01-12a: Szymanowski Violin Concertos : Zehetmair / Rattle 1996 - Wagner Parsifal : Windgassen / Knappertsbusch Bayreuth 1951 - Stravinsky Chamber Works - Carissimi Oratorios / Roland Wilson 2003

Not shown: John Eccles, Michael Gottard Fischer, Koos van de Griend & Hervey Alan

1674 – Giacomo Carissimi (Italian composer & priest)
1735 – John Eccles (English composer)
1765 – Johann Melchior Molter (German composer & violinist)
1829 – Michael Gottard Fischer (German organist & composer)
1893 – Karl Hill (German baritone, creator of Alberich in the Ring cycle & Klingsor in Parsifal)
1921 – Gervase Elwes (English tenor)
1933 – Václav Suk [Вячеслав Сук] (Czech violinist, conductor & composer, active in Poland, Ukraine & Russia)
1934 – Paul Kochanski [Paweł Kochański] (Russian-born Polish violinist, composer & arranger, active also in the U.K. & U.S.)
1950 – Koos van de Griend (Dutch composer)
1953 – Simeón Roncal (Bolivian composer)
1958 – Arthur Shepherd (American composer & conductor)
1962 – Richard de Guide (Belgian composer)
1982 – Hervey Alan (English bass-baritone, creator of Mr. Redburn in Britten's Billy Budd)

The presence of the Szymanowski disc is thanks to his close friend Paweł Kochański, who performed the composer's works for violin and piano with him many times, collaborated with him on the violin parts of both his concertos, and was the dedicatee of those works and several others Szymanowski wrote for him.

The link above will take you to a scholarly article detailing Kochański's various collaborative efforts with composers. These efforts also produced works such as Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, and violin sonatas by Arnold Bax and Ernest Bloch. Works dedicated to Kochański also include the violin/piano version of Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, which consists of material from Pulcinella, Stravinsky's 1920 ballet based on music (at the time thought to have been written) by Giovanni Pergolesi.

When Kochański was helping Szymanowski with his Second Concerto, he was already sick with the cancer that would cut his life short at the age of 47. Still, he forged ahead and gave the premiere of the work. Szymanowski's score, published after his friend's death, contained a moving dedication to him. The pall-bearers at Kochański's funeral, held at the Juilliard School, included Arturo Toscanini, Frank and Walter Damrosch, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, Serge Koussevitzky, Efrem Zimbalist, Sr., and Leopold Stokowski.

No less affecting was the passing of the great concert and recital tenor Gervase Elwes, who perished hours after a horrific accident at a railway station in Boston when he leaned over too far as he attempted to return to the conductor an overcoat which had fallen off a train. His death was mourned all over Britain, and concerts in his memory took place across the nation. Edward Elgar wrote "my personal loss is greater than I can bear to think upon, but this is nothing - or I must call it so - compared to the general artistic loss - a gap impossible to fill - in the musical world."

11-04: Sprague Coolidge Cornucopia! Copland Appalachian Spring | Stravinsky Apollo etc | Respighi Trittico Botticelliano etc | Poulenc Flute Sonata : Synth Guitar Arr.

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (l) with Ethel & Frank Bridge

Works commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Plus others that happen to be on the same discs! Oh, and I forgot to mention in the supplemental reading... the performer on the Respighi is the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. They play without a conductor, you know. Don't worry, they stay together just fine!

10-29a: Allman Brothers Pittsburgh 1971 - William Kapell : Khachaturian Piano Concerto 1946 - Stravinsky Ebony Concerto : Woody Herman 1946

1829 – Maria Anna ""Nannerl" Mozart (Austrian keyboardist & composer, older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus)
1882 – Gustav Nottebohm (German pianist, teacher, music editor, composer & Beethoven scholar)
1922 – George August Lumbye (Danish composer & conductor)
1931 – Luciano Gallet (Brazilian composer, conductor & pianist)
1934 – Gustavo Emilio Campa (Mexican composer)
1953 – William Kapell (American pianist)
1962 – Naphtali Siegfried Salomon (Danish composer, cellist & violist)
1971 – Duane Allman (American rock guitarist & songwriter)
1981 – Georges Brassens (French singer-songwriter, guitarist & poet)
1987 – Woody Herman (American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer & bandleader)

Late October has been a popular time for talented young musicians perishing in aircraft accidents, sometimes along with their musician relatives. Sometimes they were also from the Southern Rock genre.

You'll recall on the post for October 20th that Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer Ronnie van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), all in their late 20s, died in just such a manner in 1977. Then you'll recall a couple days ago the passing of 30-year-old violin virtuoso Ginette Neveu, and her brother and piano accompanist Jean-Paul, when their plane went down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1949.

On October 29th, 1953, a plane carrying the brilliant pianist William Kapell, 31, crashed into King Mountain outside of San Francisco, during a deep fog, just as Kapell had nearly made it back home from a tour of Australia. 1953, in fact, saw the passings of some of the world's greatest musicians. Aside from Kapell, there were Sergei Prokofiev, Hank Williams, Arnold Bax, Kathleen Ferrier, and Django Reinhardt.

