TODAY IN CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORY - DECEMBER 4, 1920: FATHER-SON COLLABORATION RECEIVES RARE SIMULTANEOUS DOUBLE PREMIERE: KORNGOLD’S DIE TOTE STADT feat. Did You Know?

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

It was on this December day in 1920 that Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold debuted his 3-act opera Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City) in eodem tempore at Hamburg’s Stadttheater^[1] and the Theater in der Glockengasse^[2] in Cologne, Germany - a rare occasion for any composer of note - made possible thanks in part to the smashing success of Erich’s previous two operas (Der Ring des Polykrate and Violanta), and the rumored subject matter of the work itself (the bereaved overcoming grief). 

Die Tote Stadt would premiere just after the fallout from WWI, and audiences and fans of the composer were only too eager to see exaggerated visions of themselves on stage in what they must have felt was a safe and dignified way to cope with their own losses and begin to deal their own anger and grief.

Erich penned the libretto for Die Tote Stadt alongside his father Julius under the pseudonym Paul Schott after the father Korngold was approached with both subject matter and a request to create an opera by the Austrian playwright and close friend Siegfried Trebitsch, who had recently translated for the stage Belgian writer Georges Rodenbach’s play (an adaptation of the latters own novel Bruges-la-Morte (The dead [city of] Bruges) into German and wished to see the famously sordid tale take on an operatic format.

Julius would present the idea to Erich, for which he received a most favorable reception, and the two would sit to pen the libretto for the opera, based largely on Rodenbach’s original story, which tells of a bereaved widower, so overcome by grief, he falls into a state of depressed stagnation – rarely leaving his house, afraid to part - even for a moment - with the relics his beloved left behind: her letters, her clothes – even a lock of hair...

 A young Erich, right, flanked by his mother and
 father, Julius Korngold (far left).

that is until he meets Marietta – a dead ringer (pun intended) for his young wife Marie, and takes her home with him in an effort to assuage the many requests of his good friend Frank, who urges the broken widower to move on. The young seductress only serves to further confuse the emotions of the widower Paul - a crime for which she will pay the ultimate price: in both novel and opera, fate is rendered most unkind to poor Marietta (Jane Scott in the novel), who winds up throttled to death (thankfully for the young coquette the Korngolds' version of her murder takes place in one of the widowers’ twisted visions).

Die Tote Stadt would prove to be an even greater success than Erich’s previous two revered operas, and would be performed at the most prestigious opera houses across the globe in an impressively short time span of just under two years following its unprecedented double premiere in Germany in 1920.

The opera – and it’s standout aria "Glück das mir verblieb" - sung by both Marietta (as a means to seduce Paul in the opera’s first act), and by the widower himself as he reminisces over his “Temple of Memories” in the concluding act – remain a global favorite, even surviving a forced hiatus in it’s homeland and in annexed Austria (Erich's place of birth) during and after the second world war when the opera – and it’s Jewish composer - were labeled “degenerate music” by the ruling Nazi Régime.

Die Tote Stadt would not be revived in Austria until 1967, when it premiered at the Vienna Volksoper.

Fortunately for fans of Korngold around the globe, it would prove to be a mainstay in the worldwide operatic repertoire. 

Enjoy below a stunning rendition of Glück das mir verblieb by the Flemish tenor Jozef Sterkens (sung in Dutch):


Did You Know?

Georges Rodenbach’s Bruges-la-morte, first published in 1892, is notable for being the first book of fiction to be illustrated with photographs. The 35 half-tone reproduction prints were supplied by Paris image banks J. Lévy & Co. and Neurdein Frères. Curiously, the photographs would disappear from later editions until the late twentieth century, when they appeared, in full, in a 1998 edition.

It is widely lauded amongst literary circles for being the “archetypal” Symbolist novel.

Read Rodenbach's epic work at for free at Project Gutenberg:

• Bruges-la-morte (en Français)

Footnotes:

^[1]Conducted by Egon Pollak
^[2]Conducted by Otto Klemperer

-Rose.

