#ClassicsaDay #Classical1921 Week 4

What better way to celebrate a new year than with a look back? In this case, the Classics a Day team decided to go back 100 years. For January 2021 the challenge is to post works that were completed in or recordings released in 1921.

It turns out there was quite a lot going on that year. Here are my #ClassicsaDay posts for the fourth and final week of #Classical1921

01/25/21 Florent Schmitt Mirages, Op. 70

Schmitt completed the piano version in 1921 and orchestrated it two years later. The first Mirage is dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy and mimics his style.

01/26/21 John Alden Carpenter - Krazy Kat

Carpenter's "Jazz Pantomime" was inspired by George Herriman's popular comic strip. Carpenter completed the piano version in 1921. It was premiered in January 1922.

01/27/21 Ferrucio Busoni - Elegie for Clarinet and Piano

Busoni's "Elegie" was written in 1920, and published a year later. It was a birthday present for Spanish clarinetist Edmondo Allegra. Busoni's Concertino for Clarinet is also dedicated to his friend.

01/28/21 Arthur Honegger - Le Roi David

This 1921 work was premiered by the Mézières, Switzerland theater group. Honegger later standardized the unusual orchestration (written for the instruments at hand) in 1923.

01/29/21 Frank Bridge - 3 Minature Pastorales

Bridge wrote three sets of miniature pastorales. The first was in 1917, the remaining two in 1921.

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1921 Week 3

What better way to celebrate a new year than with a look back? In this case, the Classics a Day team decided to go back 100 years. For January 2021 the challenge is to post works that were completed in or recordings released in 1921.

It turns out there was quite a lot going on that year. Here are my #ClassicsaDay posts for the third week of #Classical1921

Sophie Braslau - La Girometta (1921)

This American contralto debuted at the Met in 1913 at age 21. Her greatest fame came from her recordings. Sergei Rachmaninoff and Jasha Heifitz performed at her funeral in 1935.

01/19/21 Sergei Prokofiev - Five Poems after Balmont, Op. 36

Prokofiev set these poems by his close friend Konstantin Balmont in 1921. They were composed for soprano Lina llubera, who he would marry two years later.

01/20/21 Amy Beach - Water Sprites, Op. 90

In 1921, when she wrote "Water Sprites," Beach began attending the MacDowell Colony as a Fellow. She would spend part of each summer going forward at the colony, composing and meeting with other women composers.

01/21/21 Alberto Salvi - Chopin Fantasie-Impromptu Op. 66

In the early 1920s, Alberto Salvi toured extensively, billed as "the world's greatest harpist." This is one of a series of recordings he did in 1921.

01/22/21 Ethel Smyth - Fête galante (1921–22)

This one-act opera is based on a Maurice Baring story. It's a mannered comedy with aristocrats in romantic mix-ups with a commedia dell'arte troupe at a party.

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1921 Week 2

What better way to celebrate a new year than with a look back? In this case, the Classics a Day team decided to go back 100 years. For January 2021 the challenge is to post works that were completed in or recordings released in 1921.

It turns out there was quite a lot going on that year. Here are my #ClassicsaDay posts for the second week of #Classical1921

01/11/21 Igor Stravinsky - Suite No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra

This 1921 work incorporates elements of his earlier Trois pièces faciles and Cinq pièces faciles, No. 5. Les cinq doigts

01/12/21 Frederick Delius - Cello Concerto

Delius started his concerto in 1920 and completed it a year later. It was written for Beatrice Harrison, who gave the UK premiere in 1923.

01/13/21 Arnold Schoenberg - Suite for Piano

Schoenberg began his first true 12-tone piece in 1921 and completed it two years later.

01/14/21 Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Piano Quintet Op. 15

Korngold wrote the quintet in 1921 when he was 24. He was at the peak of his prewar classical career. "Die Tote Stadt" premiered the year before. But by 1927 audiences began to move on, and Korngold moved to Hollywood

01/15/21 Heitor Villa-Lobos - Fantasia de Movimentos Mixtos

Villa-Lobos completed this violin concerto in 1921. He would revisit it off and on over the next 20 years, revising it over time.

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1921 Week 1

What better way to celebrate a new year than with a look back? In this case, the Classics a Day team decided to go back 100 years. For January 2021 the challenge is to post works that were completed in or recordings released in 1921.

It turns out there was quite a lot going on that year. Here are my #ClassicsaDay posts for the first week of #Classical1921

01/04/21 Sergei Rachmaninoff - Prelude in C-sharp minor

The prelude was part of a set of five Morceaux de fantesie, published in 1892. This 1921 RCA acoustic release is the second of three recordings Rachmaninoff made of the piece.

01/05/21 Nicolai Medtner - 3 Tales, Op. 42

Medtner wrote many Sakzki (Fairy Tales) over the years. He began his Op. 42 set in 1921, completing it three years later.

01/06/21 Charles Villiers Stanford - Concert Piece for Organ and Orchestra

Stanford began his career as an organist in the late 1880s. This 1921 work, written three years before his death, harkens back to that earlier time.

01/07/21 Aaron Copland - Three moods

Copland wrote this when he was 21, in 1920-21. Originally there were four short pieces in this set. After much revision, only three remained.

01/08/21 Theodor W. Adorno: Piano piece

Adorno was best known as a philosopher and sociologist. He was an ardent student of Schoenberg, and his works follow strict serial composition techniques. His piano piece was completed in 1921.