|
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Prokofiev)
Sergei Prokofiev set about composing his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 10, in 1911, and finished it the next year. The shortest of all his concertos, it is in one movement, about 15 minutes in duration, and dedicated to the “dreaded Nikolai Tcherepnin, Tcherepnin.” Structure The work's single 15-minute span has the following tempo markings: #''Allegro brioso'' — #''Poco più mosso'' — #''Tempo I'' — #''Meno mosso'' — #''Più mosso (Tempo I)'' — #''Animato'' — #''Andante assai'' — #''Allegro scherzando'' — #''Poco più sostenuto'' — #''Più mosso'' — #''Animato'' Described as extroverted, even showy, for much of its length, the concerto begins and ends with the same spacious D-flat theme. Its ''Andante assai'' section, in G-sharp minor, offers warm, veiled contrast: a quasi “middle movement.” Premiere The concerto was first performed in Moscow on 25 July, 1912, with the composer as soloist and Konstantin Saradzhev conducting. Saradzhev “r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from ''The Love for Three Oranges,'' the suite ''Lieutenant Kijé'', the ballet ''Romeo and Juliet''—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and ''Peter and the Wolf.'' Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia—seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas. A graduate of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Szell
George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors. He is remembered today for his long and successful tenure as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and for the recordings of the standard classical repertoire he made in Cleveland and with other orchestras. Szell came to Cleveland in 1946 to take over a respected if undersized orchestra, which was struggling to recover from the disruptions of World War II. By the time of his death he was credited, to quote the critic Donal Henahan, with having built it into "what many critics regarded as the world's keenest symphonic instrument." Through his recordings, Szell has remained a presence in the classical music world long after his death, and his name remains synonymous with that of the Cleveland Orchestra. Whil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis De Froment
Louis de Froment (; 5 December 192119 August 1994) was a French conductor. Froment was born into a French noble family in Toulouse, and started his musical studies at the city conservatory. He later attended the ''Conservatoire national supérieur de musique'' (CNSM) of Paris and was a pupil of Louis Fourestier, Eugène Bigot and André Cluytens. In 1948, he received a first prize in conducting. Louis de Froment served as music director of orchestras at the casinos of Deauville and Cannes. He also worked as head of the permanent chamber orchestra of the radio in Nice (1958–59), of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio-Télé Luxembourg (1958–80), and also conducted the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française. He conducted the première of the Concerto Breve by Xavier Montsalvatge, with Alicia de Larrocha (piano) and the Barcelona Orchestra in 1953, and the opera ''Les caprices de Marianne'' by Henri Sauguet at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1954. His rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra
The Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra ( lb, Lëtzebuerger philharmoneschen Orchester, french: Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg), abbreviated to OPL, is a symphony orchestra based in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. The orchestra formerly performed at the Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg and the Conservatoire de Luxembourg. Its current home is the Philharmonie Luxembourg, a large concert hall opened in 2005 in the Kirchberg quarter in the northeast of the city. History The orchestra was founded in 1933 as the in-house orchestra of RTL Radio, named the ''RTL Grand Symphony Orchestra'' (french: Grand orchestre symphonique de RTL); Henri Pensis was its founder and first music director. After his initial tenure from 1933 to 1939, Pensis went into exile in the USA in the wake of World War II. He returned to Luxembourg in 1946 to resume direction of the orchestra. After Pensis died in 1958, Carl Melles was the orchestra's music director in 1958. Louis de Froment subseque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gabriel Tacchino
