Archive for January, 2012

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Famous Soloists—James Galway


2012
01.04

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James Galway [b. 1939] was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and has gone on to become a legendary flautist who is often called, even today, “the busiest man in classical music.”  Along with his mentor, the late Jean-Pierre Rampal, Galway was one of the first flute players to carve out a successful solo career.

After studying at the Royal College of Music [London] and then the Paris Conservatory, Galway played as a member of many well-known orchestras—BBC Radio Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, and the opera orchestras at Sadler’s Wells and Covent Garden—before accepting the position in 1969 of solo flautist with the Berlin Philharmonic.  He remained in that role until 1975, when he decided to embark on a solo career.

Galway has performed and recorded all the major flute works of the prime classical repertoire, notably pieces by Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi and Telemann.  But he has helped create interest in many lesser-known works as well, including concertos by Ibert, Pergolesi, Galuppi and Mercadante, the latter two composers primarily known for their operas—and even those are quite obscure today.  He has also performed many pieces by contemporary composers, including flute concertos by John Corigliano, William Bolcom, and Malcolm Arnold.  Several have been written with him in mind as the preferred soloist.

In addition to classical music, Galway has appeared alongside a number of popular music groups in concerts and on disc.  His best-selling album in this genre is the one he recorded in 1987 with the Irish folk group, The Chieftains.  He is also prominently featured on the soundtracks for all three Lord of the Rings films.

Galway was inducted into the Order of the British Empire in 1977 and received a knighthood—entitling him to be called Sir James—in 2001.  In addition to his flute playing, Galway is principal conductor of the London Mozart Players.  His first annual international flute competition is scheduled to take place in Belfast in June 2012.

James Galway plays the first movement of the flute sonata by Francis Poulenc, accompanied by Philip Mol, piano:

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Composer’s Corner—Maurice Ravel


2012
01.02

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Maurice Ravel [1875–1937], whose given name was actually Joseph-Maurice, was a native of the Basque region of France and grew into one of the most revered French composers of the early- to mid-20th century.  His popularity has never waned, and his works remain collectively one of the most heavily recorded catalogues of any modern composer.

Ravel’s studies began at the Paris Conservatory, where he took first place in a piano competition there in 1891.  His early proficiency at the keyboard was one of the motivating factors behind his interest in composition, and some of Ravel’s most acclaimed pieces—even more so today—are his works for piano.  His early mentors in composing were Erik Satie and Gabriel Fauré, both of whose unique stylistics can be found in much of Ravel’s music.

The first significant composition to come from Ravel’s pen was Habanera [1895], a piece for two pianos.  Many of the themes he used were later incorporated into an early orchestral work, Rapsodie espagnole [1908], which continues to be highly popular with lovers of classical music.  Shortly after 1900, while still in his twenties, Ravel became a member of an avant-garde assemblage of artists and musicians known collectively as The Apaches (“apaches” being a slang French term for hooligans).  While a number of his colleagues were, at the time, quite popular with in-the-know Parisians—the group included painter Édouard Bénédictus, poet Tristan Klingsor, and fellow composer Florent Schmitt, plus perhaps a dozen others—Ravel is the only member to have enjoyed lasting fame.

His Basque heritage spurred Ravel to write several pieces with a decided Spanish flavor.  In addition to the aforementioned Rapsodie espagnole, he also composed the one-act opera L’heure espagnol [“The Spanish Hour; 1904] as well as Don Quichotte à Dulcinée [1933], a three-song series that proved to be the final composition of his life.  His most adventurous work is considered to be Daphnis et Chloé [1912], a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev to show off the talents of another Russian émigré, Vaslav Nijinsky.

Maurice Ravel made a much-publicized tour of the United States and Canada in 1928.  He visited more than two-dozen cities, conducting his compositions with most of the top orchestras in North America.  During his stops in New York and New Orleans, Ravel received his first exposure to American jazz—the former involved a visit to the clubs of Harlem in the company of one George Gershwin—and the experience was sufficiently enlightening that he included a number of jazz-like themes in his later compositions, notably his two piano concertos.  He died shortly after undergoing brain surgery to correct the effects of a head injury suffered five years earlier, struck by a taxi on the streets of Paris.

Pianist Martha Argerich performs the first movement of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G  with the Hannover Radio Orchestra, conducted by Aldo Ceccato [1985]: