Continuing with lesser-known Christmas music this week, here's an excerpt from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, "Balulalow." Written for treble voices, it's usually sung by a boys choir or by a group of girls (I had the good fortune to be in a girls' ensemble as a teenager that performed these carols).
As the Christmas season gets into full swing, I thought I'd feature some lesser-known Christmas music for December. First up, an excerpt from The Christmas Tree Suite by Franz Liszt, which I think Scott Drayco has played a time or two. Although better known for his youthful pyrotechnics, Liszt wrote this piece at the age of 70 when he'd mellowed quite a bit. The soloists here are duo pianists Pinuccia Giarmana and Anessandro Lucchetti:
This is the third in my Halloween-themed music selections for the month; the first two used the "Dies Irae" chant (Liszt's Totentanz and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique). Here's a different piece but still spooky enough for Halloween, the Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. It's based on a literary poem by Henri Cazalis and deals with the French superstition that says Death comes out at the stroke of midnight each Halloween, summoning the dead to join in a dance.
Last Sunday, I featured Franz Lizst's Totentanz, which includes the iconic Dies Irae chant melody, as part of the "spooky music" theme for October. This week, here's another use of the same Dies Irae chant, this time in the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz, the last movement which is titled "Witches Sabbath":
'Tis the month of Halloween, so it seems appropriate to feature "spooky" music this month. What better than the Totentanz (literally "Dance of Death") by Franz Liszt. The work includes the iconic Gregorian chant "Dies Irae," used in my Scott Drayco novel, Dies Irae. Here's a performance with pianist Beatrice Berrut and the Berlin Philharmonic:
The Leeds International Piano Competition just wrapped up, and the winner was 20-year-old American Eric Lu. Lu is about the same age as Scott Drayco when his career was cut short by tragedy, but I'm hoping that Lu has a much longer, successful, and rewarding career ahead of him. For the finals, Lu played Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, and here's the third movement from that work performed by pianist Mitsuko Uchida and the Philharmonia Orchestra:
Scott Drayco will be making his fifth appearance in the upcoming novel, The Suicide Sonata. One of the pieces that is mentioned in the book is Franz Schubert's Impromptu #3, from Opus 90. As Drayco notes, the piece has "Hints of deep sadness and a bit of acceptance of that sadness as part of being human. Not a prayer, not a plea, just an admission that dark and light were all part of the same spectrum." Here's pianist Evgeny Kissin peforming this deceptively simple work:
Today is Mother's Day, and Mozart was my Mom's very favorite composer. So, I thought it appropriate that today's Sunday Music Treat would be a little something she would have thoroughly enjoyed, the Andante movement from the Piano Concerto No. 21 played by Alicia De Larrocha with the English Chamber Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, conducting:
When former pianist Scott Drayco hurt his right hand, some people pushed him to just perform works written for the left hand only. He refused, not wanting to pursue such a career as an "oddity." Works written just for the left hand you say? Yes, they do exist, including perhaps the most famous such piece, Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, commissioned by the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I. Since tomorrow, May 7, is the anniversary of Ravel's birth in 1875, it seemed fitting to feature his composition today. Here's a recording with soloist Samson François from 1959:
I want to thank a couple of readers of Played to Death who pointed out something that seemed to be an error but was more a miscommunication on my part. It's a good case in point of how sometimes the vision in a writer's mind doesn't make it to the page in a coherent way.
In Played to Death, Scott Drayco says that the first time he sat at a piano when he was a small child, he picked out Count Basie's "Take the A Train." Now, the classic jazz piece was composed by Billy Strayhorn, who played piano and wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington's band. But what I didn't point out was that Drayco had heard the piece in the later Count Basie version. My grandfather was a drummer in a Dixieland band, and Basie was also a drummer, so that seemed fitting. Plus, Basic learned how to play the piano from his mother, just like Drayco did.
Anyway, here's the original Duke Ellington version, followed by Count Basie's version and finally Oscar Peterson's solo piano version, which would be more like what Drayco played (in fact, it's fun to image a young Drayco, his feet not able to reach the floor, playing this piece):
Scott Drayco Novel #4: When crime consultant Scott Drayco’s long-AWOL mother returns and is charged with murder, he’s plunged into a world of secrets, lies, and cons.
Scott Drayco Novel #3: Drayco reunites with his estranged FBI partner to protect the partner's daughter from a serial killer who leaves musical puzzles as a calling card.
Scott Drayco Novel #2: A mysterious attack on a young disabled girl lures Drayco back to Cape Unity and into a sea of secrets and lies.
Scott Drayco Novel #1: A body found in a rundown Opera House with a "G" carved on his chest lures a former FBI agent into a web of music, madness and murder.
Eight Scott Drayco stories.
Scott Drayco races around D.C. trying to find answers to cryptic puzzles as a killer pulls the strings.
5 tales of crime and suspense, including Derringer Award-winning "Touch of Death."
Includes the Scott Drayco story, "The Lease of These."
Includes my story "Beside Still Waters."
Anthology edited by David Cranmer and Scott D. Parker, pumping out 13 knuckle-breaking crime tales.
Anthology edited by Chris Rhatigan and Nigel Bird: beautiful killers, visions of the apocalypse, and one severed arm on a quest for revenge.
