Author: Christiaan Janssen

Charles Gounod (1818-1893) regained great successes as a composer of church music and as an organist soon after graduating at the Paris Conservatory. The ‘Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cécile’ dates from the 1850s. Almost four years passed before, in 1855, the ‘Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cécile’ was heard in its entirety in Paris. It was the custom to celebrate the feast of St. Cecilia, the patron Saint of music.

Publisher: → Baton Music

Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar (1862 – 1941) parodied the conventions of Romantic opera in his own operas and secular cantatas, his music itself is staunchly Romantic in voice, little troubled by even the chromaticism of Wagner, let alone subsequent developments in the 20th century.  Although his symphonic poem ‘Saul and David’, written in 1906 to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth, is considered his most ambitious work, it is this overture inspired by Rostand’s ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ that was his most successful piece. The overture recalls the spirit and style of Strauss’s brand new tone poems, which Wagenaar openly admired, and it captures both the heroicism and poetic character of Rostand’s hero.

Publisher: → Baton Music

(from 5th Symphony)

The famous Adagietto is the fourth part of Mahler’s Symphony nr. 5 and the tempo is ‘Sehr Langsam’. Only strings and harp are playing and the long upbeats and expressive appogiaturas of the very slow melodic lines give the music a yearning, almost heartbreaking quality. The Adagietto functions as a slow interlude in F major, between two faster movements in D major, but it also has an expressive weight sufficient for it to stand on its own; indeed, it is often performed by itself.

Publisher: → Baton Music