Wrapping Up Another Year

They’re like little packages. And they “arrived” before the season of gift giving.

Actually, it happens throughout the year that I share with you the little “gifts” of stories that I come upon in preparing for Classic Mornings. I call them that because it’s usually a surprise when I discover them. And I get as excited as someone wrapping a present when I anticipate telling them on the program.

It was around Veterans Day when I learned that the French harpist/composer Carlos Salzedo, who was drafted into the French Army during World War I, became the head cook of his unit. I wasn’t able to learn about any particular dishes he served, but I’d like to think that with all the tasteful works he wrote, it was indeed a special menu, even in wartime. He also organized musical programs for soldiers and hospitals. Salzedo would later be invited by Arturo Toscanini to be the harpist of the Metropolitan Opera. And 100 years ago, he established the harp department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

I found a World War I story about English composer E.J. (Ernest John) Moeran as well. I often play for you his orchestral work based on the tune of a 16th century part-song by Thomas Whythorne. The song begins with the text: “As Thy Shadow Itself Apply’th...” Moeran’s composition is titled: Whythorne’s Shadow. It has a pastoral character, and it gave me my only impression of the composer. But I read in an article by Robert Weeden that Moeran served as a motorcycle dispatch rider after he joined the army in 1914. At one point, while he was close to the front, a shell exploded. Moeran survived, but sustained severe head injuries.

Are you familiar with the Hungarian march known as the Rákóczy March, which Hector Berlioz borrowed for use in The Damnation of Faust? Were you aware that it became an official inspection march for the Hungarian Defense Forces? I learned that only weeks ago.

It took a centennial birthday celebration for me to look into the life of violinist Leonid Kogan. He was born on November 14, 1924, in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time. Kogan studied in Moscow and won top prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels in 1951.

Over the years, he performed as a soloist and in a trio with pianist Emil Gilels and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. His wife Elisavetta, a violinist as well, was the sister of Gilels. Their son, Pavel Kogan is a violinist/conductor. And their daughter Nina is a pianist. Kogan, who also taught violin, died in 1982.

An actual package arrived recently: a CD featuring Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital, which was released last year (Deutsche Grammophon 4863459). It’s been nine years since his recording of Vivaldi’s music with the Venice Baroque Orchestra. Some of the concertos on that recording were written originally for the violin. In a 2018 interview, Avital told Ben Finane that when transcribing or arranging music for the mandolin, the easiest place to start is with music written for the violin because both instruments have the same tuning.

There are two arrangements of violin works on the new recording, but three that were written for the mandolin. Those include a concerto by the 18th century violinist/composer Emanuele Barbella, one attributed to his younger contemporary Giovanni Paisiello, and a concerto by Beethoven’s contemporary Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

On the new CD, Avital is featured with the Milan-based ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, led by its recorder player and music director Giovanni Antonini. He’s joined by Antonini in a mandolin and recorder rendering of Bach’s Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060R. The CD opens with Vivaldi’s Concerto for 4 Violins RV 580, which Bach had arranged for four harpsichords. 

In the CD notes, Andrew Stewart explains that Avital was attracted to the concerto in 1996, when he travelled with his mandolin youth orchestra to hear the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s 60th anniversary concert. Itzhak Perlman and Shlomo Mintz were among the soloists. He said he always wanted to play the concerto, “but it’s not so easy to find three other mandolinists whose playing style would blend with mine.” He gave himself permission to use technology to record all four solo parts. It was also a tribute to Israeli mandolin maker Arik Kerman. In the concerto, he uses different instruments for each solo part.

Some gifts don’t come in packages. That was the case with the generous contributions of Classic Mornings listeners on “Giving Tuesday!” Thank you very much! If you didn’t get a chance to participate, you can always give online at willgive.org. Think of it as a gift of music for the entire community. That’s a big gift!  And you don’t have to worry about wrapping it.