One Hit Wanders

In some circles, I’d be disowned for being 6 months late in wishing somebody a happy birthday. So, forgive me for being more than 6 months late in celebrating a 175th birthday anniversary.  Spanish composer Ruperto Chapí was born on March 27, 1851.  He died in 1909. I’ve only played one piece of music by Chapí: the Prelude to his 1897 zarzuela La Revoltosa.  Zarzuelas are Spanish operetta-like musical theatre works. Chapí wrote more than 100 of them. 

I glanced at Robert Stevenson’s article about Chapí in the New Grove Dictionary. At age 14, he conducted the band in the village where he was born. He also played the cornet in a theatre orchestra while studying with honors at the Madrid Conservatory. He would lead a military band before studying in Rome, Milan, and Paris. Then came the years of zarzuelas. Many of those, according to Stevenson, ran for more than 100 consecutive nights.

I didn’t forget Vladimir Horowitz’s birthday on October 1, though we celebrated it more as an anniversary. Horowitz was born in 1903. And 40 years ago – actually on April 20, 1986, a rainy Sunday afternoon – the 82-year old Horowitz performed at the Moscow Conservatory, returning to Russia for the first time in more than 60 years. The program notes from the commercial recording of the recital include reporter Charles Kuralt’s observation that at 4:00 in the afternoon, the time of the concert: “Hundreds of people stood under umbrellas in the street outside the hall. They knew they would not hear a note; they merely wanted to be able to say they were present on this day.” 

Royal Phil turned 80. That’s my behind-the-scenes nickname for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. Sir Thomas Beecham founded the orchestra and conducted the first concert on September 15, 1946. 

With all the birthdays we celebrate on Classic Mornings, I’m sure some listeners think about cake. Cake did come into the program in a most unusual way on September 29.  I began the program that day with what I called a “dessert alert,” knowing that lots of folks go light on breakfast.  But I wanted to mention that I came to learn the history of the cake known as Cassata cake, and that it has been dubbed the Queen of the Sicilian Pasticcerie (shops that feature all sorts of pastries and cakes). The cake has been traced back centuries to Palermo, Sicily with Arabic and Spanish influences. And though it began as simply goat cheese with honey, recipes eventually acquired all sorts of sweet ingredients.  Cassata cake comes to mind every time I play the Capriccio sopra sette notte (Capriccio on 7 Notes) from the year 1659 by the northern Italian composer Maurizio Cazzati. It’s the only piece by Cazzati I’ve encountered. 

I play a number of pieces by the Spanish guitarist & composer Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909). But his most famous is the one known as Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Reminiscences of the Alhambra) The title refers to the Palace in Granada, Spain. The piece sounds incredibly difficult to play, but in the hands of a skilled guitarist, it dazzles. That had been enough to know. Nevertheless, I went looking to learn a bit more about it. 

It was written just before the turn of the 20th century, on December 8, 1899, while the composer was in Malaga, Spain, on his way to Algeria. I learned that from the website of the Barcelona City Council. Though the manuscript has survived one and one quarter centuries, Tárrega’s original title has not: Improvisación A Granada! Cantiga Árabe (Improvisation for Granada – Arab Song).  That title was replaced by Recuerdos de la Alhambra the year after the composer died. And it was inspired by the title of Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra, which was written in 1832. A recording of the piece featuring guitarist Miloš Karadaglić from Montenegro, arrived 15 years ago.:

Earlier this year we acquired a recent recording of piano music by the Italian opera composer Amilcare Ponchielli, featuring pianist Ester Fusar Poli (Brilliant Classics 96969). Ponchielli is best known for the famous “Dance of the Hours” from his opera La Gioconda. Well, it turns out that the composer’s piano arrangement of the dance opens the recording. We learn from the recording notes by pianist & musicologist Gabriele Galleggiante Crisafuli that Ponchielli was a self-taught pianist who taught others to play the instrument. We also learn that the famous ballet music was the last thing he wrote for the opera, even as rehearsals were taking place. He suffered from writer’s block, and in his frustration, dismissed the music he had written. Eventually, it was a choreographer who gave him some ideas. The rest is history

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