Good morning everyone, This is Gordon Manning welcoming you to program No. 272 of Composer's Gallery on 2MCR 100.3FM. In this morning's program, Handel's Concerto Grosso No. 4 in F some early Christmas Baroque Christmas anthems by Claudio Monteverdi, and Michael Pretorius, The Robin Hood Suite by Erich Korngold, music that was composed for the 1938 film which starred Errol Flyn, Claude Raines and Basil Rathbourne, 2 piano pieces by Edward McDowell, To a Water Lily and To a Wild Rose which will be played by pianist Joseph Cooper, Ravel's Daphnis et Cloe Ballet Suite No. 2 with the Cleveland Orchestra, and as the concluding work, a performance by the CBS Vancouver Orchestra of Francesco Geminiani's The Enchanted Forest. It's a program chosen for your enjoyment this Sunay morning, so I invite you to remained tuned!

(1) 8:08 : HANDEL : Concerto Grosso No. 4 in F
Prague Chamber Orchestra, Conductor, Sir Charles Mackerras

HMV LP (10:50)

One of the first of the great 19th-century 'nationalist' composers, Bedrich Smetana gave his beloved Bohemia a central role in his two most famous works, the orchestral suite Ma Vlast, and the opera, The Bartered Bride. Utterly devoid of bombast or jingoism, these allusions only serve to deepen the listener's appreciation of Smetana's music. The Bartered Bride is bound up in the struggles of the composer's native land, and is blessed with a strong, simple plot, a first-rate libretto, well-concieved character and music which is endlessly charming. In short, its poise and balance won it wide acclaim from the day that it was first produced, and, in another sense, it is truly Mozartian. Smetana spent the rest of his life as an operatic composer trying to re-create this level of popular acclaim. Here's the overture from it! (1:05)

(2) 10:16 : J.S. BACH : Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
Concentus Musicus, Vienna, conductor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt

TELDEC CD 9031 - 75858-2 (11:10)

Johann Sebastian Bach has long been regarded…..with justification……as equal in his musical genius to any other composer of Classical music. His delight in the subtleties of counterpoint, allied to his deep religiosity, which were the parameters within which he worked his muse to the enrichment of every musical generation which followed.
Bach came from a family with demonstrable musical talents, documented as far back as the mid-16th century, and the Bach Family 's identification with music is unparalleled in Western music, as is the genius of J.S. Bach.
The Brandenburg Concertos, as we know them were a product of his years in Cothen, as musical arranger to the Duke of Brandenberg, Christian Ludwig, here, as well, he produced a wealth of other music including the beautiful Violin Concertos, modelled on works by Italian composers, such as Vivaldi, to whom he was but an ardent admirer. Of the six Brandenburg Concertos, No. 2, which you are about to hear, is the least known, but turns out to be a complex musical dialogue in which inversions and other devices are used. Time after time, there is an exchange of parts between the outer instruments. The instruments idiomatic language (the scoring of the solo quartet is extreme: a high natural trumpet, a recorder, an oboe, and a violin, almost a repertoire of the different ways of producing sound) achieves an impression of imitation by the transfer of specific instrumental figures to other instruments. (2:00)

(3) 10:28 : (3) FREDERIC MORENO TORROBA : Sonatina
Julian Bream, Guitar

BMG 0902661353 (13:10)

Andres Segovia, the great Spanish Guitarist, celebrated his 90th birthday giving recitals in the United States. His indomitable spirit expressed itself in his desire to take the Guitar to his public, and in the wide repertoire he inspired over 60 years. Guitarist Julian Bream, whose own achievements began with appreciation of his art, offers musical homage to the maestro who inspired him. On this recording I'm about to play, not all the music recorded was dedicated to Segovia. To offset the pressures of strong regionalism, many Spanish composers spent time abroad, especially in Paris. In France a powerful admiration of Iberian music, found in the work of Bizet, Chabrier and Debussy, has often had the effect of returning Spanish composers to their own national identities, Falla, Turina, Mompou and Rodrigo are examples of this process.
Spanish musician have been united in their love of the guitar in their dedication to the spirit of Segovia. He inspired composers of nearly all nationalities. Yet the Spanish music offered to him surely depicts the the essence of his art, its warmth and its intimate vitality.
Here is a Sonatina written by Frederic Torroba, a very much admired composer by the great master of the guitar, and one which Julian Bream exploits to the utmost in all respect. (1:45)