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FOR THOSE WHO DARE TO DREAM FANTASTICAL DREAMS: FORMER FLOOR SWEEPER TURNED MODERN OPERA DIVA ANNA NETREBKO SET TO INTRODUCE TO THE WORLD ALL-NEW TRIO AT LONG-AWAITED CANADIAN DEBUT

It will be a dream come true for some lucky Torontonians – and undoubtedly for Russian soprano Anna Netrebko herself - come next April 25th, when the leading operatic diva is slated to make her long-awaited Canadian debut alongside tenor (and Netrebko’s husband) Yusif Eyazov and famed Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky at the thriving metropolis’ Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts located in the artistic heart of the city.

Anna’s Canadian debut is two times significant as not only will it be the first time the singer has performed in the country, it will also serve as home to the worldwide debut of Netrebko’s newly formed trio, dubbed Trio Magnifico, and as such is a great boon for the COC.

The ravishing beauty – as much physically as she has grown vocally – has served as one of Russia’s greatest sensational exports since the early 2000’s after she first appeared at the annual Salzburg festival in Austria and enraptured audiences as Donna Anna in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni. But it was the diva’s humble beginnings that really set hearts on fire when it was revealed the multi-vocal contest winner had been ‘discovered,’ by famed maestro Valery Gergiev in the hallowed halls of St Petersburg’s esteemed Mariinsky Theatre, where the young operatic hopeful had taken up residence sweeping floors – in an effort “to spend a lot of time in the theatre….to watch performances: opera, ballet, concerts.. [and not] have to pay for any of [it].”

Netrebko would make her operatic debut at the Mariinsky in 2002 as Susanna in a production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. The dynamic diva is now one of opera’s most highly demanded leading ladies at prestigious theaters across the globe.

A small reminder for those who dare to dream fantastical dreams!

Purchase tickets for the April 25, 2017 debut concert at Showoneproductions.ca.

Enjoy below one of my favorite live performances by a young Netrebko, singing Antonin Dvořák’s gorgeous aria “Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém” (Song to the Moon):


-Rose.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED YESTERDAY’S STRAVINSKY WORLD PREMIERE…

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky

Mustn't you fret! Folks over at medici.tv will have the full video available (viewable free of charge after a quick registration) for the next 18 days.

Esteemed maestro and Championer of the Stravinsky cause in Russia Valery Gergiev, as usual, delivered a powerful, impassioned performance of Igor Stravinsky’s long lost Pogrebal'naya Pesnya (Funeral Song) December 2nd to worldwide raving reviews.

Thanks to a somewhat lengthy introduction to the world première, held yesterday in St. Petersburg, we now know the fine details of how this discovery came to light – and the story of it’s re-birth, as regaled by the Head of the Restoration Team for the lost work Natalya Alexandra Braginskaya (who spoke through an interpreter) - and the story of it's history, is, I dare say, as moving and as heroic as Stravinsky’s music itself.

The Funeral Song, we are reminded, was penned in 1908 by Stravinsky as a loving tribute to his recently expired mentor and friend, fellow Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – to bid his former music teacher a fare thee well – and also, we are told, to bid adieu to Stravinsky’s now consummated phase of life as a mere pupil, and to bravely greet hello to an all new, freely independent phase of life as the composer ventured his first steps into the great unknown.

But it was the story of how Stravinsky’s prized Pogrebal'naya Pesnya was made preserved for over a century, surviving air raids, fires and other casualties of Revolutionary and civil war (by children of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, no less) that seemed to share – if not hog – yesterday’s introductory spotlight.

From Braginskaya:

“…the Funeral Song is not only [part of] [St.] Petersburg but also [part of the] Conservatoire..it was in the building of the first Russian Conservatoire, located in theater square, in house no. 3. Now it is under reconstruction – but it was the building where this work of art was performed for the first, and the only time. It was there that the manuscript survived the war and blockade, and after the siege… After the air bombing, Conservatoire girls and boys that had not been evacuated – they spent time on the roof and they de-mined the bombs, saving the building from fires. Here, [in house number] 3, on the epoch of combating Cosmopolitanism, this manuscript was sentenced to liquidation – it was supposed to be written off but still it remained untouched. And it was there, in the summer of 2015, that it was discovered when the building of the conservatoire [had] [re]moved [it] from there, and it was then, that thanks to the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the historical building was closed for reconstruction.. that happened for the first time in 120 years of its existence, and it was the effort of the Conservatoire that the musical score of the Funeral Song was restored.”

