Baroque Composers III - Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-36) was an organist like my first two surveyed composers but also a celebrated violinist. Also unlike those two he didn’t work as an organist but mostly at the behest of aristocratic patrons. More tragically, he didn’t live very long, his ill-health led to an early death at only 26.

Despite that, Pergolesi is considered by some to be the ‘father of comic opera’, which may be a stretch but he was very successful with them and brought them further into the public domain to contend with opera seria. But his most famous work is his setting of the Stabat Mater, which is one of the best known, loved and influential versions of the work.

Listening to it is a special experience and if you haven't you should set some time aside to really let it carry you away. This performance by the Ricercar Consort is just under 40 minutes. From the opening chords it sets a not quite melancholic tone which transported me to a quiet river where willows weep. When the voices start I was catapulted into the exquisite sorrow of Mary. It really is a powerful work and it isn't all slow and melancholic, which only deepens the effect. Check the lyrics, this is a depressing hymn and Pergolesi captures the mood without throwing us down the well with it.

Of course he wrote much more than that. Being a violinist himself it's little wonder he wrote a fine violin concerto but perhaps a little surprising he wrote this lilting flute concerto which reminds me somewhat of Mozart's.

I'll finish this brief survey with a live performance of his Salve Regina by Accademia degli Astrusi with contralto Sara Mingardo. It's another powerful and moving piece, so give yourself a quarter of an hour to really enjoy it.

For someone who died so young, Pergolesi gave us some rich musical works, let's embrace them so his legacy continues to live centuries after him.

Baroque Composers II - Buxtehude

Now to look at Dietrich Buxtehude. Like Frescobaldi, I first heard of Buxtehude while reading 1001 Classical Recordings to Hear Before you Die – and again I still haven’t heard said recording, or much of his stuff at all. Coincidentally, I did hear part of his Trio Sonata in C minor on the radio recently and it was a beautiful piece. Then today I heard his setting of the Magnificat which was quite a nice choral piece.

Buxtehude was born in Denmark , where exactly is a contentious subject, but lived most of his life in Germany . Also like Frescobaldi, he was primarily an organist and held the post at Lubeck in northern Germany . Unlike Frescobaldi, most of his keyboard works are specifically for the organ. His organ music was highly influential, having a particular sway over the young Johann Sebastian Bach. In fact, Bach took leave from his job and went on a long journey of several months just to hear Buxtehude play.

He also wrote a lot of choral music but much of this is now lost including many oratorios which are thought to have been models for later works by Bach and Telemann. Some shorter works survive and these have had a bit of a revival in modern times. I guess the Magnificat is one of those; there are a number of versions of it on YouTube, here is one by the St Matthias Church Choir, Montreal which seems a good recording. To my ears I guess I can see how it's a proto-Bach but don't ask me to explain that.

I have a similar reaction to some of his organ music. Take this Toccata in D minor (played here on a modern organ by A Schnitger in Norden), it has something of the drama of JS Bach's Toccata in D minor but isn't on the same level. Not that it's attempting the same thing, but while it is a nice piece of music it sounds to me quite basic (I don't mean easy) compared to Bach's work. What I mean is, Buxtehude has the foundations but Bach has built upon them to perfect the form. Perhaps Buxtehude is the giant upon whose shoulders Bach sat but that would be a titan on a giant and liable to squash him. Which may be why Buxtehude is not so well known these days.

A more notable work is his Passacaglia in D minor, which is considered one of his most important. When I hear this I don't think so much of proto-Bach, this is a work of brilliance in its own right. It seems probable it influenced Bach (especially his Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor) but its beauty as a piece outweighs any simple role in the evolution of another's music.

I'll finish however with this Trio Sonata in A minor performed by the Boston Museum Trio. It starts out with a melancholic beauty quite remarkable in its emotional intensity for its time then heads into a lively interchange of the three instruments. Chamber music is a wonder and this is a brilliant example of it. Alas, it's from his Opus 1 which can't be voted for in the Classic 100 but his Opus 2 set can. I missed the nomination period so I can't complain on any absences. I'll have to check the Opus 2 set out, if it's as good as this it will definitely be on my shortlist.

The Boulanger Sisters

I decided it was time to have some women represented in this look at French composers. Let's face it, there aren't many well-known female composers in history, which is sad but can't be helped now. At least now we have the likes of Elena Kats-Chernin to mix things up.

Anyway, perusing the list of French composers from the old voting page I came across two women (I didn't look completely comprehensively so there may be more) and those two it turns out were sisters. Nadia and Lili Boulanger were born towards the end of the 19th century into a musical family. Their father, not very well-known himself, once won the Prix de Rome composition competition, very prestigious.

It seems the two were very close despite a seven year age difference and both were clearly musically talented from an early age. Lili, the youngest, was declared by Faure himself to be tone perfect at the age of two. Sadly she was not a healthy child or young woman and died far, far too young. In her short life however she wrote a considerable amount of music which has been judged, and I'd have to agree, to be far more mature than her early years would imply. She also won the Prix de Rome like her father.

Nadia had a long life and was a very influential figure in music for the first half of the 20th century. She had little regard for her own talents as a composer, despite being mostly alone in that impression, and made her greatest mark as a teacher and a conductor. As the former she taught a huge number of great composers and musicians, and as the latter she was a trailblazer, being the first woman to conduct major orchestras like the BBC and Boston Symphony Orchestras and the New York Philharmonic. She also conducted world premieres of some big names including Igor Stravinsky with whom she was good friends. For all that she wasn't really a feminist and apparently said women shouldn't be allowed to vote ... no-one's perfect.

Anyway, what's important here is the music. And through the timing of their lives the wonderful thing is we have access to Nadia not only conducting the music of Lili but also sometimes playing it. Lili wrote what I can only describe as a haunting Nocturne for cello and piano, and this performance has Nadia on the piano.

Her more famous works are Faust et Helene, a cantata, which was the Prix de Rome winner, and some settings of Psalms. As I've said I'm not huge on opera and while none of these are operas the cantata does have a similar style of singing. The music behind it however is again quite haunting and dramatic. Choral works are a bit harder for me to define and I take them on a case by case basis but don't expect much. However I did listen to the entire Psalm 130, just under half an hour, which I hadn't expected to do. It's understated but rich in tone and a subtle majesty, quite peaceful for the most with passages of darker shadings. The recording linked here is conducted by Nadia.

Nadia's own music is harder to track down. There's footage of her teaching which is interesting in a way, as much for her ideas and attitudes to music. I recommend a little YouTube search for her and seeing what she says about music. One piece I have found - not a voting option sadly - is a Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra. It's rather like a mini piano concerto and it's truly a beautiful piece.

Most of her works are songs or vocal settings and I haven't really explored them. The few others aren't the easiest things to find but there is this short video of a performance of her Three Pieces for Organ, here played in her own arrangement for cello and piano. There's an airy quality to them which is slightly fey and utterly compelling.

While there is a dearth of recordings - outside some appearance on 'recital' albums by various artists - the music of these two is rich and worth listening too. And the impact Nadia Boulanger had on the 20th century, in terms of classical music at least, is not to be underestimated.