Classic Mornings

Winter Keyboarding

 
Classic morning logo, with a bird in the middle and a treble clef sideways.

Don’t lose it!  And don’t let the sub-zero temperatures freeze your sense of humor.

Last Friday, I found it amusing that the birthday of composer Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) came on a day when the weather was anything but clement, which Merriam Webster defines as “mild” or “merciful.” I sometimes wonder what comes to mind among Classic Mornings listeners when I play his music and say his family name: Clementi. There’s the citrus fruit, the clementine, which is a cross between an orange and a tangerine. Lots of folks like those. And lots of folks know the song O My Darling Clementine, which, according to an article by Jacob Uitti at the American Songwriter website, dates back to the 1860s.  It’s attributed to two different writers, with the melody perhaps originating in a Spanish song. San Clemente, the city in California, is named for a first century saint.  And many remember the famous Pittsburgh Pirate All-Star, Roberto Clemente. 

I haven’t come across any mention of Muzio Clementi’s genealogy. But at one point during his lifetime, he became the “father” of generations of pianos.

In addition to being a pianist, composer, conductor, and piano teacher, Clementi owned a piano manufacturing business in England. The website of the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections notes that the Clementi pianos were built in the early 1800s. Some 60-70 pianos per year were manufactured between 1803 & 1809, more in 1810 & 1811, after the introduction of instruments with 6 octaves. Today’s pianos have 7 1/2 octaves. 

Clementi didn’t participate in the actual manufacturing process. A virtuoso pianist, he made suggestions which led to all sorts of technical advancements in the instruments. Otherwise, he was involved only in the sales and marketing of the pianos with his name attached to them, according to the website. On Classic Mornings, we enjoy music with Clementi’s name attached as composer. 

Last Saturday marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Clementi’s younger contemporary, Ernst Theodore Amadeus Hoffmann, more commonly known as E.T.A. Hoffmann. He too was a composer, as well as an author. Even if you say you’ve never heard of him, you probably have.  A number of his literary works have inspired some of the most famous compositions In classical music, including Leo Delibes’s ballet Coppelia, Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, and Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker!

Last Sunday marked the 175th anniversary of the birth of the Belgian Flemish composer Jan Blockx (1851-1912) OK, maybe you’ve never heard of him. But his Flemish Dances are fun. And his last name is fuel for wordplay.

Have you ever seen someone open a gift package, only to find a smaller gift package inside? And  sometimes, there may even be a third or fourth. Well, something like that happened last week when I celebrated the 40th anniversary of the arrival of Swedish pianist Roland Pöntinen’s CD titled: Music For a Rainy Day (Bis 300), which had been released the previous year, in 1985. Roland Pöntinen was 21 at the time. 

I decided to look into a selection I often play from the recording, namely Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Piece op. 65, no. 6, titled “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen.” Though I remember reading that it was a wedding present from Edvard to Nina Grieg, I learned that it was inspired by the celebration of the couple’s 25th anniversary. The celebration took place at their estate on the outskirts of Bergen, Norway.  It was built in 1892, the year of their 25th anniversary. They named the estate Troldhaugen, which means “troll hill.” 

That same day, while preparing to play Gustav Holst’s Brook Green Suite, I learned about another wedding anniversary that may have been celebrated in the title which Holst selected for that work. He wrote it for the junior orchestra at the St. Paul’s Girls’ School, where he taught. The school is located in a part of London known as Brook Green. A website called Wind Repertory Project mentions that Brook Green is also the place where Gustav and Isobel Holst were married in 1901, 125 years ago. He might have had that in mind as well.  

Conductor Ivan Fischer’s 75th birthday was on January 20. He’s a hit in Hungary with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which he and Zoltán Kocsis founded in 1983. Conductor Roy Goodman turned 75 on January 26. And it was 85 candles for Dame Gillian Weir, the New Zealand-born British organist, on January 17.

I hope that celebrating those “75s” and an “85” helped to make up for all the below zero numbers I’ve had to pass along in the weather forecasts the past couple of weeks. And whether you’re keeping warm or braving the cold, join us for Classic Mornings. Tune in Monday through Friday from 9-noon on Illinois Classical 90.9 FM or online at will.illinois.edu.