Below you will find video of yesterday’s concert – however I strongly urge the reader to view the performance - with introduction - in its entirety at Medici.tv. Click here to go there now. 

*UPDATE: Pogrebal'naya Pesnya is no longer available on YouTube in either video nor audio. There is, however a promotional video (split into two parts) detailing background information on the work that is well worth a watch (seen below). Those interested in viewing the concert footage will have to visit Medici.tv at the link provided above.


Part II

For more background on this exciting historical discovery, see my original post preceding the concert here at Unraveling Musical Myths by clicking on the article below:

• STRAVINSKY'S "LOST" TRIBUTE TO RIMSKY-KORSAKOV SET TO PREMIER IN RUSSIA FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 107 YEARS - WORLDWIDE LIVESTREAM TO BE MADE AVAILABLE FOR HISTORIC EVENT
   

-Rose.

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TODAY IN CLASSICAL MUSIC HISTORY: DECEMBER 2, 1804 - NAPOLEON BONAPARTE DECLARES HIMSELF EMPEROR OF FRANCE IN PARIS, BEETHOVEN VIOLENTLY SCRATCHES OUT DEDICATION TO FORMER IDOL

Napoleon in Coronation Robes, François Gérard, 1805

212 Years ago today, former First Consul Napoleon Buonaparte declared himself Emperor of France in Paris, much to the angry chagrin of one the newly-minted royals' staunchest and most influential supporters in composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

According to legend, the famous “hole” that appears on the autograph of Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony (the Eroica), which appears to have been scratched out with a vitriolic furor on behalf of the Democratic composer, was Beethoven’s way of sticking it to his former political ally in the quest to rid France of Absolute Monarchy and establish in it’s stead a thriving Republic. The hole, now bored into the parchment, would serve as the symbolic assassination of Buonaparte – for it was at that exact location on the manuscript leaf which previously bore a dedication from Beethoven to the man who was then mere First Consul. Beethoven is even said to have called the work his “heroic symphony” when describing the piece.

Close confidante and secretary to Ludwig, Ferdinand Ries described the harrowing incident:

“In 1803 Beethoven composed his third symphony (now known as the Sinfonia Eroica) in Heiligenstadt, a village about one and a half hours from Vienna....In writing this symphony Beethoven had been thinking of Buonaparte, but Buonaparte while he was First Consul. At that time Beethoven had the highest esteem for him and compared him to the greatest consuls of ancient Rome. Not only I, but many of Beethoven¹s closer friends, saw this symphony on his table, beautifully copied in manuscript, with the word "Buonaparte" inscribed at the very top of the title-page and "Luigi van Beethoven" at the very bottom. Whether or how the intervening gap was to be filled out I do not know. I was the first to tell him the news that Buonaparte had declared himself Emperor, whereupon he broke into a rage and exclaimed, "So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, he too will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!" Beethoven went to the table, seized the top of the title-page, tore it in half and threw it on the floor. The page was later re-copied and it was only now that the symphony received the title 'Sinfonia Eroica.'."

The famous leaf from Beethoven's Eroica with 'scratched out' dedication to
Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte, c. 1804

Retrospective analysis of this famous historical anecdote offers little clarity as to the veracity of Ries’ claims. Critics of this story are quick to note the fact that it was in fact, by his own admission, Ries himself who was one of the first to approach Beethoven, bearing the news of Buonaparte’s declaration. There also may have been a financial motivating factor between Beethoven and the Austrian Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, who had offered a generous sum to the composer for a dedication to his Highness in lieu of Buonaparte upon learning the knowledge that Beethoven was planning to dedicate future works to influential figures.

