Tag Archives: Classical Music

Nora Clench~ May 6, 1867-May 17, 1938

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

World renowned violinist Nora Clench was a child prodigy, born Esther Leonora Clench in what is now Ontario, Canada. Nora made her debut as a violinist at the age of 8. When she was fifteen she entered the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, and after graduating in 1889 she became first violinist and leader of an orchestra in Buffalo, New York. She later toured Europe and eventually moved to London. • In 1900 Clench temporarily gave up playing the violin in order to go to Paris to paint. When she returned to music she founded the all-female “Nora Clench Quartet”, which played a prominent role in the music of fin de siecle London. • Clench again retired from the violin in 1908, at the age of 41, when she married the Australian landscape painter Arthur Streeton. The Nora Clench Quartet continued without her. In 1923, the Streeton family moved to Australia. In 1937 Streeton was given a knighthood for his services to fine art, and Clench became Lady Streeton. • Nora Clench died in Australia in 1938; her husband died in September 1943 after a long illness. The couple’s property with its house, studio and cottage, in 5 acres of garden, remains in the ownership of the Streeton family today.

Biography & Photos~
http://www.riversidestmarys.biz/story-of-nora-clench/
Program of her farewell appearance~ https://archive.org/details/cihm_36309


Nude Study (1903) attributed to Nora Clench

April 9, 1939: Marian Anderson’s Easter Sunday Lincoln Memorial concert

Posted in Miscellanea by


Marian Anderson, contralto, was denied the right to perform at Constitution Hall by the DAR because of her color. Instead, and at the urging of Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes permitted her to perform at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939.

Denied A Stage, She Sang For A Nation~
https://www.npr.org/2014/04/09/298760473/denied-a-stage-she-sang-for-a-nation
Marian Anderson: Musical Icon~
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eleanor-anderson/
Marian Anderson Biography~https://www.biography.com/musician/marian-anderson

Premiered April 8, 1876: “La Gioconda”

Posted in Miscellanea by

Composer Amilcare Ponchielli was born in Italy in 1834. He started composing operas while still a student at the Milan Conservatory. After graduating in 1854, he held various positions over the years, including professor of composition at the Conservatory; his pupils included Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni. His most famous opera is “La Gioconda”, written in 1876. It is mainly remembered for its ballet, Dance of the Hours.

“The Dance of the Hours is probably the only opera ballet that has established a life of its own in both the concert hall as a stand-alone orchestral work…and in pop culture: Walt Disney’s 1940 animated film Fantasia, for example, used the music for a ballet performed by tutu-clad hippos, ostriches, alligators and elephants. And in 1963, parodist Alan Sherman set words to the tune of Ponchielli’s day music with its all-too-familiar four-note theme. Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)” hit No. 2 on the pop charts.”
FROM~ https://nepaphil.org/program-notes-from-an-evening-of-opera-overtures-and-arias/

Ponchielli’s biography~ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/amilcare-ponchielli-mn0000496351/biography

Synopsis of “La Gioconda“~ http://www.opera-arias.com/ponchielli/la-gioconda/synopsis/

Arturo Toscanini: Born on March 25, 1867

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/musicians/artist/arturo-toscanini-47225

Perhaps the most internationally famous conductor ever, Toscanini rose to instant stardom when he put down his cello and jumped up to the podium to fill in for the conductor during a performance of Verdi’s opera Aida. It was 1886; he was 19, and it was the first time he’d ever conducted.

The last time he’d conduct a live performance was in 1954, 68 years later. By then, he was the first conductor to have appeared regularly on television, and was certainly considered the first true media star of the conducting world.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89059352

Modest Mussorgsky: Born March 21, 1839

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (March 21 [O.S. March 9] 1839 – March 28 [O.S. March 16] 1881) was born into a wealthy rural, landowning family. He began by picking out on the piano the tunes he heard from the serfs on his family’s estate. At the age of six, he began to study piano with his mother. His parents initially set him out on the career of military officer. He became a cadet and finally commissioned in an elite imperial regiment. Two years later, in 1858, he resigned his commission. During this time, he met a musically-inclined army doctor: Alexander Borodin. The two became friends. In 1861, with Russia’s emancipation of the serfs, his family lost significant income, and he was forced to earn a living. In 1863, he began a spotty career in the civil service…In 1856, he met the composer Dargomïzhsky, who in turn introduced him to Cesar Cui, Mily Balakirev, and a critic named Victor Stasov. Gradually, Borodin and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff joined to form a loose group known as the “Moguchaya Kuchka” (“the mighty handful” or “the mighty bunch”).
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/mussorgsky.php

See also: https://schristywolfe.com/2015/05/05/viktor-hartmann-born-may-5-1834/

March 17~

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

Nat King Cole (1919-1965)
art:  William P. Gottlieb Library of Congress
bio: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nat-king-cole-mn0000317093/biography
video: https://youtu.be/GfAb0gNPy6s

Rudolph Nureyev (1938-1993)
art: Jamie Wyeth
Brandywine River Museum of Art
bio: http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/opera-and-ballet/rudoph-nureyev/
video: https://youtu.be/qG7JvpPGdEU

Premiered March 11:

Posted in Miscellanea by

March 11, 1867 – Theatre Imperial de l’Opera, France
DON CARLO started out life as a five-act opera that ran for approximately four hours. Based on Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Spiller, this lengthy piece saw Verdi put the music to a French libretto by Camille du Lode and Joseph Mery. After the opera had been written, it was found to still be too long during the rehearsal period. Since the audience would need to leave before midnight, further cuts were made during this time in order to make sure that the opera finished before this deadline.
FROM http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/homage-verdi-don-carlo

March 11, 1851 – La Fenice Opera House, Italy
One of the most acclaimed Verdi operas, RIGOLETTO at one point, was very much a case of “touch and go”. The three-act opera, based on Victor Hugo’s play “Le roi s’amuse”, came under close scrutiny of the Austrian censors. …However, by January 1851, a breakthrough was reached, albeit with a number of amendments to the original work. The original setting of the royal court of France was to be changed either to a duchy of France or Italy, while many of the characters were to be renamed, notably the jester, who went from Triboulet to Rigoletto. With the deadline for the premiere looming, Verdi managed to complete the work by early February, leaving a month to spare.
FROM http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/homage-verdi-rigoletto

Dame Eva Turner: Born March 10, 1892

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

A dramatic soprano with a voice of mammoth proportions, Eva Turner, though scarcely neglected in her native country, enjoyed many of her greatest successes abroad. Most closely identified with the title role in Turandot (which she first sang in Brescia only a month after its premiere), she brought to all of her roles a voice of both enormous size and great cutting power, topped with an unflagging ease in the highest register. While not always an illuminating actress, she approached all of her work with seriousness of purpose, thorough integrity and no small measure of excitement.
Biography and interview here~ http://www.bruceduffie.com/evaturner.html

Sarah Caldwell: Born on March 6, 1924

Posted in Other Notable Birthdays by

American opera visionary Sarah Caldwell founded the Opera Company of Boston in 1958. The company’s principal prima donna was Beverly Sills, and Placido Domingo was an unknown young tenor when he first sang with the company. Caldwell died on March 23 at the age of 82.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5311751

sc

 

Sarah Caldwell, impresario of Boston opera, dead at 82

Biography on Encyclopedia.com

Gioachino Rossini/“Il Barbiere di Siviglia”/Sills, Titus, Gramm, Price, Ramey & Sarah Caldwell/New York City Opera

Discography