James Allen Gähres Vidéos
chef d'orchestre américain
- piano
- musique classique
- États-Unis
- pianiste, chef ou cheffe d'orchestre, directeur musical ou directrice musicale, compositeur ou compositrice
Dernière mise à jour
2024-05-11
Actualiser
Frédéric Chopin Laborde Delacroix Cumberland Santa Maria Stockhausen Mendelssohn Liszt Fauré Tomaszewski Sir Charles Hallé Maurice Ravel Hugo Leichtentritt 1697 1722 1726 1738 1743 1768 1780 1798 1810 1819 1838 1845 1846 1848 1849 1863 1874 1895 1951 2019
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Barcarolle in F sharp major, Op. 60 Allegretto Gabrielle de Laborde Gahres, piano Recital live recording. New York City, United States (September 2019) All rights reserved Gabrielle de Laborde Gahres Cover: Portrait of Frédéric Chopin, 1838 painting by Eugène Delacroix (French painter, muralist and lithographer, 1798–1863). Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. Artworks, score: – Autograph score (first page) of Chopin's Barcarolle. This manuscript was used in preparation of the first edition. The British Library, Music Collections, London. – San Geremia and the Entrance to the Cannaregio, c.1726–27, by Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal, Italian painter, 1697–1768). Royal Collection, Cumberland Art Gallery, Hampton Court Palace, London. – The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola, about 1738, by Canaletto. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, United States. – View of the Grand Canal: Santa Maria della Salute and the Dogana from Campo Santa Maria Zobenigo, about 1743, by Bernardo Bellotto (Italian painter, nephew of Canaletto, 1722–1780). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, United States. The Barcarolle, Op. 60 is a grand, expansive work from the late period in the oeuvre of Frédéric Chopin. Written in the years 1845–46, dedicated to Madame la Baronne de Stockhausen, it was published in 1846. Chopin refers in this work to the convention of the barcarola – a song of the Venetian gondoliers which inspired many outstanding composers of the nineteenth century, including Mendelssohn, Liszt and Fauré. Yet it is hard to find a barcarolle that would compare with Chopin's work for beauty and compositional artistry. Attention is quite often drawn to the Barcarolle's affinity with the Nocturnes, and also with the Berceuse Op. 57, which may be interpreted as "music of the evening and the night" (Mieczysław Tomaszewski). But one should not overstate this affinity, since the Barcarolle is considerably longer than most of the Nocturnes and appears to reach deeper. Venice, which it evokes, can also be pictured in sunshine, not only "to moonlight," and the Barcarolle is also quite different to lullabies and dreams-it spins a tale that is hot and intense. It is perhaps less a "song of the night" than a "song of love." It is certainly close to the Nocturnes and the Berceuse, meanwhile, in the particular richness and refinement of its ornamentation. The Barcarolle proceeds in a moderate tempo, in 12/8 time. The basis for its development is the tuneful melodic line, reminiscent in style of Italian bel canto. The melody is accompanied by a repeated accompaniment figure in the bass (on the principle of ostinato), whilst the melody itself is led in characteristic doublings-primarily in thirds and sixths. The ornamentation of the melody encompasses a variety of means, including double trills (in thirds), contributing to an exceptional expressive and coloristic richness. The form of the work can be generally defined as tripartite, A B A1 (reprise), with an inner, tonally contrasting, section in A major. One can also distinguish a short, intriguing introduction and an exquisite coda. Many commentators draw attention to the aura of eroticism that is strongly present in this exceptionally beautiful composition. Also stressed is the work's Italian, southern atmosphere, and particularly its links with Venice, although the Italian tone would appear to be restricted here to the function of picturesque decoration, serving to brilliantly convey a truly universal message. The Barcarolle is generally considered a masterpiece, and Chopin must have been its ideal interpreter. At his very last Paris recital, in 1848, Sir Charles Hallé (Anglo-German pianist and conductor, 1819–1895) heard the frail master, who now "played it from the point when it demands the utmost energy, in the opposite way, pianissimo, but with such wonderful nuances that one remained in doubt if this new rendering were not preferable to the accustomed one." The work displays Frédéric Chopin's ornamental genius in full bloom. Maurice Ravel wrote, "Chopin was not content merely to revolutionize piano technique. His figurations are inspired. Through his brilliant passages one perceives profound, enchanting harmonies. Always there is the hidden meaning which is translated into poetry of intense despair. The Barcarolle is the synthesis of the expressive and sumptuous art of this great Slav." Hugo Leichtentritt (German-Jewish musicologist and composer, 1874–1951) expressed his perception, interpretation and experiencing of this work with the following words: "A work of bewildering beauty."
Sergei Rachmaninoff Laborde Tchaikovsky Riesemann Rimsky Korsakov Mussorgsky Blaze Pavel Pabst 1873 1890 1893 1915 1920 1931 1934 1943 2019
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Suite No. 1 'Fantaisie-Tableaux' for two pianos in G minor, Op. 5 I. Barcarolle (G minor – Allegretto) 00:00 II. La Nuit... l'Amour (D major – Adagio sostenuto) 07:31 III. Les Larmes (G minor – Largo di molto) 13:10 IV. Pâques (G minor – Allegro maestoso) 19:31 Gabrielle de Laborde Gahres, piano Allen Wisler, piano Duo-Recital live recording. Barcelona, Spain (April 2019) All rights reserved de Laborde/Wisler. Cover: Portrait of Rachmaninoff, c.1920. George G. Bain Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., United States. Photos: – Young Sergei Rachmaninoff with his dog, Levko, in 1890. – Rachmaninoff seated at Steinway grand piano, c.1915. – Sergei Rachmaninoff in his study at Villa Senar, Hertenstein, Switzerland, 1934. Courtesy Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation. – Rachmaninoff in his study at his home in Beverly Hills, California, 1934. Sergei Rachmaninoff was twenty years old when he wrote his Suite No.1 for two pianos, and yet this expansive four-movement work displays many of the characteristics of his later works – scintillating pianistic virtuosity, lyricism tinged with melancholy, and (perhaps most dramatically) a preoccupation with the ringing of Russian church bells. In fall of 1893 Rachmaninoff had returned to Moscow from a summer country sojourn with a handful of fine pieces, including his orchestral fantasy The Rock, Op. 7, Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 3 (with the famous Prelude in C sharp minor), as well as the First Suite. That he was quite the up-and-coming golden boy of Russian music is evidenced by the respect and admiration he received from no less than Tchaikovsky, who was impressed with the success of the Prelude, as well as with the considerable amount of music his young colleague had managed to produce over just one summer. "And I, miserable wretch, have only written one Symphony!" he lamented. (Then again, that one Symphony was the Pathétique, the last work to come from his pen, hardly a trivial accomplishment.) Rachmaninoff told Tchaikovsky about his new suite for two pianos – at the time titled Fantaisie-Tableaux and dedicated to the older master – although he declined to play it at their meeting, probably fearing that it would be unacceptably compromised by performance on only one piano. (What transpired at that meeting is related in Rachmaninoff’s Recollections, told to Oskar von Riesemann.) Sadly, the two artists were never to meet again; Tchaikovsky died several weeks later. The Suite represents Rachmaninoff’s first attempt at writing program music. Not only is it dedicated to Tchaikovsky but it also reflects a great deal of his musical influence. The definitive Rachmaninoff stamp is not yet affixed to this work, though there are many passages which are unmistakably characteristic and prophetic, while the technical, tonal and interpretive resources of the two keyboards have been employed with masterly insight. Unlike the bulk of Rachmaninoff’s keyboard music, the First Suite has strong programmatic underpinnings. Each of its four movements is headed by a passage of verse, each by a different poet. The first movement takes as its topic the Barcarolle from Romantic poet Mikhail Lermontov (who also inspired The Rock) that describes a lost love as the passing of a Venetian gondola. Gently rocking rhythms, underlaying a Tchaikovskian melody, retain an introverted mood even amid a steady accretion of keyboard pyrotechnics. La Nuit... l'Amour (The Night…The Love) takes its inspiration from the opening lines of Lord Byron’s Parisina: "It is the hour when from the boughs / The nightingale’s high note is heard." A tiny fragment of a motive in the second piano repeats itself almost hypnotically against increasingly lavish punctuations in the first; the mood intensifies into a mid-place Agitato (that retains that modest motive as a recurring element) until fading back to the hush of the opening. Fyodor Tyutchev’s Les Larmes (Tears) provides the impetus for a heartfelt Largo di molto characterized by a four-note figure that, one way or another, makes itself felt throughout, even during a faster middle section. In last place comes Pâques (Easter) after Aleksey Khomyakov and an all-stops-out evocation of those iconic Russian bells that inform so much Russian music, like Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture, or any number of Rachmaninoff’s works. A short, exuberant carillon, a wonderful imitation of the bells of the Kremlin ringing out on Easter morning. Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky must have heard those bells with ears similarly attuned, for there is a marked affinity between the Easter movement of this Suite and the sound of the bells in the great Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov, which also takes place before the Kremlin. Jubilant, extroverted, even perhaps a bit obsessive, the movement closes out the Suite in a blaze of burnished sonority. The work was premiered on November 30, 1893 by Rachmaninoff and Pavel Pabst in Moscow.