In another preserved ‘conversation’ between Ries and publisher Nikolaus Simrock in late October of 1803, the secretary makes note of Lobkowitz’s wishes, whilst also warning Simrock of the Prince’s intention to seek exclusive rights to the work:

"He will sell the symphony to you for 100 Gulden. It is in his estimation the greatest work which he has written until now. Beethoven played it for me recently, and I believe that heaven and earth must have trembled at this performance. He wants very much to dedicate it to Bonaparte; if not, since Lobkowitz wants it for half a year and is willing to give 400 Gulden for it, he will title it Bonaparte."

This particular twist on this two decade-plus tale is given further credence when one notes the fact that, when all was said and scratched, the dedication of Beethoven’s prized 3rd Symphony was inscribed not to Napoleon, but to Prince Lobkowitz - not forsaking the famously sordid and frequent poorly state of Beethoven's financial affairs at the time (worries over the composers' depleting coffers would reach a desperate and tumultuous hilt during this period, when Beethoven was rumored to engage in suicidal fantasy).

Whether fact or fiction, the persistent legend surrounding the notoriously mercurial composer angrily scratching out in protest his endearing tribute to his former friend in Emperor Buonaparte shows no detectable signs of wear, and one shouldn’t be expecting to see any hint of abatement anytime soon.

Countless novels, biographies, and biopics have been made to mark this most fascinating historical occasion – one of which can be found in the video below, in BBC’s epic drama “Eroica” by British film and television director Simon Cellan Jones:



-Rose.

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IN THE NEWS: SIRIUSXM RADIO HOST AND AUTHOR LAUREN E. RICO JOINS PRESTIGIOUS WQXR feat. Did You Know?

Unraveling Musical Myths is proud to announce Lauren E. Rico’s arrival on the airwaves of New York’s most iconic public radio station for classical music WQXR 105.9 fm.

Rico, who currently hosts SiriusXM’s Symphony Radio Hall is set to join WQXR’s esteemed ranks effective January 3, 2017 in the Tuesday to Friday midnight-5:30 am slot “Overnight Music.”

Click the embedded player below, visit WQXR.org or download the mobile app to stay connected to this champion of the Classical Music cause.

Did You Know?

Lauren has recently expanded her growing empire with an impressive foray into the literary arts. Unraveling Musical Myths recently covered her first opus – one in a multi-part series – Reverie, to a raving review.  

Read it here.

Rhapsody, the second book in the series, (available now for purchase) will be coming to Reviews by Rose here on Unraveling Musical Myths in the New Year.

The third installment of the Reverie series, Requiem, along with a recently announced all new novel “Solo” will follow in turn. Rico made the announcement for the commission of her fourth novel on Thursday, and the author of this blog – and undoubedtly Rico’s adording fanbase – could not be happier for this rising literary star!

Congratulations, Lauren.

-Rose.

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BRUCKNER’S THIRD USED BY PHARMA CO. AS INCENTIVE TO ENTICE PHYSICIANS TO HAWK MORPHINE feat. Did You Know?

Call it a Bruckner counter-intuitive mission from the great beyond – as dozens of copies of the troubled 19th century composer’s ill fated third symphony are being shamelessly hawked as a promotional item to physicians in the Netherlands in order to stimulate the signing off of the prescription drug  MS-CONTIN in greater frequencies within the nations booming medical sector.

Long before the days of soda giant Coca-Cola touting it’s use in children as an all-remedy elixir with its healing ingredient cocaine as it’s main selling point (and as a pick-me-up for despondent ladies for the carnal pleasures of men) - and before Bayer's heroin throat lozenge became the troche of choice for the those afflicted with the common cold, morphine was being used as a tonic for every ailment then known to man – from hypertension and anxiety, to being used as a healthy conduit for greasing up the intellectual machinations of constructive-minded men.

*Click image to enlarge* Cocaine-laced Coca-Cola
is advertised to potential consumers as an aphrodisiac
for the betterment and the sexual fulfillment of men.

