Classic 100 Twentieth Century (ABC)
During 2011 the Australian radio station ABC Classic FM held a Classic 100 Twentieth Century countdown. Voting for the countdown was held between 1 October 2011 and 23 October 2011, with each listener permitted to vote for up to 10 pieces of music that were "composed since 1900". The broadcasting of the results of the countdown began on 26 November 2011 and concluded on 3 December 2011 (with the top-ranked works played live by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in concert at the Adelaide Festival Theatre). Countdown results The results of the countdown were as follows: Results ranked by year Programming For more information about the works broadcast (including performers and recording details), see ABC Classic FM's programming notes:Day 1 Numbers 100 to 88Day 2 Numbers 87 to 78Day 3 Numbers 77 to 66Day 4 Numbers 65 to 55Day 5 Numbers 54 to 41Day 6 Numbers 40 to 29Day 7 Numbers 28 to 19Day 8 Numbers 18 to 1 By composer The following 48 composers were featured in the countdown: ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a Megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with Deserts of Australia, deserts in the centre, tropical Forests of Australia, rainforests in the north-east, and List of mountains in Australia, mountain ranges in the south-east. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately Early human migrations#Nearby Oceania, 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sir John In Love
''Sir John in Love'' is an opera in four acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' and supplemented with texts by Philip Sidney, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher. The music deploys English folk tunes, including "Greensleeves". Originally titled ''The Fat Knight'', Kennedy, Michael, ''The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams''. Oxford University Press (1964), p. 218. the opera premiered at the Parry Opera Theatre, Royal College of Music, London, on 21 March 1929. Its first professional performance was on 9 April 1946 at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Performance history Performances of the opera have remained rare, including 1978 and 1988 productions by the Bronx Opera (New York City) and a 1997 Barbican concert performance. After 1958, the opera remained unstaged in the UK until the 2006 production at English National Opera (ENO), which was ENO's first production ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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An American In Paris
''An American in Paris'' is a jazz-influenced orchestral piece by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital during the '. Gershwin scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. He brought back four Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic. It was Damrosch who had commissioned Gershwin to write his Concerto in F following the earlier success of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1924). He completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work's premiere. He collaborated on the original program notes with critic and composer Deems Taylor. Background Although the story is likely apocryphal, Gershwin is said to have been attra ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Violin Concerto (Korngold)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold composed his Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, in 1945. Instrumentation The work is scored for solo violin, two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes (one doubling cor anglais), two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), four horns, two trumpets, trombone, harp, strings, and a colorful percussion section of timpani, bass drum, cymbals, gong, tubular bell, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, and celesta. Movements *''Moderato nobile'': The violin solo which opens the concerto is a theme from '' Another Dawn'' (1937), running over two octaves in five notes. '' Juarez'' (1939) provided the second theme (the Maximilian & Carlotta theme), more expansive and reliant upon the orchestra. *''Romance'': The solo violin introduces the principal theme of the slow movement, quoted from ''Anthony Adverse'' (1936) and revisited after a contrasting middle section that seems to have been uniquely composed for the concerto. *''Allegro ass ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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An Alpine Symphony
''An Alpine Symphony'' (''Eine Alpensinfonie''), Op. 64, is a tone poem for large orchestra written by German composer Richard Strauss in 1915. It is one of Strauss's largest non-operatic works; the score calls for about 125 players and a typical performance usually lasts around 50 minutes. The program of ''An Alpine Symphony'' depicts the experiences of eleven hours (from daybreak just before dawn to the following nightfall) spent climbing an Alpine mountain. History Strauss's ''An Alpine Symphony'' was completed in 1915, eleven years after the completion of its immediate predecessor in the genre of the tone poem, ''Symphonia Domestica''. In 1911, Strauss wrote that he was "torturing imselfwith a symphony – a job that, when all's said and done, amuses me even less than chasing cockroaches".Marc Mandel"Richard Strauss: ''An Alpine Symphony'', Op. 64" ''Boston Symphony Orchestra''; accessed 2 March 2009. One point of influence comes from Strauss's love of nature. As a bo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Candide (operetta)
''Candide'' is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the 1759 novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to Voltaire's novel. The primary lyricist was the poet Richard Wilbur. Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, John Mauceri, John Wells, and Bernstein himself. Maurice Peress and Hershy Kay contributed orchestrations. Although unsuccessful at its premiere, ''Candide'' has now overcome the unenthusiastic reaction of early audiences and critics and achieved more popularity. Origins ''Candide'' was originally conceived by Lillian Hellman as a play with incidental music in the style of her previous work, '' The Lark''. Bernstein, however, was so excited about this idea that he convinced Hellman to do it as a "comic operetta"; s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Concerto In F (Gershwin)
Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced ''Rhapsody in Blue''. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. It is just over half an hour long. Genesis of the Concerto Damrosch had been present at the February 12, 1924 concert arranged and conducted by Paul Whiteman at Aeolian Hall in New York City titled ''An Experiment in Modern Music'' which became famous for the premiere of Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue'', in which the composer performed the piano solo. The day after the concert, Damrosch contacted Gershwin to commission from him a full-scale piano concerto for the New York Symphony Orchestra, closer in form to a classical concerto and orchestrated by the composer. Because of contractual obligations for three different Broadway musicals, he was not able to begin sketching ideas until May 1925. He began the two-p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Violin Concerto (Barber)
Samuel Barber completed his Violin Concerto, Op. 14, in 1939. It is a work in three movements, lasting about 22 minutes. History In 1939, Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write a violin concerto for his ward, Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music the same year as Barber, 1934. The Barber biographies written by Nathan Broder (1954) and Barbara B. Heyman (1992) discuss the genesis of the concerto during the period of its commission and the subsequent year leading up to the first performance. Heyman interviewed Briselli and others familiar with the history in her publication. In late 2010, previously unpublished letters written by Fels, Barber, and Albert Meiff (Briselli's violin coach in that period) from the Samuel Simeon Fels Papers archived at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania became available to the public. Barber accepted Fels's advance and went to Switzerland to work on the concerto. Barber started working on the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Londonderry Air
The "Londonderry Air" is an Irish air that originated in County Londonderry. It is popular among the North American Irish diaspora and is well known throughout the world. The tune is played as the victory sporting anthem of Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games. The song "Danny Boy" uses the tune, with a set of lyrics written in the early 20th century. History The title of the air came from the name of County Londonderry, and was collected by Jane Ross of Limavady in the county. Ross submitted the tune to music collector George Petrie, and it was then published by the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland in the 1855 book ''The Ancient Music of Ireland'', which Petrie edited. The tune was listed as an anonymous air, with a note attributing its collection to Jane Ross of Limavady. For the following beautiful air I have to express my very grateful acknowledgement to Miss J. Ross, of New Town, Limavady, in the County of Londonderry—a lady ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Turangalîla-Symphonie
The ''Turangalîla-Symphonie'' is the only symphony by Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992). It was written for an orchestra of large forces from 1946 to 1948 on a commission by Serge Koussevitzky in his wife's memory for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Along with the ''Quatuor pour la fin du temps'', the symphony is one of the composer's most notable works. The premiere was in Boston on 2 December 1949, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The commission did not specify the duration, orchestral requirements or style of the piece, leaving the decisions to the composer. Koussevitzky was billed to conduct the premiere, but fell ill, and the task fell to the young Bernstein. Bernstein has been described as "the ideal conductor for it, and it made Messiaen's name more widely known". Yvonne Loriod, who later became Messiaen's second wife, was the piano soloist, and Ginette Martenot played the ondes Martenot for the first and several subsequent performances. From 1953, Yvonne's sister Jeanne ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Akhnaten (opera)
''Akhnaten'' is an opera in three acts based on the life and religious convictions of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), written by the American composer Philip Glass in 1983. The libretto is by Philip Glass in association with Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, Richard Riddell, and Jerome Robbins. According to the composer, this work is the culmination of his two other biographical operas, ''Einstein on the Beach'' (about Albert Einstein) and ''Satyagraha'' (about Mahatma Gandhi). These three people were all driven by an inner vision which altered the age in which they lived: Akhenaten in religion, Einstein in science, and Gandhi in politics. The text, taken from original sources, is sung in the original languages, linked together with the commentary of a narrator in a modern language, such as English or German. Egyptian texts of the period are taken from a poem of Akhenaten himself, from the ''Book of the Dead'', and from extracts of decrees and letters from the Amarn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Daphnis Et Chloé
''Daphnis et Chloé'' is a 1912 ''symphonie chorégraphique'', or choreographic symphony, for orchestra and wordless chorus by Maurice Ravel. It is in three main sections, or ''parties'', and a dozen scenes, most of them dances, and lasts just under an hour, making it the composer's longest work. In effect it is a ballet, and it was first presented as such. But it is more frequently given as a concert work, either complete or excerpted, vindicating Ravel's own description above. The dance scenario was adapted by choreographer Michel Fokine from a pastoral romance by the Greek writer Longus thought to date from the 2nd century AD, recounting the love between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé. Scott Goddard in 1926 published a commentary on the changes to the story Fokine had to apply in order to make the scenario workable. Composition and premiere Ravel began to write the score in 1909 after a commission from impresario Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes, comp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |