Category Archives: Anniversary

Playlist – Josef Suk (born 4 January 1874)

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by Ben Hogwood

Today marks 150 years since the birth of Czech composer Josef Suk in Křečovice, south of Prague, on 4 January 1874.

Over the last 25 years or so, Suk, has enjoyed a mini-musical renaissance, thanks in part to the advocacy of conductors such as Libor Pešek and Sir Simon Rattle. Yet he remains a composer whose music still doesn’t get out that much.

Closer inspection reveals an innovative musical mind, proud of his Czech ancestry but taking in influences from the likes of Brahms as well as Dvořák, who, as well as being Suk’s teacher, became his father-in-law when he married daughter Otilie.

Suk wrote evocatively about nature and the seasons, but a good deal of his music was inspired by family connections, such as the piano suite About Mother, or Czech / Bohemian heritage and history, as in the large orchestral work Praga.

Hopefully 2024 will see more performances of Suk’s music, so that attached Tidal playlist will help set the scene. It introduces the orchestral works for which he is best known, but also some fine chamber and piano compositions. Get a flavour for the music for Suk below:

https://embed.tidal.com/playlists/a43b1560-a91d-48ed-8dd4-e0bb1393ba7e?layout=gridify

In appreciation: Coralie Hogwood

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by Ben Hogwood, editor

Here is a personal blog for Saturday 22 July – as on this day, my mother Coralie would have been 80 years old.

I owe my mum and dad a huge debt of gratitude, not just for bringing me up in the way they did but for playing music to me when I was young, and encouraging my love of classical music (they didn’t know about the prog rock and techno until a good deal later!)

As a thank you to Mum, who we still miss greatly, I have picked out some of her favourite classical pieces. She loved guitar music, and few pieces made her smile more than Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, with its bright first movement:

Another fresh-faced favourite was Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, a set work that she studied at ‘O’ level but one that stayed with her:

Scotland held a special place in Mum’s heart, and while her favourite places were Oban and Mull, one piece that never failed to move was the wonderful Farewell To Stromness by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies:

Happy birthday Mum – and thank you.

On this day – William Byrd (c1543 – 4 July 1623)

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On this day, 400 years ago, the composer William Byrd died. He is regarded as one of the most important composers of the Renaissance, and certainly deserves the reputation as one of the founding composers of English music as we know it today.

There are a number of celebrations taking place to mark this anniversary, notably BBC Radio 3 including Byrd as its Composer of the Week, and The Cardinall’s Musick under Andrew Carwood performing the three Masses at the Wigmore Hall. For now, though, here is The Bells, a remarkable piece for harpsichord:

On his anniversary – two short pieces by György Ligeti

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Today is the anniversary of the birth of György Ligeti, one of the 20th century’s true innovators in music.

There are many longer pieces we could have chosen to mark this, but here are two shorter works that illustrate the range of his creativity. First up is Hungarian Rock, a short piece for harpsichord, which pushes the boundaries of what the instrument is capable of:

From the keyboard we turn to the choir, and the remarkable Lux Aeterna, which had such an effect on film director Stanley Kubrick that he used it in 2001: A Space Odyssey:

To discover more about Ligeti, head to read Tom Service’s guide to his music

75 years ago today – the first performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto

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Today marks 75 years to the day since the premiere of Korngold’s Violin Concerto. Like much of this composer’s work, the Violin Concerto took a while to gain popularity, but since we have moved into the 21st century it has taken up a much more regular position in the concert hall.

In her excellent biography of the composer, Jessica Duchen tells the story of the concerto, and how it was suggested to Korngold for close on 30 years by his friend Bronislaw Huberman, founder of the Palestine Orchestra (later the Israel Philharmonic). The regular suggestion became something of a running joke until 1945, when Korngold unexpectedly produced a completed score for the concerto. Ultimately the work had its first performance on 15 February 1947, with the incomparable Jascha Heifetz as soloist and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Golschmann.

As you will hear from this live performance with violinist Hilary Hahn and the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester under Kent Nagano, the work has an intense, lyrical profile from the start, shot through with the descriptive powers Korngold used to such good effect in his film scores. There is a longing quality to the first movement especially, a nocturnal second and an energetic third which generates impressive momentum to the finish.

Watch and see what you think: