Classical Music Month~ September 8

Table XV. Baba-Yaga’s Hut by Vasily Kandinsky

“For artist Wassily Kandinsky, the [‘Pictures at an Exhibition‘] cycle served as a basis for his first and only theater project, which was premiered in the German city of Dessau in 1928. Wassily Kandinsky was out to create a synthetic ‘Gesamtkustwerk‘. For him, that meant that sounds took on hues that listeners could see before their eyes as they listened to the music. It was intended to be a Gesamtkustwerk of sound, color and motion.”
~ https://www.dw.com/en/kandinsky-and-mussorgsky-what-happens-when-artists-inspire-each-other/a-19087823

1928 / Graphite, India ink, and watercolor on paper
11 4/5″x15 3/4″ / Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

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National Piano Month~ September 8

Pictures at an Exhibition (original piano version) by Modest Mussorgsky
“One of Modest Mussorgsky’s best friends was Viktor Hartmann, an artist who tragically died of an aneurism in 1873 at the age of 39. Two weeks after Hartmann’s death, his friends and supporters organized a major exhibition of his works at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. About a year later, Mussorgsky composed ‘Pictures at an Exhibition. Completed in only twenty days, ‘Pictures’ was originally a set of short pieces for piano in which Mussorgsky depicted himself walking through the exhibition and contemplating Hartmann’s works.”
~ https://houstonsymphony.org/mussorgsky-pictures/

The Hut On Fowl’s Legs (Baba-Yaga) by Viktor Hartmann

“In Russian folklore, Baba Yaga is a witch who flies through the woods on a mortar and pestle, searching for children to eat. She lives in a hut on hen’s legs that stalks the land. This movement was inspired by Hartmann’s design for an ornate clock in the shape of Baba Yaga’s hut.” [Watercolor. N/D]
~ https://houstonsymphony.org/mussorgsky-pictures/

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Original piano version: watch on youtube

Classical Music Month~ September 6

Lieder ohne Worte by Frederic, Lord Leighton

1861 / Oil on canvas / 40″x24 3/4″ / Tate Britain, London, UK

The title was suggested by a visitor to the artist’s studio, Mrs Ralph Benson,
and evokes Felix Mendelssohns famous Songs without Words“,
created for the piano between 1829 and 1845. ~ Tate Britain

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December 24, 1951~ Gian-Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” premieres

The Adoration of the Magi by Hieronymus Bosch

c.1475 / Oil and gold on oak / 28”x22 1/4” / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

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“One November afternoon as I was walking rather gloomily through the rooms of the Metropolitan Museum, I chanced to stop in front of the Adoration of the Kings by Hieronymus Bosch, and as I was looking at it, suddenly I heard again, coming from the distant blue hills, the weird song of the Three Kings. I then realized they had come back to me and had brought me a gift.”
https://www.cpr.org/2013/12/19/the-500-year-old-painting-that-inspired-amahl-and-the-night-visitors/

How Amahl and the Night Visitors Established ‘Television Opera’~
http://www.playbill.com/article/how-amahl-and-the-night-visitors-established-television-opera
The original 1951 telecast~ https://youtu.be/xlg81twKXbY

Previous December 24 posts:

December 24: CHRISTMAS EVE

December 24~ Animals in Art

December 24~

February 20, 1816~ Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” premieres

Portrait of Gioacchino Rossini by Francesco Hayez, after a photograph by Étienne Carjat

1870 / Oil on canvas / 42 9/10”x34 1/5” / Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy

The premiere of Gioachino Rossini’s opera buffa The Barber of Seville on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome was a verifiable disaster! …
http://www.interlude.hk/front/rossini-barber-sevillepremiered-today-1816/

Previous February 20 posts:

February 20~ African-American visual artists

February 20, 1872: The Met opens its doors to the public

Nancy Wilson: Born February 20, 1937

Artist Birthday Quiz for 2/20~