)

Symphony 4,  Movement I - Adagio - Allegro vivace

Introduction in Bb minor

-1st Round

--A - Plucked strings start each round

--B (steps)

-2nd Round

--A

--B1 (half step higher variation

-3rd Round

--B2 - Ambiguous harmonic direction leading to Expo

Exposition

-Theme 1 in Bb Major

--A, A1 - Sudden energy bursts forth in quarter note motifs (closed cadence)

--B - staccato bassoon theme

--A2 - Theme 1 in cellos

-Modulating Bridge

--Pt 1 - from A2

--Pt 2 - Syncopated winds

--Pt 3

-Theme 2 in F Major

--Pt 1 - spritely motif passed around winds

--Pt 2 - rustic winds canon from bridge motif 3

-Cadence section w syncopation

Exposition Repeat

Development

-Pt 1 - Descending sequence

-Pt 2 - Modulation

-Pt 3 - Theme 1

-Pt 4 - Theme 1 modulating

-Pt 5 - ambiguous reprise of introductory hush

-Pt 6 - Retransition - Theme 1 sequences a way back to recap

Recapitulation

-Theme 1 extended variation

-Modulating Bridge

--Pt 1 - rising sequence

--Pt 2 - syncopated winds

--Pt 3

-Theme 2 (in Bb this time)

--Pt 1 - sprightly motif in winds

--Pt 2 - winds canons

-Cadence w Syncopation

Coda

-Pt 1 - Theme 1 motifs

-Pt 2 - multilayers of textures

Movement II - Adagio

Exposition
-Introduction measure - introduces 2-step motif

-Theme 1 in Eb (song-like melody comes in 1st Violins)

--Theme 1 builds w Winds

-Modulating Bridge using arch-like figures and held textures

-Theme 2 in Bb w clarinet lead

-Cadence Phrase

--Pt 1

--Pt 2 - "2-step" motif in tutti

Development

-Pt 1 - Theme 1 motif

-Pt 2 - dramatic dropping minor chords

-Pt 3 - swirling

-Pt 4 - Theme 1 motif

Recapitulation

-Intro measure

-Theme 1 - Eb Major

-Modulating Bridge - arching figures...

-Theme 2 - Clarinet melody

-Cadence Phrase

--Pt 1

--Pt 2 - "perdendo" dying away

Coda

-Pt 1 - Theme 1

-Pt 2 - Cadence theme

-(final "2-step" motif)

Movements 3 and 4 tomorrow......

(Analysed with the assistance of Robert Greenberg's Teaching Company Wordscore guide., The videos were originally uploaded to Youtube by 12clar3412clar34)

11/6 Kleiber's Beethoven 7 (x 2)

Carlos Kleiber is one of the greatest "old school" Beethoven conductors ever - especially for Symphonies 5 and 7. These two are real "reference" recordings.  Here's Maestro Kleiber conducting the 7th..TWICE....not sure what year or orchestra of the first one, but the second is the Bavarian State Orchestra.  What ENERGY.

(Be warned that the transition to the 2nd part of movement I is not exactly seamless, I guess this was before Youtube increases the allowable video length.... )

Symphony No.7 in A major, Op.92 (1811)