Grace Notes

Norman Gilliland gives the stories behind the struggle to create great music.

Lully's Last Maneuver

Friday, March 22, 2019, 11:30am

Jean-Baptiste Lully was extremely devoted to his music. In fact, he died for it.

The Hardest Thing in the World

Thursday, March 21, 2019, 11:30am

On March 21st, 1864--in the thick of the Civil War--New Orleans-born composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk was in the middle of a concert tour of the northern and western states.

At the age of 30 Robert Schumann was one of many pianist composers who was dazzled by the virtuosity and personality of the 29-year-old Franz Liszt. He reported to his fiancée Clara Wieck, from Leipzig in March 1840:

“I wish you could have been with me this morning to see Liszt. He is quite extraordinary. He played some of my Novellettes and passages from the Fantasy and the Sonata in a way that kept me completely enchanted. A lot of it wasn't what I had in mind, but his genius showed through in all of it, plus a tenderness and...

The Italian Marine Band

Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 11:30am

. The group of sixteen Italian musicians didn’t know what to think. Their leader, Gaetano Carusi, had brought them to America, the land of promise. But when they arrived in Washington their first thought must have been to go back home.

The year was 1805 and Carusi himself described the capital city of the new republic as “a desert. A place containing two or three taverns and a few scattered cottages and log cabins.” The Italians were supposed to form a band to represent the United States Marines and President Thomas Jefferson. Apparently the band came with few perks. Upon...

Brutally Frank Advice

Monday, March 18, 2019, 11:30am

How direct should an established composer be when appraising the work of an up-and-comer? Vincent d'Indy would've had two answers to the question -- one before and one after getting advice from Cesar Franck. D'Indy recalled:

"Once I had played a movement of my string quartet for him -- which I naively thought would win his approval -- he was silent for a moment. Then, turning toward me with a mournful look, he said something that I've never been able to forget because it's had a decisive influence upon my life.

“He said, 'there are some good things in
...

The Ill-Fated Symphony

Friday, March 15, 2019, 11:30am

That first symphony can be intimidating for a composer. Sergei Rachmaninoff was a long time recovering from his.

He was pleased with his symphony, confident to the point of arrogance. He played a piano version for composer Sergei Taneyev, who expressed his displeasure with it.

Undaunted, Rachmaninoff sold it to a publisher for 500 rubles. He was convinced that an entirely new path of music had opened up to him.

He took the symphony to St. Petersburg to be performed. During rehearsals Rachmaninoff became painfully aware of two things. The symphony was being played very badly and was, in...

Haydn Takes London

Thursday, March 14, 2019, 11:30am

Joseph Haydn had been in London for three months and was succeeding mightily with English audiences. On March 14th, 1791 he wrote to a friend in Vienna:

“I have plenty to do because of all the concerts and opera, and I am hounded all the time by the subscription concerts. Our opera hasn't opened yet, and since the king won't grant the license, the director of the opera plans to open it as if it were a subscription concert because if he doesn't he just may lose twenty thousand pounds sterling. I won't lose anything because my bankers in
...

From the Earth to the Moon

Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 11:30am

It was an extremely popular subject--science fiction. The music was by France's leading operetta composer, Jacques Offenbach, and the story by the father of science fiction, Jules Verne. The French stage had never seen anything like From the Earth to the Moon.

The Franco-Prussian War of the 1870's had demoralized France, and the country was looking for new hope. The leading thinkers looked to science. One writer remarked that bright, gas-lit streets and wide traffic arteries had done more to cut crime than any moralizing could. Technology had become the fascination of France.

The extravagant pantomime Le Voyage dans la...

An Honest Opinion

Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 11:30am

Johannes Brahms disliked insincere flattery. But he sometimes went to great lengths to get an honest opinion of his composing and his playing.

In his autobiography, composer Karl Goldmark mentions receiving an invitation to a house where two new Brahms compositions were to be performed for the first time--a piano trio and a string quintet. After the performances just about everyone came forward to compliment Brahms. Knowing that Brahms tended to brush aside polite flattery, Gold/mark held back.

The next morning Brahms invited him to walk with him to visit some friends. As they walked along a mountain ridge at...

Concert at Gunpoint

Monday, March 11, 2019, 11:30am

Pianist George Antheil got used to his concerts turning into riots. After all, he made a habit of ending each evening with a set of ultra-modern pieces. But he wanted his music to be heard, and he started taking dangerous measures to see that it was.

Like many young American artists in the 1920's, Antheil went to Europe to further his career. His tour included cities in the former Austo-Hungarian Empire and Antheil carefully deleted from his publicity any reference to his World War I status as an aviator. But between the controversy of his music and the instability of...

The Clairvoyant Composer

Friday, March 8, 2019, 11:30am

Although she had no formal education, she composed seventy-seven songs, blending words and music so well that they are still being sung eight centuries later. Hildegard of Bingen's inspiration came from a remarkable source -- her visions.

Hildegard was born in the German duchy of Franconia in 1098. Before she was three years old, she had begun to have visions accompanied by a great light. When she was eight, her parents entrusted her to a prioress named Jutta at a Benedictine monastery. Although she had no teacher, Hildegard did benefit from a lifelong relationship with a monk named Volmar who...

The Case of the Disappearing Operas

Thursday, March 7, 2019, 11:30am

Writing an opera requires a great deal of time and energy for the composer and the librettist. The payoff, of course, comes when the opera proves a success or at least gets performed. But in the case of some operas planned by Giacomo Puccini, the work of composer and librettist simply evaporated.

Just after the success of his opera Manon, Puccini was working with a librettist named Giovanni Verga on an opera called Lupu. It was a Sicilian story, and both the publisher and the young Puccini thought it would make a wonderful opera. Puccini sailed to Sicily and met...

A Dubious Honor

Wednesday, March 6, 2019, 11:30am

Jean Sibelius must've had mixed feelings. He had been commissioned to compose a cantata for a solemn state occasion--the Finnish celebration of the coronation of Czar Nicholas the Second. It was a major opportunity for the young composer, but as a Finnish nationalist he had no desire to glorify the ruler of a state that had long oppressed Finland.

The Finnish observance of the event took place in a courtyard at the University of Helsinki. The students assembled and removed their hats. Like Sibelius, the students were no friends of Czar Nicholas. But by tradition the Czar was chancellor of...

The Irresistible Bandleader

Tuesday, March 5, 2019, 11:30am

At the sight of the grim-looking procession peasants ran for their lives. In that part of Romania and Hungary robbers were everywhere and these appeared to be some of the worst.

They were actually a band 0f 34 young musicians who had fallen on hard times, had nearly had their instruments confiscated in the middle of a performance because of unpaid debts, and had sold a couple of violins to buy a few rusty pistols, though ammunition had been beyond their means.

They had come east from Vienna full of high hopes that fell quickly in empty concert halls that...

The Joke That Became Famous

Monday, March 4, 2019, 11:30am

Some musical works are written from inspiration, some for money. Ignaz Jan Paderweski wrote his famous Minuet as a practical joke.

An elderly doctor named Chalubinski had befriended the 26-year-old Paderewski. and often invited the young pianist to his house in Warsaw. The doctor and a writer friend invariably asked Paderewski to play something by Mozart. [Paderewski knew only three or four pieces by Mozart and he wound up playing them over and over while the doctor and a writer friend raved on and on about the Mozartean genius. It got to the point that the two old men would...

Gluck Takes It from the Top

Friday, March 1, 2019, 11:30am

Christoph Willibald van Gluck was so intent on the music that he was unaware of anything else. His friend, painter Johann Christian Mannlich described a rehearsal in Paris in the 1770s:

“Every day from nine until noon Gluck attended the rehearsals of his opera. When he returned from them, always in the company of Madame Gluck, he was awash in sweat from his exertions. Without saying a word to him Madame Gluck would take off his wig, rub his head with a towel, and change his clothes. He was flat on his back and didn't say a word again
...

Like Son, Like Father

Thursday, February 28, 2019, 11:30am

Johann Strauss the Younger is known as the waltz-king, but his father was worthy of the title before him, according to an eyewitness account from Vienna in 1833:

“Under illuminated trees and in open arcades people sit at countless tables eating and drinking, chatting, laughing and listening. In their midst the orchestra plays new waltzes that stir the blood like the bite of a tarantula. In the middle of the garden, on the orchestra platform stands the modern hero of Austria, the Austrian Napoleon, the conductor Johann Strauss.

