Topic: Quiz.

[Christo]

Carl Filtsch (28 May 1830 – 11 May 1845), 'a Transylvanian pianist and composer. He was a child prodigy, and student of Frédéric Chopin' (Wikipedia).

That's Kalevi Aho's 'Insect Symphony', drawing on material from his opera based on Karel Čapek's Pictures from the Insects' Life. The little creatures are ants.

Correct BTW.

[Florestan]

Carl Filtsch (28 May 1830 – 11 May 1845), 'a Transylvanian pianist and composer. He was a child prodigy, and student of Frédéric Chopin' (Wikipedia).

I knew I was giving him away with that quote. 

The reason why his music is rarely played or recorded is that there is not much of it, he died at 15. In accepting him as pupil, Chopin broke two of his rules: never take a child as pupil, never give a pupil more than one lesson a week.

Your turn.

[Christo]

I knew I was giving him away with that quote. 

The joke is that I googled it in French (and only after posting discovered this English version in the short Wikipedia entry) 

[Florestan]

The joke is that I googled it in French

Wait, you mean you took my English quote, translated it into French and google the result?

[Christo]

Wait, you mean you took my English quote, translated it into French and google the result?

Always do, depending on the language under suspicion. 

[Florestan]

Always do, depending on the language under suspicion. 

Google Translate?

[Florestan]

Last summer I visited Filtsch's native town Sebeș (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈsebeʃ]; German: Mühlbach; Hungarian: Szászsebes; Transylvanian Saxon dialect: Melnbach)  --- Wikipedia's describing it as a city is greatly exaggerated. Very nice. We ate in a cosy restaurant, a traditional Transylvanian Saxon dish. While strolling the town center after the lunch, my attention was caught by a memorial plaque affixed on an old house. THat's how I learned about poor Carl Filtsch. Youtube has his complete works (sic!, they are about a handful).

[Christo]

Last summer I visited Filtsch's native town Sebeș (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈsebeʃ]; German: Mühlbach; Hungarian: Szászsebes; Transylvanian Saxon dialect: Melnbach)  --- Wikipedia's describing it as a city is greatly exaggerated. Very nice. We ate in a cosy restaurant, a traditional Transylvanian Saxon dish. While strolling the town center after the lunch, my attention was caught by a memorial plaque affixed on an old house. That's how I learned about poor Carl Filtsch. Youtube has his complete works (sic!, they are about a handful).

Great story, very nice town - and it's all on the internet, even musical activities celebrating him locally:

[Jo498]

Naxos has two discs with Chopin pupils, I have the one with piano only (I guess someone loved it on another internet forum...) but it's been too long I listened to it.

 

[Florestan]

Filtsch's grave in the San Michele cemetery in Venice

[Christo]

OK, another composer riddle. This one, known to his compatriots as 'the Hyena', was active both in ethnomusicology and in early electronic music (but also wrote for orchestra and classical ensembles). In front of me lies a Kent State University monograph on his life and work claiming that he worked with 'all the giants' of 20th-century music and was performed in all major concert halls. What intrigued me once, was that in his early years, in the capital of his country,^* he met Béla Bartók - whose example he followed in his own ethnomusicological undertakings.


* a big city, nowadays a metropolis (I visited it last year again and in the past bought cds there by this national composer, at the Opera)

[Florestan]

OK, another composer riddle. This one, known to his compatriots as 'the Hyena', was active both in ethnomusicology and in early electronic music (but also wrote for orchestra and classical ensembles). In front of me lies a Kent State University monograph on his life and work claiming that he worked with 'all the giants' of 20th-century music and was performed in all major concert halls. What intrigued me once, was that in his early years, in the capital of his country,^* he met Béla Bartók - whose example he followed in his own ethnomusicological undertakings.


* a big city, nowadays a metropolis (I visited it last year again and in the past bought cds there by this national composer, at the Opera)

Halim El-Dabh

[Christo]

Halim El-Dabh

Egyptian composer - Cairo, when I was there, in July, people told me that the actual number of inhabitants has grown over 25 million - Halim El-Dabh or 'the Hyena' (1921–2017) composed one of the earliest known works of tape music, in 1944, and later worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, though I knew him from ballet music he wrote for Martha Graham (including Clytemnestra (1958) and Lucifer (1975). As a boy he met with Béla Bartók in 1932, during a music conference in Cairo, and he himself later made field trips from Egypt to Ethiopia, later also West-Africa and Brasil.

Your turn! 

[Florestan]

This composer and violinist was a real weirdo. He played Beethoven's violin sonatas as church music (in this he was partnered by a very good friend of his, also a composer, more of whom below). He was famous for the beauty of his solos in operatic music (some of them were written expressly for him) and also for the fact that he played all the time with his back turned to the stage so as to not see the immoral actions taking place there. He was a pioneer of viola d'amore revival. He premiered a famous work written by a fanous composer for a famous instrumentist who commissioned the work but eventually declined to play it. His lofty artistic and humanitarian idea(l)s had a heavy impact on his good friend the composer mentioned in the second sentence of his post, whose compositional style would undergo a radical change partly as a result of that. Later in life he became depressive and rumor has it that he committed suicide by starving himself to death (that would contradict his fervent devotion, though).

Who was he?

[Biffo]

This composer and violinist was a real weirdo. He played Beethoven's violin sonatas as church music (in this he was partnered by a very good friend of his, also a composer, more of whom below). He was famous for the beauty of his solos in operatic music (some of them were written expressly for him) and also for the fact that he played all the time with his back turned to the stage so as to not see the immoral actions taking place there. He was a pioneer of viola d'amore revival. He premiered a famous work written by a fanous composer for a famous instrumentist who commissioned the work but eventually declined to play it. His lofty artistic and humanitarian idea(l)s had a heavy impact on his good friend the composer mentioned in the second sentence of his post, whose compositional style would undergo a radical change partly as a result of that. Later in life he became depressive and rumor has it that he committed suicide by starving himself to death (that would contradict his fervent devotion, though).

Who was he?

Chrétien Urhan - deeply religious violin, viola and viola d'amore player - gave the first performance of Berlioz' Harold en Italie

[Florestan]

Chrétien Urhan - deeply religious violin, viola and viola d'amore player - gave the first performance of Berlioz' Harold en Italie

Played Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata during a mass, Franz Liszt at the piano.

I knew it was easy. Your turn.

[Biffo]

Played Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata during a mass, Franz Liszt at the piano.

I knew it was easy. Your turn.

Harold gave it away. Now have to put my thinking cap on.

[Biffo]

Probably too easy but running out of inspiration.

Our composer is probably now only remembered for two works, one of the a Requiem mass. The Requiem was either badly performed, cancelled by the family or withdrawn by the composer as the fee offered was considered an insult. In any case, the composer withdrew the work, only permitting it to be played at his own funeral. After that it became quite popular. It was played, in a tarted up version, at the memorial service for a very well known composer.

[Christo]

Our composer is probably now only remembered for two works, one of the a Requiem mass. The Requiem was either badly performed, cancelled by the family or withdrawn by the composer as the fee offered was considered an insult. In any case, the composer withdrew the work, only permitting it to be played at his own funeral. After that it became quite popular. It was played, in a tarted up version, at the memorial service for a very well known composer.

Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842)?

[Biffo]

Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842)?

Nope!