Johannes Brahms James Allen Gähres Haydn Proto Beethoven Bach Eduard Reményi Schumann Clara Wieck Staples Handel Paganini 1833 1854 1856 1859 1861 1862 1863 1867 1878 1881 1885 1897
Ulm Philharmonic James Allen Gähres, conductor Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 Third movement: Allegro giocoso (C major) Live recorded during open public concert. Ulm, Germany Cover: Portrait of Johannes Brahms, c.1896, Atelier Carl Brasch, Berlin. Brahms - Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op. 98, 4th mvt - James Allen Gähres, cond., Ulm Phil: (http•••) That Brahms initially approached the symphonic form with trepidation is fairly evident from the chronology of his works. It wasn't until the age of 43 that he completed his First Symphony. Indeed, the composer's output to that point suggests a conscious process of self-education. A number of smaller-scale orchestral works, including the Variations on a Theme of Haydn and the proto-symphonic Piano Concerto No.1, suggest preparation for what Brahms clearly saw as the elusive of compositional enterprises. He was to meet the challenge with a skill and individual spirit, one of Classicism refracted through the prism of high Romanticism that led many to pronounce him heir to Beethoven. Brahms' Fourth Symphony (1885), his last, provides with its serious tone, striking complexities, and inspired construction a fitting valedictory to his work in this genre. That its impact was immediate if initially puzzling is clear from the account by the biographer Max Kalbeck of its first run-through (at two pianos) for a small and distinguished audience: "After the wonderful Allegro...I expected that one of those present would break out in a loud 'Bravo.' Into his blond beard [conductor Hans] Richter murmured something that from afar would be taken as an expression of approval... The others remained persistently quiet... Finally Brahms grumbled, "So, let's go on!" and gave a sign to continue; whereupon [eminent critic Eduard] Hanslick heaved a sigh and quickly exploded, as if he had to relieve his mind and yet feared speaking up too late: 'For this whole movement I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people...'" Each of the movements bears the distinct stamp of the composer's personality. The first begins with a theme in E minor based upon the interval of a third, which also provides a structural and motivic foundation for the remainder of the work. There is a notable sense of unrest from beginning to end, and the tragic, even fatalistic atmosphere is further and stunningly underlined by the final, minor-key plagal (IV-I) cadence. The second movement, which opens with a brief, melancholy sort of fanfare, gives way to the quietly accompanied winds in perhaps one of the loveliest of any of the composer's themes, granted particular plangency through the use of the flat sixth and seventh scale degrees borrowed from the minor mode. This material is gradually developed into soaring, tutti lyricism that fades into ethereal quiet. The third movement, a lusty, stomping, duple dance, proved so popular in Brahms' lifetime that audiences constantly demanded that it be repeated. The last movement is perhaps most notable of all, cast as it is in the 'archaic' Baroque form of a chaconne – variations over a ground bass. The chaconne's subject is in fact a slight modification of that used by Bach in his Cantata BWV 150; though deceptively simple – essentially an ascending minor scale segment from the tonic note to the dominant, then a leap back to the tonic – Brahms uses this skeleton as the basis for an increasingly elaborate and thematic harmonic framework. From its first presentation, which is not as a bass line, but as a theme in the winds, Brahms gradually weaves some 34 variations that steadily build in intensity, as though in defiance to the oppressive, insistent rotation of the ground. The final variations lead directly into an ending which reconfirms the weight of tragedy and pathos born by the first movement. In every genre in which he composed, Brahms produced works that have become staples of the repertoire. His most ambitious work, the German Requiem (1863–1867), is the composer's singular reinterpretation of an age-old form. The four symphonies – lushly scored, grand in scope, and deeply expressive – are cornerstones of the symphonic literature. Brahms' concertos are, similarly, in a monumental, quasi-symphonic vein: the two piano concertos (1856–1859; 1881) and the Violin Concerto (1878) call for soloists with both considerable technical skill and stamina. His chamber music is among the most sophisticated and exquisitely crafted of the Romantic era. Though the piano sonata never held for Brahms the same appeal it had for Beethoven, he produced a voluminous body of music for the piano. He showed a particular affinity for variations and likewise produced character pieces such as ballades, intermezzi, and rhapsodies. Collectively, these constitute one of the essential bodies of work in the realm of nineteenth century keyboard music.