“The power wielded by the black-haired musician may be very dangerous. He's...

Paderewski's Revenge

Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 11:30am

The great Polish pianist Ignace Jan Paderweski took the opportunity to get even with an agent named Wolff who mistreated him on his way to the top. And he wondered ever after what it had cost him to even the score.

It happened in Berlin in 1890. Paderweski was an international sensation, and he was to perform his piano concerto in Berlin with the eminent conductor Hans Von Bulow.

Wolff's agency was the most powerful in Europe. In 1889 Paderewski had asked Wolff to manage his German concert tour and Wolff had flatly refused. An ears before,...

Sir Thomas Quells a Neighbor

Tuesday, February 26, 2019, 11:30am

Music making is a congenial form of art, but Sir Thomas Beecham discovered that sometimes the congeniality needs a little lubrication.

During a tour of Australia the English conductor was relaxing in his hotel room, playing the piano and applying his less-than-sonorous voice to some of Wagner's forging songs. At about midnight there was a rapping on the wall. [Sir Thomas got up, opened the door to his sitting room and peered into the darkness. Seeing no one there, he went to the room next door and knocked.]

"Shut that bloody row at this time of night," his Australian...

Handel's Blunder, Part 2

Monday, February 25, 2019, 11:30am

Handel had never written more brilliantly, but when his oratorio Deborah opened in London in 1733, once-loyal audiences boycotted it, in part because of exorbitant ticket prices and in part because of a notorious misadventure with a case of Burgundy.

Handel had invited a scene-painter named Goupy to dinner at his house on Brook Street. The artist had created the scenery for several of Handel's latest operas and was the drawing-master to the Prince of Wales. He was also a cartoonist with a bent for withering satire.

During the walk to dinner, Handel carefully explained that he was losing most...

Music-Making at Mount Vernon

Friday, February 22, 2019, 11:30am

During the quiet years between his wartime experiences, George Washington enjoyed relaxing at home with music.

When he married the widow Martha Custis in 1759 Washington encouraged her to take keyboard lessons, though she seems not to have pursued them for long. In 1761 Washington bought a London-made harpsichord for his stepdaughter, Patcy, who was four years old at the time. For her less inspired older brother Jack, Washington bought a violin and a boxwood flute trimmed with silver. During the 1760's Mount Vernon was usually full of guests and Washington liked to coax young Patcy into giving recitals. In...

Weber Pans "Der Freischutz"

Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 11:30am

Reviewers have long been vilified for being rough on performers. But this letter from Carl Maria von Weber shows that sometimes the harshest critics are composers. Weber wrote to his wife from Vienna on February 20th, 1822:

“Finally, in the evening, was the performance of my Freischutz. What can I say about it? Where can I begin? There were not two passages in the opera that were played at the correct tempo.

“Everything was either rushed or dragged out. The conductor had rehearsed it without the slightest artistic insight or expression. I sat there in a fever. The...

Amadeus Fires Back

Tuesday, February 19, 2019, 11:30am

Haven been taken to task by his father, Mozart fired off a defensive letter:

I always thought that you would disapprove of my trip with the Webers, but I never had any such intention. When people lose confidence in me I'm likely to lose confidence in myself. The days when I stood on a stool and sang some nonsense Italian and kissed the tip of your nose are long gone. But have you ever lost my reverence, love, and obedience?

The bitter way you write about my innocent relationship with your brother's daughter makes me justifiably indignant. But since it's
...

Father Mozart's Command

Monday, February 18, 2019, 11:30am

In February 1778, Mozart was long past his days as a child prodigy and trying to make a name for himself as a mature composer and performer. His long-suffering manager was his father Leopold, and letters between the two show that they often failed to see eye-to-eye.

Leopold was eager for his son to build his reputation by going to Paris, but after a few letters crossed in the mail, the elder Mozart was dismayed to discover that Wolfgang was not in Paris but in Mannheim, where he was keeping company with his attractive young cousin, Aloysia Weber. When Wolfgang...

