#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalNine Week 4

September is the ninth month of the year. And so the #ClassicsaDay team decided to make the number the theme. For September 2018, the challenge is to post classical works that have to do with the number nine. 

I chose to alternate between nonets, opus nine compositions and works with a catalog number of nine. Here are my posts for the fourth and final week:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major, K.271

Mozart wrote his ninth piano concerto in Salzburg when he was 21. It was written for pianist Victoire Jenamy. The concerto's nickname, "Jeunehomme," is a corruption (possibly a mondegreen) of "Jenamy."

Arnold Bax - Nonet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Harp, String Quartet and Double Bass.

Bax didn't use the standard instrumentation for a nonet. He replaced the French horn and bassoon with harp and a second violin. The 1930 work was an arrangement of his 1928 Sonata in F for violin and piano.

Carl Nielsen - Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 9

Nielsen completed the first of his two violin sonata in 1895. The 30-year-old composer was heavily influenced by Brahms, although the sonata shows much of Nielsen's personality as well. Nielsen was a violinist, and the music lays well on the instrument. Although cooly received initially, the sonata is now considered part of the repertoire.

Domenico Scarlatti - Sonata for keyboard in D minor, "Pastorale" K.9.

This work was in the "Essercizi per gravicembalo," published in 1738. the exact date of composition is unknown -- it may have been as early as 1728. Scarlatti's catalog numbers can be confusing. This sonata is listed as K. 9 (Kirkpatrick), L. 413 (Longo), P. 65 (Pestelli), and Cz. 14 (Czerny). Since there was a nine in at least one of the catalog numbers, I decided it was fair game for this month's theme.

Osvaldo Golijov - Last Round for String Nonet

Golivjov's 1996 work is for four violins, two violas, two cellos, and one contrabass. The work was written in tribute to Astor Piazzolla and incorporates some elements of tango.

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalNine Week 3

September is the ninth month of the year. And so the #ClassicsaDay team decided to make the number the theme. For September 2018, the challenge is to post classical works that have to do with the number nine. 

I chose to alternate between nonets, opus nine compositions and works with a catalog number of nine. Here are my posts for the third week:

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Trio élégiaque No. 2, Op. 9

Rachmaninoff's second Trio élégiaque was written in 1893, in memory of Tchaikovsky. It parallels the structure of Tchaikovsky's Trio in A minor. Rachmaninoff revised the work for publication in 1906.

Alexander Scriabin - Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68

Scriabin's ninth piano sonata was completed in 1913. It was given the title "Black Mass," (not by Scriabin), and is in some ways seen as a companion sonata to his seventh, which he titled "White Mass." Both feature extreme chromaticism and dissonance, verging on atonality at times.

Georg Fridrich Handel: Overture to "Teseo" HWV 9 (1712)

"Teseo" is HWV 9. Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis catalog numbers aren't precisely chronological, so this isn't the ninth work Handel wrote. HWV groups compositions by type, then by date. Nos. 1-49 are operas, so "Tesso" is the ninth opera Handel wrote.

Bohuslav Martinu - Nonet No. 2 H. 374 (1959)

Martinu wrote three nonets. The first exists only as a fragment. The second, "Stowe pastorals" is for 5 recorders, clarinet, 2 violins, and cello. The third - Nonet No. 2 - is for the traditional 5 winds/4 strings configuration --flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, contrabass.

Samuel Barber - Symphony No. 1, Op. 9

Barber started work on his single-movement symphony in 1935 and completed it two years later. It was the first symphonic work by an American composer to be performed at the Salzburg Festival.

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalNine Week 2

September is the ninth month of the year. And so the #ClassicsaDay team decided to make the number the theme. For September 2018, the challenge is to post classical works that have to do with the number nine. I chose to alternate between nonets, opus nine compositions, and works with a catalog number of nine.

Here are my posts for the second week:

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata "Es ist das Heil uns kommen here?" BWV 9

Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis(BWV) organizes Bach's music by category first, then chronologically. BWV 1 through 224 are the cantatas. So BWV 9 isn't the ninth work Bach wrote, just the 9th cantata. BWV 9 was written between 1732 and 1735. It's based on the Lutheran hymn "It is our salvation come here to us."

Franz Lachner: Nonet in F major (1857)

Lachner was an important composer and conductor of the 19th Century. Lachner wrote in a style influenced by both his friend Schubert and his hero, Beethoven. His nonet follows the instrumentation established by Spohr, of a wind quintet plus 1 of each type of stringed instrument: violin, viola, cello, and contrabass.

Ludwig van Beethoven: String Trio in D major, Op. 9 No. 2

Beethoven completed the three Op. 9 string trios when he was 28. At the time, he considered them his best works. They were published in Vienna in 1799.

Heitor Villa-Lobos - String Quartet No. 9, 1945

Villa-Lobos wrote 17 string quartets over the course of his career. No. 9 was completed in 1945 in Rio de Janeiro. Musicologists have cited a number of influences for the work: Haydn, Stravinsky, Berg, Bartok. Bottom line, it's simply Villa-Lobos.

George Onslow - Nonet in A minor, Op. 77a (1848)

Onslow (1784-1853) was a French composer of English descent, a contemporary of Berlioz and Meyerbeer. Most of his substantial catalog is chamber music. His nonet also exists as a sextet for winds and strings.

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalNine Week 1

September is the ninth month of the year. And so the #ClassicsaDay team decided to make the number the theme. For September 2018, the challenge is to post classical works that have to do with the number nine.

 I chose to alternate between nonets, opus nine compositions and works with a catalog number of nine. Here are my posts for the first week:

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Nonet in F minor, Op. 2 (1894)

The standard makeup of a nonet is for five winds and four strings. This nonet is for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, and piano. It was published when Coleridge-Taylor was only 19.

Anton Arensky: Marguerite Gautier, Fantasia for Orchestra, Op. 9 (1886)

Marguerite Gautier is the title character of "Camille" by Alexander Dumas. Arensky's tone-poem was inspired by similar works of Tchaikovsky.

Alan Hovhaness: Symphony No. 9 "Saint Vartan" Op. 180 (1951)

Vartan is a major saint in Armenia. It was a natural subject for Hovhaness, who was proud of his Armenian heritage. Written in 24 short sections, the work tells the story of the Armenian (led by Vartan) against the Persians.

Louis Spohr - Grand Nonetto in F major, Op. 31 (1813)

Spohr's Nonet was the first work for nine instruments to use the title "Nonet," His instrumental combination -- flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello, and double bass -- became the model for nonets throughout the Romantic period.

Ludwig Schuncke - Caprice No. 1 in C major, Op. 9

Schuncke was an extremely talented pianist and composer. His close friend Robert Schumann predicted a brilliant career for Schuncke. But it was not to be. Schuncke died at age 23, leaving only a handful of works behind. His Op. 9 Caprice is dedicated to Clara Wieck.