Hank Reynolds
Lutoslawski, Paganini Variations for Two Pianos The Polish born Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) has to have had one of the most interesting answers to the question “What did you do in the War?” He graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1936 (piano) and 1937 (composition), but … Read more
Gibbons, Galliard a6 We are several years into this series, and there are still some important composers that we have not gotten around to. Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) is one of them. Gibbons grew up singing in the choir at King’s College, Cambridge, where his older … Read more
Grofé, Grand Canyon Suite (Sunrise) Ferde Grofé (1892-1972) is perhaps best known for the musical landscape Grand Canyon Suite, the opening movement of which (“Sunrise”) is featured here. But Grofé has much more on his resume that deserves attention, in particular his long history with … Read more
Jerome Kern, I’m Old Fashioned Jerome Kern (1885-1945) was one of the principal forces shaping American music in the early 20th century. Professor Carol often points to his 1927 musical Showboat as establishing the Broadway musical, our American form of opera. Songs from that show … Read more
Khachaturian, Waltz from Masquerade The Russian/Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) might be the poster-child for the Soviet arts policy. Although he was briefly denounced in 1948 along with Shostakovich and Prokofiev, that move has generally been attributed to “guilt by association,” and he quickly regained … Read more
Brahms, Trio in E-flat for Piano, Violin, and Horn Brahms’ Horn Trio stands out as unusual in several respects, for starters the mere act of inserting a horn into what otherwise might be a “piano trio.” Horn players can find themselves in various chamber ensembles, … Read more
Holborne, Muy Linda Graduate students in music develop their own peculiar sense of humor. At least we did back in my KU days. We were thoroughly immersed in the music world. (So much so, to my chagrin, that I knew nothing of the extraordinary humanities … Read more
Mozart, Papagena-Pagageno Emanuel Schikender, the librettist for Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte (“The Magic Flute”), performed the role of Papageno. This rather strange character with a bird cage on his back was drawn from the Hanswurst (or Hans Wurst) stock character in German comedy, described as … Read more
Kabalevsky, Colas Breugnon Overture I promised flash and bang for this week, and here it is. The Soviet composer Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987) wrote quite a lot of energetic music, and this overture is among his best known. Arturo Toscanini conducted it often and, since Toscanini … Read more
My Lagan Love Do not listen to this while driving. Recently, driving at night on one of our extended trips to a conference, grandkids in tow, Carol put on a recording of Jim Weiss telling bedtime stories. Same problem. I had to request one of … Read more