8:07 : (1) CORELLI: Concerto Grosso in D, Op. 6
The English Concert, conductor, Trevor Pinnock

KERMAN CD 562001 (5:26)

The development of instrumental music in the 17th and 18th centuries, that is music that does not require words, counts as one of the most far-reaching contributions composers made in the period known as the Baroque era. Bach had composed many Church cantata' s as well as cantors, but all enjoyed voice accompaniment, thus with the development of this newer form of music, it was divided into three main sources : - Dance, Virtuoso, (a performer, notably with a violin) and Fugue. Once again, Bach being the predominant composer here in producing a wealth of Fugues, mainly for the Organ.
The birth of the Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli in February of 1653 provided the impetus in his later life to forge music and merge it authoritatively into what we know, and refer today. as "instrumental music". Corelli developed violin playing significantly as he developed violin music. In an important series of publications, Corelli established models for Violin Sonatas and Concertos that were immediately recognized as classics. These works incorporate emphatic elements of instrumental virtuosity and yet balance with this a new clarity form. Corelli experimented with many kinds of dance stylizations, and wrote fugues (or Fugue-like compositions) of a not too complicated kind. Here is an example of his instrumental writing, A Concerto Grosso, in this case, N0. 6 of a set he had composed and published about the 1670's. (2:00)

8:15 (2) J.S. BACH : Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
The English Consort, Conductor, Trevor Pinnock

KERMAN CD 562 001 (9:45)

There follows now, music by J.S. Bach. A Brandenburg Concerto, one of 6, so called because they were composed over a period of ten years during Bach's lengthy stay at Cothen where he was composing music for the Dukes of both Cothen and Weimar. During this period however, they were not known as Brandenburg Concertos, but simply instrumental pieces for small ensembles and each contains a variety of combinations such as violins, oboes, flutes and harpsichords, all based upon the self-same style as Corelli.
They were reconstructed and presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721, for what purpose, (we do not entirely know), assuming that Bach at that time was looking for what we call todays as "out" from his current employment, and was trying to impress the Margrave as a future Court musician, but given in that particular era, a merger into the Kingdom of Prussia, Europe's fastest growing state, was immanent, The Grand Duchy was to be no more!, so it would seem that the introductory musical interview did not eventuate. The combinations that I mentioned earlier were never in some cases used before of after. Taken as a group, the Brandenburg Concertos present an unsurpassed anthology of dazzling tone colours and imaginative treatments of the Baroque Concerto Grosso contest between soloists and orchestra. (1:30)

8:26 : (3) GRAINGER : Blithe Bells
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, conductor, John Hopkins

ABC 465 818-2 (4)

Percy Grainger was one of music's great eccentrics, a Melbourne-born boy who went to Germany to study and became a renown concert pianist. He always longed for more time to follow his creative instincts but above all, he was extraordinarily original in all of his many endeavours but particularly in his musical thinking. He became fascinated by the living popular traditions beyond the drawing room atmosphere that he encountered during the closing years of the 19th century, and this drew him to the folk-music of various cultures including Jutland, and Norway, the British Isles, New Zealand , and even China, and he often used these melodies as the basis for his own compositions, such as this one a 'free ramble', as Grainger put it, on Bach's secular Cantata which we know as Sheep May Safely Graze. The melody that opens and closes the work is set in thirds which suggests the sound of sheep bells.

8:33: (4) MENDELSSOHN : Concerto IN a-Flat Major for two Pianos and Orchestra
Arthur Gold & Robert Fizdale, duo pianist's Philadelphia Orchestra, conductor, Eugene Ormandy.

