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BALLADE - CLASSICAL FAVOURITES FOR RELAXING AND DREAMING

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BALLADE - CLASSICAL FAVOURITES FOR RELAXING AND DREAMING

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BALLADE is a dual purpose word meaning either a dance tune or popular song. In this collection of some of the beautiful moments in classical music, we find...

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BALLADE is a dual purpose word meaning either a dance tune or popular song. In this collection of some of the beautiful moments in classical music, we find relaxation and time to dream. It is compiled from the extensive Naxos catalogue of compact discs, performed by the world's outstanding artists…

Jean Sibelius has become the famous composer in the history of Finnish music, yet only when he failed in his quest to become a violinist, did he turn to composition. He immersed himself in folk-music and Finnish history, his early compositions drawing inspiration from both sources. But Finland was not yet ready for his music, though in 1893 the incidental music to the stage play, Karelia, did gain some critical acclaim, and encouraged him to make a three movement suite, a moment of repose reached in the sumptuous central movement, Ballade.

Without a constant injection of adulation, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, fell into periods of depression. It was left to a woman, whom he never met, to supply both money and letters of encouragement to keep him composing. From a man of such turbulent emotions came the greatest works of nineteenth century Russia. His dream was to be a great opera composer, but that largely eluded him, and his name first became known around the world by short salon pieces played on the family piano. Among the best loved was the melodies of Chants sans paroles (Songs without Words).

Born in 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was part of a large family of musicians who worked in Germany for over two hundred years, and he became the most famous of them. His massive output included the Six Brandenburg Concertos, dedicated to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg. Each concerto features one or more members of the orchestra as soloist, the fourth giving the violin the solo spot. Probably written in 1720, one of its many attractions is the gentle Andante.

With the temptation of a $15,000 annual salary, Antonín Dvorák accepted the directorship of New York's National Conservatory of Music in 1892. He hated leaving his native Bohemia, but when he arrived in New York he threw himself into the task of assimilating everything American. Between January and May 1893 he composed a new symphony with the title, From the New World, and though it is typical of the composer's style, he introduced a Negro Spiritual in the haunting Largo, the melody we know as Swing low, sweet chariot.

Womaniser, romantic, extrovert and musical genius, Franz Liszt was born in Hungary in 1811, and became the greatest virtuoso pianist of his time. He travelled throughout Europe stunning audiences with his playing, and composed a vast amount of music to demonstrate his brilliance at the keyboard. The First Piano Concerto bristles with spine-tingling excitement, and the slow central Quasi adagio contains one of the great romantic melodies. Many classical composers are remembered by music they considered less important, and around 1850 Liszt transcribed some of his songs for solo piano under the title, Liebesträume (Dreams of Love). They are salon pieces, but the third was to become one of his most frequently performed works.

Felix Mendelssohn was born into an affluent German family, and had the finest tutors money could buy. In many ways he was to become too gifted. A brilliant pianist, a fine conductor, and a skilled administrator, he often spread his gifts too thinly. He was to die at the tragically young age of 38, yet he gave the concert repertoire some of its frequently performed works. A superb miniaturist, throughout his life he composed a series of forty-eight piano works called, Songs without words. Split into eight books, few are technically demanding, and they combine charm with tranquillity. The Andante sostenuto has become one of the best known.

Joachim Raff so nearly achieved greatness, but in the end left an enormous amount of seldom performed music. He was largely self-taught as a composer, and earned a living as a piano teacher. He may not have been all that good, as he obviously had plenty of time to compose, ending up life with 11 symphonies, and numerous concertos and orchestral suites. From the Italian Suite of 1871 comes the restful Notturno.

Why Giuseppe Sammartini (his proper name was Saint-Martin) left his native Italy in 1728 to live in England is unclear. Certainly after an undistinguished start to life, he became London's fashionable musician. On his death in 1750, it is recorded he was music teacher to the Princess of Wales. An oboe virtuoso, his works only became well known posthumously. Most feature woodwind, and includes concertos for oboe, flute and recorder. The Siciliano dates from the 1740's and recalls his native land.

