NSO’s Pre-tour Concert
featuring Ray Chen More Russian music. Another violin concerto. But this time, it’s goodbye to the NSO, temporarily anyway. They’re off to Europe this weekend, and before they go jet-setting, they gave us a preview of some of the pieces … Continue reading NSO’s Pre-tour Concert
Mozart Horn Concerto no. 2 in E flat, K. 417
performed by David Pyatt and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner, or below with the fantastic Radek Baborák and the Mito Chamber Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X3ikkOUhI0 W. A. Mozart took pity on Leitgeb, ass, ox and … Continue reading Mozart Horn Concerto no. 2 in E flat, K. 417
Series: The Horn
It’s a beautiful instrument. It sings and soars and highlights some of the most spine-tingling, heroic, tragic, powerful, epic, angelic moments in the pieces that we as classical music audiences love and adore. And I couldn’t find an image of … Continue reading Series: The Horn
Mozart Horn Quintet in E flat, K. 407
performed by David Pyatt, horn; Kenneth Sillito, Robert Smissen, Stephen Orton & Stephen Tees, or below by members of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble, with Timothy Brown as soloist (I’d also like to mention Andrew Clark’s recording with Ensemble Galant, … Continue reading Mozart Horn Quintet in E flat, K. 407
NSO’s A Mellow Walk in Time
featuring 劉宜欣 (Cindy Liu), horn; 王佩瑤, piano; 李宜錦, violin, all members of the NSO So it’s actually not the NSO, but it is three of their members, in a rare gem of a chamber concert, and seriously what timing! You’ll see what I mean soon, … Continue reading NSO’s A Mellow Walk in Time
Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, op. 64
performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolf Kempe, unquestionably the best recording of the work, in my opinion The death of this aspiring, idealistic, energetic artist is a grave loss… Strauss, on the death of Gustav Mahler Today’s work is … Continue reading Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, op. 64
Mozart Symphony no. 21 in A, K. 134
performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, or below with The Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood There are only two full sentences on Wikipedia for today’s symphony, and the first one, rivetingly, … Continue reading Mozart Symphony no. 21 in A, K. 134
Mozart Symphony no. 20 in D major, K. 133
performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, or The Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood This current era of Mozart symphonies we’re working through is when he composed what are referred to as the Salzburg symphonies, … Continue reading Mozart Symphony no. 20 in D major, K. 133
Mozart Symphony No. 19 in E flat, K. 132,
performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, or below by The Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood Let’s just ponder for a moment. Did you read yesterday’s article about The Young Mozart’s fifth string … Continue reading Mozart Symphony No. 19 in E flat, K. 132,
Mozart String Quartet no. 5 in F major, K. 158
performed by the Amadeus Quartet, or below by the Festetics Quartet Mozart’s fifth string quartet was written in 1773, the fourth of the Milanese quartets, as they are called, for where they were composed. Like all of the Milanese quartets, … Continue reading Mozart String Quartet no. 5 in F major, K. 158
NSO: Blazing Masterpieces
Welcome back, everyone, to another round of concert reviews, with stuff I always forget to mention, people who don’t know how to behave themselves in public, stunning, stellar music, a later bedtime than I usually have, and the overwhelming feeling … Continue reading NSO: Blazing Masterpieces
Babbitt’s The Head of the Bed
performed by Judith Bettina and Parnassus under Anthony Korf (sorry, there’s no video here again today, but if you can spare the dollar or whatever, I highly recommend purchasing the recording [I guess it has to be the entire album, so about $10…] on … Continue reading Babbitt’s The Head of the Bed
The Soldier’s Tale
This is the second concert lately to feature works from Russian composers (singular in this case), and there’s lots more Russian music in the next few weeks. First, I have to say that the cast (as it was sort of a cast) … Continue reading The Soldier’s Tale
Glass: Einstein on the Beach
in this recording, by lots of people, for a long time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty76wEPL-M4 (The above video is just before the first scene from Act I, and is called Knee Play 1. I’ll discuss the knee plays and the form of the piece … Continue reading Glass: Einstein on the Beach
Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915
performed by Barbara Hendricks and the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas, a remarkable performance, or below by Dawn Upshaw and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under David Zinman We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee … Continue reading Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915
A Month of Myaskovsky
So in case you didn’t know, and it seems virtually no one did, I spent the month of February listening to a symphony a day from Nikolai Myaskovsky. February has 28 days, and Myaskovsky has 27 symphonies and three sinfoniettas. I tweeted … Continue reading A Month of Myaskovsky
Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder
performed by Anne Sofie von Otter and the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado or, because she’s an outstanding performer and it’s a (somewhat unclear) video of a live performance, Jessye Norman and the London Symphony under Pierre Boulez If you’ve … Continue reading Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder
Berg: Vier Stücke, op. 5
for clarinet and piano performed by Sabine Meyer and Oleg Maisenberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-URIb85oc4 But I must thank you for your censure just as much as for everything you ever gave me, in the full knowledge that it is meant well—and for … Continue reading Berg: Vier Stücke, op. 5
Schoenberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 10
performed by the Quatuor Diotima and Sandrine Piau, or below by the New Vienna String Quartet and Evelyn Lear If I had to pinpoint a moment in musical history, a piece in particular that is the breaking point, the straw that … Continue reading Schoenberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 10
NSO’s Russian Riches
Well, hello folks. It’s been quite sometime since we did any of this concert talk, something like six weeks, actually, and what an interesting six weeks it has been. It’s quite rare to go six weeks mid-season without a concert of any kind. … Continue reading NSO’s Russian Riches
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
performed by Violeta Urmana, Michael Schade and the Vienna Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez https://youtu.be/p1mzN82HFZs With one stroke, I have lost everything I have gained in terms of who I thought I was, and have to learn my first steps again … Continue reading Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Fugue for Thought 