Your Classical Coffee Break

We're taking a brief hiatus, and hope to be back by June. You can still contact us at mauriceriverpress.com. Thanks for your support. Stay well.

This coffee break wraps up the discussion on hidden messages or symbols in music. In a whirlwind, we check out the music of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Modest Mussorgsky, and Mr. Somers himself to investigate the story behind the music. Sometimes the message is an homage to another composer and sometimes it is a thumbing the nose to critics. We also check out some sudden and surprising endings. "Niagara Falls, slowly I turned, step by step..."

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This coffee break circles back to Bach, always a wonderful thing, to explore additional hidden signatures in his Mass in B Minor. We listen to the Credo, Gloria, 0 and Et in terra pax to hear how the structure of the composition reflects his religious beliefs. Mr. Somers switches focus to The Magic Flute to dissect how the composition reflects Mozart's belief in Freemasonry. We sample Mozart's Symphony #39 and investigate the significance of this piece written in E Flat.

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This coffee break continues its discussion about composers hidden signals or messages (Easter Eggs) in their compositions. We take a close look at JS Bach and the Art of the Fugue and listen to his signature name in the piece. We question why he often used the numbers 14 or 41 as another way of identifying him as composer in St. Matthew Passion. Why was the note E so important to this piece? And why does he use the technique of "crossing voices" in the Passion? And what are all the hidden signifiers in his Mass in B minor? All questions will be answered...or at least some.

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Was there a message hidden in a phrase of Tchaikovsky's Symphony #6 in B Minor? Was there a connection with this hidden phrase and the composer's death only 9 days after he conducted the piece? This coffee break tries to answer those questions as well as investigate the unique signature hidden in Sibelius' Finlandia and Symphony #2. Take a listen to the Hi-Phi Nation podcast that spurred this discussion:

https://hiphination.org/season-3-episodes/s3-episode-9-the-illusionist-jun-8-2019/

This coffee break wraps up our discussion on the challenges of appreciating opera. This time we listen to music which helps underscore the action and see how it adds another layer to the opera experience by listening to excerpts from Bellini's Norma. We briefly discuss Wagner's philosophy of the balance of the orchestra and singers' voices before we hunker down with an except from Brunhilde's Immolation. We wrap up with 5 operas that opera haters should check out.

Here's Renee Fleming in an aria from A Streetcar Named Desire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGOgXaTgbCw

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This coffee break continues discussing the challenges to opera attendance. On the list for this show--Ticket price. The overwhelming spectacle of opera can't be conjured on the cheap. We listen to the magnificence of Verdi's Don Carlos and Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurberg and discuss how to get a bang for your buck.

check out Sing Faster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tPOQKRwdIM&list=PLiVY2xDbxwG_r_eJHUXacSXZHZZQ0Fnl9

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The length of time of a performance is one of many reasons to avoid opera in this day and age. After we sneak a peek at how opera is used in some movies, this coffee break examines the length of time that opera takes to perform. We look at Mozart's Don Giovanni and the scope and complexities of producing an opera. A dense and emotional script, the high level of difficulty in performance, and the large stage with dramatic, bigger than life staging are just a few. Can any of this be abbreviated and still deliver the punch?

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Opera! Haters gonna hate. Mark Twain once said, "I know of no agony comparable to the listening to an unfamiliar opera… that sort of intense but incoherent noise which always so reminds me of the time the orphan asylum burned down.” Mr. Herron's response was not as fierce but he brought along a list of reasons why opera can oftentimes feel unapproachable. Mr. Somers, a fan, breaks down the mystery of opera, this time with examples of English language operas from Barber, Westergaard, and Copland. He even sneaks in a track of an English translation of The Valkyrie.

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We are going backwards in this coffee break. For the past few shows we have heard how composers have expanded the sound of previous composer's works. This time we start off with a larger version of Carmina Burana then go smaller. Orff's disciple Wilhelm Killmayer in 1956 created a reduced version for soloists, SATB mixed choirs. children's choir, two pianos and six percussion (timpani+5). This version, authorized by Orff himself, allowed smaller ensembles the opportunity to perform the piece. We also sneak in Mozart's and Goosen's variations of Handel's Messiah.

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