#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalWinter Week 5

For January 2019, #ClassicsaDay went with a winter theme. December's theme, #ClassicalChristmas centered around sacred works of the season. #ClassicalWinter is about sharing secular compositions. that have a snow or winter theme. 

Here are my Classical Winter posts for the last week of January.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - The Snow Maiden

The transition from winter to spring is one of the themes of this 1882 opera. It was based on an 1873 play with incidental music by Tchaikovsky.

Peter Maxwell Davies - Symphony No. 8 "Antarctic Symphony"

Davies visited the Antarctic, which inspired this symphony. In this 2001 work, Davies wanted to not only depict the landscape but the way in which Antarctica was affected by climate change.

Alexander Glazunov - The Seasons, Op. 67

This 1900 ballet consists of four tableaux, each representing a season. "A winter landscape" is the first tableaux. Dancers represent hoar-frost, ice, snow, hail, and winter itself.

Claude Debussy - Des pas sur la neige

"Footprints in the Snow" is part of Debussy's Préludes, Book I. It was written between 1909 and 1910.

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalWinter Week 4

For January 2019, #ClassicsaDay went with a winter theme. December's theme, #ClassicalChristmas centered around sacred works of the season. #ClassicalWinter is about sharing secular compositions. that have a snow or winter theme. 

Here are my Classical Winter posts for the fourth week of January.

Terje Isungset - Fading Sun

Isunget is a Norwegian percussionist and composer who incorporates the natural world into his music. In "Fading Sun" and many of his other works, he uses instruments made of ice.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Der Schneemann

Korngold completed his ballet "Der Schneemann" (The Snowman) in 1908. He was eleven years old. The ballet was premiered in 1910 and became a hit in Vienna.

Thomas Arne - Blow blow thou winter wind

The text is from Shakespeare's "As You Like It." Arne wrote incidental music for a 1740 production of the play, including this setting. It was later published in 1763.

John Rutter - Blow, blow thou winter wind

The text is from Shakespeare's "As You Like It." John Rutter wrote his choral setting in 2014.

Jacques Offenbach - Ballet of the Snowflakes from "Le voyage dans la lune"

The ballet is from Offenbach's 1875 operetta, "Voyage to the Moon." It takes place at the end of Act III. The setting is the moon, "50 degrees below zero."

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalWinter Week 3

For January 2019, #ClassicsaDay went with a winter theme. December's theme, #ClassicalChristmas centered around sacred works of the season. #ClassicalWinter is about sharing secular compositions. that have a snow or winter theme. 

Here are my Classical Winter posts for the third week of January.

Georgy Sviridov “Waltz” and “March,” from "Snow Storm"

Sviridov's 1975 work is subtitled "Musical illustrations after Pushkin for orchestra." It's based on his film score "The Blizzard," an adaptation of Pushkin's original story.

Henry Purcell - Frost Song from "King Arthur"

The "Frost Scene" from Purcell's 1691 masque is its most-performed music. Purcell is said to have been inspired by the Frost Faires hosted on the frozen Thames in winter.

Francis Poulenc - La Bonne Neige from "Un Soir de Neige"

Poulenc completed "Un Soir de Neige" in just three days in December. It features four settings of Paul Éluard's wintery poetry.

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Cantus Arcticus

This 1972 composition is Rautavaara's best-known work. It incorporates birdsongs recorded in northern Finland, near the Arctic Circle.

Émile Waldteufel - Skaters Waltz, Op. 183

Les Patineurs Valse was composed in 1882. Waldteufel was inspired by the skating rink at Paris's Bois de Boulogne.

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalWinter Week 2

For January 2019, #ClassicsaDay went with a winter theme. December's theme, #ClassicalChristmas centered around sacred works of the season. #ClassicalWinter is about sharing secular compositions. that have a snow or winter theme. 

Here are my Classical Winter posts for the second week of January.

Ralph Vaughan William - Scott of the Antarctic (soundtrack)

This 1948 film chronicled Robert Scott's failed attempt to reach the South Pole. Vaughan Williams effectively depicted the cold and desolation with his score. In 1952 he expanded the material to create his seventh symphony, Sinfonia antartica.

Jean Sibelius - Talvikuva (Winter Scene) from Five Sketches, Op. 114

Sibelius completed the work in 1929. It would be his last published work for solo piano. Talvikuva is the second of the five sketches.

Carter Pann - Slalom

"Slalom" is a series of skiing vignettes. Section titles include "First Run," "On One Ski, Gyrating," and "Open Meadow, Champagne Powder."

Jacques Ibert - La promenade en traineau from "Petite Suite"

Ibert's 1944 piano work is entitled "Small Suite in 15 Scenes." No. 7 is more popularly known by its English title, "Sleigh Ride."

Randall Thompson - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Frostiana: Seven Country Songs was completed by Thompson in 1959. Robert Frost was a friend of Thompson's. The work was commissioned for the bicentennial of Amherst, MA, where Frost had lived.

#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalWinter Week 1

For January 2019, #ClassicsaDay went with a winter theme. December's theme, #ClassicalChristmas centered around sacred works of the season. #ClassicalWinter is about sharing secular compositions. that have a snow or winter theme. 

Here are my Classical Winter posts for the first week of January.

Giacomo Puccini - "Che gelida manina" (What a cold little hand) - La Boheme

In the first act of "La Boheme" takes place in the middle of winter. Mimi visits her neighbor Rudolfo to get a light for her candle. Both are freezing in the poorly heating garret.

Claude Debussy - The Snow is Dancing

This is the fourth movement of "The Children's Corner." Debussy's friend and colleague André Caplet orchestrated the suite in 1911.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13 "Winter Dreams"

The title comes from the first movement, marked "Dreams of a Winter Journey." The themes outlined in G minor in this movement return in the final movement, now in G major, suggesting arrival.

Franz Joseph Haydn - "Der Winter" from "Die Jahreszeiten," Hob.XXI:3

Haydn's massive 1801 oratorio is in four sections, one for each season. "Der Winter" is the final part. It represents the year's end, and life's' end as well.