
The Live From the Legion's “Holiday 2021” season features beloved classical tunes played from the museum’s Spreckels Organ. Celebrate the end of the year and enjoy the sounds of holiday classical music with principal organist Jonathan Dimmock!
Dec 20, 2021
4 min

The Live From the Legion's “Holiday 2021” season features beloved classical tunes played from the museum’s Spreckels Organ. Celebrate the end of the year and enjoy the sounds of holiday classical music with principal organist Jonathan Dimmock!
Dec 20, 2021
4 min

The Live From the Legion's “Holiday 2021” season features beloved classical tunes played from the museum’s Spreckels Organ. Celebrate the end of the year and enjoy the sounds of holiday classical music with principal organist Jonathan Dimmock!
Dec 20, 2021
4 min

The Live From the Legion's “Holiday 2021” season features beloved classical tunes played from the museum’s Spreckels Organ. Celebrate the end of the year and enjoy the sounds of holiday classical music with principal organist Jonathan Dimmock!
Dec 20, 2021
4 min

Nature has always been an artist’s greatest muse, and when combined with human love, as in the High Middle German poem “Unter der linden grüne” (“Under the Linden Green,” ca. 1200), we have perfection. The poem was paired with an old French melody and became quite popular during the Renaissance period. Jan Both’s Italian "Landscape with Horsemen" (17th century) focuses more on the tree than the horsemen. Perhaps both artists were observing that all of life exists within the context of trees and nature
Artwork:
Jan Both
Italian Landscape with Horsemen, 17th century
Oil on canvas, 381 3/16 x 38 1/16 in. (968.2 x 96.7 cm)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Memorial gift from Dr. T. Edward and Tullah Hanley, Bradford, Pennsylvania, 69.30.216
Photograph courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Composition: Jan P. Sweelinck (1562 - 1621), Onder een linde groen (variations)
Aug 13, 2021
6 min

Two giants of 19th-century Paris, Auguste Rodin and César Franck created masterworks of extensive range. Franck’s "Chorale in A Minor", his final composition, is the culmination of his musical work, simultaneously new and old, explosive with virtuosity, heartbreakingly beautiful with melodic sophistication. The monumental Rodin bronzes "The Thinker" (1904) and "The Three Shades" (1898) could be categorized the same way.
Artwork:
Auguste Rodin
The Thinker, 1904
Cast bronze, 72 x 38 x 54 in. (182.9 x 96.5 x 137.2 cm)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, 1924.18.1
Photograph courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Composition: César Franck, "Chorale in A Minor" (1890)
Aug 13, 2021
14 min

The English countryside calls to mind spaciousness and freedom. English composers have loved this aspect of their native land, perhaps none more than Ralph Vaughan Williams. His depiction of a lark ascending, fluttering, dipping, and gliding immediately conjures images of soaring liberty. Thomas Gainsborough’s painting, "Landscape with Country Carts", nearly 150 years earlier, seems to foreshadow what musicians would only later discover: the English countryside is evocative and beautiful.
Artwork:
Thomas Gainsborough
Landscape with Country Carts, ca. 1784–1785
Oil on canvas, 50 3/8 x 40 3/8 in. (128 x 102.6 cm)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Collection, 75.2.8
Photograph courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Composition: Ralph Vaughan Williams, "The Lark Ascending" (1914) Arrangement by Jonathan Dimmock
Aug 13, 2021
5 min

English pageantry has a special place in art history, at once formal but compelling, depicting the jubilant side of military prowess. John Stanley’s wonderful "Trumpet Voluntary" was written for a solo organ demonstrating the trumpet stop. “Voluntaries” were meant to be played before and at the conclusion of church services, so called because organists were not actually paid to play outside of the services themselves. The piece matches the contemporaneous, larger-than-life painting of William Beechey’s "Master James Hatch" (1796) as he models noble military attire. Although Hatch was far too young to serve, his station groomed him for this appearance.
Artwork:
William Beechey
Master James Hatch, 1796
Oil on canvas, 73 x 52 1/2 in. (185.4 x 133.4 cm)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase by exchange, Mildred Anna Williams Collection, 1942.10
Photograph courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Composition: John Stanley, "Trumpet Tune" (ca. 1770)
Aug 13, 2021
1 min

Aelst’s painting "Flowers in a Silver Vase" (16th century), with its decaying tulip blossom in the center, is a testament to the vast importance of flowers, and tulips in particular, to the economy of the Netherlands at this time in history. Next to the tulip is a yellow European chrysanthemum. Composer Joseph Bonnet’s "Lied des Chrysanthèmes" gives a musical illustration of the serene simplicity of flowers. The sweetness and quietness of the music mimics the pondering of a precious, elegant flower in full bloom.
Artwork:
Willem van Aelst
Flowers in a Silver Vase, 1663
Oil on canvas, 26 5/8 x 21 1/2 in. (67.6 x 54.6 cm)
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Hermann Schuelein, 51.21
Photograph courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Composition: Joseph Bonnet, "Lied des Chrysanthèmes" (1908)
Aug 13, 2021
4 min

Composition: Melchior Schildt: Paduana Lachrymae (ca. 1725)
Artwork:
Ambrosius Benson (Southern Netherlandish, ca. 1495–before 1550)
The Lamentation, 16th century
Oil on panel
25 5/8 x 31 in. (65.1 x 78.7 cm)
Museum purchase, Mildred Anna Williams Collection
1956.90
Jun 18, 2021
5 min
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