Georg Friedrich Händel James Allen Gähres Novello Cavendish Bach Upton Covent Garden 1740 1741 1742 1745 1750 1759 1770 1959 1965
Ulm Philharmonic James Allen Gähres, conductor George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Messiah, HWV 56 Part one, Scene 4, No.13 (Novello edition, 1959) / No.12 (Bärenreiter edition, 1965) 'Pifa' (Pastoral Symphony) Larghetto e mezzo piano – C major Live recorded during open public concert. Ulm, Germany G.F. Handel - Messiah HWV 56, No. 44 'Hallelujah!'- James Allen Gähres, cond., Ulm Philharmonic: (http•••) G.F. Handel - Messiah HWV 56, No.12 'For unto us a child is born' - James Allen Gähres, cond., Ulm Philharmonic: (http•••) The oratorio was composed at a time when Handel's fortunes were at a low ebb. His final attempt to return to opera with Imeneo (1740) and Deidamia (1741) had proved a failure, and rumor even had it that, having despaired of the London public, he was preparing to leave England. Fortuitously, the clergyman and writer Charles Jennens, Handel's collaborator in Saul, lured Handel back to the idea of English oratorio; at much the same time, the composer received an offer from William Cavendish, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to take part in the following season of oratorio performances in Dublin. The libretto offered to Handel by Jennens was based around the birth and Passion of Christ. It was called Messiah. Handel set to work on the libretto on August 22, 1741, completing the score just over three weeks later on September 12. "I did think I did see Heaven before me and the great God Himself!" he muttered to a servant. The resulting sacred, non-dramatic oratorio was a first for Handel, and, although it heralded the composer's final great phase of oratorio composition, he never wrote one like it again. Messiah is therefore completely atypical within the context of Handel's oratorios, the majority of which relate to Old Testament or Apocryphal stories in dramatized form. As a statement of Christian faith it moves the worldly Handel closer to Bach than any other work of his, although not sufficiently to prevent contemporary accusations of operatic influences. It is also worth recalling that during Handel's day Messiah was more frequently performed in theaters than in churches. The first performance took place at the New Music Hall in Dublin on April 13, 1742. It was received with huge acclaim, the Dublin Journal proclaiming that "Messiah was allowed by the greatest Judges to be the finest Composition of Music that ever was heard." The following year the triumph was repeated at Covent Garden, when Handel added two more solos. Further revisions took place in 1745 at the famous Foundling Hospital performances, leaving all subsequent conductors with editorial problems as to Handel's 'final' intentions. By the time of the composer's death in 1759 Messiah had already attained an iconic status it has never relinquished. Alongside its immensely popular choruses – of which the 'Hallelujah' is king – and the outstanding Pifa (Pastoral Symphony) movement, Messiah's primary allure is its effective arias and recitatives for solo voices. Ever since the London audience belatedly approved Messiah in 1750, it has remained one of the best-known and most widely performed of all musical works. It is the only important piece of Baroque music with an unbroken performance tradition from the time of its creation to our own day. It was heard in America as early as 1770. For all of its unparalleled popularity, Messiah is an aberration among Handel's oratorios, the least typical of his two dozen works in the form: it is his only oratorio, except Israel in Egypt, whose entire text is drawn from the Bible; his only oratorio without a continuous dramatic plot; the only one based on the New Testament; and his only oratorio presented in a consecrated space during his lifetime, a reflection of the sacred rather than dramatic nature of its content ("I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better," he told one aristocratic admirer); it has more choruses than any of his oratorios except Israel; the soloists in Messiah are commentators on rather than participants or characters in the oratorio's story. None of this, of course, detracts a whit from the emotional/artistic/(perhaps) religious experience of Messiah. (Handel and Jennens never appended the definite article to the title.) Its three parts – The Advent of the Messiah, The Passion of Christ, and His Resurrection – embody the most sacred events of the Christian calendar, yet its sincerity and loftiness of expression transcend any dogmatic boundaries. In the words of George P. Upton, the American musicologist and early-20th-century critic of the Chicago Tribune, "Other oratorios may be compared one with another; Messiah stands alone, a majestic monument to the memory of the composer, an imperishable record of the noblest sentiments of human nature and the highest aspirations of man."
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- chronologie: Compositeurs (Amérique du Nord). Chefs d’orchestre (Amérique du Nord). Interprètes (Amérique du Nord).
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