#ClassicsaDay #Classical1923 Week 4

New year, new month, new theme. The Classics a Day team decided to look back 100 years. For the month of January, the challenge is to post classical works associated with 1923. They can be pieces composed in that year, premiered in that year, or received their first recording in that year. 

1923 was a pivotal year in classical music. As I soon discovered when I began my research. Here are my posts for the fourth and final week of #Classical1923.

01/23/23 Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major (original version), Op. 38

Prokofeiv wrote the original version of this sonata on vacation in 1923. He revisitied the work in 1952, and revised it. This second version was published as his Op. 135.

01/24/23 Paul Hindemith: Klaviermusik mit Orchestra, Op. 29

Hindemith wrote this concerto for piano left-hand in 1923. It was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, who never performed it. Only after his widow's death was the score made available, and it was premiered in 2004.

01/25/23 William Walton: Toccata for Violin and Piano

Walton was just 20 when he composed the Toccata in 1923. Walton was influenced by Schoenberg, Bartok, and Sorabji. Leter he developed his own style, which was more tonal. He then withdrew the Toccata.

01/26/23 Darius Milhaud: La Création du monde, Op. 81a

This 1923 ballet is based on African folk mythology. Milhaud had recently discovered jazz and used it as the basis for his score. Leonard Bernstein called it, “a real love affair with jazz.”

01/27/23 Béla Bartók: Dance Suite

Bartók wrote the work to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Buda and Pest becoming one city. The six-movement work, premiered in 1923, uses Hungarain, Wallachian, and Arabic folk melodies. All the themes blend together in the final movment, symbolising the creation of Budapest.

Next month:

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1923 Week 3

New year, new month, new theme. The Classics a Day team decided to look back 100 years. For the month of January, the challenge is to post classical works associated with 1923. They can be pieces composed in that year, premiered in that year, or received their first recording in that year. 

1923 was a pivotal year in classical music. As I soon discovered when I began my research. Here are my posts for the third week of #Classical1923.

01/16/23 Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 6

Sibelius began work on this symphony in 1914. He composed it concurrently with his fifth and seventh symphonies. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, premiered the work on 19 February 1923.

01/17/23 Leó Weiner: Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 15

This concerto premiered in 1923. Weiner spent most of his career as a professor of composition at the Budapest Academy of Music. His students include Georg Solti, Janos Starker, and Anatol Dorati.

01/18/23 Edgard Varèse: Hyperprism

This premiered at an International Composers' Guild concert in 1923. It was not well-received. "It remained for Varese to cause peaceful lovers of music to scream out their agony..."

1/19/23 Heitor Villa-Lobos: Nonet ("Impressão rápida de todo o Brasil")

Villa-Lobos started writing the Nonet in January 1923 and finished it 9 months later. It's one of the earliest works where Villa-Lobos uses Brazilian folk music.

01/20/23 Gabriel Fauré: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120

Fauré wrote the trio at the urging of his publisher. He started it in 1920, and it was completed in February 1923. It was premiered in May 1923 and published later that same year.

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1923 Week 2

New year, new month, new theme. The Classics a Day team decided to look back 100 years. For the month of January, the challenge is to post classical works associated with 1923. They can be pieces composed in that year, premiered in that year, or received their first recording in that year. 

1923 was a pivotal year in classical music. As I soon discovered when I began my research. Here are my posts for the second week of #Classical1923.

01/09/23 Josef Matthias Hauer: Atonale Musik, Op.20

Hauer, independently from Schoenberg, developed a theory of 12-tone composition. He composed Atonale Musik, a collection of 13 pieces, between 1920 and 1922. It premiered in 1923.

01/10/23 Arnold Schoenberg: Fünf Klavierstücke Op. 23

Schoenberg began work on this ground-breaking piece in 1920. It was completed in 1923.

01/11/23 Alexander von Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony, Op. 18

Zemlinsky considered this 1923 composition his Das Lied von der Erde. Alban Berg quoted from it in his own Lyric Suite.

01/12/23 Ferruccio Busoni: Prélude et étude en arpèges, BV 297

Busoni worote this work in 1923, near the end of a long and productive life. In many ways, it sums up his style as a pianist.

01/13/23 Sigfrid Karg-Elert: Cathedral Windows, Op.106

Sigfrid Karg-Elert's first instrument was the piano. By 1910, he had transitioned to the organ. His most popular works -- including this one -- were written for the organ.

#ClassicsaDay #Classical1923 Week 1

New year, new month, new theme. The Classics a Day team decided to look back 100 years. For the month of January, the challenge is to post classical works associated with 1923. They can be pieces composed in that year, premiered in that year, or received their first recording in that year. 

1923 was a pivotal year in classical music. As I soon discovered when I began my research. Here are my posts for the first week of #Classical1923.

01/02/23 Gerald Finzi: A Severn Rhapsody, Op 3

Finzi completed this work in 1923. One critic called it "a picturesque and imaginative composition." I don't disagree.

01/03/23 Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 16

Prokofiev completed his second piano concerto in 1912. But the score was lost in a fire. In 1923, he reconstructed the work but admitted it was almost completely rewritten.

01/04/23 Hans Pfitzner: Concerto for Violin in B minor, Op. 34

Pfitzner dedicated this concerto to Alma Moodie. She premiered it the following year with Pfitzner conducting. For a while, it was considered the most important addition to the violin repertoire since Bruch's First Concerto.

01/05/23 Germaine Tailleferre: Piano Concerto No. 1

In 1923 Tailleferre spent a lot of time with Maurice Ravel. And it was time well-spent. She wrote this concerto, Le marchand d'oiseaux Ballet for orchestra, and her Ballade for piano and orchestra.

01/06/23 Henry Cowell: Aeolian Harp

This piece is played with what Cowell called a "string piano." That is, the performer reaches inside a piano and strums the strings directly with one hand. The other presses down the keys, in essence, muting the sound of select strings.