8:05 : Good morning everyone, This is Gordon Manning welcoming you to program No. 295 of Composer's Gallery on 2MCR 100.3FM. Commencing with Mozart, his Marriage of Figaro Overture, followed by some excerpts from the opera itself, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Harnoncourt switches to a Strauss Waltz for our third, playing the Vienna Bonbons Waltz. Then a performance of a Piano Concerto by the Irish composer, John Field, (Concerto No. 2), with pianist Benjamin Frith. Soprano, Renata Tebaldi will render a performance of Vogliatemi bene an aria from Madame Butterfly by Puccini, and the programme concludes with a performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 100 in G, the "Military Symphony". I'd trust that you enjoy the programme for this Mothers Day.

8:07 : (1) MOZART : Marriage of Figaro Overture
BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor, Sir Colin Davis

BELART 450 071-2 (4:01)

History records that Mozart was a delicate human being, short, slight of build, with a head a trifle large for his body, and it's most attractive feature was it's crop of hair, for which he was as vain as a woman. There was something soft about and effeminate about his face, which was always pallid. Only one element of strength did that face possess : the intense piercing eyes.
He loved life with a passion that was almost painful. To a red coat, to a harlequin's costume for a masquerade, to dancing, to a game of billiards, or to even a new pair of lace cuffs he would bring almost the same kind of delirium that went with the shaping of his music. In all things he was the happy-go-lucky person who also loved to dance his wife sometimes said more than his music!
He loved people, on Sunday mornings his house was filled with guests, there was gaiety, conversation and plenty of punch, of which he drank in great quantities, but always there was music. Mozart played his music to all and sundry, including the great Mr. Haydn, who approached the composer's father, Leopld Mozart to tell him of his son's genius as a great composer.
It was at one of these Sunday morning jaunts that Mozart was introduced to Abbe Da Ponte, recently appointed poet to the Imperial Theatre. Soon after this meeting Mozart proposed that he and Da Ponte collaborate on an opera, singling out Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro as a text, and with the consent of the Emperor (given only when they promised to tone down Beaumarchias' revolutionary ideas) the pair set to work and completed the opera in six weeks.
The Marriage of Figaro was performed at packed Burgtheatre on May 1st, 1786, and during the performance so many of the aria's were repeated by public demand, so that the whole of the performance was very nearly doubled, and even the Emperor, who was present, expressed his delight, and the little man responsible for the whole thing, Wolfgang Mozart returned thanks for the homage paid to him by bowing repeatedly. (2:15)

8:13 : (2) MOZART : 2 Arias (a) You who know what love is
(b) Cruel One

Petra Lang, & Barbara Bonney, sopranos, Thomas Hampson, baritone, Royal Concergebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, conductor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt

ERATO 3984 27065 2 (5:01)

8:20 : (3) STRAUSS : Waltz, Vienna Bonbons
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conductor, Nikolaus Harnoncourt

TELDEC 9031-74786-2 (9:19)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who conducted those Mozart arias, is a versatile musician and conductor, who has spread his wings over as much music as he can possibly accommodate ranging from the 17th century to the 20th century, and has been greatly admired for his wide repertoire, and has been much in demand as an international conductor as well.
Harnoncourt, (Pronounced Harnon-core) was born in Berlin in 1929. He was educated at the Vienna Academy of Music, studying the cello, and then played in what was then, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. In 1952 he founded Concentus Musicus, an ensemble devoted to the original performances of Baroque music of Bach's era. Since then he has progressed to the opera, conducting many performances of not only Mozart, but Wagner and Verdi, and, he has conducted as well as recorded the whole of Wagner's Ring Cycle. Harnoncourt has had the privilege of conducting many of the world class orchestras, including our Australian one's, and among the hundred's of recordings that he has made from the 1950's onwards, are the Strauss Waltzes and Polkas both with the Vienna Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw orchestra. They seem to take on a new meaning with Harnoncourt at the helm. Here is the Waltz Vienna Bobbons, of which Harnoncourt states that to play Strauss, you must understand the nature of the way in which all of Johann Strauss' music was written. He prefers that the Waltzes be played a little slower than normal, to gain the actual rhythm that surrounds them. (1.50)

8:33 : (4) JOHN FIELD : Piano Concerto No 2 in A flat major
Benjamin Frith, piano, Northern Sinfonia, conductor, David Haslam

NAXOS 8.553771 (34:54)

