Conservatorium of Music
Thursday Concert Class
Thursday Concert Class
| Danse Macabre | Camille Saint Saëns (1835 - 1921) |
| Arranged by Liszt - Horowitz | |
| - | |
| Ling Ling Chen, Piano | |
| Danse macabre is a tone poem for orchestra, written in 1874 by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. It started out in 1872 as an art song for voice and piano with a French text by the poet Henri Cazalis, which is based on an old French superstition. When Danse macabre first premiered, it was not received well. Audiences were quite unsettled by the disturbing, yet innovative sounds that Saint-Saëns elicited. Shortly after the premiere, it was transcribed into a piano arrangement by Franz Liszt , a good friend of Saint-Saëns. It was again later transcribed into a popular piano arrangement by virtuoso pianist, Vladimir Horowitz. | |
| Mélodie D'amour Op. 600 | Hans Engelmann (1872 - 1914) |
| Thành Trinh, Piano | |
| Mélodie D'amour Op. 600 was composed by German composer Hans Engelmann supposedly in 1890 but not published until 1903. This work was later adapted into the genre of popular song during the 1950s and at it's peek climbed to #2 on the Billboard charts. It has been made into a cover version by many famous popular artists of the 50s such as Billy Vaughn, Pat Boone, The Four Aces, Patsy Kline and even Frank Sinatra under the new English title: Melody of Love. Engelmann was a composer as well as a teacher and during his life had composed over 3000 works. | |
| Time for Marimba | Minoru Miki (1930 - 2011) |
| Therese Ng, 5 octave marimba | |
| Minoru Miki (三木 稔) was a Japanese composer and artistic director, particularly known for his promotional activities in favor of Japanese (as well as Chinese and Korean) traditional instruments and some of their performers. This piece was commissioned by Keiko Abe, who has been a primary figure of the development of marimba music, in terms of expanding both techniques and repertoire. Miki was inspired by the local music performance when he was having a holiday in Bali. The fragmented melody first introduced in the beginning and reappear throughout the piece represent the gamelan gongs he heard from a distance. | |
| Sonetto 104 del Petrarca | Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) |
| Henry Lee, Piano | |
| Around 1838 or 1839 Liszt composed the initial version of the Sonetti, for tenor (and a high one at that, with a range extending to high C sharp) and piano. Liszt originally presented the Sonetti in the following order (the numbers corresponding to those assigned to Petrarch's sonnets): No. 104, No. 47, and No. 123. Of the settings, No. 47 is perhaps the weakest, with its barely covered structural seams and occasionally rambling narrative. Already at this early stage, though, the other two songs show an intimate understanding of Petrarch's rather erotic verse, as evidenced by their charged atmosphere and rich melodic sense. | |
| Eight Concert Études For Piano, Op. 40 | Nikolai Kapustin (1937 - ) |
| 1. Prelude | |
| Krystal Tunnicliffe, Piano | |
| After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 1961, Nikolai Kapustin worked extensively as a jazz pianist. His compositions hence combine this virtuoso classical pianism with a knowledge of improvisatory jazz. The Eight Concert Études, initially named Jazz Études for Piano, were written in 1984 and recorded by Kapustin in the following year. The Prelude is an energetic opening to the set, and intersperses strongly rhythmic passages with Art Tatum-like improvisatory lines. Kapustin states: 'The rhythm of this piece is reminiscent of Latin American music. The style of the theme and of the variation section in particular is jazz rock.' | |
| Verborgenheit | Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903) |
| Connor Taylor, Piano | |
| Daniel Carison - bass baritone voice, Connor Taylor - piano | |
| Poet: Eduard Mörike (1804-1875) The mood of this song is reminiscent of Schumann, while the long delay of the tonic chord connects the style to that of Wolf's idol, Wagner.The repeat of the opening thoughts of the poem to form an affirmation at the conclusion originated with the poet Mörike, who was the author of the texts for more than fifty years of Wolf's songs. This song was composed on March 13, 1888 and published by Wetzler the following year. Extremely popular within Wolf's lifetime, the composer expressed disenchantment with it later in life, which nonetheless fails to detract from its memorable melody and effective sentiment. | |
| Arms of Reality | Connor Taylor (1987 - ) |
| Connor Taylor, Piano | |
| Daniel Carison - bass baritone voice, Connor Taylor - piano | |
| This composition arose through my poetry writing and the influence of a newfound intrigue in film composer Ludovico Einaudi's latest album of music 'In A Time Lapse'. His music connected with me extraordinarily arousing a questioning of reality. The text is esoteric and contemplative. It reflects on the very intangible nature of reality. That one can almost be removed from one's own grasp of the truth; that is, what we perceive to be reality. We can become an onlooker to that which passes us by and forms our perception of reality. Yet in some sense the only reality is the one within us. This modern art song explores the 'Arms of Reality'. | |
| Guitar Boogie | Arthur Smith (1921 - ) |
| Arranged by Tommy Emmanuel | |
| 0 | |
| Tim Lukey, Contemporary Guitar | |
| This acoustic guitar piece was written originally by Arthur Smith, and arranged by Tommy Emmanuel. It has become one of Tommy's best showman pieces, and regularly appears in his set | |
| Sonata for Clarinet | Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963) |
| Second Movement: Lebhaft | |
| Jessica Hort, Clarinet | |
| Leigh Harold, piano | |
| Paul Hindemith wrote his clarinet sonata during one of his most productive composing periods, following his third concert tour of the United States in the spring of 1939. This sonata is a beautifully constructed work that blends elements of no-classicism with romaticism. The second movement 'Lebhaft' or 'lively', though thematically connected to the first, is much more nimble and the individual parts more assertive. Here the clarinet's lines are more angular and the piano's responses and accompaniment are more insistent; louder dynamics likewise serve to foil the relative repose of the first movement. | |
| Concerto for Flute | André Jolivet (1905 - 1974) |
| 1.Andante cantabile 2. Allegro scherzando 3. Largo 4. Allegro risoluto | |
| Lauren Gorman, Flute | |
| Leigh Harrold, piano | |
| Jolivet's Flute Concerto is a work that to some extent reconciles the composer's dissonant, aggressive style of the 1930s with his more melodic and accessible aesthetic of the early 1940s. Jolivet had already explored the flute's potential in Chant de Linos (1944), and he brought that knowledge to the Flute Concerto, which has been described by one commentator as "sometimes lyrical, sometimes piquant and capricious." | |
| Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22 | Henryk Wieniawski (1835 - 1880) |
| 1st Movement Allegro moderato in D minor/F major | |
| Emma Martin, Violin | |
| Amir Farid, piano | |
| Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22, by the Polish violin virtuoso, Henryk Wieniawski, may have been started in 1856, but the first performance did not take place until November 27, 1862, when he played it in St. Petersburg with Anton Rubinstein conducting. It was published in 1879, inscribed to his dear friend Pablo de Sarasate. | |