Works that I do my best to write about (at least once a week, usually on Thursdays). For collections of pieces, check out the Series link above.
performed by David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter Dmitri had been wanting to write a new, second concerto for me as a present for my 60th birthday. However, there was an error of one year in his timing. The concerto was … Continue reading Shostakovich Sonata for Violin and Piano in G, Op. 134
performed by Nicola Benedetti and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits (a new and wonderful recording) or below by the dedicatee and premiere performer of the work, David Oistrakh, and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Heinz Fricke There are many kinds of … Continue reading Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 77 (99)
performed by the Emerson String Quartet Shostakovich was a prolific composer, as we have discussed, but it was rather late in his life that he got around to string quartets. He was in his thirties before he completed his first, in … Continue reading Shostakovich String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68
performed (live) by the Emerson String Quartet, from their box set of the quartets “I visualized childhood scenes, somewhat naïve and bright moods associated with spring.” Dmitri Shostakovich from Epstein, Paul. Emerson String Quartet: “Shostakovich: The String Quartets” I wrote … Continue reading Shostakovich String Quartet no. 1 in C, Op. 49
performed by Gil Shaham and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, or below by Viktoria Mullova and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Harding (maybe not a historical recording, but Mullova’s name is one I’ve recently learned and it’s … Continue reading Bartok Violin Concerto no. 2, BB 117
performed by David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter, from the recital in the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory in 1972 I’d like to say I planned it, but I didn’t. Both of Bartok’s violin sonatas, written within a year or so … Continue reading Bartok Violin Sonata no. 1, Sz.75/BB 84
performed by the Emerson String Quartet Beethoven left his mark on just about everything. If you want to talk about ‘cycles’ of piano sonatas, Beethoven has a killer one. Symphony cycle? One of the best. Piano concertos? Five of them. … Continue reading Bartok String Quartet No. 1 in A minor
performed by Itzhak Perlman and the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta or in its original piano-accompaniment version, with Midori Goto as soloist, a must-watch: I left today’s earlier work for later in the week for a few reasons. For one, … Continue reading Ravel: Tzigane
performed by Viktoria Mullova and Bruno Canino (more about Mullova below), or below by Renaud Capuçon and (the outstandingly lovely) Hélène Grimaud Who would have thought the first violin sonata we’d tackle on this blog (after almost three years of pretty dedicated listening … Continue reading Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major
performed by the Emerson String Quartet I hope you listened to and enjoyed the very first post of July, Debussy’s string quartet. It’s one of the most famous quartets in the repertoire, I’d say, especially from a composer who lived … Continue reading Ravel String quartet in F major
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Friedrich Goldman (I) Claudio Abbado (II) Marcus Creed (III) “a landmark in 20th-century music . . . probably the first work of the post-war generation of composers in which technique and imagination combine on … Continue reading Stockhausen: Gruppen
performed by David Tudor, or the first below by Herbert Henck II here, also played by Henck So… Karlheinz Stockhausen… I have decided that in the future, for composers getting their first post here on the blog, I will include their … Continue reading Stockhausen: Klavierstücke I-IV
performed by the Arditti quartet The string quartet under discussion begins at this point in the above video, or from here In searching for information about this quartet, I came to find that there is very little discussion virtually anywhere of Berio’s almost-earliest work … Continue reading Berio: Quartetto (1956)
performed by the Cicada Quartet Maderna’s Quartet is the hardest nut to crack [on the album], with its fragmented phrases and restless rhythms and dynamics. But behind the notes the Cikadas’ deeply committed playing reveals glimpses of a dramatic personality … Continue reading Bruno Maderna: Quartetto per archi in due tempi
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, with Susanne Otto, Marek Torzewski, Barbara Bonney, Dietrich Knothe & Rundfunkchor Berlin under Claudio Abbado If any evidence exists that Webern’s work does not mark the esoteric “expiry” of Western music in a pianissimo of … Continue reading Nono: Il Canto Sospeso
performed by the Wiener Jeunesse-Chor, Günther Theuring, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado Today we begin a rather brief discussion of one of the pillars of the Darmstadt school, in fact of the very man who coined the phrase … Continue reading Luigi Nono: Liebeslied for mixed choir and instruments
performed by Quintette Nielsen & Pierre Roullier, or below by The Philharmonic Five I feel a little bit bad that this is the first representation that Berio will be getting in our series here, but while he is a critically important name … Continue reading Luciano Berio: Opus Number Zoo, Children’s Play for Wind Quintet
performed by Hilary Summers and the Ensemble Intercontemporain under the composer’s baton Claude Samuels: I have one final question: what do you expect of the listener? You have an enlightened music lover who has this set of discs in hand; … Continue reading Boulez: Le Marteau sans Maître
performed by Paavali Jumppanen (from his album of the three sonatas) or below by Pierre-Laurent Aimard (from Boulez’s Ouvres Completes box set), both fantastic performances We now jump forward a little bit in time to another of Boulez’s still-early works, the first … Continue reading Boulez Piano Sonata no. 1
performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, or the first Notation performed by the composer, also below We start off our discussion of the Darmstadt school with Pierre Boulez. Needless to say, this is going to be a tough month of articles, for … Continue reading Boulez: Douze Notations
as below: The end. Opera is one of the best things ever. And it’s something we don’t get nearly enough of here in Taipei. Unfortunately, we’ll likely be getting even less of it now that the opera house, built in … Continue reading Opera: Verdi’s Otello
Fugue for Thought 