I was always of the understanding that Frederick Chopin developed the free style of piano-playing in the middle 19th century, i:e; letting the melodies flow on one to another, and also the developer of the keyboard nocturnes. Not so!, he was beaten to it by an Irishman, one John Field a Dublin-born pianist and composer towards the end of the 18th century. Field, it seems studied the piano and had lessons with the Italian pianist, Muzio Clementi in London where he was employed in Clementi'' music establishment as a salesman, and accompanied Clementi to Paris, and then onto St. Petersburg in 1803 where Field settled as a teacher and performer.
His elegance at the keyboard, and charm in his association with high society, made him an idol among the aristocracy of Europe who vied with one another to obtain his services as a teacher for their children. John Field's, musical compositions are mainly for the piano, for he composed 7 piano concertos, of which I feature his second in A flat major, Op. 31. But among his other important compositions lie 4 sonatas, 18 nocturnes, polonaises, as well as other pieces, also a Quintet for Piano and Strings which in itself is currently undergoing a revival. Lets hope that more of Field's long lost music will also follow suite, his work is very interesting indeed! (1:45)

9:10 : (5) PUCCINI : Aria : Vogliatemi bene from 'Madame Butterfly'
Renata Tebaldi. Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome

AWARD AWCD 29152 (7:58)

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 by Bizet. Considering Puccini's early artistic struggles, this is a remarkable achievement. And there is probably no one female singer that hasn't at one time or another either taken part in any of his famous three operas by singing all of the arias contained therein. Italian soprano, Renata Tebaldi, (now retired) has sung them all, and given the fact that she has now retired from the operatic stage, there is no doubt that she still remembers every word of such arias. Renata Tebaldi started her career after her mothers marriage break-up to a philandering cellist. She studied piano firstly and at the age of 16, entered the singing class of Ettore Campogalliani at the Parma Conservatory in Italy, later she took a course of vocal intruction with the soprano, Carman Melis, and made her operatic debut in Rovigo as Elena in Boito's Mefistofele in 1944. In 1946 Tocanini chose her as one of his artist's for the re-opening concert at La Scala Milan, and she subsequently became one of La Scala's leading sopranos, making her appearance in England in 1950 at London's Covent Garden and also sang Aida with the San Francisco Opera. On January 31st, 1955 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York, Appearing as Desdemona in Verdi's Othello, she continued to appear regularly there until 1973. She also toured Russia in 1975 and 1976.
Her repertoire was almost exclusively Italian ; she excelled in both lyric and dramatic rolls, was particularly successful as Violetta, Tosca, Mimi, and Madame Butterfly. In 1958, Renata Tebaldi was the feature of a cover story in Time Magazine.
Here she is now in one of her most familiar roles, Madame Butterfly in which she sings that famous aria : Vogliatemi bene ( 2:45)

9:23 : (6) HAYDN : Symphony No. 100 in G Major, (Military)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor, Leonard Bernstein

CBS LP (25:08)

No one knows the exact words which Johann Peter Salomon initiated one of the happiest business arrangements in music history, but the version that deserves to be true describes the London impressario striding into Haydn's Vienna lodgings one December morning in 1790 and announcing that He was Salomon of London, come to fetch the services of such an honorable composer to accompany him to London to make an 'accord'.
Salamon's pun on the French word 'accord', which can signify both a contractual agreement and musical consonance, reportedly delighted Haydn , who must have been impressed as well by such a display of confidence. Most persuasive of all was the fee for Haydn's services, 300 pounds for six new symphonies, plus two hundred for their copyright, three hundred pounds for an opera, and two hundred for various new pieces of kind, and a two hundred pound minimum guarantee for a benefit concert. Hardly a proposition to refuse, considering that the composer had spent half of his life in the service of one of Hungary's most wealthiest and powerful families, the noble Esterharzy's.
The rest of the story is quite lengthy, but it seems that such a generous offer enticed Haydn to stay in England and remain there for the next three years during which he composed the two sets of six symphonies that have come to be known as both the 'London' and 'Salomon' Symhonies, (Nos. 93 to 104), and together, these twelve works represent the height of Haydn's art as a symphonist.
Ecstatic praise by the English press greeted the premiere of Symphony No. 100 which took place on March, 3I, 1794, with a repeat performance in April, as well as shouts of 'Encore, Encore' from the audiences' who attended it's playing, for it is the advancing to battle, and the march of men, the sounding of the charge, the thundering of the onset, the clash of arms, the groans of the wounded, and what may be called the hellish roar of war increase to a climax of horrid sublimity, which, if others could conceive, he alone could execute, at leats he alone hitherto had effected these wonders. Therefore, it followed quite naturally, that the symphony that provoked such vivid prose would come to be known as "The Military Symphony". (2:37)

NEXT WEEK: The Hebridies Overture by Mendelssohn, a Guitar Concerto by Lennox Berkely, plus the Symphonic work by Vaughan Williams, In the Fenn Country, and as usual, much more.