CBS LP (30:41)

At the end of last week's program, I made mention of the fact that included in this week's program was a performance of a Concerto for Two Piano's and Orchestra by Felix Mendelssohn, and written 175 years ago. This is not quite true, as the work was actually composed in 1824, which makes it in fact, 178 years old, but at this point, I take great pains to also mention to you that it was not the only Double Concerto for the same instrument that he wrote. A year before, he had completed the E Major Concerto, which was based on the same line as the one which followed and the one of which you are about to enjoy, hopefully!. That is that it contains and was performed for the first time in 1827 at one of the musicales, held in the Mendelssohn home., with the composer at the second piano, for history does not record who was the pianist on the first piano. Perhaps it did not hold the same status as the first Concerto did, even though it was the first of the two performed. The first did not actually see the light of day as it were until the year 1829, at which time, the composer played it with the famous pianist of the day, Ignaz Moscheles.
I have the notion that you ultimately will wasn't to hear the first concerto at a later stage, no doubt to judge or compare the two performances. I can assure you that I will play the First Double Concerto in a few weeks time, (details of which will be posted in 2MCR's website), but for the time being, because there is a February anniversary to adhere to, I give you the Second Concerto First! (2:00)

9:06 : (5) DURAND : Chaconne in A flat minor
Janos Balint, flute, Nora Mercz, harp

NAXOS 3CD 8.550741 (5:32)

Before commencing our final work in this mornings programe, here is an interlude in the form of a Chaconne by one, August Durand of whose history is very brief. All my music dictionary can come up with is that Durand was born in Paris in on 18th July, 1830 and died there on May 31st, 1909. It seems that he was a French publisher, organist and composer, who wrote drawing-room music for the elite and also some waltzes. I wonder how he managed to fit in this Chaconne?

9:13 : GLIERE : The Bronze Horseman Suite
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor, Sir Edward Downes

CHANDOS CHAN 9379 (46:14)

When Reinhold Gliere was born in Kiev in 1875, his father must have hoped that he would eventually join the family's instrument-making business which had been producing musical instruments throughout Europe for nearly a century. But it was not to be, instead of developing an interest in brass instruments, which were his father's specialty, he succumed to playing the violin and showed considerable talent.
Sent to the Moscow Conservatoire, he immediately aligned himself with the Nationalist School of Composition, being appointed Professor of Composition there in 1920, two years after the Revolution, and as 'modern music' earned a reputation for being dangerous and subversive, his accessible style, and his willingness to use music to praise Soviet life, assured him a place among the establishment. As such he was made a director of Music at the Conservatorium, and the Soviet Union of Composers. He was also awarded a number of State honours , including the "Order of the Red banner" and "Peoples Artist of the USSR.
The Philosophy which ensured this official recognition is demonstrated in his ballet The Red Poppy, written in 1927, it was based on non other than Revolutionary lines, which pleased the
Soviet authorities, although it wasn't discovered until much later that the term 'Red Popy' referred to a source of opium, so the title was hastily changed to 'Red Flower'.
Whilst Gliere's pupils, Prokofiev, Maiskovsky and Khachaturian were censured alongside Shostakovich in 1948 for music that the authorities regarded as 'atonality, dissonant, and disharmonious, Gliere himself escaped criticism and prepared for the stage in 1949, another ballet based this time on Pushkin's work, The Bronze Horseman, the story of a St. Petersburg youth whose beloved drowns in the River Neva, and driven to despair, he taunts the bronze mounted statue of the city's founder, Peter the Great, but it chases him through the streets and kills him.
The conservatism of this story combined with Gliere's inventive melodies, and lavish orchestral colurs were exactly within the 'Party Lines', and in 1950, it earned him the Stalin Prize, and to composer Shostokovich's horror, the last movement being used as the city's national anthem, for St. Petersburg, all you historians may recall, was renamed Leningrad after the 1917 revolution. Thank god today, now that sanity prevails once more in that turbulent land , that the original name of the city has been restored! (2:00)

THE END

NEXT WEEK: The Watermill by Ronald Binge, Mozartania by Tchaikovsky, the finale scene from Koanga by Frederick Delius (which should have featured in this current program but was omitted to timing), plus the Cello Concerto in B flat by Luigi Boccherini, played by Jacqueline du Pre.

This is Gordon Manning bidding you goodbye for now and enjoy a pleasant week.