At the age of thirteen Christoph Willibald Gluck ran away from home, supporting himself as a musician. It was that lack of education and technical skills that the critics loved to describe. But he side-stepped censure by writing gorgeous melodies. His greatest masterpiece, the opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, first performed in 1774, contains the ethereal Dance of the Blessed Spirits, also known in a violin and piano transcription as Melody.

Joseph Haydn was one of life's late starters, his major compositions coming after his fortieth birthday, but he was to make up for lost time by producing a deluge in the last thirty-seven years. He was forty-four when appointed kapellmeister (music director) to the court at Esterházy, and there he had the finest orchestra in Europe. In 1783 he composed a concerto for the orchestra's cellist, Anton Kraft. A work of considerable brilliance, the moment of relaxation comes in the central Adagio.

The most prolific composer of his day, Georg Philipp Telemann, was born in Germany in 1681. The majority of his music was in the field of operas, cantatas, oratorios, with orchestral music more limited in scope. Among the best known works are his concertos for various instruments, the sensitive Air in the Italian style is scored for the recorder and chamber orchestra and finds him in pastoral mood.

Charles Gounod was the fashionable French composer in the last half of the 19th century. Today his fame mainly resides in one work, the opera Faust. Performed countless times in the theatre, it also enjoys a presence on the concert stage with the extensive ballet sequence. Gounod wrote a score of considerable animation, bringing a moment of respite in the second section marked Adagio.

Disc 1

Karelia Suite, Op. 11

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Performed by: Iceland Symphony Orchestra Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Prague Festival Orchestra
Composed by: Jean Sibelius
Conducted by: Petri Sakari Kenneth Schermerhorn Leif Segerstam Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen Pavel Urbanek
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Recording date: 5-9 February, 1988

Ballade - 6:25

Souvenir de Hapsal, Op. 2

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Composed by: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Emil Gilels, piano
Ilona Prunyi, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Recording date: 1940

Song Without Words In F Major - 2:26

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049

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Performed by: CBC Vancouver Orchestra Cologne Chamber Orchestra English Baroque Soloists Capella Istropolitana Swiss Baroque Soloists Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra
Composed by: Johann Sebastian Bach
Conducted by: Mario Bernardi Helmut Muller-Bruhl Andrew Mogrelia Bohdan Warchal Helmuth Rilling John Eliot Gardiner
David Shifrin, clarinet
Rinaldo Alessandrini, harpsichord
Recording date: July 1995 / March and April 1999

Andante - 4:32

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, B. 178, "From the New World"

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Performed by: Chambre Philharmonique, La Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Scottish National Orchestra Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Wurttembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra Baltimore Symphony Orchestra CSR Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin State Opera Orchestra Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra Curtis Symphony Orchestra New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Prague Festival Orchestra Slovak National Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Antonin Dvorak
Conducted by: Marin Alsop Yakov Kreizberg Bertrand de Billy Stephen Gunzenhauser Erich Kleiber Ondrej Lenard Libor Pesek Neeme Jarvi Roger Norrington Seiji Ozawa Emmanuel Krivine Christoph Eschenbach Ivan Anguelov John Axelrod Zdenek Macal Pavel Urbanek
George Szell,
Philip McCann,
Recording date: December 1987

Largo - 11:27

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124/R455

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Performed by: Nashville Symphony Orchestra BBC Symphony Orchestra Budapest Symphony Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra Moscow Symphony Orchestra Gulbenkian Orchestra Philharmonia Orchestra Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Bilkent Symphony Orchestra Hague Residentie Orchestra
Composed by: Emil Tabakov Franz Liszt
Conducted by: Henry Wood Konstantin Krimetz Malcolm Sargent Yakov Kreizberg Oliver Dohnanyi Andras Ligeti Leonard Slatkin Otto Ackermann Hans Graf George Pehlivanian Lawrence Foster Vasily Petrenko
Larissa Shilovskaya, piano
Walter Gieseking, piano
Janina Fialkowska, piano
Landon Ronald, piano
Mischa Levitzki, piano
Jeno Jando, piano
Louis Lortie, piano
Earl Wild, piano
Joseph Banowetz, piano
Eldar Nebolsin, piano
Idil Biret, piano
Peng Peng, piano
Alfredo Perl,
Geza Anda, piano
Lise De la Salle, piano

