Happy Friday Music! Today we start with music that began as an accompaniment to a ballet, but is often now heard purely as a concert piece. When it was first performed in 1913 it was really shocking to the audience. From the bassoon angle, it is at the very beginning that Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was creating new sounds and possibilities. The bassoon is not playing in a register where it often does, but in a very high one. If you were listening to an audio recording you may even think that it not a bassoon that is playing. Stravinsky used the instrument in a way that had never been heard before at that time. There is a helpful “setting of the scene” before the music begins. https://youtube/watch?v=AfakIg9E_ao In 1945, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) with his 9th Symphony in Eb major devoted most of the fourth movement to a bassoon solo. It demonstrates the bassoon’s lyrical, haunting melodic ability. This is a world away from playing the comical, plodding bass line that so many pieces have. It seems that the Symphony certainly wasn’t what the Soviet authorities were expecting or wanting from one of their citizens. There are five movements to this piece. This 1987 recording has Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Bernstein was a prolific American composer and conductor. I was introduced to his excellent music by “West Side Story” (1957). https://youtube/watch?v=52ovF22gjhc Heitor Villa-Lobas (1887-1959) was a Brazilian composer who found inspiration from both Western and Brazilian ideas. In 1933 he wrote this concerto for bassoon and string orchestra. Entitled “Ciranda das sete notas” it is relaxing and restful. The soloist, Stefano Canuti (1961- ), is an Italian bassoonist who travels widely, both performing and teaching. https://youtube/watch?v=8CZ2KyILQUU This is certainly a piece that non-bassoon players will have heard of before. Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) wrote “Peter and the Wolf” in 1936. Prokofiev wrote both the music and the text. It has been recorded by many well-known people (I have one by Phillip Schofield from 1992) and in many languages – the video is set in Japanese. The bassoon portrays the grandfather in the story.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 05:35:00 +0000
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