Pierre's Tuesday Blog

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In our June look at “music by the numbers”, time to look at number “9”.

In past blogs, I have discussed some famous nines already: Bruckner’s and Beethoven’s Ninth symphonies come immediately to mind. In today’s playlist, I bring up another pair of favourite ninth symphonies: Dvořák‘s and Mahler’s (performed by Karajan and Bernstein, respectively).

Mozart’s piano concerto number 9, in spite of being one of his earliest, it is one of my favourites oof his. Written in Salzburg in 1777, when Mozart was 21 years old, the work has long been known as the “Jeunehomme” Concerto. It was said that Mozart wrote the piece for a French pianist “Jeunehomme” when she visited Salzburg. But scholars couldn't identify the woman for whom he actually wrote it. Around 2003, the musicologist Michael Lorenz has argued that the woman was actually Victoire Jenamy (1749-1812), a daughter of Jean-Georges Noverre, a famous dancer who was one of Mozart's best friends.

A trio of nocturnes by Frederic Chopin share his opus 9, and so does a pair of “popular” songs of the 1960’s: “Love Potion no. 9” describes a man seeking help finding love, so he talks to a Gypsy, who determines through palm reading that he needs "love potion number 9". The potion causes him to fall in love with everything he sees. The song was originally performed by The Clovers, who took it to #23 on the US charts that year.

The second song is from the landmark Beatle’s White Album, and can be best described as Karlheinz Stockhausen meets the Beatles. "Revolution 9" is sound collage created primarily by John Lennon with assistance from George Harrison and Yoko Ono. Lennon said he was trying to paint a picture of a revolution using sound. The recording began as an extended ending to the album version of "Revolution", and from there the works takes on a musique concrète flavour, as espoused by of composers such as Edgard Varese and Stockhausen.

Happy listening!

PLAYLIST DETAILS

Mike STOLLER (* 1933)
Love Potion No. 9 (1959)
Performed by The Searchers

Frédéric CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Nocturnes for piano, op. 9
No. 1 (B-Flat Minor)
No. 2 (E Flat Major)
No. 3 (B Major)
Performed by Artur Rubinstein

Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
Second movement (Largo) from the Symphony No.9 in E Minor ('From the New World'), Op. 95
Herbert von Karajan leads the Wiener Philharmoniker
[Complete Performance]

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Third movement (Rondeau: Presto) from the Piano Concerto No.9 in E Flat Major, K. 271 ('Jeunehomme')
Clara Haskil, piano with Igor Markevich conducting l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
[Complete Performance]

Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911)
Fourth movement (Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend) from the Symphony No.9 in D Major (1908-09)
Leonard Bernstein leads the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest
[Complete Performance]

John LENNON (1940 –1980)
Sir James Paul McCARTNEY (* 1942)
Revolution 9 (1968)
Performed by The Beatles

Your Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL992F63E49C6FD63C

June 15 , 2012, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will be adding a new montage "The Fibonacci Sequence" to its Pod-O-Matic Podcast. Read our English and French commentaries June 15 on the ITYWLTMT Blogspot blog.