And then there was Duane Allman, just 24 years old. Now, I know what you're going to say. "Ha! Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident, not an airplane accident!" Well, that's true. But he was definitely airborne just before the end.

08-19: Blind Willie McTell 1927-1935 - Tim Buckley Lorca - Pierre Schaeffer - Stravinsky / Dorati : Petrushka ; Sacre du Printemps - Dave Matthews Darien Lake 2005

Ordered roughly chronologically. Tagged image here.

1744 – Carlo Arrigoni (Italian lutenist, theorbist, singer & composer)
1780 – Bernhard Haltenberger (German church composer)
1795 – Friedrich Hartmann Graf (German composer & flutist)
1812 – Vincenzo Righini (Italian composer, singer & music director)
1813 – Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab (German composer, writer, music publisher & critic)
1822 – Melchor Lopez (Spanish composer & church musician)
1851 – Gioseffo Catrufo (Italian singer & composer, active in France & England)
1872 – Eugène-Prosper Prévost (French composer & teacher, active in New Orleans)
1892 – František Zdeněk Skuherský (Czech composer, teacher & music theorist)
1900 – Jean-Baptiste Accolaÿ (Belgian violinist, teacher, conductor & composer)
1914 – Clara Angela Macirone (English pianist, composer & teacher)
1922 – Felipe Pedrell (Spanish composer, musicologist & editor of complete works of Victoria)
1929 – Sergei Diaghilev (Russian arts patron & ballet impresario)
1929 – Meta Seinemeyer (German operatic spinto soprano)
1936 – Harry Plunket Greene (Irish concert bass-baritone & author on fly-fishing)
1936 – Federico García Lorca (Spanish poet, dramatist, theater director & pianist)
1944 – Sir Henry Wood (English conductor, Proms concerts)
1958 – Toon Verhey (Dutch conductor, violin & cellist)
1959 – Blind Willie McTell (American blues singer, songwriter & guitarist)
1963 – Kathleen Parlow (Canadian violinist)
1976 – Jenő Kenessey (Hungarian composer)
1979 – Dorsey Burnette (American rockabilly singer, songwriter & guitarist, brother of Johnny)
1995 – Pierre Schaeffer (French composer, electroacoustic music pioneer, engineer, inventor & writer)
1997 – Frédéric Anspach (Belgian tenor, teacher & conductor)
2001 – Betty Everett (American soul singer & pianist)
2008 – LeRoi Moore (American rock reed player (sax, flute, tin whistle, oboe) & songwriter, Dave Matthews Band)

On August 19th the most recent musical passing we remember is that of LeRoi Moore, woodwind player and founding member of the Dave Matthews Band, who died suddenly, apparently because of an internal blood clot, several weeks after having sustained serious injuries in an accident he had in an all-terrain vehicle. At the time, he apparently seemed to be healing up well, and had just started his rehabilitation. Sometimes it happens that way - one survives an initial trauma, but unexpected complications further down the road become the stumbling block. Kudos to Matthews and company for still going strong after the loss of their dear colleague.

Also on the list is Spanish musicologist Felipe Pedrell, who was responsible for editing the first complete edition of the works of Tomás Luis de Victoria. It so happens that 2011 marks the 400th anniversary of Victoria's death, as well as the centenary of Gustav Mahler's death, so I'll be taking every possible opportunity to call attention to both of these great composers this year. There's just one little problem with Victoria that there isn't with Mahler. Sources seem to be in disagreement about which day he pooped - some say August 20th, some say August 27th. Perhaps all we know is that it was on a Saturday in late August of 1611, which would narrow it down to either one of those days. But it does leave me with having to make a choice about which day it will be for the purposes of this blog.

The choice is easy, actually. On August 27th, Victoria would be facing some serious competition from two important figures whom we're certain died on that day - one of them being one of the very greatest composers of the Renaissance, Josquin des Prez, and the other one being Stevie Ray Vaughan. On August 20th, on the other hand, Thad Jones is the only other musician of significance Victoria would have to contend with. Also, the August 20th date gives us another opportunity to note a coincidence, this time that the first editor of a famous composer's opera omnia passed just one day before the anniversary of that composer's passing. So, August 20th it is, Tom Lou de Vicky! We'd hate to remember you a week late! (Although, the way things seem to be shaping up, I may be a week late before long anyway...)

Let's see... Harry Plunket Greene, Irish bass-baritone who did little work on the opera stage, instead focusing mainly on the art song and oratorio repertoire. It wasn't because he didn't care for the physical activity required to perform opera, though. In fact, he was a noted outdoorsman in his day, and in 1924 wrote this classic on the subject of fly-fishing. Maybe all Greene needed was for an opera composer to write a role that allowed him to spend an entire act in a good pair of waders. See you on the other side of the river Styx... shhh, now... don't worry, rest easy... John Curulewski and John Panozzo aren't coming up until next February and July...