Nothing But You

Thursday, February 14, 2019, 11:30am

Robert Schumann on his way to Zwickau, wrote to Clara Wieck on the eve of Valentine's Day 1836:

“It's all I can do to keep my eyes open. For the last two hours I've been waiting for the express mail coach. The roads are so bad that it may be two in the morning before we get underway. How clearly I can see you, my own beloved Clara. You seem so near that I can almost touch you. Once upon a time I could express my feelings in pretty phrases, but no more….

“I may as well tell you that...

Carnaval!

Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 11:30am

Early in February 1917 composer Darius Milhaud left war-tom France for Rio de Janeiro as the secretary to the newly appointed French Minister to Brazil. His experiences there would not affect French politics, but they would influence French music.

Milhaud arrived in Rio in the middle of Carnaval -- [a major event in the Brazilian year, and the holiday was his introduction to Brazilian folklore.] In his autobiography My Happy Life, Milhaud described the excitement in the streets as the time for Carnaval approached.

"One of the dancers' favorite amusements is to improvise words to a melody that's repeated...

Tchaikovsky on the Road

Tuesday, February 12, 2019, 11:30am

On February 12th, 1888 Peter Tchaikovsky was traveling from Leipzig to Prague. He wrote to his brother Modeste:

“On Sunday the 12th we left for Prague. At the frontier I already felt the coming celebrations. The chief of guards asked if I was Tchaikovsky, and when I said that I was he became most deferential. In the last station before Prague a delegation and an entire crowd were waiting for us and accompanied us to Prague.

“At the station in Prague--another delegation, children with flowers, two speeches--one in Russian, another long one in Czech. I replied and walked to
...

Verdi Doesn't Exist

Friday, February 8, 2019, 11:30am

Giuseppe Verdi is remembered as a composer who fought for political causes. But his official role in politics came against his will. On February 8^th, 1865 he wrote to librettist Francesco Maria Piave:

"I received a letter from Count Cavour urging me to accept the nomination to parliament that several citizens were offering me. I went to see him in Turin and he laughed at my speech about how unsuited I was for Parliament. Then he proposed some convincing arguments of his own.

‘All right,’ I said at last. ‘I accept on the condition that I'm allowed to resign after a
...

A Virtuoso Visitor

Thursday, February 7, 2019, 11:30am

Wherever he performed, Franz Liszt caused a stir. We get a vivid close-up of the dazzling pianist from the celebrated Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, who describes a visit by the 31-year-old Liszt to St. Petersburg in February 1842.

"He played Chopin's mazurkas, nocturnes, and etudes and in a word, all brilliant and fashionable music very nicely but with awfully affected ‘elegant’ touches. In my opinion, the way he played Bach--whose Well-Tempered Clavier I know practically by heart--was less satisfying, and so was his playing of a Beethoven symphony that he had transcribed for piano.

“In Beethoven's sonatas and in classical...

Berlioz' Headlong Love

Wednesday, February 6, 2019, 11:30am

Hector Berlioz expressed himself in a grand way, both musically and romantically. In 1828 he was smitten with Harriet Smithson, an Irish actress who was playing Juliet and Ophelia with an English theater company in Paris. Full of unrequited love, Berlioz wrote to his friend Humbert Ferand in February 1830:

“Again, without warning and without reason my ill-fated passion awakens. She is still in London, yet I feel her presence all around me. I listen to my heartbeat. It’s like a sledgehammer. If only she could dream of the poetry, the infinite extent of a love like mine, she would...

Lully's Last Maneuver

Friday, March 22, 2019, 11:30am

Jean-Baptiste Lully was extremely devoted to his music. In fact, he died for it.

The Hardest Thing in the World

Thursday, March 21, 2019, 11:30am

On March 21st, 1864--in the thick of the Civil War--New Orleans-born composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk was in the middle of a concert tour of the northern and western states.

The Dazzling Liszt

Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 11:30am

The Italian Marine Band

Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 11:30am

Brutally Frank Advice

Monday, March 18, 2019, 11:30am

The Ill-Fated Symphony

Friday, March 15, 2019, 11:30am

That first symphony can be intimidating for a composer. Sergei Rachmaninoff was a long time recovering from his. He was pleased with his symphony, confident to the point of arrogance. He played a piano version for composer Sergei Taneyev, who expressed his displeasure with it. Undaunted,...

