New Adventures In Good Music

When I first began listening to Classical Music, the local station, WRR101.1 FM, played a syndicated program every evening entitled Adventures in Good Music with host Karl Haas.  Karl would play the second movement to Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata as his theme song live every evening.  He was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of Classical Music and his Sonorous voice.  Karl Haas single handed popularized Classical Music in America with his combination of knowledge, personality and humor.  He made Classical Music fun for millions of people here in the US and wherever 'Adventures' was syndicated.  

Haas began his radio program Adventures in Good Music on WJR in Detroit, Michigan in 1959.  Syndicated broadcasts of the show across the United States began in 1970, syndicated to commercial and public radio stations around the world.  'Adventures' became the world's most widely listened-to Classical Music radio program.  As a tribute to the man and the program from whom I learned to appreciate Good Music, I though I would start a new feature to give hump day a little different flair.  Wednesday now will be known not only as Wet Wednesday but also as the day for New Adventures in Good Music.  Each week we will explore a musical artist/performer/composer, instrument, orchestra or musical insider in a little more depth than my usual blurb by way of introduction for a video.

For the premier edition of New Adventures in Good Music, we start with music for the starting block of any orchestra, the Violin and its cousin the Viola.  When one thinks of the Violin, certain names come to mind.  In the performance department Itzhak Perlman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell, and of course Nicolo Paganini to name but a few.  While several composers come to mind, Vivaldi, Paganini again this time as a composer,  Bach, Branms, Beethoven and Sibelius.  Today's featured Musical Artist/Composer predates even Paganini himself.  Alessandro Rolla (22 April 1757 – 15 September 1841) was an Italian Viola and Violin Virtuoso, Composer, Conductor and Teacher. 

His fame now rests mainly as "teacher of the great Paganini", yet his role was very important in the development of Violin and Viola technique. Some of the technical innovations that Paganini later used largely, such as left-hand pizzicato, chromatic ascending and descending scales, the use of very high positions on Violin and Viola, octave passages, were first introduced by Rolla.  In 1772, he made his first public appearance as a soloist and composer performing "the first Viola concerto ever heard", as reported by a contemporary writer.  In 1782, he was appointed principal Viola and the leader of the Ducale Orchestra in Parma, playing violin and viola until 1802.  In 1795 he received a visit by the father of the young Paganini, wishing him to teach his son.  After the death of the Duke of Parma, Rolla was offered a position as leader and orchestra director of the La Scala Orchestra in Milan in 1802.  Here the new governors, the French and later the Austrians, wanted to create the most important orchestra of Italy and therefore hired the best virtuosos of the time.

Rolla remained at La Scala until 1833 as the "Primo Violino, Capo d'Orchestra" while prolifically composing solo instrumental music , chamber and orchestral works.  He was instrumental in bringing the music of the 'Viennese Composers' like Haydn, Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven to La Scala and other venues and made it popular in Italy.  He wrote about 500 works, from didactic compositions to sonatas, quartets, symphonies, concertos for violin, and at least 13 concertos and other works for viola and orchestra. Significant was his contribution to the dissemination of Beethoven's works in Italy and his familiarity with Beethoven and other Viennese composers is shown in his compositions. He continued to compose and play chamber music until few months before his death at 84.

To illustrate the Music of Maestro Rolla, I have chosen a set of Violin Sonatas from the 4 disc set of Rolla's Chamber Works by Symphonia recorded by Ruggero Marchesi, Violin and Roberto Guglielmo, Piano.  The recording is of Disc 4 of this set which runs about an hour.  Over on my tumblr, I have the inspiration for the choosing of Rolla for our Premier Adventure, which I heard on Venice Classic Radio the other day while I was at work.   It is the Duo Concertant for Violin and Viola in C Major with a performance by Augustin Dumay, Violin and Gerard Caussé on Viola. 

That should do it for our Premier New Adventures In Good Music post except to link you to the additional beauty to be found splashing about the page in this week's edition of Wet Wednesday down below and the Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.  thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!