#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 2, 2025

 February is Black History Month and a logical time to highlight contributions by people of color to classical music. Those contributions have been significant -- and not just in the past 50 years. 

This month's #ClassicsaDay challenge is to post musical examples of works by composers of color, or classical music recordings made by people of color. There is a lot to choose from. 

Here are my social media posts for the second week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/10/25 Roque Cordero: Sinfonia No. 2

Panamanian composer Cordero did much to develop classical music in his country. He was director of the Panama Institute of Music, conductor of the country's National Symphony, and assistant director of the Latin American Music Center.

02/11/25 Arthur Cunningham: Harlem Suite

Cunningham was a graduate of Fisk and Julliard. He often mixed pop genres with classical forms and is credited with creating the first rock opera in 1963.

 

02/12/25 Jessie Montgomery: Starburst

Montgomery was composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2016. Her 2023 album "Contemporary American Composers" won a Grammy in 2023.

 

02/13/25 Philippa Schuyler: Voodoo Festival

Schuyler was a virtuoso pianist and composer. She concertized at the 1939 World's Fair (age 8) and was the youngest member of the National Association for American Composers and Conductors.

 

02/14/25 Irene Britton Smith: Sinfonietta

Smith was of both Black and Native American descent. She was a pioneer of music education and a concert violinist. In 1958, she was able to study with Nadia Boulanger in France.

 

Ch'amor mi prese: Sacred and secular love in Medieval Italy

This release focuses on a specific time and a specific theme. And it's an album of great variety and beauty. The time is the turn of the 14th Century, when a new style of music, Ars Nova arose. And the theme is love.

InTactvs presents some delicate, yet intense performances. Their instruments, viella, cirla, oud, and recorders, have soft, warm sounds. But their performances deliver the rich emotional weight of the music. 

There are songs of longing, of separation, reunion, and the simple joy of love. All are performed convincingly. So much so, that no translation is necessary. 

Simone Gatto sings with clear, honeyed tones. She rarely uses vibrato, in keeping with authentic performance practices. Her singing evokes emotion. And she's especially adept at the unusual syncopations that frequent this music. 

The music is mostly from anonymous composers. Francesco Landini has one selection, and music by Matteo da Perugia begins and ends the album. I didn't receive a booklet with my review copy. I'm not 100% sure. But it sounds like the three Ars Nova formes fixes are well represented -- rondeau, ballade, virelai. And there's a nice balance of sung pieces and instrumental works. 

If early music is your thing, this is a fine album to add to your collection. But even if you're not, this music is both calming and engaging. It takes you to a time and place far away. And it's music that can easily be enjoyed with modern ears. 

Ch'amor mi prese: Sacred and secular love in Medieval Italy
InVactvx; Simona Gatto, voice
Tactus TC 300005

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 1 2025

 February is Black History Month, and a logical time to highlight contributions by people of color to classical music. Those contributions have been significant -- and not just in the past 50 years. 

This month's #ClassicsaDay challenge is to post musical examples of works by composers of color, or classical music recordings made by people of color. There is a lot to choose from. 

Here are my social media posts for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/03/25 Michael Abels: Global Warming

When Abels wrote this work in 1999, the title referred to the thawing of the Cold War. It's since taken on a new meaning.

 

02/04/25 Florence Price: Symphony No. 3

The Works Progress Administration commissioned this work in 1938. It was premiered in 1940 by the Michigan WPA Symphony Orchestra.  

02/05/25 Eleanor Alberga: Symphony No. 1 "Strata"

British composer Alberga composed this work in 2022. It was inspired by geology. Each movement depicts a different layer of the earth's crust.

 

02/06/25 Regina Harris Baiocchi: Hold Out for Joy

Baiocchi is an author, poet, and composer. Her work "Hold Out for Joy" was written in 1986 and is based on Psalm 30.

