50 Years ago …

On September 9, 1971 the album “Imagine” by John Lennon (1940-1980) was released.
The title song is still one of his most famous songs to this day. The song was a statement against the Vietnam War at the time, but for many it has become a kind of ultimate peace hymn and an ode to idealism.
“Imagine that there was nothing more worth waging war for …”
 

UN New York 21.9.2021
 

 
More anniversaries …

In Memoriam: Mikis Theodorakis

On September 2, 2021, the Greek composer, writer and politician Mikis Theodorakis died in Athens at the age of 96.

    
Mikis Theodorakis was born on July 29, 1925 on the island of Chios. He studied music in Athens and Paris, among others with Olivier Messiaen. During the Second World War he was politically active in the resistance movement and was imprisoned several times. In the 1950s he mainly composed chamber music, ballet music, some symphonic works and his first film scores. He became known worldwide in 1964 for his film music for “Zorba the Greek”.
Mikis Theodorakis was a member of the Greek Parliament from 1964 to 1967 and was arrested again after the 1967 military coup. In 1970 he managed to escape into exile in Paris, from where he went on numerous concert tours. After his return to Greece in 1974 he worked primarily as a composer and conductor. His extensive compositional oeuvre includes more than 1000 works, including symphonies, cantatas, church music, oratorios, operas, film music and numerous songs.

For his services to music he received the Sibelius Prize (1963), the Gold Medal for Film Music (London 1970) and the Socrates Prize (Stockholm 1974). For his commitment to peace and international understanding, Mikes Theodorakis was awarded the IMC UNESCO Music Prize in 2005.

The video shows Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates in the famous dance scene from the film “Zorba the Greek” by Michael Cacoyannis with “Sirtaki” composed by Mikis Theodoraki.

In Memoriam: Charlie Watts

On August 24, 2021, the British musician Charles Robert “Charlie” Watts died in London at the age of 80.

        
Charlie Watts was born in Bloomsbury on June 2, 1941. At the age of ten he discovered his passion for American jazz and built his first drum from an old banjo. He played in various youth bands and became a member of the Rolling Stones in January 1963. Because of his dry, direct drum style, he was considered the rhythmic basis of the band and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Rolling Stones in 1989. Since the 1980s he has also been on tour with his own big band and a smaller jazz formation.
In 2016, the Rolling Stone magazine listed Charlie Watts as twelfth of the 100 best drummers of all time.

The video shows Charlie Watts at a live concert by the Rolling Stones.

Stamp of the Month: September 2021

Engelbert Humperdinck
The German composer Engelbert Humperdinck was born on September 1, 1854 in Siegburg. He died on September 27, 1921 in Neustrelitz. September 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of his death.

Germany 9.9.2004
 

Engelbert Humperdinck received piano lessons at a very early age and began to compose at the age of 12. From 1872 he studied with Ferdinand Hiller at the Cologne Conservatory. The Mozart Prize of the City of Frankfurt (1876) enabled him to study with Franz Lachner and Josef Rheinberger in Munich. On a trip to Italy he visited Richard Wagner, who offered him the opportunity to work on the world premiere of “Parsifal”. Humperdinck accepted the offer and worked closely with him until Wagner’s death in 1833. After a job as Kapellmeister in Cologne and teaching assignments in Barcelona and Frankfurt, he achieved an initially surprising but lasting success in 1893 with the opera “Hansel and Gretel”, which enabled him to devote himself entirely to composing in the following years. Unfortunately, however, none of his other five operas had the similar success of “Hansel and Gretel”. In December 1900, Humperdinck moved to Berlin, where he took a master class for composition at the Musikhochschule and, in close collaboration with Max Reinhardt, composed several pieces of drama for the German Theater.
 

The video shows the final scene of the opera “Hansel and Gretel” with Daniela Sindram (Hansel), Ileana Tonca (Gretel) and the children’s choir of the opera school of the Vienna State Opera. The recording is from a live broadcast by the 3Sat TV channel in 2016.