Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Greatest Classical Musician (part 2)

Johann Sebastian Bach
Born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. In 1723 he was appointed as choir Director of the Thomas School and also as an organist in Leipzig. It was here that his genius reached its greatest heights and his fame was spread throughout the land. Bach was a very prolific composer and many of his greatest creations were written for the church like The B Minor Mass and St. Matthew’s Passion. Due to the great amount of work he had been doing he became blind in 1749 and on July 28, 1750, he died.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born on May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk. In 1844 he wrote his first song Our Mama in Petersburg, Dances of the Serving Maids are his first orchestral composition performed in public. Among his great compositions are The Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and his tenth opera The Queen of Spades. In 1892, he finished The Nutcracker ballet and cholera ended his life on November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg.

Johann Strauss Jr.
Born on October 25, 1825. Strauss was extremely prolific as a composer. During his lifetime he produced more than 500 songs of which 165 are Waltzes; one of them is An der Schȍnen Blauen Donau (1867). Between 1871 and 1897 he wrote some 15 operettas and the best known is Die Fledermaus (1874). His supreme compositions are unbeatable in richness of melody. He died on June 3, 1899.

Wilhelm Richard Wagner
Born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig. He was a remarkable innovator both in harmony and in the structure of his work, creating his own version of the Gesamtkunstwerk, dramatic compositions in which the arts were brought together into a single unity. Wagner’s involvement in the Revolution of 1848 and subsequent escape from Dresden led to the staging of his next dramatic work, Lohengrin. His other music dramas are Tristan und Isolde, and his final work, Parsifal. He died on February 13, 1883 in Venice.


Monday, July 11, 2011

The Greatest Classical Musician (part1)

Ludwig Von Beethoven
Born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn on Rhine and is reverenced as the greatest instrumental composer of all times. About 1800 a malady, which later resulted in total deafness caused Beethoven acute mental suffering. In spite of this condition his opera Fidelio and Missa Solemnis are created with unique power. His works comprise of 138 opus-numbers and about 70 unnumbered compositions. He died in Vienna on March 26, 1827 of Pneumonia.

Franz Schubert
Born on January 31, 1797 in Liechtental, Austria. In 1810 he wrote a fantasy for piano four-hands and in 1813 he composed his first symphony. His first great song is Gretchen am Spinnrade which he created in 1814. In a year (1815) of enormous productivity he composed his second and third symphonies, 4 operas and 150 songs including Erlkȍnig. He organized his public concert, the only one in his lifetime on March 1828. He died on November 19, 1828 of Typhoid fever.

Frederic Francois Chopin
Born on February 22, 1810 in Zelazowa Wola-Poland. He made his first public appearance playing a concerto by Gyrowetz when he was nine years old. In 1825 he published his first work The Rondo in C Minor Opus I. Chopin reached greater heights with the piano than any of his predecessors. The beauty and the originality of his melodies prompted Rubenstein’s: Chopin is the soul of the piano. His failing health did not interfere with his composing until 1847. From then on, racked by Tuberculosis he waxed progressively weaker and died on October 17, 1849.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg. At the age of 5 he started creating his first composition. He started to compose The Marriage of Figaro in 1785 and produced it with a huge success in Vienna and Prague in 1786. Despite ill health he composed without cease and produced The Magic Flute in 1791. Mozart worked feverishly but his condition deteriorated. He died on December 5, 1791 of Nephritis, leaving The Requiem unfinished.