Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

While studying at Columbia University and the Juilliard School, he served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and made several solo appearances with it. After winning prizes at the Montreal Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, he made his New York debut as a Concert Artists Guild winner in 1976. While continuing his chamber music career with the Emerson String Quartet, he has played the solo violin repertoire with various orchestras including the American Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, etc.

The library has many recordings by the Emerson String Quartet as well as Mr. Drucker's own recording of the complete unaccompanied works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

How often does one have the opportunity to attend a world premiere of a new musical composition? On Saturday, September 29, 2007, the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra will be opening their new season with a world premiere of Douglas Townsend's Overture Concertante.

Born on November 8, 1921, Townsend began composing as a high school student at New York's High School of Music and Art and studied with various teachers including Tibor Serly, Stefan Wolpe, Aaron Copland, and Otto Luening. He taught at the university level, served as editor of Musical Heritage Review, and was the recipient of research grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund and the New York State Council on the Arts. His new work is distinguished by its use of solo instruments which reflects the inherent contrasts of certain orchestral colors. It is fittingly dedicated to bassoonist Dr. Richard Epstein and his wife Ina Chadwick.

Stravinsky's spectacular Firebird Suite and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by the young virtuoso Yuja Wang round out the program. In 2001, Ms. Wang won the first prize in the Junior Group of the Seiler International Piano Competition and also received the Special Jury Award at the First Japan Sendai International Music Competition. On July 1, she substituted for Boris Berezovsky at the Aspen Music Festival, playing the Piano Concerto No. 1 with Osmo Vänskä conducting.

The Library invites you to check out Stravinsky's Firebird Suite and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto #1.

It's hard to believe that today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. In the year of his birth, 1865, Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner were still alive, and Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann had recently passed. Due to his longevity, Sibelius witnessed significant changes and transformations in music, politics, and technology.

His fierce, emboldened music mirrored his country's feelings of individuality, pessimism and discipline. His musical ideas were drawn from mythology and nature. Kalevala, the signature poem of Finland with its legends of magic and warriors, inspired his series of symphonic poems ranging from the Swan of Tuonela to Tapiola. His themes, harmonies and sonorities were directed toward his prodigious symphonic output. His short work Finlandia helped to lead the way toward Finnish independence. His tone poems included Lemminkainen's Return and Pohjola's Daughter. His violin concerto is one of the most important pieces in the solo violin repertoire. He composed choral music, incidental music for plays, short piano pieces, and songs.

His comments on his creativity are quite telling.

"I let the musical thought and its development in my mind determine matters of form. I'd compare a symphony to a river: the river is made up of countless streams all looking for an outlet: the innumerable tributaries, streams and brooks that form the river before it broadens majestically and flows into the sea. The movement of the water determines the shape of the river bed: the movement of the river-water is the flow of the musical ideas and the river-bed that they form is the symphonic structure."

I invite you to listen to his music and read about his life. Compact discs of his music include Orchestral Works, Symphony no. 4 in A minor ; Symphony no. 6 in D minor, Tone Poems, and the Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47 . The library has Harold Johnson's Jean Sibelius and Robert Layton's Sibelius.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of soprano Maria Callas. Throughout her life, Ms. Callas embodied the concept of the Prima Donna with her remarkable voice, innate dramatic poise, and fiery, passionate life. Her greatest characterizations were as Bellini's Norma, Puccini's Tosca, Bizet's Carmen, Donizetti's Anne Boleyn, Lucia, Verdi's Lady Macbeth and Violetta.

Although she was born and spent her early childhood in the United States, she became Italian via her profession and her ten year marriage to G.B. Meneghini. In 1937 she and her family went to Greece where she studied at the Athens Conservatory with soprano Elvira de Hidalgo. On August 27, 1942, she stepped in as Tosca opposite the enormous tenor and idol of the Greek operatic world, Antonis Dellendas. This successful debut soon led to other demanding roles including Aida, Turandot, Isolde, Kundry and Brünnhilde. In 1949, she offered another side of her voice by substituting for an ill colleague in the bel canto role of Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani.

Eventually, she gave up the heavier roles and focused on earlier Italian operas playing Bellini's Amina, Donizetti's Lucia and Verdi's Leonora, Violetta and Gilda. She specialized in rare and vocally challenging operas including Haydn's L'Anima del Filosofo, Gluck's Alceste and Iphigénie en Tauride, Cherubini's Médée, etc. She received extraordinary recognition in the major opera houses throughout the world like La Scala, Covent Garden, the Lyric Theatre of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera.

Callas was a highly critical perfectionist who experienced frequent vocal problems; this often led to cancellation of engagements and subsequent problems with management. She gradually faded from the vocal scene after her last operatic appearance at Covent Garden on July 5, 1965. Occasionally she appeared on the concert stage and led some masterclasses.

If you have never heard her sing, feel free to check out Carmen with Nicolai Gedda, tenor and Robert Massard, baritone, La Divina Complete, a four CD set of her most famous roles, or Tosca with Giuseppe Di Stefano, tenor, and Tito Gobbi, baritone. Biographies about her include Anne Edwards' Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography, Stelios Galatopoulos' Maria Callas: Sacred Monster, and Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington's Maria Callas, the Woman Behind the Legend.

Movie goers can look forward to lots of films based on best sellers and works by favorite authors. The Nanny Diaries staring Scarlett Johansson is already out in theatres as is 3:10 to Yuma, a remake of a film based on Elmore Leonard’s story. Silk with Keira Knightley (from the director of The red Violin) based on the novel by the Italian author Alessandro Baricco is already in limited release and the Feast of Love based on the novel by Charles Baxter which evokes Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is coming soon. October brings Reservation Road (partially shot in neighboring Easton) staring Joaquin Phoenix while November reminds us this is No Country for Old Men based on the book by Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy and lets us recall Love in the Time of Cholera based on the novel by Noble laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. And the much anticipated film adaptation of The Kite Runner is scheduled for release. December brings Keira Knightley (again) to the American screen in Atonement and early next year offers Scarlett Johansson (returning to her period piece penchant) in The Other Boleyn Girl adapted from Philippa Gregory’s book.

For all those lovers of music from the movies, the New York Philharmonic has a program for you. On September 14-16, 2007, John Williams will conduct the orchestra in a program of movie favorites including his scores for the Harry Potter movies, Memoirs of a Geisha, and a potpourri of memorable themes from films by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. A special part of the program will pay tribute to Stanley Donen, director of such noteworthy musicals as On the Town, Pajama Game, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Singin' in the Rain. Mr. Donen will be present and will offer commentary on his works.

For those interested in movie musicals, the Library has Steven Cohan's Hollywood Musicals, The Film Reader, Roy Hemming's The Melody Lingers On, John Kobal's Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance, and Colin Larkin's The Virgin Encyclopedia of Stage & Film Musicals. If you enjoy listening to motion picture soundtracks, please feel free to peruse the Library's collection. Suggestions are always welcome.

The original 1989 Eli Whitney Folk Festival, which later evolved into the New Haven Festival, has once again expanded its traditions and outlook and is now called the Connecticut Folk Festival. This four-day event begins on Thursday, September 6 at the First Presbyterian Church in New Haven and continues Friday evening at Edgerton Park. A free Green Expo plus free music will take place on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday afternoon; additional free concerts will take place on Sunday at the park. Featured musicians include Billy Jonas, Guy Mendilow, Molly Venter and Erica Wheeler. The legendary Judy Collins will grace the stage at the University's Lyman Auditorium on Saturday night.

Ms. Collins started out as a classical pianist who performed Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos at the age of thirteen. Her affinity for the songs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger led her to the guitar and singing, culminating in her first album, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, at the age of twenty-two. Her noteworthy interpretations of other artist's songs include Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, Randy Newman, and Phil Ochs. Her performance of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns," was recognized as the "Song of the Year" at the 1975 Grammy Awards.

The Library's holdings of her work include Judy Sings Dylan: Just Like a Woman, The Judy Collins Songbook: With Comments, Instructions and Personal Reminiscences, The Seven T's: Finding Hope and Healing in the Wake of Tragedy, and Trust Your Heart: An Autobiography.