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GREAT MUSIC and ITS HISTORY

by Charles R. Hale

Recently, a  friend asked how I developed an interest in classical music.  My mother gets the credit for that one.  When I was a young boy in Glen Oaks, Queens, the local supermarket had classical albums for sale at the check out counter. Every so often my mother would buy one and thus, at any early age, I was introduced to classical music, including the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Bach and others. By the time I reached my teens, however, I rarely listened to classical music and, like most teens, I soaked up the music of the era, The Beatles, the Beach Boys, the  Rolling Stones, the Shirelles and many others. 

During my senior year in college, for reasons I can’t recall, I bought a ticket to a New York Philharmonic concert at Lincoln Center. The only thing I remember about the program was that it included Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. I was hooked. Soon I was attending concert after concert at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the 92nd Street Y. My interest in this musical genre has remained keen ever since.

Occasionally, a friend might say, “I’d like to begin building a classical music library. Can you send me a list of your favorite classical music recordings?” There are too many to include in a list of favorites, but typically I’ll start with a few that are not only great works but have an interesting history, which also interests me. Here’s a sampling: Four great works, out of hundreds in the classical repertory, including some great recordings of each.

Anton Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, Op. 104: Dvorak began work on this concerto in his East 17th St. apartment in NYC in 1884 and finished it in Prague the following year. On March 28, 1937, George Szell, conducting the Czech Philharmonic, along with cellist Pablo Casals, who was at the peak of his powers, his playing ennobling and lyrical, unleashed a stunning performance of the concerto. The recording is a tour de force, from the rapier life thrust of the cello in the opening movement, all the way to the concluding sinuous duet between cello and orchestra, and ending in a blaze of glory. I’ve often wondered what impact the political stirrings of the day had on this recording: Ethnic tensions were running high in Czechoslovakia and the scent of war was in the air; the Wermacht was planning an invasion of Czechoslovakia, and a year later the Munich agreement was signed ceding the Sudetenland to Germany.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. In 1936 Arturo Toscanini announced that he was leaving his post as the musical director of the New York Philharmonic after an eight-year stay. On April 9, shortly before his farewell performance at Carnegie Hall, Toscanini conducted a recording of Beethoven’s Seventh, which captures the clarity and propulsion that stamped his music and became known as the “Toscanini sound.” It’s also interesting to note the connection with Nazi Germany, since many feel that Toscanini’s performances and recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies were a public and musical repudiation of Nazi tyranny. The second movement marked “Allegretto,” was used to great effect in the recent film “The King’s Speech.” Here’s Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, November 10, 1951. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K466. Mozart composed fifteen piano concertos between the years 1782 and 1786, including the D Minor, premiered by Mozart himself, in February 1875. During this stretch, which may have been the peak of Mozart’s creative powers, he often performed one new work each week. The second movement marked, “Romanze” is brilliant. The movement begins with a simple theme and then (at the 4:05 mark in the recording I’ve provided) there is an outburst in the piano and orchestra with gorgeous exchanges between the piano and the oboes, flutes and bassoons, which is followed (at 6:43 in the recording) by the return of the original theme. This is a sublime work and may be my favorite two and one-half-minutes of music of any kind. The recording I’ve enjoyed most through the years is Daniel Barenboim’s with the English Chamber Orchestra, which isn’t available on youtube. The performance I’ve selected features pianist Friedrich Gulda with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op.82. Sibelius’s early works were often nationalistic in nature, in fact, his most popular work, Finlandia, was banned by the Russian czar during times of unrest. Sibelius began work on his Fifth Symphony during the early years of WWI and premiered it in December of 1915. He was not satisfied with the work and rewrote it at least twice, the final version being completed in 1918. As with much of Sibelius’s work there is strong feel of nature and the North country. I find the last movement, which begins with the whirrings of the string section and ending magisterially, particularly moving. Many consider Serge Koussevitzky’s recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra the preeminent recording of this work. The recording here, led by Esa Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a very fine recording of Sibelius’s work.