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Fugue for Thought

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Author: Fugue for Thought

concert reviewLeave a comment

NSO’s Shostakovich 1

April 15, 2018April 15, 2018 Fugue for Thought

featuring guest conductor Michiyoshi Inoue and harpist Xavier de Maistre This is a first for me, and for a few others in my (very small) entourage this evening. For me, it’s a first to hear Shostakovich’s first in person, and for them, … Continue reading NSO’s Shostakovich 1

Editor's Choice, Music, SQSLeave a comment

Rosenberg String Quartet no. 1, op. 9

April 14, 2018April 9, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Kyndel Quartet (available here on Spotify) (cover image by Rodion Kutsaev) Here we are introducing the next composer in our Editor’s Choice lineup, Hilding Rosenberg. We’ve only seen him once on the blog before, and yet here … Continue reading Rosenberg String Quartet no. 1, op. 9

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Beethoven Symphony no. 6 in F, op. 68 ‘Pastoral’

April 12, 2018April 8, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, or as below with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg-gLhGxpV8 (cover image by Terry Tan De Hao) Okay, all you lovers of a good subtitle, here we … Continue reading Beethoven Symphony no. 6 in F, op. 68 ‘Pastoral’

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Beethoven Coriolan Overture, op. 62

April 10, 2018March 24, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly (cover image by Shirly Niv Marton) Ah, Beethoven. As I’ve written about before, there’s that great sense of ‘spirituality’ in his music, an underlying, captivating magic about the beauty and often subtle … Continue reading Beethoven Coriolan Overture, op. 62

Music, SQSLeave a comment

Beethoven String Quartet no. 7 in F, op. 59 no. 1

April 7, 2018April 2, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Artemis Quartet, or in a superb performance below by the American Quartet I am thinking of devoting myself almost entirely to this type of composition… Beethoven, to a publisher, regarding his composition of the Razumovsky quartets (cover … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 7 in F, op. 59 no. 1

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Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 1, BWV 1046

April 5, 2018March 30, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly, or below by the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado (cover image by Brooke Lark) I feel such a sense of distance from people like Bach and Telemann and Handel and all the … Continue reading Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 1, BWV 1046

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Bartók String Quartet no. 4, Sz. 91

March 31, 2018March 24, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Emerson String Quartet, or below by the Juilliard Quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYifcDt4ToA (cover image by Patrick Hendry) We’re going on a little journey. Come with me. Back to Bartók, and now in the second half of his output of … Continue reading Bartók String Quartet no. 4, Sz. 91

concert reviewLeave a comment

NSO’s Mahler 7

March 30, 2018March 30, 2018 Fugue for Thought

Songs of Destiny and the Night In contrast with last week’s meagre turnout, depending on who you ask, due to Bartók and/or Sibelius, we had a packed concert hall tonight for Mahler’s seventh symphony, preceded by Brahms’ Schicksalslied.  Nearly as fascinating … Continue reading NSO’s Mahler 7

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Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6

March 29, 2018March 24, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado There had to come a day when we could hear how a chord of eight tones really sounds in the brasses! (cover image by Tara Evans) Earlier in the week, we had Schoenberg’s op. 16, … Continue reading Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6

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Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra, op. 16

March 27, 2018March 20, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, or below with the London Symphony under Robert Craft The conductor need not try to polish sounds which seem unbalanced, but watch that every instrumentalist plays accurately the prescribed dynamic, according … Continue reading Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra, op. 16

Music, SQS2 Comments

Paul von Klenau: String Quartet no. 1 in Em

March 25, 2018March 20, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Sjælland String Quartet (cover image by Kawin Harasai) Paul August von Klenau was born on February 11, 1883 in Copenhagen, and he there studied under Otto Malling, who himself studied under Niels Gade. (I wrote about Malling’s … Continue reading Paul von Klenau: String Quartet no. 1 in Em

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Webern: 4 Stücke für Geige und Klavier, op. 7

March 24, 2018March 13, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by Isaac Stern and Charles Rosen, or below by Kyung Wha Chung and Kevin Kenner It is always over before it starts… Webern’s father, about op. 7 (cover image by Glen Carrie) He wasn’t wrong. One of Webern’s early works, … Continue reading Webern: 4 Stücke für Geige und Klavier, op. 7

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NSO’s Lemminkäinen

March 23, 2018March 24, 2018 Fugue for Thought

featuring Piotr Anderszewski Something Old, Something New A world premiere, an old favorite, and a tough sell on Sibelius It’s not every concert you go to that you need to hear a work you haven’t heard live before. I’m working on … Continue reading NSO’s Lemminkäinen

Music, Symphony5 Comments

Mahler Symphony no. 9

March 22, 2018March 22, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Carl Maria Giulini (cover image by Tao Wen) 600 Well, here we are, my 600th music post. For my long-time readers, I’m sure you’re both tired of hearing me explain how not ALL … Continue reading Mahler Symphony no. 9

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New York Philharmonic in Taipei

March 19, 2018March 19, 2018 Fugue for Thought

featuring Yuja Wang, piano It seems like the last year or two we haven’t had as many of the big-name, super famous ensembles come through Taipei. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra decided (last minute?) not to come to Taipei, and the … Continue reading New York Philharmonic in Taipei

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Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Piano trio in D, op. 1

March 17, 2018March 11, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Beaux Arts Trio, or below by the people credited in this video (cover image by Joanna Kosinska) Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born on May 29, 1897 in Brünn, Austria-Hungary, which is nowadays Brno, in what is apparently … Continue reading Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Piano trio in D, op. 1

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Mahler: Das klagende Lied

March 15, 2018January 30, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the RSO Berlin, Dunn, Fassbaender, Baur, Hollweg, and Schmidt under Riccardo Chailly, or below by The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and lots of people under Sir Simon Rattle (cover image by Roman Mavrin) We got around to … Continue reading Mahler: Das klagende Lied

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Mahler: Three Lieder

March 13, 2018January 27, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by Thomas Hampson and David Lutz, piano https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwJBeChhBc (cover image by Joanna Kosinska) These three songs are Mahler’s earliest surviving works, dating from 1880. They were originally to be part of a set of five songs, but work on … Continue reading Mahler: Three Lieder

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Brahms String Quintet no. 1 in F, op. 88

March 10, 2018March 9, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by Cecil Aronowitz and the Amadeus Quartet, or as below: You have never before heard such a beautiful work from me. Brahms, writing of his quintet (cover image by Freddie Marriage) Brahms’s first string quintet, with an additional viola, … Continue reading Brahms String Quintet no. 1 in F, op. 88

Music, Symphony1 Comment

Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E, WAB 107

March 8, 2018March 5, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed by the Hamburg Philharmonic under Simone Young, or as below with the Vienna Philharmonic under Carl Maria Giulini https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kozfBnLiIUI (cover image by Fábio Ferreira) Bruckner’s seventh symphony, one of his most famous and successful, was written between 1881 and … Continue reading Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E, WAB 107

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Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45

March 6, 2018March 5, 2018 Fugue for Thought

performed the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau under Otto Klemperer (cover image by Tom Barrett) Formal composition on the requiem began in 1865, after a very important, very tragic event that same year, the death of the composer’s … Continue reading Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45

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