Why Bruckner has been chosen as psychiatry’s poster boy is uncertain – if one were to aid their projective of “Gekwelde Componisten" – the name of their new line of records - which literally translates to “Tormented Composers," one could certainly find more troubled a composer – Hugo Wolf, for instance, who narrowly survived a suicide and would perish in asylum; Robert Schumann, who spent the better part of his life in and out of them, labeled with countless psychiatric diagnoses by countless analysts – or even Hector Berlioz, who once dressed in drag and boarded a train to Paris in order to murder his lover and himself in the process.

At best, Anton Bruckner was a functioning Obsessive Compulsive, at worst – a non sexual necrophiliac – a highly sensationalized moniker for one who takes great interest in cadaverous anatomy. 

While the premier of Bruckner’s Third certainly wouldn’t be counted among the composer’s top debuts (first performed in Vienna December 16, 1877 to highly negative reviews - it was widely panned in the press, and its premier production even boasted cat-calling and hissing from a heckling audience), and whilst Bruckner was reportedly so traumatized by the public’s reception of his work, he is said to have refrained from composing for a full year – there still remain far better candidates for DAGRA-Pharma’s mission...

DAGRA-Pharma's Bruckner CD

that is, were it still the nineteenth century, and were Morphine still marketed and sold to an unsuspecting public as a sedative. It is 2016, and today the narcotic MS-Contin is used in both emergency and in short to long-term home care for the treatment of moderate to severe pain. It is rarely prescribed for such off-label use, out-leveraged by a vast array of (arguably) safer, more symptom-specific medications that better suit the purported purpose of the drug set forth by the pharmaceutical giant. Its notorious and deleterious side effects of potential addiction and its well established street value for the demi-monde of society have long since been well known.

Which ultimately begs the question – just what exactly is DAGRA-Pharma’s motive in hawking the works of our psychologically challenged composers of yore?

Did You Know?

Bruckner’s disastrous Third Symphony was lovingly dedicated to the composers “meister” and hero, German Romantic composer Richard Wagner, in whom Bruckner was alleged to have been obsessed. A bashful Bruckner had presented the megolamanic composer with copies of his second and third symphonies during a visit with the maestro in 1873, which he requested of Wagner to choose from among them the piece best suited for a dedication to him. Bruckner’s idol chose the Third, and it is this historical anecdote, and the shame it must have undoubtedly caused poor Bruckner, which may have led to – at least, certainly compounded – the composers “traumatized” state following the disastrous premiere.


Listen below to the adagio from Bruckner’s Symphony No III in D Minor (mvmt. II):


Learn more about "Gekwelde Componisten" by visiting abruckner.com

More posts on mental health (featuring the composers above) at Unraveling Musical Myths:

-Rose.

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TODAY IN MOZART HISTORY: DECEMBER 1, 1780 / LETTERS OF NOTE:

Mozart as he would have appeared in 1780.
Detail from portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce

It was on this December day in 1780 that the premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s recitative and aria “Wie grausam ist, o Liebe ... Die neugeborne Ros’ entzückt” (The Newly Born Rose is Enchanting), was held. The work was written by the composer some 236 years ago as an insertion aria for the Bavarian dramatist Emanuel Schikaneder for the latters production of hometown writer Johann Gottfried Dyk’s “Le due notti affannose” - an adaptation of Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi’s play by the same name.

Whilst Mozart’s original recitative remains lost to the musical sphere, a single manuscript leaf discovered in 1996 (which would later be acquired by London auctioneer Christie's of London), would detail a 30 bar excerpt of music for the work’s aria. South Korean coloratura soprano Sumi Jo performed the long lost work in Italy’s Teatro Riccardo Zandonai in September of 1998. Her impressive rendition can be heard in the video below.

The Newly Born Rose held it’s premier at the Mozart home in Salzburg December 1, 1780 to much fanfare. Writing to his son, who was on tour in Munich at the time, Leopold Mozart describes the evening’s performance:

“The play for which you composed your aria was performed yesterday- the play was excellent, the house was full, the Archbishop too was present, your aria was well performed and the singer sang it well...”

-Leopold Mozart, Salzburg, December 2, 1780.

The work is numbered in the Köchel catalogue under the designation KV 365a.