 

02/07/25 Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Symphony No. 2 in D major

Bologne was a mixed-race composer, born of a French noble and Jamaican enslaved woman. He would become one of France's greatest violinists of the late 1790s, as well as its finest swordsman.

 

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1925 Week 5

For January 2025 the Classics a Day team challenges you to look back a century. The "modern" era of music was well underway in 1925. Some of the works composed still shock audiences today. 

The challenge is to post classical works that were created, premiered, or recorded for the first time in 1925. Here are my posts for the fifth and final week of #Classical1925.

01/26/25 Gustav Holst: At the Boar's Head

Holst wrote the libretto as well as the music for this one-act opera. It's based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, parts 1 & 2. Holst completed the work in 1924. It premiered the following year with the British National Opera Company.

 

01/27/25 Ferruccio Busoni: Doktor Faust

Busoni worked on the score to this opera for eight years. But in remained unfinished at the time of his death. German composer Philipp Jarnach finished the work based on Busoni's sketches, and the opera premiered in 1925.

 

01/28/25 Leos Janacek: The Makropulos Affair

Janacek took two years to compose this work. The opera premiered in 1925. The original supernatural story was written by Karel Čapek. He's best remembered for coining the word "Robot" for his 1920 story, R.U.R.

 

01/29/25 Leos Janacek: Sarka

This was an early work by Janacek, completed in 1887. Janacek shelved the opera and remained unheard for decades. "Sarka" was finally premiered in 1925 to honor the composer's 71st birthday.

 

02/30/25 Rudolph Friml: The Vagabond King

This 1925 operetta was a smash hit on Broadway, running 551 performances. It was eventually adapted for film starring Dennis King and Jeanette MacDonald.

 

01/31/25 Charles Villiers Stanford: The Travelling Companion

Stanford based his opera on the stories of Hans Christian Anderson. It was composed during World War I, but wasn't premiered until 1925 -- the year after Stanford's death.

 

Next month:

Bruckner: From the Archives Volume 6

SOMM Recordings and the Bruckner Society of America marked the composer's bicentenary in a remarkable fashion. They didn't just release a cycle of Bruckner symphonies. They presented world premiere recordings that presented the composer in various ways. 

The recordings came from the 1930s through the 1970s. They were great performances in their own right. But they also demonstrated how perceptions about Bruckner evolved. 

Symphony No. 8 in C minor is performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, directed by Eugen Jochum. The recording is an aircheck of a live run-through from 1957. J

Jochum was the founding conductor of the orchestra and a Bruckner recording pioneer. He first recorded Bruckner in the 1930s. This performance has a lush, romantic sound. But it's one that crackles with energy and drama. 

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra plays Symphony No. 9 in D minor. This was a live performance, broadcast in 1966. Wolfg Sawallisch conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. It's electrifying. Sawallisch and the ensemble seem to push themselves to the limit. 

They probably felt the weight of history. In 1903 the Vienna Symphony Orchestra premiered the work in the very same hall.  

Also included is Psalm 150. Hilde Ceska is the soprano soloist. Henry Swoboda directs the Vienna Akademie Kammerchor and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. This was originally released on Westminster in 1950 -- its world recording premiere. Swoboda was another pre-war champion of Bruckner. His performances (like this one) tend to sound lean and tightly focused. 

John F. Berky, president of the Bruckner Society of America, selected the recordings from their vast archives. Lani Spahr restored and remastered them, with a refreshingly light touch. He simply makes what's recorded sound its best. He refrains from reworking it into something it was never meant to be. 

No matter how many Bruckner recordings you own, this series should be in your collection. There are some truly insightful performances here. And a few that made me hear these very familiar works in new ways.  

Bruckner: From the Archives, Volume 6
Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9; Psalm 150
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Eugen Jochum, conductor
Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor
Hilde Ceska, soprano; Vienna Akademie Kammerchor; Vienna Symphony Orchestra; Henry Swoboda, conductor
SOMM Recordings, Ariadne 5034