10:43 : (4) PUCCINI : Aria :- E Lucevan le stelle from Tosca
Jussi Bjoeling, tenor, Rome Opera Orchestra, Conductor, Erich Leinsdorf

BMG CD 09026634732 (3:24)

There is little doubt today that of all operatic music, Puccini's is the most universally known; more people know the famous arias from La Boheme, Madame Butterfly and Turandot than any others, with the single exception of those from Carmen. Considering Puccini's struggles, this is a remarkable achievement.
The opera, Tosca however, was something a little different from the others mentioned, it appeared in 1900, and was based on a schocking melodrama of the so-called 'realism' school of French drama, Tosca had been hailed as a sensation in Paris, partly due to the presence of one Sarah Bernhardt in the lead role, It was written with a minimum of problems with the libretto or the music, and was prepared for a Rome premiere, but alas, the premiere was not all that Puccini and his librettist had hoped for. Few critics managed to see or hear the advances Puccini had made in the work, or its incredible dynamism, preferring to stress only the tawdriness of the tale and the lack of any redeeming moral sense. In this sense, Tosca was truly a modern opera, the closest to verismo which Puccini ever came. Here's the most constantly heard aria from it! (1:32)

10:48 : (5) GOOSENS : The Eternal Rhythm, Op. 5
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Conductor, Vernon Handley

ABC CD 462 766-2 (20:24)

Eugene Goosens is today remembered primarily for his work as a conductor. Yet he was also anotable composer, and in this regard he belongs to that venerable tradition of conductor-composers that counts Gustav Holst and Wilhelm Furtwangler, Otto Klemperer and Felix Weingartner in its midst. Fortunately in the age of recordings, Eugene Goosens, the composer, is beginning to gain a stronger posthumous profile. According to "The New Grove Dictionary", Goosens' music has a "singular unmemorability" and its eclecticism "could not cover a lack of melodic invention and inner conviction". With an ever-growing Goosens discography, and from a more objective , post-avant garde end-of-century viewpoint, we are now more enabled to make up our own minds.
One thing about Eugene Goosens is for sure: from the time when he conducted the London Proms premiere of his Variations on a Chinese theme when he was only twenty-one, to the terrible period in early 1956 when conservative Australian society turned him from principal deity of their music establishment to a shamed, pornography-possessing outcast, he led an extraordinarily colourful, diverse and often charmed existance, and I suppose, that judging the man in later years and long after his death, Eugene Goosens will always remain in our memories as a 'man of music' who achieved much and has been honoured as such for his worthwhile contribution to us all hear in Australia! (2:00)

11:10: (6) BRAHMS : Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Isaac Stern, Violin, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Conductor, Eugene Ormandy

SONY CD SBK 46335 (40:04)

A great revival seems to be underway, as I predicted, the re-issue of recordings made by Violinist Isaac Stern since his death a few weeks ago has already begun and it would seem that the record companies are competing rigorously as to who could equal the most output in the number of Stern recordings…….. and, he made many hundreds from the performances that he staged throughout the world during his long life.
One such recording which has now become a 'golden gem' is the 1973 performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto, the only Concerto that Brahms wrote for the Violin, yet in a sense, although it was a favourite of the performer, critics have described it as 'not real virtuoso music to exhibit the powers of the soloist, but instead, music of a Symphonic nature, in fact the great 19th-century conductor, Hans von Bulow was once temped to say of this work that Brahms had not written a Concerto for the Violin, but a Concerto against the Violin. But as was the case of Beethoven, who refused to a 'puling fiddle' in mind when the spirit spoke to him, Brahms could not restrict the flow of his thought or hem in the turbulence of his emotions even when writing for such an instrument. (1:50)

THE END