Die Neugeborne Ros’ entzückt, as performed by lyric coloratura soprano Sumi Jo:



-Rose.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: DECEMBER 1, 2016 – LISZT’S FANTASTICAL DREAM BECOMES AN INSTANT REALITY – THE VIENNA DEBUT OF A PIANO PRODIGY

Today’s Quote of the Day comes to us courtesy of the much acclaimed late pianist and composer Franz Liszt as the musician details his express intent to obtain for himself musical immortality:

"My sole ambition as a composer is to hurl my javelin
into the infinite space of the future."

-Franz Liszt

A portrait of a young Franz Liszt

Liszt’s fantastical dream would read like a prophecy granted by a local soothsayer – for it was on this day in 1822 that an 11 year old Franz would make his much celebrated public debut at Vienna’s "Landständischer Saal," performing before an elite faction of both Austrian and Hungarian aristocrats and even the composing-giants Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the young Hungarian's debut would serve as launching pad for the wunderkind’s skyrocket to international fame – labeled by the press as a “little Hercules,” Liszt’s behemoth talents had already been known – and very much prized – by some of Europe’s most powerful political and musical figures of the time: Prince Nicholas Esterházy of Hungary, in whom Liszt’s father, Adam Liszt was employed, would grant the pair extended leave to Vienna to pursue young Franz’s musical ambitions following a private concert for wealthy benefactors which proved to be a smashing success. Once in Vienna, the Italian composer Antonio Salieri (yes, that Antonio Salieri!) was reportedly so bowled over by a private performance by the young prodigy that he offered his services in teaching composition to the boy free of charge, paving the way for Liszt to show off his musical skills to both composers and royals alike.

So revered was the young talent, it is said that Liszt’s entire musical education in Vienna would not be paid out of pocket, but rather fully endorsed and funded by a group of wealthy sponsors in back in Hungary who had been so impressed by the young prodigy when they had first heard him perform in one of his privately held concerts between the tender ages of 9 and 11.

Liszt would also receive piano lessons by the esteemed maestro Carl Czerny, a former pupil of the composers Beethoven and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. 

We know what transpired next: young Franz hurled his javelin into the infinite space of the future.

Enjoy below a delectable performance of Franz Liszt’s “Un Sospiro” from his Trois Études de Concert, s.144 (no. III) as performed by Canadian virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin:


-Rose.

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STRAVINSKY'S "LOST" TRIBUTE TO RIMSKY-KORSAKOV SET TO PREMIER IN RUSSIA FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 107 YEARS - WORLDWIDE LIVESTREAM TO BE MADE AVAILABLE FOR HISTORIC EVENT

Stravinsky, left, and his music teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov, right.

Christmas will come a tad early this year for maestro Valery Gergiev. 

The esteemed Russian conductor and Mariinsky Theatre Chief announced early last week his intent to re-introduce the works of homegrown iconic composer Igor Stravinsky to Russian audiences, which, by and large, have been starved of the composers work for the better part of a century - a result of a government boycott following the countries’ Communist Revolution in 1917, and an outright ban on performing works by Stravinsky – labeled “degenerate music” - during the second world war which lasted until the early 1960s. According to Gergiev, the Russian nation, since the end of the war, has only produced some 10% of Stravinsky’s works in the form of live productions, prompting the famed conductor to announce that he has thus chosen 2017 to honor the composer by reintroducing his vast repertoire to native audiences.

Gergiev's fellow music loving countrymen will be honored with a preview of what’s to come in the New Year on December 2nd, with a rare performance of Stravinsky’s Pogrebal'naya Pesnya (Funeral Song) – the Russian composer’s tribute to fellow composer and teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov following the latters death from complications of angina in June 1908.

The short work (said to be only 12 minutes long) has only been heard once in 107 years – when it was performed seven months after Korsakov’s death, in January 1909 - and had long since believed to have been destroyed – the unfortunate and destructive byproduct of revolutionary and civil war.

Stravinsky himself is said to have mourned the loss of the work, which immediately preceded his notorious skyrocket to international fame when he premiered his much acclaimed [The] Firebird on the Paris Stage under Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes machine. The composer claimed a faulty memory and a strong desire to “...see what I was composing just before The Firebird.”

