New Year, New (to Me) Music

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend which is still not over here in the US, however last night was much calmer than the previous two.  They were wild and wooly indeed with all sorts of riotous behavior on public display.  I managed to survive it with my sanity somewhat intact, so I guess all will be alright.  For my first post of the new year, I have selected an American composer/conductor who studied both in America and Europe to feature.  Henry Kimball Hadley made his conducting debut on January 16, 1900, at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, leading a program mostly made up of his own works.  He served at various times as conductor of both the Seattle and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras.  Between 1917 and 1920 three of Hadley's operas received high profile premieres, including Cleopatra's Night which bowed at the Metropolitan Opera on January 31, 1920. Hadley conducted some of the performances, becoming the first American composer to conduct his own opera at the Met.  The piece I have chosen for today is his Symphony Number 4 in D Minor, Opus 64, written in 1911.  This performance is Conducted by John McLaughlin Williams with the Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra.  When Hadley guest conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra on February 7, 1925, he provided a detailed and lengthy program note on the symphony, which is summarized and excerpted below:

"This symphony is a musical portrayal of moods suggesting, first, the frozen North; second the Far East; third, our own Southern ragtime rhythms; and fourth, the spirit of the West of our Pacific Coast. The first movement suggests the extreme North: snow, ice, barren waste, and tempest. The second movement (East) is an Oriental tone-picture, while the third movement (South), a scherzo, contains themes which suggest ragtime syncopations. (This movement, typically American, suggests restless energy.) The, fourth and final movement (West) is big, buoyant, and joyous. At the time of writing this movement, the composer was living in that section of the country, and he knew the spirit. There is an Indian theme, given in the English horn, accompanied by two bassoons and Indian drum. This Indian theme must not, however, be taken as anything but episodical. It must not be forgotten that this 'Western spirit' came originally from the strip of States on the Atlantic Coast, and is an extension rather than a new product. There is a love theme, too (second subject), but the symphony ends triumphantly, the Allegro theme (enlarged) in brass, with brilliant fashion making the close." 

Following the video is 2012's first edition of Monday's Undies, with a variety of men that should have someone to please everyone's idea of the model man.  I am glad you stopped by for the visit, see you here again tomorrow.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!