#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalSpring Week 3
For January 2019 the #ClassicsaDay team made #ClassicalWinter then theme. It seemed only right to continue the trend and celebrate Spring. So for April 2019, everyone is encouraged to share classical works inspired by the season.
Some famous pieces may readily come to mind, such as the “Spring” movement from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” or Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.” I decided to avoid the obvious and dig a little deeper.
Here are my posts for the third full week of #ClassicalSpring.
4/15 Egon Wellesz – Vorfrühling, The Dawn of Spring, Op. 12
Wellesz was an Austrian composer, who escaped to the UK in 1938. His tone poem Vorfrühling was completed in 1912, and is very much in the post-Romantic Viennese style.
4/16 Jean Sibelius – Vårsång (Spring Song)
Spring Song was written Sibelius when he was 29. Originally titled “Improvisation for Orchestra,” Sibelius revised it (even changing its key) before publication.
4/17 Giuseppe Verdi – Four Seasons Ballet, Spring
The Four Seasons Ballet was a 1979 ballet created by Jerome Robbins. Each season used music from a Verdi opera. The Spring movement is taken from the 1855 opera “Les vepres siciliennes” (The Sicilian Vespers).
3/18 Darius Milhaud – Le Printemps, Books I and II
Milhaud drew much inspiration from the season. In addition to these two collections of piano music, he also wrote a spring ballet, symphony, and violin concerto.
4/19 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K. 387
Although written in December 1782, this quartet was nicknamed the “Spring Quartet” after his death. It was the first of the six “Haydn” quartets published in 1785 and dedicated to Franz Joseph Haydn.