Gabriel Tacchino (4 August 1934 – 29 January 2023) was a French classical pianist and teacher. Life and career Tacchino was born in Cannes on 4 August 1934. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1947 to 1953, where his teachers included Jacques Février and Marguerite Long. He also studied with Francis Poulenc, the only pianist ever to do so; consequently, his interpretation of Poulenc's piano music reveals a special insight into the composer's intentions. His early prizes included the Viotti Competition (1st prize, 1953); the Busoni Competition (1954, 2nd prize); Casella International Competition (1954; 1st prize); the Geneva Competition (1955; joint 2nd prize with Malcolm Frager); and the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition (1957, 4th prize). Herbert von Karajan was instrumental in Tacchino getting his break, by engaging him to play with various orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic. His United States debut was in 1962, with Erich Leinsdorf and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He left many recordings of classical music played by major orchestras. Masur is also remembered for his actions to support peaceful demonstrations in the 1989 anti-government demonstrations in Leipzig; the protests were part of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall. Biography Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany (now Brzeg, Poland), and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. His father was an electrical engineer, and as a young boy he completed an electrician's apprenticeship; he occasionally worked in his father's shop. From ages 10 to 16, he took piano lessons with Katharina Hartmann. In October 1944 the Nazis ann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is based, the Gewandhaus ("Garment House"). In addition to its concert duties, the orchestra also performs frequently in the Thomaskirche and as the official opera orchestra of the Leipzig Opera. History The orchestra's origins can be traced to 1743, when a society called the ''Grosses Concert'' began performing in private homes. In 1744 the ''Grosses Concert'' moved its concerts to the "Three Swans" Tavern. Their concerts continued at this venue for 36 years, until 1781. In 1780, because of complaints about concert conditions and audience behavior in the tavern, the mayor and city council of Leipzig offered to renovate one story of the Gewandhaus (the building used by textile merchants) for the orchestra's use. The motto ''Res severa est verum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Béroff
Michel Béroff (born 9 May 1950) is a French pianist and conductor of Bulgarian origin. Background and education Béroff was born at Épinal, and trained at the Nancy, France, Nancy Conservatory, winning the 1st prize in 1962 and the prize of excellence in 1963. He completed his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatory with Yvonne Loriod, winning the 1st prize in 1966. Career In 1967 he made his Paris debut and won 1st prize in the Messiaen competition in Royan. Thereafter he toured extensively internationally and performed with most of the major orchestras and as a recitalist. He completed acclaimed Southern Africa tours in 1972 and 1975. He has recorded extensively for EMI in works by Liszt, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, J.S. Bach, Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingsway Hall
The Kingsway Hall in Holborn, London, was the base of the West London Mission (WLM) of the Methodist Church, and eventually became one of the most important recording venues for classical music and film music. It was built in 1912 and demolished in 1998. Among the prominent Methodists associated with the Kingsway Hall was Donald Soper, who was Superintendent Minister at the West London Mission from 1936 until his retirement in 1978. Overview Kingsway Hall took its name from the street on to which its main entrance opened. The address was West London Mission, 75 Kingsway, London . In 1899, the London County Council (LCC) was given the power to proceed with major slum clearance in the area between Holborn and the Strand. The Methodist Church had operated its West London Mission since 1887 occupying a number of rented buildings in Piccadilly, St James' Hall and Princes Hall, and the Strand, Exeter Hall. These venues were steadily reclaimed as sites for new hotels, so eventually, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In 1937, anticipating Nazi Germany, Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca and the link between the U.K. and U.S. Decca labels was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group. The U.S. Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG (Universal Music Group). Label name The name dates back to a portable phonograph, gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. The name "Decca" was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Previn
André George Previn (; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. His career had three major genres: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved success, and the latter two were part of his life until the end. In movies, he arranged and composed music. In jazz, he was a celebrated trio pianist, a piano-accompanist to singers of standards, and pianist-interpreter of songs from the "Great American Songbook". In classical music, he also performed as a pianist but gained television fame as a conductor, and during his last thirty years created his legacy as a composer of art music. Before the age of twenty, Previn began arranging and composing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He would go on to be involved in the music of more than fifty films and would win four Academy Awards. He won ten Grammy Awards, for recordings in all three areas of his career, and then one more, for lifetime achieve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> George Szell")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra")
.jpg "Click for more on -> André Previn")