Haydn Takes London

Thursday, March 14, 2019, 11:30am

Joseph Haydn had been in London for three months and was succeeding mightily with English audiences. On March 14th, 1791 he wrote to a friend in Vienna: “I have plenty to do because of all the concerts and opera, and I am hounded all the time by the subscription concerts. Our opera hasn't opened...

From the Earth to the Moon

Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 11:30am

An Honest Opinion

Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 11:30am

Johannes Brahms disliked insincere flattery. But he sometimes went to great lengths to get an honest opinion of his composing and his playing. In his autobiography, composer Karl Goldmark mentions receiving an invitation to a house where two new Brahms compositions were to be performed for the...

Concert at Gunpoint

Monday, March 11, 2019, 11:30am

The Clairvoyant Composer

Friday, March 8, 2019, 11:30am

The Case of the Disappearing Operas

Thursday, March 7, 2019, 11:30am

A Dubious Honor

Wednesday, March 6, 2019, 11:30am

The Irresistible Bandleader

Tuesday, March 5, 2019, 11:30am

At the sight of the grim-looking procession peasants ran for their lives. In that part of Romania and Hungary robbers were everywhere and these appeared to be some of the worst. They were actually a band 0f 34 young musicians who had fallen on hard times, had nearly had their instruments...

The Joke That Became Famous

Monday, March 4, 2019, 11:30am

Some musical works are written from inspiration, some for money. Ignaz Jan Paderweski wrote his famous Minuet as a practical joke. An elderly doctor named Chalubinski had befriended the 26-year-old Paderewski. and often invited the young pianist to his house in Warsaw. The doctor and a writer...

Gluck Takes It from the Top

Friday, March 1, 2019, 11:30am

Christoph Willibald van Gluck was so intent on the music that he was unaware of anything else. His friend, painter Johann Christian Mannlich described a rehearsal in Paris in the 1770s: “Every day from nine until noon Gluck attended the rehearsals of his opera. When he returned from them, always in...

Like Son, Like Father

Thursday, February 28, 2019, 11:30am

Johann Strauss the Younger is known as the waltz-king, but his father was worthy of the title before him, according to an eyewitness account from Vienna in 1833: “Under illuminated trees and in open arcades people sit at countless tables eating and drinking, chatting, laughing and listening. In...

Paderewski's Revenge

Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 11:30am

The great Polish pianist Ignace Jan Paderweski took the opportunity to get even with an agent named Wolff who mistreated him on his way to the top. And he wondered ever after what it had cost him to even the score. It happened in Berlin in 1890. Paderweski was an international sensation, and he was...

Sir Thomas Quells a Neighbor

Tuesday, February 26, 2019, 11:30am

Music making is a congenial form of art, but Sir Thomas Beecham discovered that sometimes the congeniality needs a little lubrication. During a tour of Australia the English conductor was relaxing in his hotel room, playing the piano and applying his less-than-sonorous voice to some of Wagner's...

Handel's Blunder, Part 2

Monday, February 25, 2019, 11:30am

Handel had never written more brilliantly, but when his oratorio Deborah opened in London in 1733, once-loyal audiences boycotted it, in part because of exorbitant ticket prices and in part because of a notorious misadventure with a case of Burgundy. Handel had invited a scene-painter named Goupy...

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Grace Notes

The great Polish pianist Ignace Jan Paderweski took the opportunity to get even with an agent named Wolff who mistreated him on his way to the top. And he wondered ever after what it had cost him to even the score.

It happened in Berlin in 1890. Paderweski was an international sensation, and he was to perform his piano concerto in Berlin with the eminent conductor Hans Von Bulow.

Wolff's agency was the most powerful in Europe. In 1889 Paderewski had asked Wolff to manage his German concert tour and Wolff had flatly refused. An ears before,...

Wherever he performed, Franz Liszt caused a stir. We get a vivid close-up of the dazzling pianist from the celebrated Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, who describes a visit by the 31-year-old Liszt to St. Petersburg in February 1842.

“In Beethoven's sonatas and in classical...

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