#ClassicsaDay #Classical1922 Week 3

For January, 2022 the Classics a Day Team decided to go back a century. The challenge this month is to post classical works associated with the year 1922. It can be a composition that was completed,  published, or premiered that year. It can even be a work recorded for the first time in 1922. 

It turns out that 1922 was quite an eventful year! Here are my posts for the third week of #ClassicsaDay #Classical1922.

01/17/22 Hamilton Harty – Piano Concerto

Harty composed this work while he was permanent conductor of the Hallé Orchestra (1920-1933). Harty was also a pianist, and would often perform as a concerto soloist.

01/18/22 Jean Cras – Polyphème

Cras wrote this opera in 1914, while serving in the French navy during World War I. It's based on Albert Samain's poem, which reinteprets the Greek myth of Polythemus. When it premiered in 1922, Jean Cras became a celebrity.

01/19/22 Jules Massenet – Amadis

Massenet died in 1912. "Amadis" was premiered ten years later, in April of 1922. It was one of three of Massenet's operas to be performed posthumosly.

01/20/22 Dmitri Shostakovich - Suite to Two Pianos in F-sharp Minor Op. 6

The was composed in 1922, the same year as his Theme and Variations in B-flat major for orchestra, Op. 3, Three Fantastic Dances, Op. 5, and Two Fables of Krylov for mezzo-soprano, Op. 4. Shostakovich was 16.

0/21/22 Alexander Zemlinsky – Der Zwerg, Op. 17

This one-act opera was premiered in May of 1922. Zemlinsky composed it after his relationship with Alma Mahler ended. He identified with the hero, a dwarf, who dies after his love is rejected.

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1922 Week 2

For January, 2022 the Classics a Day Team decided to go back a century. The challenge this month is to post classical works associated with the year 1922. It can be a composition that was completed,  published, or premiered that year. It can even be a work recorded for the first time in 1922. 

It turns out that 1922 was quite an eventful year! Here are my posts for the second week of #ClassicsaDay #Classical1922.

01/10/22 Arnold Bax – Symphony No. 1

Most of Bax's first symphony was recycled from a previous piano sonata. The work was completed in 1922, and dedicated to John Ireland.

01/11/22 Rebecca Clarke - The Seal Man

Clarke dedicated this artsong to baritone John Goss. He premiered many of her songs in the 1920s and 1930s.

01/12/22 Gerald Finzi – By Footpath and Stile, Op. 2

Finzi composed this song cycle in 1922. The poems are by Thoams Hardy. This would be the first of over fifty Hardy poems set by Finzi.

01/13/22 Maurice Ravel - Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition

Ravel's orchestration of "Pictures" was completed in 1922. It was a commission from Serge Koussevitzky. Koussevitzky first recorded it with the Boston Symphony in 1930 for RCA.

01/14/22 Jacques Ibert - Escales

This 1922 work represents a series of postcards from three picturesque Mediterranean ports. The movements depict Palermo, Tunis, and Valencia.

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1922 Week 1

For January, 2022 the Classics a Day Team decided to go back a century. The challenge this month is to post classical works associated with the year 1922. It can be a composition that was completed,  published, or premiered that year. It can even be a work recorded for the first time in 1922. 

It turns out that 1922 was quite an eventful year! Here are my posts for the first week of #ClassicsaDay #Classical1922.

01/03/22 Igor Stavinsky - Mabra

This one-act opera premiered in June, 1922. Stravinsky said, "Mavra seems to me the best thing I've ever done." Eric Satie felt the same.

01/04/22 Julián Carrillo – Preludio a Colón, for Soprano y Ensemble

Carrillo had been developing his system of microtonal music since 1895. This 1922 work was the first composition written using his Sonido 13 (13th Sound) theoretical system.

01/05/22 George Antheil - Sonate Sauvage

This was one of the works Antheil toured Europe with. On the tour, he was billed as "a new ultra-modern pianist-composer." 

 

01/06/22 Kurt Atterberg – Cello Concerto

Atterberg completed this work in 1922. David Hurwitz said the concerto "is so beautiful and melodically attractive that you hardly notice the absence of thematic development."

01/07/22 Amy Beach - From Blackbird Hills, Op. 83

This piano piece was published in 1922. It was one of three of Beach's works that were published that year.