February 28 - Bernadette Peters (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 28th are here: Jean-Baptiste Arban (2020), Geraldine Farrar (2021), Tommy Tune; John Alden Carpenter (2022), Bernadette Peters (2023), and Jake Bugg; Charles Bernstein (2024)

+++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Bernadette Peters (b. 28 February 1948) is an American actress, singer, and children's book author.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Child Prodigy

 

She first appeared on the New York stage at age 10 as Tessie in the New York City Center revival of The Mist Happy Fella (1959). --- Wikipedia

When starting acting as a kid,

Which Bernadette (Miss Peters) did,

One runs the risk of obsolescence

Before one passes adolescence.

But Bernadette, ten years of age,

Appeared upon the New York stage,

(The year was nineteen fifty nine),

And ever since she’s done just fine.

+++++++++++++++++++

 

Ambitions

When Peters at the age of ten

   First trod the New York City boards,

She dreamed about a future when

   She’d act again, and win awards,

And she decided there and then

   That this is what she’d work towards.

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.] 

 

 

February 27 - Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 28th are here: Hubert Parry (2020), Marian Anderson (2021), Elisabeth Welch; Johann Philipp Krieger (2022), Josh Groban (2023), and Hubert Parry (2024)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (27 February 1867 — 3 December 1942) was a Swedish composer and music critic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Interests

 

The sets of piano pieces Frösöblomster I, II and III (Flowers of Frösö)  have gained a reputation of representing a quintessential "Swedishness" and are still known to most Swedes, even to people generally uninterested in music: the majority of young piano students in the Nordic countries have been taught these pieces.  --- adapted from Wikipedia

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger is

   A man whose name is little known,

Except among the Swedes, where his

   Appealing works have held their own.

Every Swedish pianist plays

   His Frösöblomster as a child,

While spending endless summer days

   Quite Swedishly beguiled.

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.] 

February 26 - Stefano Landi (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 26th are here: Frank Bridge (2020), Fats Domino; Betty Hutton (2021), Franz Strauss; Johnny Cash (2022), Anton Reicha (2023), and Jackie Gleason (2024)

++++++++++++++++++++

 

Stefano Landi (bapt. 26 February 1587 – 28 October 1639) was an Italian composer and teacher  influential as an early composer of opera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Landi Ho!

Throughout this period Landi composed sacred music prolifically, mostly in the seconda pratica style of the early Baroque, a decision which was controversial with some of the more conservative musicians, who thought the prima pratica— the style of Palestrina — more appropriate for sacred music. – adapted from Wikipedia

At the time of the early Baroque

A new sort of music awoke;

But some were not sold

On replacing the old

While wearing a clerical coat.

The conservative choir resisted,

But Landi, as Maestro, persisted,

And set as his goal a

More flexible schola

Where the old and the new co-existed.

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.] 

 

February 25 - Enrico Caruso (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 25th are here: Myra Hess (2020), George Harrison; Enrico Caruso (2021), Enrico Caruso (2022), Armand-Louis Couperin (2023), and Enrico Caruso (2024)

++++++++++++++++++++++

Enrico Caruso (25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian tenor generally acknowledged as one of the greatest tenors of all time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caruso at the Met (1)

Caruso performed when the Met

Was as starry as starry can get,

And singers from Naples

Were regular staples

In the great Rigoletto quartet.

 
+++++++++++++++++ 

Caruso at the Met (2)

A dowager raise her lorgnette

To note that the Met was beset

With Caruso’s battalions

Of low-class Italians,

Which caused her patrician regret.

 

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.] 

 

February 24 - Charles Frederick Horn (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for February 24th are here: Arnold Dolmetsch (2020), Arrigo Boito (2021), Samuel Wesley (2022), Michel Legrand (2023), and Luigi Denza (2024)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Charles Frederick Horn (24 February 1762 – 3 August 1830) was an English musician and composer, and music tutor to various members of the royal family of George III, including Queen Charlotte.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of All I Survey

Charles Edward Horn’s father wished for his son to become a surveyor. Horn would often furtively practice music instead; when his father found out, he destroyed the family's clavichord in the hopes of preventing his son from becoming distracted from his studies. – adapted from Wikipedia

When Horn received the envied gig

   Of music tutor to the queen,

He knew that he had made it big

   Within the London music scene.

I wonder if he wrote his dad

   A cynical epistle saying,

“Imagine what I might have had

   If I had taken up surveying.”

 

 

 

If you enjoy these posts, please help me, and consider sharing.  [Also, please visit my other blog: Alternate Takes: Great Art Repurposed.]