September 5th: Celebrating the birth of four composers

Johann Christian Bach & John Cage

September 5th must be a great day to be born if you want to be a composer. On this day Giacomo Meyebeer, Johann Christian Bach, John Cage and Amy Beach were all born. You certainly couldn't find four different composers, so we're going to present a selection from each. 

Amy Beach & Giacomo Meyerbeer

The 19th century composer Giacomo Meyerbeer is best remembered for his grand operas, but wrote some beautiful choral works for male voices, two songs with solo instrumental obbligato and a number of beautiful songs. Thomas Hampson has wonderful recording of many of these and here he is singing  Meyerbeer's "Menschenfeindlich":



Johann Christian Bach was the youngest surviving son of the master Johann Sebastian Bach. Having abandoned his father's Lutheran faith for Catholicism, he is best remembered for his sacred works. Here is Victoria de los Angeles & Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing "Ah, lamenta oh bella Irene" by Johann Christian Bach with Gerald Moore at the piano:



Here is John Cage's "Litany for the Whale" from 1980. This beautiful piece is scored for two male voices, and has a call and response structure to it. The two singers, recorded in a resonant chamber, are given five pitches to sing, one assigned to each letter in the word "whale." It has a calm, meditative quality that harkens back to medieval chants. The singers are Alan Bennett and Paul Elliott.



Amy Beach was the first truly successful American female composer. Among her works are a mass, piano concerto, symphony and 150 songs. We had a difficult time finding a suitable recording by a baritone singing an Amy Beach song, so we're going to break a few rules of this site and present the immortal tenor Jussi Bjoerling performing "Ah, love, But a Day" with words by Robert Browning.

For the next two weeks we will be accepting submissions for our first Barihunks charity calendar, which will benefit young artist programs. Send High Res photos and a brief bio to Barihunks@gmail.com

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Andrew Garland Plays Woodstock

It's not often that we can say a barihunk is going to perform at Woodstock. After all, the bucolic setting is best know for hosting a little music jam in 1969 with Santana, the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and Sly & The Family Stone.

But long before the rock 'n' rollers arrived, a classical music tradition had been established at the Maverick Concert series in Woodstock. Pierre Henrotte, a violinist and concert-master of Metropolitan Open House organized concerts from 1916-1926. Musicians have performed in the barn over the years and one of the most infamous moments in music history was premiered there in 1952, John Cage's revolutionary piano piece 4’33” (Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds).

Much of this program this year is dedicated to the centenary of Samuel Barber's birth. Andrew Garland will perform Barber's glorious Dover Beach, Opus 3 on a program that also includes his String Quartet in B Minor, Opus 11 and Dvorák's String Quartet No. 14 in A Flat Major, Opus 105 with the Amernet String Quartet. Even though Garland's piece is about "Dover Beach," we doubt that he's going to appear shirtless as he does in our favorite picture of him (above right). However, this gifted artist will undoubtedly sing this piece beautifully. For a sense of his amazing artistry, check out his rendition of "Last Letter Home from Iraq," which we posted on this site and was extremely popular with readers.

The performance is Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 4:00 PM at the Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock. For tickets, visit www.maverickconcerts.org.

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