Many consider Dmitri Shostakovich the greatest composer of the 20th century. Born September 25, 1906, he might not have lived past his teens if he hadn't been talented. During the famines of the Revolutionary period in Russia, Alexander Glazunov, director of the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Conservatory, arranged for the poor and malnourished Shostakovich's food ration to be increased. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, his graduation exercise for Maximilian Steinberg's composition course at the Conservatory, was completed in 1925 at age 19 and was an immediate success worldwide. He was The Party's poster boy; his Second and Third Symphonies unabashedly subtitled, respectively, "To October". (celebrating the Revolution) and "The First of May". (International Workers' Day).
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...
- 9/26/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
In the wake of the terrible attacks in Paris, I found myself listening to a lot of French music and thinking about the Leonard Bernstein quote going around on Facebook: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." This list came to seem like my natural response. A very small response, I know. This list is chronological and leaves off people I should probably include. The forty [note: now forty-one] composers listed below are merely a start.
Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)
The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...
Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)
The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...
- 11/15/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
A classicist using Romantic harmonies, Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was hailed at age 20 by Robert Schumann in a famous article entitled "New Paths." Yet by the time Brahms wrote his mature works, his music was thought of as a conservative compared to the daring harmonies and revolutionary dramatic theories of Richard Wagner. But in the next century, Arnold Schoenberg's 1947 essay titled "Brahms the Progressive" praised Brahms's bold modulations (as daring as Wagner's most tonally ambiguous chords), asymmetrical forms, and mastery of imaginative variation and development of thematic material.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.
- 5/8/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
After recently watching Christoffer Boe's latest film Beast I had the chance to ask the director a couple of questions. We talked about horror, film music and how thinking Bond is gay wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. To get all the juicy details, read on ...Twitch: I noticed that your films used to have it easier finding international distribution. Offscreen was only just released here in Belgium, where Reconstruction and Allegro had more timely releases. No word about Everything Will Be Fine so far and I'm not sure we'll ever see Spies & Glistrup in stores here. Are services like iTunes helping smaller films to reach bigger audiences once again or is it still difficult to get your films out there?Christoffer Boe: I think...
- 11/18/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Across the country, classical music festivals are filling the summer air with symphonies, but none can compete with the long-distance run of festivals -- Tanglewood -- which runs from the first day of summer all the way through the unofficial end of it, Labor Day weekend.
Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the festival held in the Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts is releasing a soundtrack, if you will, of its musical history, with releases from their archives from 1937 to 2009. We've teamed up with the people at Tanglewood to bring you a sampling of these pieces, whittled down to two minutes apiece. From Mozart's Symphony No. 25, performed in 1937, to Foss' nine-minute opera from three summers ago, some have the feel of an old record, while others a "thereness" unique to live classical performance. Listen carefully for the audience members' coughs, seat shiftings and throat clearings, especially when the sound drops...
Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, the festival held in the Berkshire hills of Western Massachusetts is releasing a soundtrack, if you will, of its musical history, with releases from their archives from 1937 to 2009. We've teamed up with the people at Tanglewood to bring you a sampling of these pieces, whittled down to two minutes apiece. From Mozart's Symphony No. 25, performed in 1937, to Foss' nine-minute opera from three summers ago, some have the feel of an old record, while others a "thereness" unique to live classical performance. Listen carefully for the audience members' coughs, seat shiftings and throat clearings, especially when the sound drops...
- 7/16/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
When Christoffer Boe made Allegro, he was faced with the almost impossible task to follow up Reconstruction with a film that would meet, preferably even exceed people's expectations. Allegro doesn't quite cut it, but man does it come close. It's a different film altogether and it's difficult to compare it directly to Reconstruction, but Boe's signature is clearly present, making it into another cinematic spectacle.For whatever reason, Allegro (much like the rest of Boe's oeuvre) never made the same splash as Reconstruction did. By now you have to look far and hard to even catch a glimpse of a possible English-friendly DVD release, which is a real shame because Boe is one of Europe's biggest talents. That said, Allegro is quite hard on its audience,...
- 6/18/2012
- Screen Anarchy
When Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was 20, and mostly known to audiences as a pianist, Robert Schumann basically proclaimed him the great hope of German music in an article entitled "New Paths." In those days, the general lament was that no symphonist had been able to measure up to the mighty example of Beethoven. He started composing what could have become his first symphony in 1854; he got cold feet and turned it into his Piano Concerto No. 1, which was premiered in 1859. In that same period, Brahms wrote two Serenades for orchestra -- seemingly to practice dealing with the challenges of those forces -- and his String Sextet No. 1, a fairly grand work for a chamber piece. In 1862 he sent to Clara Schumann (Robert's widow, whom he loved) an early version of the first movement of what he announced would be his First Symphony (it did not yet have its glorious introduction). A decade later,...
- 11/5/2011
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Somehow when Denmark's Christoffer Boe assures me that everything will be fine I take this as an indication that the exact opposite is true. This may have something to do with having witnessed Nicolas Bro's on screen meltdown in Boe's Offscreen or perhaps from the bizarre Kafka-esque warping of reality in both Reconstruction and Allegro. And so, no, despite a title assuring me so, I do not believe that everything in Boe's upcoming fourth film will be fine. I do expect it to be pretty damn brilliant, though.
A film director flees from a car accident in which he was at fault -- out of fear of the consequences for his coming film and the adoption of his future son. The day after the accident, he discovers that the man he ran over is in fact hiding a dangerous secret capable of toppling the government. He decides to risk...
A film director flees from a car accident in which he was at fault -- out of fear of the consequences for his coming film and the adoption of his future son. The day after the accident, he discovers that the man he ran over is in fact hiding a dangerous secret capable of toppling the government. He decides to risk...
- 12/7/2009
- Screen Anarchy
- Offscreen is the third feature film from award-winning Denmark-native filmmaker Christoffer Boe (Reconstruction, Allegro) that screened as part of the New Frontier program last week at Sundance. It stars Nicholas Bro, an stage and screen actor, as himself. As his relationship with his girlfriend Lene dissolves, Bro borrows a camera from director Boe with the intention of filming a love story starring Lene and himself as their loves grows together again. What he ends up capturing on camera is his own mental and emotional breakdown as Lene flees to Berlin, and he develops a serious psychological dependency on the camera and falls into a downward spiral of obsession, alienation, and self-destruction. The audience immediately knows something bad has happened as the film opens. In a shot reminiscent of Gasper Noe’s Irreversible, Bro keeps the camera aimed at his face as he moves through a crowded bar, the patrons moving out of his way,
- 1/30/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
- This year Ioncinema.com is covering the 2006 edition of the Sundance Film Festival Live from Park City, Utah. Weâ.ll be on hand to cover the festival, and while we wonâ.t be able to cover everything from A to Z: here is a comprehensive beforehand look at the selections in each of the festivalâ.s sections. (Note: To access individual preview pages, simply click on the links below) January 19th to the 28th, 2006Counting Down: updateCountdownClock('January 19, 2006'); World Cinema - Dramatic Competition "13 (Tzameti)" (France), writer-director Gela Babluani's intense drama about the dire consequences suffered by a man who follows instructions left for someone else. "Allegro,"(Denmark), directed by Christoffer Boe and written by Boe and Mikael Wulff, a look at an amnesiac pianist who reconnects with his forgotten past upon returning to Copenhagen. "The Aura," (Argentina), writer-director Fabian Bielinsky's twisty drama about a taxidermist's dream of pulling off the perfect robbery.
- 1/16/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
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