Pizzicato Ost

A coffin on a gondola, a ballet dancer with no pants on, an anti-patriarchy show, a royal scandal and a Russian peasant wedding ceremony - this and more, as well as tons of great music in our longest episode so far. And here is a list of the people mentioned in the episode: Adam, Adolphe Beecham, Thomas Bonynge, Richard Boulez, Pierre Chaliapin, Feodor Ivanovich Currentzis, Teodor Debussy, Claude Diaghilev, Sergei Pavlovich de Falla, Manuel Fokine, Michel (Mikhail Mikhailovich) Gergiev, Valery Abisalovich Gershwin, Ira Goncharova, Natalia Sergeevna Jurowski, Vladimir Mikhailovich Karsavina, Tamara Platonovna Larionov, Mikhail Fyodorovich Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich Nezet-Seguin, Yannick Nijinsky, Vatslav Fomich Nijinskaya, Bronislava Fominichna Nikisch, Arthur Ozawa, Seiji Pavlova, Anna Pavlovna Poulenc, Francis Prokofiev, Sergei Sergeevich Ravel, Maurice Reiner, Fritz Respighi, Ottorino Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Andreevich Rubinstein, Ida Lvovna Satie, Erik Strauss, Richard Stravinsky, Igor Fydorovich Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tcherepnin, Nikolai Nikolayevich Weil, Kurt

The world's most difficult solo piano piece and its nationalist antisemitic author are the hot topic of this episode. Is it all that simple though?..

After 2 years of silence, Pizzicato Ost returns with a second season. This introduction episode presents the concept and the idea of the new season.

We continue talking about the great piano suite, where babbling French ladies mix with an even old witch, and a gate is wearing a helmet... https://spoti.fi/2P94ffW

The most orchestral of all piano works, a piece that has inspired so many great musicians, Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an exhibition" is our topic for two episodes. Composed as an homage to the composer's close friend, artist Victor Hartmann, the work brings his paintings and sketches to life. Russian, Polish, French, Jewish motifs are all mixed in this suite for piano solo. The recording used in this show is this one: https://spoti.fi/3rm5reb

"Here you have a sonata that will be a hard nut to crack; pianists will grit their teeth from it for another 50 years". 200 years later, pianists still grit their teeth from Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata, and it stays quite a hard nut to crack! A few recordings to check out: https://spoti.fi/3k5hUQy https://spoti.fi/2OLydX5 (part 6) https://spoti.fi/2NOlYsA  

Bizet's bright and dazzling suites for orchestra (Carmen, L'Arlesienne, and Jeux d'enfants) are full of energy, the spirit of Provence and Spain. Here, they are played by the Orchestre de la Bastille (orchestra of the Paris opera) with their chief conductor at the time, Myung-Whun Chung.   We tell about the circumstances when the works were created, in the last years of the composer's life, and also mention Gounod, Liszt, Lully, Berlioz, and many other great names. A short review of the scandal surrounding the opening of the Opera Bastille in 1989 is also part of this episode. https://spoti.fi/2ZfNDoK

One of Schumann's intimate and diverse piano cycles "Phantasiestücke" involves emotional states of his imaginary characters Florestan and Eusebius, and has appeared as a means of provoking jealousy. Recordings recommended in the end of the episode: https://spoti.fi/3rqNydN https://spoti.fi/3aDN0KS https://spoti.fi/3cZ6a0H  

The great musical friendship between two legendary 20th century musicians, composer and pianist Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007), has enriched the world with some fine examples of music. We are also lucky to have this wonderful recording, showing the joy of music making by these two brilliant men. https://spoti.fi/36sVROi

Today we talk about how a Polish man turned Ukrainian military leader has inspired great artists for great works. We discuss the appearance of the symphonic poem as a genre, and one of its founders Ferenc Liszt. Along the way, we will also mention Pushkin, Mendelssohn, Weber, and many more great names. Victor Hugo's poem Mazeppa: https://bit.ly/3o91cjF

In this episode, you can find out more about the horn, originally a hunting instrument, and a respectable member of the orchestra nowadays, with some rarely performed solo concertos. We will tell you about the brilliant British horn player who died far too early half a century ago. You will also get to know more about Mozart's peculiar sense of humour https://spoti.fi/2LGvj4J

The spectacular Cello concerto by Antonin Dvorak is one of the best examples of the genre. We tell about it, with some dives into Czech music of earlier and later times, a review of American economics in the the 19th century, and episodes of the Six-Day War in Israel! https://spoti.fi/3s7IWKI https://spoti.fi/3hYAzwq https://spoti.fi/3hW38dK https://spoti.fi/3ou0zSP  

With this record, we dive into the mysterious and spooky world of legends and fairy tales reimagined by Russian composers on the verge of the 19th and 20th centuries.   https://open.spotify.com/album/6PYS8cm6cjtVm9XHOkOJzD?si=EKPDTl5uRMKzYqdCxSinXA

In 1957, for the 40th anniversary of the Russian revolution, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) composes his 11th symphony, and dedicates it to the first Russian revolution of 1905. Full recording under Mariss Jansons: https://spoti.fi/3ppKsFN  

We talk about a live recording of a concert of the great Russian pianist Maria Yudina (1899-1970) at the Philharmonic Hall in Kiev in 1954. We also tell some biographical anecdotes and stories of the times https://spoti.fi/3aLaMX8

"In the steppes of Central Asia" is a short symphonic miniature created by Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887) in 1880 that takes us to the Asian desert with a caravan joined by Russian military troops. Here is the full Svetlanov recording: https://spoti.fi/3aG2sI5

Today, we are recommending a recording with selected Rachmaninov songs performed by Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus and British Pianist Howard Shelly made in 1994-1995. https://spoti.fi/3pkGpdO This is a link to the lyrics of all the songs on the recording: https://bit.ly/2WMrNrv  

Dumka is a short piano solo piece composed by Peter Tchaikovsky in 1886. It is a fun miniature with lots of character. Some recordings in this episode: https://spoti.fi/3aJ948l https://spoti.fi/37QatIr https://spoti.fi/3aL9Z8C