On the radio I heard a violin concerto I had never heard before
It was by Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a black composer, violinist, conductor, and accomplished fencer that was a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Yup, you read that correctly. The concerto I heard today was written by a black man in France in 1785. He was most definitely influenced by Mozart (who wasn't at that time and thereafter), but as the DJ (so funny to call a guy on classical radio a DJ) commented, Saint-Georges was less afraid of the higher range on the violin [than Mozart maybe was], so that what was really nice is that you could play and scratch your nose while you played some of his concertos, while with Mozart you had to maybe wait a while.
Okay, maybe that is only funny if you played violin.
But he is totally worth checking out.
Yup, you read that correctly. The concerto I heard today was written by a black man in France in 1785. He was most definitely influenced by Mozart (who wasn't at that time and thereafter), but as the DJ (so funny to call a guy on classical radio a DJ) commented, Saint-Georges was less afraid of the higher range on the violin [than Mozart maybe was], so that what was really nice is that you could play and scratch your nose while you played some of his concertos, while with Mozart you had to maybe wait a while.
Okay, maybe that is only funny if you played violin.
But he is totally worth checking out.
Comments