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 the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Vernon Handley, available on iTunes or Hyperion (cover image by Robson Hatsukami Morgan) (this piece is featured on a list of pieces I heartily recommend to music directors for inclusion on their season … Continue reading Simpson Symphony no. 4
performed by the Delmé Quartet, available digitally basically nowhere but the iTunes store or Hyperion (cover image by Serge Kutuzov) Ah, Robert Simpson, the real inspiration behind the Editor’s Choice series, and someone I discovered just by digging through forums … Continue reading Simpson String Quartet no. 4
Symphonic Dialogue for percussion and orchestra performed by Gert Mortensen and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under Okko Kamu, available on Spotify (cover image by Gerald Berliner) Full disclosure: I’m not entirely sure what makes this a symphony and not a … Continue reading Sallinen Symphony no. 2, op. 29
performed by Jaakko Kuusisto and the Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic Orchestra under Ari Rasilainen, available on Spotify (cover image by Andrew Kovac) For some reason, I expected Sallinen to have more than one violin concerto to his name, but no. His … Continue reading Sallinen Violin Concerto, op. 18
performed by the Kronos Quartet, or below by the Quatuor Molinari The treatment of the instruments and the formal process aim for the impression of a quasi-improvisation in which the “uncertainty” is continually increasing. In the second movement it explodes … Continue reading Schnittke String Quartet no. 1
performed by Mark Lubotsky and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under Eri Klas, available on Spotify (cover image by Bohdan Lesiv) I see a desperate striving to find myself in the work on this concerto. This quest was very rarely successful, … Continue reading Schnittke Violin Concerto no. 1
performed by the Cape Town Philharmonic under Owain Arwel Hughes, available on Spotify (cover image by Serge Kutuzov) Strong arguments exist both for and against publishing works that composers either themselves decided not to publish or later withdrew (or perhaps … Continue reading Schnittke Symphony no. 0
performed by the Jean Sibelius Quartet, available on Spotify (cover image by Martin Adams) We now welcome Aulis Sallinen to the Editor’s Choice series. He’s the only living member of the roster that I’m aware of. We first saw him in the … Continue reading Sallinen String Quartet no. 1, op. 14
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the composer’s baton, or below by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski …music for a winter’s day, utterly grey and gloomy. Henze, of his second symphony (cover image by Cesare Burei) What would your struggle … Continue reading Henze Symphony no. 2
performed by Wolfgang Schneiderhan and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the composer’s baton (cover image by Zak Elley) Hans Werner Henze wrote three violin concertos, each decades apart from one another, in total spanning a half a century of … Continue reading Henze Violin Concerto no. 1
performed by the Arditti Quartet, a recording that’s almost completely unavailable now (cover image by Martino Pietropoli) Henze’s second string quartet was written in 1952, when the composer was around 26 years old. It was a commission from the Südwestfunk … Continue reading Henze String Quartet no. 2
performed by Linus Roth and the Berlin German Symphony Orchestra under Mihkel Kütson, available on Spotify I am very impressed by M.S. Vainberg’s Violin Concerto, superbly interpreted by the Communist violinist L.B. Kogan. It is a magnificent work. And I am weighing my … Continue reading Weinberg Violin Concerto in Gm, op. 67
performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Thord Svedlund I am a pupil of Shostakovich. Although I never took lessons from him, I count myself as his pupil, his flesh and blood. Weinberg (cover image by Brian McMahon) Mieczysław Weinberg’s first … Continue reading Weinberg Symphony no. 1 in Gm, op. 10
performed by the Kontra Quartet, available on Spotify (cover image by Arash Asghari) Vagn Holmboe’s fourth quartet dates from 1954, about four years after the previous quartet. This was already after his eighth symphony, and he would go back and revise this … Continue reading Holmboe String Quartet no. 4, op. 63
performed by Mikkel Futtrup, violin; Tim Frederiksen, viola; and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra under Hannu Koivula, available on Spotify (cover image by Eberhard Grossgasteiger) We have a special guest in today’s episode. This isn’t quite how I expected to … Continue reading Holmboe Chamber Concerto no. 9 for violin and viola, op. 39
performed by the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under Owain Arwel Hughes, available on Spotify (cover image by Charlie Wild) One of the difficult things about some of these more obscure works, no matter how rewarding it is to discover (and yes, even to … Continue reading Holmboe Symphony no. 1, op. 4
performed by the Quatuor Danel, available on Spotify (cover image by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen) The second string quartet of Mieczysław Weinberg was written in 1940. There is unfortunately not really a lot online about this piece, so this introductory bit will … Continue reading Weinberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 3
performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jirí Bělohlávek, or in an actual video that doesn’t have a weird stock photo with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony under Andrés Orozco-Estrada You cannot change a single note…it is a classical symphony… Serge Koussevitzky (cover … Continue reading Martinů Symphony no. 1, H. 289
performed by Josef Suk and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Václav Neumann “…for me this will mean great publicity, as well as a great deal of work.” Martinů, of his first violin concerto (cover image by Gonard Fluit) He was wrong. … Continue reading Martinů Violin Concerto no. 1, H. 226
performed by the Martinů Quartet, available from Spotify on this album (cover image by Chris Barbalis) Martinů’s brilliantly engaging second quartet was written in 1925, and published in 1927. Depending on the source, it was written either “in Paris” (says Keith Anderson … Continue reading Martinů String Quartet no. 2, H. 150
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’