by bob_oganovic | Mar 8, 2020 | Classical Music
York ~ The Lotus Eaters (c. 2000) Los Angeles Guitar Quartet In Greek mythology, the “lotus-eaters” were a race of people living on an island near North Africa. The fruits and flowers of the lotus plant were the primary food of the island and were...
by bob_oganovic | Mar 8, 2020 | Classical Music
Orff ~ O Fortuna from Carmina Burana (1937) Minnesota Dance Theater members performing “Carmina” O Fortuna appears at both the beginning and end of Carmina Burana, a secular cantata and composer Carl Orff’s best-known work. For better or worse it...
by bob_oganovic | Mar 1, 2020 | Classical Music
Debussy ~ La fille aux cheveux de lin (c. 1909) ~ Lang Lang, piano Achille-Claude Debussy The English title — one of Debussy’s series of short preludes for piano — roughly (and clumsily) translates as “the maid with the flaxen hair”....
by bob_oganovic | Mar 1, 2020 | Classical Music
Copland ~ Fanfare for the Common Man (1942) Aaron Copland was probably the best-known and most popular American composer of classical music in the 20th century. In her extensive two-volume biography of the man author Vivian Perlis quotes fellow composer (and...
by bob_oganovic | Mar 1, 2020 | Classical Music
Bach ~ Gigue Fugue (c. 1705) ~ Ken Cowan, Organ I once asked a very good organist I know if he thought Johann Sebastian Bach (shown here in a statue in Leipzig, Germany) was able to play all of the organ music he wrote. My friend said, “He could, but he...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 27, 2020 | Classical Music
Palestrina ~ Sicut Cervus (c. 1604) Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina The Latin words set here by the Renaissance master Palestrina translate as “As the hart longs for the flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God.” The weaving in and out of the...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 25, 2020 | Classical Music
Puccini ~ O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi (1918) Cover of Puccini’s original score What makes for a great tune? What is the gift that Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lennon and McCartney, Carole King, and others like them have? ...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 24, 2020 | Classical Music, Movies
Chariots of Fire (1981) If, as I noted elsewhere on this blog, Blazing Saddles always makes me laugh, then Chariots of Fire is the counterpoint – a film that always makes me cry. This is an all-too-rare movie about people of faith struggling with their beliefs...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 22, 2020 | Classical Music
Adams ~ A Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986) Ferrari (left) and Lamborghini John Adams John Adams has always sought out-of-the-box inspiration for his works: Richard Nixon traveling to China Robert Oppenheimer (the “father” of the atomic bomb) and the...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 22, 2020 | Classical Music
Britten ~ Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1945) Benjamin Britten Although nowadays it is performed as a stand-alone concert piece, this work derives its name from the fact that it was originally commissioned for an educational documentary film...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 22, 2020 | Books, Classical Music
Paul Robeson: a Biography by Martin Duberman (1989) The phrase “larger-than-life” is probably over-used nowadays but for Paul Robeson (1898-1976) it is an apt characterization. He had: A towering physical presence, a handsome face, and a mega-watt smile. An intellect...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 21, 2020 | Classical Music
Bernstein ~ West Side Story: Mambo (1960) Album cover for the movie West Side Story The Young People’s Concerts featuring Leonard Bernstein and the NY Philharmonic – Sunday afternoons on CBS – helped turn me on to classical music. Because of those Sunday afternoon...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 21, 2020 | Classical Music
Jenkins ~ Gaudete Christus es Natus (2009) Welsh composer Karl Jenkins (b. 1944) has been all over the map musically — rock, jazz, soundtracks, even television commercials. Here he takes a medieval melody and sacred Latin text (translated as “Praise,...
by bob_oganovic | Feb 19, 2020 | Classical Music
Stravinsky ~ Firebird: Berceuse and Finale (1910) The firebird – Russian painting Igor Stravinsky In the early ‘70’s I volunteered a few hours each week hosting a classical music program at St. Cloud State’s ragged little campus FM radio station – which, at 50...
Recent Comments