YOUR SAY
GLASS Vs BOULEZ
I saw your first program Bach versus Händel. You did not even say where Händel was born; a sure sign that you would be trying to pass him off as an Englishman. Could any composer be more Germanic in technique? (English perhaps in his opportunism in converting his failed operatic glibness into religious music) How could you compare this showman with the sublime certainties of Bach!
CHOPIN Vs VERDI
VERDI
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 9 or 10, 1813 – January 27, 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of Italian opera in the 19th century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have long since taken root in popular culture - such as "La donna è mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va, pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, and "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La traviata. Although his work was sometimes criticized for using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom and having a tendency toward melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.
Advocate
Sophie Ellis Bextor
Sophie Ellis Bextor is a multi-platinum selling British singer and songwriter. Her first public performance came in a children’s opera group aged 13. She later became lead singer of theaudience before a collaboration with Italian DJ Spiller on the song Groovejet catapulted her to the number one spot the world over. Sophie’s continued love of opera made her the first choice as advocate on Verdi.
CHOPIN
Frédéric Chopin (March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as the greatest Polish composer, and ranks as one of music's greatest tone poets.
He was born in the village of ?elazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father, and in his early life was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. In November 1830, at the age of 20, Chopin went abroad; following the suppression of the Polish November Uprising of 1830–31, he became one of many expatriates of the Polish "Great Emigration."
In Paris, he made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. A Polish patriot, in France he used the French versions of his names and eventually, to avoid having to rely on Imperial Russian documents, became a French citizen. After some ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish women, from 1837 to 1847 he conducted a turbulent relationship with the French writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant). Always in frail health, in 1849 he died in Paris, at the age of 39, of chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.
Chopin's extant compositions were written primarily for the piano as a solo instrument. Though technically demanding, Chopin's style emphasizes nuance and expressive depth rather than virtuosity. Chopin invented musical forms such as the ballade and was responsible for major innovations in forms such as the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prelude. His works are mainstays of Romanticism in 19th-century classical music.
Advocate
Clemency Burton-Hill (Chopin)
Actress, journalist and musician, Clemency Burton-Hill came to prominence on British TV as journalist, Sophie Mortimer in the political series ‘Party Animals’. A frequent contributor to The Spectator, Clemency is also a former Royal College of Music scholar and manages to find time to lead the Alize string quartet and co-found the Aurora Orchestra. As our advocate on Chopin, Clemency has surely added another string to her bow.
VIGNETTES