Quasi Adagio - 5:09

Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), Book 7, Op. 85

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Composed by: Felix Mendelssohn Gerald Garcia
Peter Nagy, piano
Daniela Ruso, harpsichord
Carol Rosenberger, piano
Dana Protopopescu, piano
Recording date: 29-30 December 1990

Andante sostenuto - 3:09

Italienische Suite

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Performed by: Bamberg Symphony Orchestra Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Composed by: Joachim Raff
Conducted by: Richard Edlinger Hans Stadlmair

Notturno - 6:24

Recorder Concerto in F major

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Performed by: Capella Istropolitana
Composed by: Giuseppe Sammartini
Conducted by: Richard Edlinger
Sophie Lariviere,
Judith Linsenberg, recorder
Recording date: August 1988

Siciliano - 4:28

Orfeo ed Euridice (arr. F. Kreisler)

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Composed by: Christoph Willibald Gluck
Conducted by: Raymond Dessaints
Robert Koenig, piano
Wolf Harden, piano
Elmar Oliveira, violin
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Angele Dubeau, violin
Fritz Kreisler, violin

Melody - 3:18

Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major, Hob.VIIb:2

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Performed by: Scottish Chamber Orchestra BBC Symphony Orchestra Cologne Chamber Orchestra Capella Istropolitana Dresden Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra London Philharmonic Orchestra Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Weimar Moscow Soloists Studio orchestra Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra Kammerakademie Potsdam
Composed by: Pablo Casals Peter Breiner Franz Joseph Haydn
Conducted by: Malcolm Sargent Adrian Boult Helmut Muller-Bruhl Janos Rolla Carl Schuricht Gerard Schwarz Yuri Bashmet
Enrico Mainardi, cello
Janos Starker, cello
Ludovit Kanta, cello
Maria Kliegel, cello
Michael Sanderling, cello
Peter Bruns, cello
Reiner Ginzel, cello
Emanuel Feuermann, cello
Miklos Perenyi, cello
Nicolas Alstaedt, cello
Anne Gastinel, cello
Recording date: 15 October 1945

Adagio - 5:50

Overture (Suite) in A minor for Recorder and Strings, TWV 55:a2

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Performed by: Cologne Chamber Orchestra Orfeo Baroque Orchestra, L' Capella Istropolitana
Composed by: Georg Philipp Telemann
Conducted by: Richard Edlinger Helmut Muller-Bruhl
Carin van Heerden, flute
Daniel Rothert, recorder
Francis Colpron, recorder
Jiri Stivin, recorder

Air a L'Italienne - 5:22

Liebestraume, S541/R211

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Composed by: Eugen d' Albert Franz Liszt
Rafael Orozco, piano
Xiangdong Kong, piano
Benno Moiseiwitsch, piano
Eva Sukova, piano
Jeno Jando, piano
Walter Rummel,
Israela Margalit, piano
Elena Bezprozvannykh,
Dinara Nadzhafova, piano
Vladimir Bunin, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Jack Richard Crossan, piano
Peter Szokolay, piano
Martin Souter, piano
Jane Coop, piano
Recording date: 1989

Liebestraum (Dream Of Love) No. 3 - 3:45

Faust

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Performed by: Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Quebec Symphony Orchestra Philharmonia Orchestra Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Paris Opera Orchestra
Composed by: Richard Hayman Charles-Francois Gounod
Conducted by: Simon Streatfeild Ondrej Lenard Andre Cluytens Janos Sandor David Parry
Recording date: June 1953

Adagio - 3:50

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