Are you reading this article in order to avoid whatever you were supposed to be doing? If so, then great news: you’re not alone in your procrastination! In fact, your dilly-dallying habits are shared with several brilliant artists of classical music.
Here, we’ll explore three wonderful pieces, the genius composers behind the scenes, and the habit that makes us all human.
John Pitman, All Classical Portland’s Director of Music and Programming, interviews pianist Seong-Jin Cho about the sixth and latest album. Returning to the music of Frédéric Chopin with Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2, Cho’s CD was recorded in April of 2021, in Hamburg and London. Seong-Jin shares with John the process, and the special challenges, of recording in a studio with an orchestra during the pandemic and offers his insight into the young Chopin’s approach to the concerto form, as well as to the four Scherzi, which were written at various stages in the composer’s life.
Purchase the album at ArkivMusic.
To mark a milestone birthday and celebrate a new chapter in his relationship with the label, French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet was given “carte blanche” by the Decca classical label to choose personal music that he has never recorded before—a selection that reflects on the people and pieces that have impacted his life as an artist while expanding his already diverse repertoire in new directions.
Mr. Thibaudet’s choices on his disc each have a unique story, and he shares the best with host John Pitman in the recorded conversation, which includes brief musical samples. Some pieces were specially arranged for the pianist, such as “Pride and Prejudice” by Dario Marianelli; others arranged by Thibaudet’s teachers (Elgar’s Salut d’amour one example); and still others were arranged by the pianist himself, including an astounding piano version of Barber’s Adagio. Thibaudet’s recording is as much a gift to us as it is to himself and will enhance playlists for years to come.
Purchase “Carte Blanche” at ArkivMusic.
With Halloween right around the corner, this week is the perfect time to explore haunted houses, carve pumpkins, stock up on candy for trick-or-treaters, and of course, tune into All Classical Portland at 89.9 FM!
There’s no better way to enjoy autumn than by listening to a playlist of spooky classical music. Below, we’ll share some of our favorite festive pieces for the fall season. What’s your favorite ghoulish classical piece?
John’s guest is Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ (Im-pih-CHAH-chah-ha) Tate, whose 2009 composition, Lowak Shoppala’ (LO-wak SHO-pah-la), an epic retelling of Chickasaw stories, received its world premiere recording this year. Jerod shares his own stories of growing up in a household of Western classical music, and strong ties to his indigenous roots as well.
Buy “Fire and Light” at ArkivMusic
During Hispanic Heritage Month, which is observed from September 15-October 15, we at All Classical Portland are excited to celebrate the rich musical contributions of Latino and Hispanic composers. In this list, we’d like to introduce you to a few fascinating composers of Hispanic heritage who have lived or worked in the United States. We’ll start back in the mid-19th century, and end the list with some amazing contemporary composers.
Known as the “Valkyrie of the Piano,” Venezuelan composer Teresa Carreño (1853-1917) was a force to be reckoned with. Her family moved to the United States in 1862, where she made her New York debut at the age of nine and played for Abraham Lincoln at the age of ten. Carreño’s life as a touring concert pianist brought her to Europe, Australia, and South America, making her one of the first Latin American women to achieve an international musical career. She also distinguished herself as a soprano, an impresario who founded her own opera company, and a composer. Carreño named this lovely little waltz after her daughter, Teresita.
During his lifetime, Justin Elie (1883-1931) was easily the most recognized classical composer from Haiti. After initial training in his native Port-au-Prince, Elie studied at the Paris Conservatory, and concertized throughout Latin America before settling in New York in 1921. A versatile composer, Elie wrote and arranged music for silent films, theater, and for his own radio show, The Lure of the Tropics. He also composed concert music, drawing on influences from Haitian music and Native American music. In this recording, you’ll hear the first of Elie’s three Chants de montange for piano, composed in 1922.
Cuban pianist and songwriter Ernesto Lecuona (1896-1963) has been called the “Gershwin of Cuba” for his ability to seamlessly meld popular and classical styles. Lecuona wrote his first song at the age of eleven, and was an award-winning student at the National Conservatory in Havana. Like Justin Elie, Lecuona spent part of his career in New York, where he composed for musicals, film, and radio. He also appeared as a classical composer-pianist specializing in Cuban music, and toured internationally with his band, Lecuona’s Cuban Boys. Among Lecuona’s compositions is the celebrated Malagueña. You can hear Lecuona playing the work in this historic recording.
Roque Cordero (1917-2008) was one of the twentieth century’s most influential Panamanian-born composers and educators. Cordero studied conducting and composition in Minnesota, where Dmitri Mitropoulos conducted the premiere of Cordero’s second Panamanian Overture. After further study in New York, Cordero returned to Panama, where he taught at the National Conservatory and conducted the Panama National Orchestra. In 1966, he settled in the United States to teach at Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center, and later at Illinois State University.
In this recording, you’ll hear Orchestra NOW perform Cordero’s haunting Adagio trágico, a piece that reflects on both the death of the composer’s mother, and on the assassination of Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera.
Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) was an expert in electronic music, improvisation, and minimalism. Oliveros studied at the University of Houston, San Francisco State College and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She collaborated in experimental and electronic music with the likes of Ramon Sender and Terry Riley, and taught at the University of California in San Diego. Later Oliveros was based in Kingston, New York, where she founded and directed the Deep Listening Institute. Much of Oliveros’s music explores the concept of conscious, thoughtful listening and the acoustic effects of resonant spaces. In this recording, you’ll hear “A Love Song” from Oliveros’s 1985 album The Well and the Gentle.
Gabriel Ortiz (b. 1964) is a dynamic contemporary Mexican composer. Born in Mexico City, Ortiz studied at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the City University of London. She teaches at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and at Indiana University, and her works have joined the repertoire of ensembles ranging from the Kronos Quartet to the Los Angeles Philharmonic to the Orquestra Simón Bolivar. In her artist bio, Ortiz describes her musical language as an “expressive synthesis of tradition and the avant-garde…combining high art, folk music and jazz in novel, frequently refined and always personal ways.”
In this recording, Terra Nova Ensemble plays Ortiz’s chamber work reflecting on the Dia de los Muertos: Altar de Muertos.
Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972) is an exciting contemporary pianist and composer, currently serving as Composer-in-Residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra. In her artist biography, Frank explains that her music explores the concept of identity, including her own, as the daughter of a Peruvian-Chinese mother and a Lithuanian-Jewish father. Frank was born in Berkeley, California, and she studied at Rice University and the University of Michigan. Frank’s many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Grammy award. In 2016, she founded the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music to encourage the careers of emerging composers, and, as the organization states, “to encourage composers to think of the arts as indispensable to communities beyond the concert hall.”
In this recording, the Utah Symphony performs Frank’s Three Latin American Dances (2003).
John interviews Randall Goosby, whose debut on the Decca label, “Roots,” was released this summer (and is being played on All Classical Portland regularly). The disc is an exploration of music written by Black composers and of composers inspired by Black American culture. Randall tells John Pitman about the importance and responsibility of bringing underrepresented composers into the repertoire, finding balance between violin study and sports; and the mentorship of the great violinist Itzhak Perlman, whose summer camp in New York is on, naturally, Shelter Island.
Buy “Roots” at Arkivmusic
Early musical instruments were designed in the same manner as many other great inventions: by accident. After realizing that ordinary objects could create fascinating melodies, our earliest innovators began testing, shaping, and playing the tangible world around us. Their historic creations have evolved into the unique medleys of science, engineering, and art that exist today.
Below, we’ll peel back the curtain and explore how several of these modern instruments are made!
If we think of music as a mirror of culture, then all music has something to tell us about ourselves and our history. Likewise, the places associated with this music—cities, landmarks, buildings—can teach us about our society and our past, and the powerful and lasting connections between art, architecture, and music.
Countless historic buildings have played a part in the story of music and place: as the sites of premieres, the homes of ensembles, and even as acoustic inspirations. In this list, we’ll take six snapshots of moments in history when music and architecture came together and created something beautiful.
In celebration of World Beard Day (observed every year on the first Saturday of September), Warren Black, your morning host at All Classical, felt it was time for a retrospective on some great moments in composers’ facial hair. That’s why he teamed up with Emma Riggle, All Classical’s Music Researcher, to assemble this chronological gallery of fine classical beards, bristles, ‘staches, mutton (and/or lamb) chops and more. Here is their hail to the laudably hirsute mugs of music history, with something for pogonophiles everywhere.
