Liszt, Solti 2022

Liszt, Solti 2022

This Week in Classical Music: October 17, 2022.  Liszt, Solti and extra.  Of all of the composers and musicians born this week, Franz Liszt is by far an important.  An ideal composer and, judging by the quite a few ecstatic opinions left by his contemporaries, an excellent larger pianist, Liszt was born on October 22^nd of 1811 in a small Hungarian village subsequent to the border with Austria, each nations again then a part of the Austrian Empire.  We’ve written about Liszt many time and likewise printed brief articles on his piano cycle, Années de pèlerinage: Yr One, Switzerland (Première année: Suisse), right here, and Yr Two, Italy (Deuxième année: Italie) right here and Yr Three, named simply Troisième Année, right here.  Our library has about 250 completely different performances of Liszt’s works, many by younger gifted musicians, you possibly can browse it right here.  Hear, for instance, how 18-year-old Daniil Trifonov performs, stay in live performance, Liszt’s transcription of Schubert’s track Die Forelle.

Luca Marenzio, a superb composer of late Renaissance, was born on October 18^th of 1553 or thereabouts in a village close to Brescia.  He served in courts of many notables – first, Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo; then, for a very long time, Cardinal Luigi d’Este, son of Ercole II d’Este, Duke of Modena and Ferrara; then Cardinal Cinzio Aldobrandini, nephew of Pope Clement VIII; and at last, Ferdinando I de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany.  You may learn extra about Marenzio right here.  He was one of many best madrigalists of his time; pay attention, for instance, to this madrigal for 4 voices, Madonna, sua mercé, carried out by the Mirandola Ensemble

One other Italian composer, Baldassare Galuppi, was additionally born on October 18^th however a century and a half later, in 1706.  Throughout his lifetime he was well-known for comedian operas, which he wrote to the librettos by Carlo Goldoni.  A Venetian, he frolicked in European capitals, Vienna, St. Petersburg and London.  One among his piano sonatas (no. 5 in C Main), which is usually performed in music faculties, was made well-known by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.  He additionally wrote a superb mass, Messa di San Marco.  Right here’s the part Qui sedes advert dexteram Patris (Thou who sits on the proper hand of the Father) carried out by the Vocal Live performance Dresden.

Lastly, a spherical date: Georg Solti was born as György Stern right into a Hungarian Jewish household on October 21^st of 1912, 110 years in the past, in Buda.  One of many biggest symphonic and opera conductors of the 20^th century, he led the Chicago Symphony from 1967 to 1991.  Despite the fact that now we have many samples of his artwork in our library, we’ve by no means written about him at size.  We’ll do it quickly, within the meantime, right here’s Solti conducting Liszt: Le Preludes, within the 1992 stay recoding from Salzburg, with the Chicago Symphony.