Now, a century plus later, the previously internationally-unknown composer will finally get his wish, albeit 45 years too late (Stravinsky died of heart failure in 1971 whilst living in New York). It is all thanks to some persistent Russian musicologists and archivists who bravely kept both word of mouth and search alive for Stravinsky’s lost work, which they believed might have been stored among piles of aging, un-cataloged music in the archives of The St Petersburg Philharmonic or the Conservatoire - even though “rummaging was not encouraged” during the reign of the Soviet Union – particularly for a person their Government considered to be “not a person” at all ^{[see links below - The Guardian]}. Their unyielding hutzpah led to one eagle-eyed librarian discovering missing orchestral parts of the score long believed to have been lost forever whilst rummaging through the archives – and lost forever, they may well have been – her find came as a direct result of a 2015 Conservatoire complete overhaul, in which all loose manuscripts were to be re-shelved – with works like Stravinsky’s Funeral Song facing the very real potential of another accidental oversight - once more relegating the composers lost work to yet another bin, to be buried in some dusty, lonely corner of the archives from whence it came.

Be sure to watch the live stream December 2 at 2:00 PM ET, which will be brought to audiences in Russia and around the globe by Medici.tv and Mezzo.

In the meantime, enjoy Gergiev’s impassioned interpretation of Stravinsky’s “The Firebird” (‘Finale’):



Read more about this discovery (and the upcoming performance):

• Press release from Boosey.com
• Discovery of Pogrebal'naya Pesnya at The Guardian (2015)
• New York Times announces Facebook will host Livestream at NYTIMES
• US, UK, Worldwide premiers post Dec 2, 2016 at Boosey.com 

-Rose.

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CLASSICAL MUSIC MAYHEM VII Feat. Did You Know? CURSES & HEXES, HOMICIDE, ATTEMPTED MURDER, THUGGERY and FRAUD!

It’s time again for another installment of CLASSICAL MUSIC MAYHEM feat. Did You Know?

Today’s post features a sordid romp through the dark underbelly of the otherwise pristine world of Western Classical Music. Forget Dante’s Virgil: the following naughty little devils looked to Beelzebub himself as a guide through the blazing inferno of hell – boasting such bestial sin as

CURSES & HEXES, HOMICIDE, ATTEMPTED MURDER, THUGGERY and FRAUD!

We begin in that most metropolitan of cities, New York, NY:

IRONIC DEATHS

“Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore …
e diedi il canto agli astri, al ciel!,
…perché, Signor, ah, perché me ne rimuneri così?”

[I lived for art, I lived for love... and offered songs to the stars and to heaven!
…why, Lord, ah, why do you reward me thus?]

–Tosca’s aria, Tosca, Puccini

News article concerning Versalle's
death, New York Times.

American Baritone Leonard Warren wasn’t the only famous singer to suffer an ironic fatality mid performance. In January of 1996, another American performer met an untimely end on the operatic stage, seconds after belting out a line from the work’s libretto that seemed to be written exclusively for him. The performer was the 63-year old tenor Richard Versalle, the opera was the MET premiere of Leoš Janáček's "The Makropulos Affair." The line: “too bad you can only live for so long” proved to be the tenor’s last words: immediately after singing the nine ominous lyrics from atop a 10 foot ladder, Versalle crashed to the floor, unconscious. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital.

What makes Versalle’s untimely demise perhaps even more ironic than Warren’s, who also met his end at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House some 36 years prior – collapsing dead on the very same stage seconds after belting out the lyric "to die, a momentous thing!” from Verdi’s La Forza – was the subject matter of Janáček’s opera itself: The plot of The Makropulos Case concerns a certain diva, who, after ingesting a life-extending elixir some 337 years prior, notices the concoctions promise of eternal youth and immortality is beginning to weaken, making her demise all but an utmost certainty.

Talk about a theatrical ending! 

