Stanford, Charles
Sir Charles Stanford was born in Dublin in 1852. He became a prolific composer, partcularly in the fields of choral and vocal music. Much of his work remains unpublished and in not a few cases even unperformed.
He produced seven grand symphonies (1876, 1879, 1887, 1888, 1894, 1905 and 1911), all of which are available to the public at Youtube.
Then there are three piano concerti (1894, 1911 and 1919), two mature violin concerti (1899 and 1918), a clarinet concerto (1902),and many shorter orchestral works.There are also eight string quartettes among a huge quantity of superb chamber music.
Of particular value are his six Irish Rhapsodies for orchestra.
In these works, written in his later life between 1901 and 1923, his skills as arranger, orchestrator and symphonist are most effectively synthesized, yielding movements of structural imagination and genuine symphonic thinking. The Irish Rhapsody no. 1 (1902), written for Richter, proved immensely popular; and no. 2 was commissioned by the celebrated conductor Willem Mengelberg, who gave its first performance in Amsterdam in 1903. Mengelberg also conducted the first performance of the Rhapsody no. 4 (1914), arguably Stanford's finest orchestral achievement. All six of these rhapsodies are available to the music-loving public at Youtube.
Sir Charles Stanford was born in Dublin in 1852. He became a prolific composer, partcularly in the fields of choral and vocal music. Much of his work remains unpublished and in not a few cases even unperformed.
He produced seven grand symphonies (1876, 1879, 1887, 1888, 1894, 1905 and 1911), all of which are available to the public at Youtube.
Then there are three piano concerti (1894, 1911 and 1919), two mature violin concerti (1899 and 1918), a clarinet concerto (1902),and many shorter orchestral works.There are also eight string quartettes among a huge quantity of superb chamber music.
Of particular value are his six Irish Rhapsodies for orchestra.
In these works, written in his later life between 1901 and 1923, his skills as arranger, orchestrator and symphonist are most effectively synthesized, yielding movements of structural imagination and genuine symphonic thinking. The Irish Rhapsody no. 1 (1902), written for Richter, proved immensely popular; and no. 2 was commissioned by the celebrated conductor Willem Mengelberg, who gave its first performance in Amsterdam in 1903. Mengelberg also conducted the first performance of the Rhapsody no. 4 (1914), arguably Stanford's finest orchestral achievement. All six of these rhapsodies are available to the music-loving public at Youtube.
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