performed by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt, available on Spotify (cover image by Eleni Afiontzi) Rosenberg’s second symphony dates from 1934, and we have what I perceive to be a similar situation with the quartets. The second quartet … Continue reading Rosenberg Symphony no. 2, op. 62 ‘Sinfonia Grave’
performed by Charles Barkel, violin, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hilding Rosenberg (although the YouTube video lists Tor Mann as conductor, I’m almost positive it’s under the composer’s baton) (cover image by Geoffrey Datema) Rosenberg’s first violin concerto … Continue reading Rosenberg Violin Concerto no. 1, op. 22
performed by the Lysell String Quartet, available on Spotify (cover image by Delyn Stirewalt) And here we are with more of the Editor’s Choice series. For a refresher, this series features 20th century composers who gave us a whole cycle … Continue reading Rosenberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 21
performed by Trio Wanderer, or below by the Beaux Arts Trio (cover image by Aaron Burden) The second piece of Beethoven’s op. 70 piano trios is in E flat, and carries no nickname or subtitle or anything. The work, like … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Trio in E flat, op. 70 no. 2
performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iq8vmXHdu4 (cover image by Dorian Mongel) Here it is. Music post no. 700. No. 600 was Mahler 9, 500 was Schoenberg’s violin concerto, 400 was Mahler’s Das Lied, 300 was Shostakovich’s … Continue reading Beethoven Symphony no. 7 in A, op. 92
performed by Trio Wanderer, or below by Barenboim, Du Pre and Zukerman (cover image by Norbert Levajsics) Moving right along in Beethoven’s catalogue, we come to the op. 70 piano trios, of which there are two. These works come just … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Trio in D, op. 70 no. 1, ‘Ghost’
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartet Would it be going too far to suppose a connection between this extraordinary work and Beethoven’s advancing deafness? Could that painfully groping introduction seem like someone trying to … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 9 in C, op. 59 no. 3
performed by The Gewandhaus Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly (cover image by Sorin Tudorut) Beethoven’s op. 84 is actually an overture with incidental music (nine pieces) for soprano, male narrator, and orchestra for Goethe’s play of the same name. I thought … Continue reading Beethoven: Egmont Overture, op. 84
performed by Rudolf Serkin and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, or below with Serkin and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Choir under Rafael Kubelik You may wish to print another text, as the text … Continue reading Beethoven Choral Fantasy, op. 80
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartet (cover image by Francisco De Legarreta C.) We find ourselves now at the second of Beethoven’s three Razumovsky quartets. The works were written in 1806 for the Russian … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 8 in Em, op. 59 no. 2
performed by Dame Mitsuko Uchida and the English Chamber Orchestra under Sir Jeffrey Tate (cover image by John McCann) This work is the farthest along we’ve gotten in any of Mozart’s works in any form (with the exception of the … Continue reading Mozart Piano Concerto no. 11 in F, K. 413
performed by Jenő Jandó, Dénes Várjon, pianos, and the Concentus Hungaricus under Mátyás Antal, or as below, with Alfred Brendel, Imogen Cooper and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under Sir Neville Marriner (cover image by Nicolas Gras) I’ve always thought that so many … Continue reading Mozart Piano Concerto no. 10 in E-flat, K. 365
performed by Dame Mitsuko Uchida (cover image by Aaron Burden) We jump ahead a few years, around where we were last week, in 1777, although this work wasn’t published until 1782. The ninth sonata was composed in Augsburg and Mannheim … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 9 in D, K. 311
performed by the Amadeus Quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSEluPH1NM8 (cover image by Brooke Lark) So we, uh… jump back a few important years to the tenth quartet, written in 1773. The middle of this decade is clearly a time when the composer advances … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 10 in C, K. 170
performed by Dame Mitsuko Uchida second and third movements One gets the feeling, listening to the Sonata in A minor, that Mozart had been stocking up on minor mode drama for some time when he wrote it. Its stormy music is a … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 8 in Am, K. 310
performed by Fazıl Say, or below by Dame Mitsuko Uchida (cover image by Chris Barbalis) Mozart’s seventh piano sonata dates from 1777, a full two and a half years after the sixth. It was composed during a trip to Mannheim and … Continue reading Mozart Piano Sonata no. 7 in C, K. 309
performed by Dame Mitsuko Uchida and the English Chamber Orchestra under Sir Jeffrey Tate (cover image by Leonard Cotte) Mozart’s ninth piano concerto is actually his fifth original concerto for the piano (after the first four, which were more or … Continue reading Mozart Piano Concerto no. 9 in E-flat, K. 271, ‘Jenamy’
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below by the Festetics Quartet (cover image by Irina Blok) Mozart’s ninth string quartet, the second of the set of six called the ‘Viennese quartets,’ was composed in (August of) 1773. (Apparently, according to … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 9 in A, K. 169
performed by the Gewandhausorchester under Riccardo Chailly, or below by the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado (cover image by Aaron Burden) We have made it to only the second of Bach’s six Brandenburg concertos. As you may recall, or else … Continue reading Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
performed by Andrea Lucchesini (cover image by Aaron Blanco Tejedor) Berio’s Encores are relatively short pieces composed over a three decades, and provide a pretty wide-ranging vocabulary for the performer. For the brevity of the individual pieces, they provide a really wonderful … Continue reading Berio: Six Encores
performed by Simon Smith (available on Spotify, but not YouTube) The music of Alfred Schnittke has always delivered on its promise of darkness, but one must occasionally remind oeself [sic] that man could be really funny sometimes; on his misshapen circle, … Continue reading Schnittke: 8 Pieces for piano
Fugue for Thought 