Day 12

Hello! Two Videos & yesterday’s PDF in case the button didn’t work correctly.

PRISM Framework - R.hythm

R.hythm Activity

Downloads:
One thing for today - you might already have it.

PRISM Framework

Today’s Recommended Listening:

Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony #4 - Movement III. Andantino in moto di canzone
Michael Tilson Thomas / SF Symphony
[Spotify] - 11 minutes

Tchaikovsky’s greatest hit is, of course, The Nutrcracker… followed closely by the 1812 Overture that, for some ironic reason, always gets played at 4th of July Orchestra Pops Concerts. But he, himself, thought the Nutcracker was his worst work. He wrote extensively for solo piano and has a somewhat limited output otherwise… partially because his works are all so long ;)

He wrote 6 symphonies, and Symphony #4 is just epic throughout… the first movement is the most fateful opening ever, the last movement is an explosion of sound… but the first time I heard/played this piece (in MTT’s conducting seminar at Aspen, with full orchestra) I literally couldn’t sleep because this second movement cello theme was so beautiful, I literally couldn’t get it out of my head. Got to run it under MTT, too, which was a blast.

Other works with cello by Tchaikovsky include a quartet, a string sextet (the Souvenir de Florence), a piano trio, a concerto (the Tchaikovsky-Fitzhagen “Rococo Variations”, and more.

Michael Tilson Thomas (”MTT”) was Leonard Bernstein’s Protege as Asst. Conductor of NY Philharmonic before taking up the reins at Buffalo and then landed the job with SF Symphony where he was a true dynasty, taking that orchestra from a second-tier organization to one of the top in the world.

What to explore next:

  1. Tchaikovsky | Souvenir de Florence [Jan Vogler recording]

  2. Aaron Copland | Appalachian Spring [MTT / SF Symphony Orchestra]

  3. Claude Debussy | Cello Sonata [Jules Eskin, cello, MTT, piano]

See you tomorrow!
—Eric