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George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin composed songs both for Broadway and for the classical concert hall. He also wrote popular songs with success. His parents had bought a piano for his older brother Ira Gershwin, but to his parents' surprise and Ira's relief, it was George who played it. Gershwin tried various piano teachers for two years, and then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller, the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra. Hambitzer acted as George's mentor until his death, in 1918.
At the age of fifteen, George quit school and found his first job as a performer was as a "song plugger" for Jerome H. Remick and Company, a publishing firm on New York City's Tin Pan Alley earning $15 a week. His 1917 novelty rag "Rialto Ripples" was a commercial success, and in 1919 he scored his first big national hit with his song "Swanee." In 1916, he started working for Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls in New York, recording and arranging piano rolls
In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major classical work, Rhapsody in Blue for orchestra and piano, which was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé and premièred with Paul Whiteman's concert band in New York. It proved to be his most popular work. Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period, where he applied to study composition with Nadia Boulanger. Boulanger, along with several other prospective tutors like Maurice Ravel, rejected him, however, afraid rigorous study would ruin his jazz-influenced style.[9] While there, he wrote An American in Paris. This work received mixed reviews upon its first performance at Carnegie Hall on December 13, 1928 but quickly became part of the standard repertoire in Europe and the United States.
His most ambitious composition was Porgy and Bess (1935). Called by Gershwin himself a "folk opera," the piece premièred in a Broadway theater and is now widely regarded as the most important American opera of the twentieth century. Based on the novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward, the action takes place in a black neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina, and with the exception of several minor speaking roles, all of the characters are black. The music combines elements of popular music of the day, which was strongly influenced by black music, with techniques found in opera, such as recitative and leitmotifs.
Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he was smelling burned rubber. He had developed a type of cystic malignant brain tumor known as glioblastoma multiforme. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, that he collapsed and, on July 11, 1937, died at the age of 38 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital following surgery for the tumor.
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Leonard Bernstein ( August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was the first conductor born and educated in the United States of America to receive world-wide acclaim. At a very young age, Bernstein heard a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began learning the piano. After graduation from Boston Latin School in 1934 Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied music with Walter Piston. After completing his studies at Harvard he enrolled in the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he received the only "A" grade Fritz Reiner ever awarded in his class on conducting.
During his young adult years in New York City, Bernstein enjoyed an exuberant social life that included relationships with both men and women. Bernstein married Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn on September 9, 1951, reportedly in order to increase his chances of obtaining the chief conducting position with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.They had three children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. During his married life, Bernstein tried to be as discreet as possible with his extramarital liaisons. But as he grew older, and as the Gay Liberation movement made great strides, Bernstein became more emboldened, eventually leaving Felicia to live with his lover Tom Cothran.
Bernstein was very highly regarded as a conductor, composer, and educator, and probably best known to the public as longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic, for conducting concerts by many of the world's leading orchestras, and for writing the music for West Side Story. He wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces.
West Side Story is a musical based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which was based on a narrative poem by Arthur Brooke entitled The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), which was inspired by the legend of Tristan and Isolde. Set on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the musical explores the rivalry between two teenage gangs of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The young protagonist, Anton ("Tony"), who belongs to the native Manhattan gang, falls in love with Maria, the sister of the leader of the rival Puerto Rican gang. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theater. Bernstein's score for the musical has become extremely popular; it includes "Something's Coming", "Maria", "America," "Somewhere," "Tonight", "Jet Song", "I Feel Pretty", "One Hand, One Heart", and "Cool".
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Carl Orff (July 10, 1895 – March 29, 1982) was born in Munich and came from a Bavarian family that was very active in the German military. Moser's Musik-Lexikon states that Orff studied at the Munich Academy of Music until 1914. He then served in the military during World War I. Afterwards, he held various positions at opera houses in Mannheim and Darmstadt, later to return to Munich to pursue further his music studies. As of 1925, and for the rest of his life, Orff was the head of a department and co-founder of the Guenther School for gymnastics, music, and dance in Munich, where he worked with musical beginners. Having constant contact with children, this is where he developed his theories in music education.
Carl Orff managed to confuse the nazi's when in 1937, a celebration of the triumph of the human spirit through sexual and holistic balance, based on thirteenth-century poetry found in a manuscript dubbed the Codex latinus monacensis, was performed for the first time, Carl Orf's Camina Burana * . Some nazi's branded it degenerate , others applauded, in any case Orff got away with it, and remained a music teacher all his life, he died 1982.
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Millenium Classics - Timeless Treasures (182mb)
01 - G.Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (14:47)
02 - S.Barber - Adagio for Strings (8:36)
03 - L.Bernstein - West Side Story-Prologue (4:23)
04 - L.Bernstein - West Side Story-Somewhere (3:48)
05 - L.Bernstein - West Side Story-Cha cha (1:00)
06 - L.Bernstein - West Side Story-Meeting scene (0:56)
07 - L.Bernstein - West Side Story-Cool (3:57)
08 - L.Bernstein - West Side Story-Finale (3:45)
09 - E.Satie - Gymnopedie - I Lent et douloureux (3:50)
10 - E.Satie - Gymnopedie - II Lent et triste (3:21)
11 - E.Satie - Gymnopedie - LEnt et grave (3:04)
12 - D.Shostakovich - Suite for Jazz-IV Waltz (3:46)
13 - C.Orff - Carmina Burana-Fortuna imperatrix mundai-I O Fortuna (2:55)
14 - C.Orff - Carmina Burana-Uf dem anger-VI Tanz (2:00)
15 - C.Orff - Carmina Burana-Uf dem anger-VII Floret sila nobilis (3:31)
16 - C.Orff - Carmina Burana-Uf dem anger-VIII Charmer, gip die varwe mir (3:35)
17 - Carl Orff - Carmina Burana Reie, Swaz, Chume (IX) (5:12)
18 - C.Orff - Carmina Burana-Uf dem anger-X Were diu werlt alle min (0:57)
19 - Lux Mundi - Masscapella, No.3 (4:59)
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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !
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