3rd night.
It’s already strike 3 for this series of less-sleep
nights. Still, I’m trying to finish some academic and research papers which are
due very soon. Generally, I’m still doing well, but it seems my heart’s not in
it.
Going
back at this other, lighter, nightly business blogging break, here are some
stuff you surely know, but you just don’t realize that you actually know them. These
are five of the tunes I’m drowning myself to at these unsettling hours. Feel
free to give the links some generous clicks. Btw, I included background reviews
from Wikipedia for those who are lazy enough to do a few more clicks about the concerned
composers. I don’t want to be Sotto-fied but I don’t have some extra neurons to
the job for now.
Guiseppe Verdi – Aida
(10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. Musically, he was part of
European Romanticism, and was one of the most influential composers of the 19th
century. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the
world and, transcending the boundaries of the genre, some of his themes have
long since taken root in popular culture – such as "La donna
è mobile" from Rigoletto, "Va,
pensiero" (The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco, "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (The Drinking Song) from La traviata and
the "Grand March" from
Aida.
Gioachino Rossini – William Tell Overture
(29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868)
was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred
music, chamber
music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces.
His best-known operas include the Italian comedies Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola and
the French-language epics Moïse et Pharaon and Guillaume Tell. A tendency
for inspired, song-like melodies is evident throughout his scores, which led to
the nickname "The Italian Mozart". Until his retirement in 1829, Rossini had been the
most popular opera composer in history.
Felix Mendelssohn – Midsummer Nights Dream Op61
(3
February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and
conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's work includes symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano
music and chamber
music. His most-performed works include his Overture and incidental music for A
Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish
Symphony, the overture The Hebrides, his Violin
Concerto, and his String
Octet. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical
tastes and anti-Semitism in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has now been
recognised and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic
era.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Eine Kleine Nachmusikt
(27
January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer
of the Classical
era. Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and
maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark
and passionate. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles
of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic,
and choral music.
He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers,
and his influence on subsequent Western art music is
profound; Beethoven composed
his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph
Haydn wrote
that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years.
Ludwig van Beethoven – Für Elise
(baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March
1827) was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western
art music, he remains one of the most famous and
influential of all composers. His best known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos
for piano, 32 piano
sonatas, and 16 string
quartets. He also composed other chamber music,
choral works (including the celebrated Missa Solemnis), and songs.
Any
favourites so far?
