Your Classical Coffee Break

This coffee break ventures back into the stressful world of music composition under the political oppression of Stalin's Soviet Union. We listen to Prokofiev's Zdravitsa (A Toast in Honour of Stalin's 60th Birthday), which rides the boundary between great music and political pandering. Shostakovitch gets out of the political doghouse by writing a tribute to reforestation in a Song About Trees. After Stalin died, Shostakovitch was able to tell the truth about the horrors of Babi Yar in his Symphony #13. We close the coffee break with the compositions of Georgi Sviridov who could seemed to be able to be true to his style throughout the regime.

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This coffee break begins our investigation of music composed under Russia's Soviet regime beginning with a piece by Kabalevsky, a simple, open composition which might be the Soviet ideal. We battle on the ice with Prokofiev's composition for Alexander Nevsky, the epic movie by Sergei Eisenstein--another piece vaunted by the Kremlin. But Prokofiev ran afoul of Premier Stalin with the sometimes dissonant, ethereal Cantata on the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution. Shostakovitch, too, was chastised by Stalin for his opera Lady Macbeth, which lacked simplicity and was immoral, not up to Soviet standards, according to the Kremlin. After Stalin's death, Shostakovitch composed String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110 which memorialized the terror under the Stalin regime. Listen to the full piece here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41HIXtBElH4

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This coffee break continues with music infused with mechanical sounds beginning with Toccata for Percussion Instruments by Carlos Chaves. Then we veer into how traditional instruments can be used to make nontraditional sounds in the surprising String Quartet #1, "Protestation Quartet" by Gloria Coates. We push the sounds of artificially altered sounds in Christian Wolff's For Piano with Preparations. We sing the body electric with David Borden's hip moog-infused Droneland, then finish with the pulsating Piano Sonata no. 8 by Laurie Altman. Here is a discussion with the composer Laurie Altman with Clipper Erickson (the performer on the last piece) about the collaborative process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWh6u4zjAEk

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The coffee break uses Georges Antheil's Ballet mécanique as a springboard to an exploration about movement in music. We backtrack to Honegger's Pacific 231 then listen to snippets of the rest of his Mouvement Symphonique, one movement composed to recreate the experience of playing rugby. We end on a surprising piece honoring steel manufacturing written by the great Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Listen to the full piece. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Fi0TwTsMY

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Our journey continues on water by exploring the barcarolle, the traditional folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers, or a piece of music composed in that style, listening to Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman and Wagner's Flying Dutchman. We come Down Jersey to listen to Mr. Somer's composition On the Cohansey then head out to the high seas with Britten's Billy Budd, Westergard's Moby Dick, and Richard Rodgers Victory at Sea. After we sail the Chesapeake (David Sampson) we take to the skies with Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and Dello Joio's Air Power: Mission in the Sky.

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Our transportation music journey hits its stride by climbing onto a trolley, taking Le Metro, and hurtling the turnstile to jump a subway with pieces by Jacques Ibert, Amanda Harberg, and Mr. Somers. But we catch up with modernity by traveling by automobiles propelled by Gershwin, Copland, and Frances White. A quick jump into the way-back machine takes us to The Battle of Trenton, James Hewitt's composition of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River. We're exhausted!

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Classic music and rail travel developed throughout the Western world in parallel so perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that there is so much music inspired by the steam engine. This coffee break takes us back to the rails with polkas by Eduard and Johann Strauss. We check in on the conceptual and influential Arthur Honegger's Pacific 231 and circle back to Copland's John Henry, a steel-driving man. The journey ends with a brief listen to David Borden's Fog, Stars, Train, West Hill Lights, Etc., an electronica homage to rail travel. Here is a link to the whole work-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTzdHxbwTHw

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This coffee break continues the exploration of the music of travel, first by sleigh. We begin with a fun ride with Leroy Anderson and hear the similarities with Mozart's (Leopold) The Sleigh Ride. We tap into a Sibelius piece then travel into Mother Russia with Prokofiev and Sviridov. We put up our horses and continue the journey by steam engine with Revueltas, Dvorak,and Villa-Lobos with his wonderful O Trenzinho do Caipira.

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Music is not about the destination, but the journey, and this coffee break is all about the journey. We listen to music that traveling by foot, caravan, and horse composed by Mussorgsky, Respighi, Händel, and Sibelius. Warhorses Gallop by Yaoching Chan, performed on an erhu, is a wonderful representation of riding a hard-charging horse. And we finally hear what it sounds like when we ride our horse out of the Land of the Dead.

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Listen to the full version of Warhorses Gallup https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csDytjZQfaI

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." - Lao Tzu

This coffee break unabashedly continues its exploration of love songs, serenades, duets, and more written by the great composers. We dip into operas from Wagner, Mozart, Rossini and other showing how love can be expressed in so many ways. We linger a bit on The Barber of Seville before we move to pieces from Weber, Berlioz, and Verdi among others. A coffee break full of the strength and courage of love.

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