先週の頑張り過ぎで体調を崩した。どうやら風邪の前兆らしく喉が嗄れ節々が痛む。年寄りの冷や水と揶揄されても申し開きできない。
なので今日は部屋に横臥したままBBCラヂオ3を聴く。"Afternoon 3" の四回分(先週月~木曜)。余儀なく米国へ逃れた20世紀欧州作曲家の特集だ。選曲の面白さに耳を欹てる。それからもちろん自局音源の潤沢豊富さにも。
Transatlantic Travel, American Émigrés
Part 1)
The third of three weeks of Afternoon on 3 celebrating different
sides of the music of America. This week's programmes centre on
music written in exile, by the great number of twentieth-century
European composers who fled persecution by moving to the USA.
Louise Fryer introduces some of their music written far from
home, explores their personal circumstances, and discusses how
it affected the artistic process. Some found the move easier than
others....
Bartók: Concerto for orchestra, Sz 116
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
Thierry Fischer (conductor).
Bartók wrote his Concerto for Orchestra to a commission from the
conductor Serge Koussevitzky, having initially found it hard to
compose after his move to the US. The Boston Symphony
Orchestra premiered the work under Koussevitzky's baton in 1944
to critical acclaim, and it quickly became Bartók's most popular
work. Sadly he didn't live long enough to see its full impact.
Martinů: Fantaisies symphoniques (Symphony No 6)
BBC Philharmonic,
Günter Herbig (conductor). Martinů fled Paris early in WW2 after the Nazis blacklisted his
music. Life in America was difficult for him: lack of knowledge
of English, lack of funds, and lack of opportunities caused
frustration. Eventually he acclimatised and his six symphonies
were written at a phenomenal rate in little more than a decade.
Part 2)
Today, as part of this week's focus on European émigré composers
in the USA, we've the first of two live concerts: John Toal presents
The Ulster Orchestra live from Ulster Hall in Belfast in a
programme of music by Stravinsky, Bartók and Dohnányi. All
three pieces use folk melodies as their source: Stravinsky used
Norwegian tunes to inspire the 'moods' of the title, Bartók used an
original Hungarian folk dance theme in the first movement of the
concerto he wrote as a surprise birthday present for his wife Ditta,
and Dohnányi, in his last orchestral work, included American folk
material including Turkey in the Straw, On Top of Old Smokey and
I am a poor wayfaring stranger.
LIVE from Ulster Hall, Belfast
Stravinsky: Four Norwegian Moods
Bartók: Piano Concerto No 3, Sz 119
Zhang Zuo 作張 (piano)
Dohnányi: American Rhapsody, Op 47
Ulster Orchestra,
Jac van Steen (conductor).
Following the live concert, Louise Fryer continues our theme with
major works by Schoenberg, Korngold and Stravinsky. Although
the Schoenberg and Stravinsky are revisions of earlier works,
Korngold's 1945 Violin Concerto was the first non-film piece he
wrote after having vowed to give up composing anything other
than film music until Hitler had been defeated.
Schoenberg: Five Orchestral Pieces, Op 16 (1949 revision)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra,
Ilan Volkov (conductor).
Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major, Op 35
Matthew Trusler (violin),
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
Rumon Gamba (conductor).
Miklós Rózsa: Overture to a symphony concert, Op.26
BBC Philharmonic,
Rumon Gamba (conductor).
Stravinsky: The Firebird - Suite (1945)
BBC Philharmonic,
Dimitri Jurowski (conductor).
Part 3)
Neither Prokofiev nor Rachmaninov found the move to the US
easy, and neither stayed for long. Both needed to earn a living
from concert performances, and their compositional output was
much reduced during their time in America. Prokofiev's Third
Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov's Third Symphony are large-
scale works which belie those difficulties, and remain among
their most popular and enduring works.
Grainger: Colonial Song / Mock Morris / Country Gardens
BBC Philharmonic
Richard Hickox (conductor).
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No 3 in C major, Op 26
John Lill (piano),
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
Walter Weller (conductor).
Rachmaninov: Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op 44
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
Rumon Gamba (conductor).
Part 4)
Penny Gore presents the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Maida
Vale Studio 1 in London in the second live concert of this week
celebrating the music composed by Europeans in exile in the
United States of America. Pieces by émigré composers Paul
Hindemith and Kurt Weill are framed by two movements from
the Holidays Symphony by American modernist Charles Ives.
LIVE from Maida Vale Studio 1, London
Ives: The Fourth of July (from Holidays Symphony)
Hindemith: Clarinet Concerto
Mark Simpson (clarinet)
Weill: 4 Songs of Walt Whitman
Robin Tritschler (tenor)
Ives: Decoration Day (from Holidays Symphony)
BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Sakari Oramo (conductor).
Following the concert, Louise Fryer rounds off the week with
two of the most famous works written by Europeans in the USA:
Bloch's 'Hebrew Rhapsody' Schelomo, expressing emotion he felt
stemming from his Jewish heritage, and Dvořák's nostalgic Ninth
Symphony: From the New World.
Stravinsky: Circus Polka
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
Thierry Fischer (conductor).
Bloch: Schelomo
Nicolas Altstaedt (cello),
BBC Philharmonic,
Paul Daniel (conductor).
Dvořák: Symphony No 9 in E minor "From the New World"
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
Nicholas Collon (conductor).