#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth Week 4, 2024

 The #ClassicsaDay team has made Women's History Month the March theme since 2017. The challenge remains: post classical music videos from female composers on your social media channels. There are plenty of options when it comes to 21st- and 20th-century composers.

What continually surprises me is how much music is yet to be discovered from earlier centuries. And also how much of it was known at the time, but somehow fell into obscurity. Here are my discoveries for the fourth and final week of #WomensHistoryMonth. 

03/25/24 Alba Trissina (f. 1622): Vulnerasti cor meum

Trissina was a Carmelite nun who studied with Leone Leoni. Leoni published four of her works in 1622. They're all that survive of her music.

 

03/26/24 Mlle Bocquet (early 17th C.-after 1660): Sarabande in A minor

Her first name is unknown, but not her talent. This virtuoso lutenist wrote a series of works that expanded the possibilities of the instrument.

 

03/27/24 Antonia Bembo (c. 1640–1720): Se legge d'amore

Bembo was an Italian singer and composer who found a home at Versailles. She was a musician in the court of Louis XIV. Six volumes of her music are preserved in manuscript.

 

03/28/24 Rosa Giacinta Badalla (1660–1710): Pane angelico

Badalla's reputation rests on a single publication. Motetti a voce sola (1684, Venice) shows a composer at the top of her game. The works were most likely written for performance in her convent.

 

03/29/24 Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665–1729): Sonata No. 2 in B-flat

De La Guerre was famed as a harpsichord virtuoso. She published several collections of sonatas and cantatas. She also composed two operas that were staged in the 1690s. 

 

Next Month:

Amazing Miniatures by Janis Kepitis Ripe for Discovery

Jānis Ķepītis was concertmaster for Latvian Radio from 1934 through 1952. And he was on the faculty of the Latvian State Conservatory from the end of World War II until his death in 1984. He taught Chamber Ensemble and was beloved by his students. 

Keiptis was also a prolific composer. And despite the quality of his work,  his fame remained within the borders of Latvia. His work included six symphonies, two operas, and many chamber works. 

This release focuses on an even larger and less-explored portion of Kepitis' music. 

Kepitis wrote hundreds of short solo piano music, many that were never published. Keiptis lived in a Soviet-controlled Latvia. And music was as tightly controlled as all other forms of expression. Since his piano music was never published, it never had to be vetted by the authorities. 

Perhaps for that reason, there's an honesty to these works that comes through time and again. These are simply well-crafted pieces written for the sheer joy of creation.

Nora Luse plays with sympathy and enthusiasm. These may be small pieces, but she takes them seriously. And in the process reveals some marvelous miniatures of beauty. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Janis Kepitis: Piano Miniatures from the Manuscripts, Volume One
Nora Luse, piano
Toccata Classics

Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin's Sympathetic Performances of CPE Bach

 

This release presents a sampling of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach symphonies. The works They span a forty-year period, starting when Bach was in Berlin, and ending when he was in Hamburg. They're in the empfindsam, or sentimental style. 

The idea was to return to true and natural expression. It was a reaction to the intellectualism of the late Baroque. And that naturalism is in evidence in these works. Bach creates catchy, tuneful melodies that sound simple, but never trite.

The Berlin symphonies were written for a sophisticated audience that craved the unusual. Bach delivers, often with some unexpected phrasing. 

The Hamburg symphonies have a different aesthetic. Bach's patron, Baron Gottfried van Swieten, wanted works that were grand and sublime. And Bach delivers. 

The Akademi fur Alte Musik Berlin performs these works with both precision and expression. Empfindsam may sound simple, but it requires real musicianship to convey its charm. The ensemble does so in symphony after symphony. 

Some of these symphonies were highly regarded in Bach's time. And rightly so. They appeal to the ear as well as the intellect.  

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Symphonies from Berlin to Hamburg
Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin
Harmonia Mundi

#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth Week 3, 2024

 The #ClassicsaDay team has made Women's History Month the March theme since 2017. The challenge remains: post classical music videos from female composers on your social media channels. There are plenty of options when it comes to 21st- and 20th-century composers.

What continually surprises me is how much music is yet to be discovered from earlier centuries. And also how much of it was known at the time, but somehow fell into obscurity. Here are my discoveries for the third week of #WomensHistoryMonth. 

3/18/24 Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602–1678) Bone Jesu

Cozzola was a Benedictine nun who also composed for her convent. Four collections of her music were published during her lifetime, although almost half are now lost.

 

3/19/24 Claudia Francesca Rusca (1583​-​1676): Canzon Prima à4 'La Borromea,' Canzoni Francesi à4

Rusca was a nun at a convent in Milan. Her only collection of music was written for use inside convents. The Sacri concerti à 1–5 con salmi e canzoni francesi (Milan, 1630) existed only in manuscript.

 

3/20/24 Leonora Duarte (1610–1678): Sinfonia VII

Duarte was a talented composer and keyboardist from Antwerp. Her only surviving works are a collection of seven symphonies written around 1650.

 

3/21/24 Sulpitia Cesis (fl. 1619): Angelus ad Pastores

Cesis was a nun who spent most of her life in a convent. She was also a noted composer and lutenist. Her fame rests on a single collection of Motetti Spirituali, published in 1619.

 

3/22/24 Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677): O Maria (Sacri Musicali Affetti, Op. 5)

Strozzi's salons were well-known in Venice. The intelligentsia would gather to hear her perform (and sing) her compositions. Eight volumes of her vocal works were published during her lifetime.

 

Gustav Hoyer: Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Gustav Hoyer's "Rime of the Ancient Marriner" works on two levels. And that's a remarkable feat. This album features two versions of the composition. One includes a recitation of the poem, The other is just the music. 

Played under the recitation, Hoyer's music supports and amplifies the poem's disturbing imagery. But this is not just background music. 

Without the narration, the work becomes an epic tone poem. One that conveys the drama and arc of the narrative exclusively in music. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem was published in 1798.  It set the tone for gothic horror of the 19th Century. The Ancient Mariner of the poem is a cursed sailor. He frivolously kills an albatross, a good luck symbol. In doing so, he condemns the entire crew to death. Only he is spared to wander the earth, recounting his tale over and over. 

Coleridge's poem carries a hint of menace. The mariner waylays a wedding guest about to enter the church for the ceremony. As his tale unfolds, it's clear that the mariner is driven to tell his story to specific people. But why this person, and why at that moment?

The poem implies there's a reason, but it's never revealed. The wedding guest is compelled to listen to the mariner, but he can't explain why. Hoyer's music perfectly captures that concept of unease and unspoken danger. It defines the work and gives it emotional power.

The Budapest Film Orchestra is directed by Peter Pejtsik. The orchestra delivers a lush, emotive performance. One can hear the ocean swells, the approach of death, the unfolding of the curse.  This is powerful and effective orchestral writing. 

This is a tale of the supernatural, but the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a tale of redemption. By telling and retelling his story, the mariner is atoning for his sin. Hoyer's music conveys that feeling of hope, which peeks through from time to time. 

Kent Stephens is an excellent narrator. His reading is dramatic, yet restrained, adding to the unsettling nature of the poem. I can't say which version I prefer. Both provide a moving listening experience. 

Recommended.

Gustav Hoyer: the Rime of the Ancient Mariner
The Budapest Film Orchestra; Peter Pejtsik conductor
Kent Stephens narration
Navona NV6590