New York City wasn’t the only home of the ironical. I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention the infamous passing of the French playwright and actor Molière in Paris, during his famous – and final – performance on stage - whilst starring in his own ballet, appropriately titled La Malade Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid): a collaboration with the 17th century composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

The three act comédie-ballet featured Molière himself as a typical hypochondriac – believing himself to be assailed by numerous illnesses, subjecting himself to countless amounts of enemas and weary of suffering an untimely demise. Dressed in medical smock and bandaged, the actor hacked and coughed his way through the performance – all a part of playing the character of an invalid – or so those in the audience thought. What attending patrons – and perhaps even Molière’s fellow actors on the stage with him didn’t know – was that the hacking and coughing by Molière wasn’t acting at all – the playwright was actually stricken with consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis), and was in fact, coughing up very real phlegm and blood. The stubborn actor insisted (to himself) on finishing his performance, come hell or high water. Hell would come soon enough, when the playwright collapsed on stage due to a massive hemorrhage. He would succumb to another, even larger hemorrhage backstage, which ultimately ended his life.

Molière's famous death is depicted in the 2000 French masterpiece, Le Roi Danse:



A FINAL RECORDING, A FITTING FAREWELL:

This last entry into Ironic Deaths is more decidedly felicitous – and features one of the most gifted heldentenors the world had yet known in 20th century Swedish performer Jussi Björling...

QUOTE OF THE DAY - NOVEMBER 7, 2016: HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW'S "UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE" THEORY & WHITACRE'S MODERN APPROACH

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Today’s Quote of the Day comes to us from 19th century American poet and translator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is short, yet succinct:

“Music is the universal language of mankind” 

 

I can think of no greater example of Mr. Longfellow’s observation than Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque,” the present century American composer/conductors exquisite choral work, performed “virtually” from the private homes of 185 specially selected singers, all of whom appear as members of a massive choir through individual video submission. What results from this rather unconventional, very modern staging is a harmony so exquisite, so gooseflesh-inducing, it takes one’s breath away...charioting the listener far off into a peaceful, distant realm – one untarnished by earthly discord, unbiased by gender, race or creed. One that only knows of - and can only speak of - mellifluous beauty.

Members of Whitacre's “Virtual Choir” - who hail from 12 different countries across the globe - usher the listener into that purified realm for a brief interlude of harmonious reverie - no matter how fleeting - wherein there exists unblemished man.

Universal language, indeed:



-Rose.

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UNRAVELING MUSICAL MYTHS RECEIVES PRAISE FROM SIRIUSXM RADIO SYMPHONY HALL HOST AND NEWLY-MINTED AUTHOR LAUREN E. RICO, CALLS IT A "MUST" SEE, "AWESOMELY COOL WEBSITE!"

Rose, author of
Unraveling Musical Myths

Unraveling Musical Myths is both honored and humbled by the kind praise bestowed upon it's pages by SiriusXM Radio Symphony Hall host and author Lauren E. Rico.

Rico, author of the steamy, classical music infused Reverie series mentioned this blog on social media and via her monthly newsletters, distributed to her adoring fan base in an effort to keep her followers up to date with her latest publishing and recording efforts.

In her November 2016 issue, she writes:

"If you're a classical music lover,
this awesomely cool website is a MUST!"

[Read full review here]

Thank you Lauren,  Unraveling Musical Myths thinks you - and your work - are awesomely cool, too.

To learn more about Lauren E. Rico, visit LaurenRico.com, and be sure to read my review for her debut novel, Reverie by clicking the link below.

REVIEWS BY ROSE: LAUREN E. RICO'S REVERIE

Also, to keep up with Lauren on Symphony Hall, check out SiriusXM's schedule by visiting the link below:

SiriusXM Symphony Hall Classical Music Weekly Program List

UPDATE (DECEMBER 2016): The sun continues to shine on Ms. Rico - who has recently announced she will be joining the hallowed ranks of WQXR public radio in New York come early January 2017 - this, in addition to announcing the development of an all-new novel to follow the Reverie trilogy!

Read more about these exciting developments below:

IN THE NEWS: SIRIUSXM RADIO HOST AND AUTHOR LAUREN E. RICO JOINS PRESTIGIOUS WQXR feat Did You Know?

-Rose.

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