#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalSummer Week 3
By Ralph Graves
It was a busy summer for the Classics a Day team. In June, we marked African-American Music Appreciation Month. In July we celebrated national holidays in the U.S. and Canada. So that just left August to have a summer theme.
For my part, I chose to choose anything except Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” In the process, I discovered some interesting music (and composers) I’ll explore further.
Here ere are my picks for the third week of #ClassicalSummer.
8/12/19 Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24
Soprano Eleanor Steber commissioned the work and premiered it with Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony in 1948. The text is from a 1938 James Agee work.
8/13/19 Thomas Campion – It Fell on a Summer’s Day
Campion was a composer, poet, lutenist — and a practicing physician. This lute song was part of a 1601 collection, A Booke of Ayres.
8/14/19 Robert Schumann – Sommerlied, Op. 146 No. 4
This summer song was published in a collection of works for a capella choir. The text is by Friedrich Rückert.
8/15/19 Benjamin Britten – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 64
Britten’s opera, based on Shakespeare’s play, was premiered in 1960. It’s considered one of the most popular post-war opera in the repertoire.
8/16/19 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – “August (Harvest)” from The Seasons, Op. 37a
Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write 12 short piano pieces in 1875 by the music magazine Nouvellist. The pieces were published in the magazine, one per monthly issue.
