TDCM: July 29th - François-Joseph Gossec

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829)

Bio

Gossec was born in Vergnies then a French enclave in the Austrian Netherlands, now a part of Froidchapelle, Belgium. He was tutored by Rameau in Paris and began composing for the Prince de Condé's orchestra. He met and befriended Mozart, Le Duc, Gaviniès, Méhul, and Cherubini. A friend and ally of Napoleon, he was forced into retirement after Waterloo.

Music

Te Deum a Grand Orchestra

Suite du Triomphe de la République

Symphonie à 17 parties in F-major

Symphonie concertante for violin and cello in D major

Messe des Morts

Missa Pro Defunctis

TDCM: July 28th - Karl Goldmark

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Karl Goldmark (1830-1915)

Bio

Goldmark was born in Keszthely, Hungary, and studied violin at Sopron. He was sent to the Vienna Conservatory to continue his studies with Böhm and Preyer. He struggled to make ends meet playing violin for theater companies, teaching composition - briefly tutoring Jean Sibelius, and writing about music. Goldmark developed friendships with Brahms and Strauss and was musically influenced by Wagner but Goldmark's Jewish heritage and Wagner's antisemitism kept them distant.

Music

Rustic Wedding Symphony

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor

Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major "Ländliche Hochzeit"

String Quartet in B-flat major

Sappho Overture

Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major

Die Königin von Saba, Orchestral Selections

TDCM: July 27th - Alexander Goehr

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Alexander Goehr ( b.1932 )

Bio

Alexander Goehr was born in Berlin. His father Walter was a student of Arnold Schoenberg and a successful conductor. He studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music and with Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, and John Ogdon formed the New Music Manchester Group. He has held several teaching posts and is currently an Emeritus Professor of Music at Cambridge.

Music

Piano Concerto

Romanza for Cello and Orchestra

Piano Sonata

String Quartet No. 3

Uninterrupted Movement

Duex Etudes for Orchestra

TDCM: July 26th - Benjamin Godard

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Benjamin Godard (1849-1895)

Bio

Godard studied at the Conservatoire of Paris in his birth town. He was a proficient violinist and composed several Symphonies, Operas, and concertante in the Romantic form.

Music

Symphonie Orientale

Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major

Symphonie Gothique in A minor

Etude Enfantines

Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor

Piano Works

TDCM: July 25th - Christoph Gluck

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Christoph Gluck (1714-1787)

Bio

Gluck was born in the Upper Palatinate of modern-day Germany. His father served under Eugene of Savoy in the War of Spanish Succession. Gluck attended the University of Prague and then surfaced in the court at Vienna as a multi-talented musician and composer. His most famous pupil was Antonio Salieri.

Music

Flute Concerto in G major

Alessandro

Trio Sonatas

Don Juan

Symphony No. 8 in G major

Sinfonia in D

TDCM: July 22nd - Mikhail Glinka

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)

Bio

Glinka was born in Smolensk into a family with strong ties to the Tsars. He received lessons in piano from John Field and Charles Mayer as a teenager and began composing. He traveled to Europe and met Mendelssohn and Berlioz and then returned to Russia intent on creating a distinct Russian classical music. He is now considered the father of the Russian classical tradition and had a notable impact on The Five. The Glinka Prize was created in 1884 and early winners included Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Cui.

Music

Symphony on Two Russian Themes in D Minor

Orchestral Opera Suites

String Quartet in F major

Prince Kholmsky

Trio pathétique

Ruslan and Lyudmila, Overture and Dances

Piano Music

TDCM: July 21st - Reinhold Glière

 

Listening Through The Dictionary of Composers and Their Music 

Reinhold Glière (1875-1956)

Bio

Glière was born in Kyiv, the son of a Saxon emigrant who married a Polish woman from Warsaw. He studied at the Kyiv school of music and the Moscow Conservatory before taking a teaching post at the Gnesin School of Music. He taught Prokofiev, Khachaturian, and Knipper, and was friends with Serge Koussevitzky. He moved around, teaching for the Moscow Conservatory, and the Kyiv Conservatory, and working for the People's Commissariat for Education in Azerbaijan and Siberia. His strict formalism in composing made him a star among the Soviet elite and he was awarded the title Artist of the People by four different Soviet states. 

Music

Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major

Symphony No. 2

The Bronze Horseman

Symphony No. 3 in B-minor "Ilya Muroments"

Khrizis