Various threads or chunks of history or music organized into strings of posts.
performed by the Emerson String Quartet or below by the Pavel Haas Quartet Prokofiev’s first string quartet comes shortly after the first version of his symphony no. 4, and just before the fourth piano concerto (the left-handed one) (with a … Continue reading Prokofiev String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, op. 50
performed by Matti Raekallio, or below by Boris Berman It’s like a big, organized cadenza. In contrast with the second sonata, dedicated to Prokofiev’s friend who committed suicide, the third sonata interestingly seems to have less humor or sarcasm than its predecessor. Both … Continue reading Prokofiev Piano Sonata no. 3 in Am, op. 28
performed by an unknown pianist from some recording I acquired somehow, or below by Irina Emeliantseva Nikolai Andreevich Roslavets was born on January 4 1881 (23 December, 1880 in the Julian Calendar) (possibly) in the Chernigov Governorate (a day less than … Continue reading Nikolai Roslavets: Piano Sonata no. 1
performed by Matti Raekaillo, or below by Boris Berman The second sonata of Sergei Prokofiev was first performed on February 5, 1914 by the composer in Moscow. It is dedicated to Maximilian Schmidthof, to whom the composer’s second piano concerto (which … Continue reading Prokofiev Piano Sonata no. 2 in Dm, op. 14
performed by the Mendelssohn Piano Trio (and obviously another unidentified person who I can’t seem to find a credit for) or as below Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev was born on November 25 (13) 1856 in Vladimir Oblast “to a cultured and … Continue reading Sergei Taneyev: Piano Quartet in E, op. 20
performed by Santiago Rodriguez I’m quite glad we were able to discuss the Medtner sonata earlier this week, because today we’re discussing a work of equally epic pianistic and musical proportions, similarly Russian in nature, but also in many ways entirely … Continue reading Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata in Dm, op. 28
performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy, or below by Nikolai Lugansky Rachmaninoff! Also been a while since we’ve seen this guy. I actually had no intentions of duplicating so many of the composers from last year’s Russian Symphony series in this piano … Continue reading Rachmaninoff: Variations on a theme of Chopin, op. 22
performed by Geoffrey Tozer In case you haven’t ever heard of Nikolai Medtner, I’d like to make the case that this, one of his earliest compositions, is undeniably one of the greatest things ever composed in the history of history. … Continue reading Nikolai Medtner: Piano sonata in f minor, op. 5
performed by Yefim Bronfman, Cho-Liang Lin, and Gary Hoffman, or below by the Beaux Arts Trio This is another name we haven’t seen in almost exactly a year. Arenksy’s first symphony was in last year’s Russian Symphony Series, but we’d visited … Continue reading Arensky Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, op. 32
performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy (or for those of you to whom the above video is unavailable, another one here by Richter) Life is fearfully expensive, and the climate is rotten. The air in the areas where we could find an apartment … Continue reading Scriabin Piano Sonata no. 5, op. 53
performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy Oh, let’s not talk about this! This is a ghastly piece! […] I was in an appalling situation back then. This Prelude, and also the Marche funebre in the First Sonata formed in moments disheartenment… But … Continue reading Scriabin: Four Pieces, op. 51
performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy or below by Ivo Pogorelich Two little things today, sketches from Scriabin, as if he’s working out ideas in preparation for something truly monumental. The ‘two poems’ date from 1903, and are as follows: No. 1 … Continue reading Scriabin: Deux Poèmes, op. 32
performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy Well, it hasn’t been as long since we’ve visited Scriabin. He was part of the the Russian Symphony Series and the Symphonic Poem series, but aside from his multiple symphonies and other orchestral work, he arguably made his … Continue reading Scriabin Piano Sonata no. 4 in F-sharp major, Op. 30
performed by the Borodin String Quartet (who else?) or below by the Moscow String Quartet Borodin was a rebel. The Mighty Handful of Russian composers were dedicated to producing distinctly Russian sounding music, or rather to establishing what that even would be, … Continue reading Borodin String Quartet no. 1 in A
performed by Sviatoslav Richter History does funny things to music. In the more famous cases (as we shall shortly see why), the world nearly forgot about something, or ignored it, or derided it, and it was only later generations or geniuses who … Continue reading Tchaikovsky Grand Piano Sonata in G, op. 37
performed by Đặng Thái Sơn or below by Vladimir Ashkenazy And here he is! Like I mentioned in the article on his first quartet over the weekend, it’s been nearly a whole year since we’ve touched on anything of one of the most … Continue reading Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, op. 37a
performed by Nicolas Economou or below by Mikhail Pletnev (much more on recordings below) Here we are in October, and with the first piano piece of the month’s piano-focused series, with a small tip of the hat to what we’ll … Continue reading Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
performed by the Borodin Quartet …Tolstoy, sitting next to me and listening to the Andante of my First Quartet, burst into tears… The composer, from here or here Hello, old friend! It’s been a while since we did anything Tchaikovsky…. … Continue reading Tchaikovsky String Quartet No. 1 in D, op. 11
It has been a good long while since we’ve done any piano stuff, but it’s actually been longer since last year’s Russian Symphony 2015 series that lasted three whole months. Granted, in those three months, we covered 20 symphonies, but at … Continue reading Russian Piano 2016: a series
So much Swedish music! There were a few challenges in preparing this series. At the beginning, as I said in the introduction, there were a few names that were responsible for deciding to do this series to begin with. I’d … Continue reading The Swedish Series: a wrap-up
performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Sergiu Comissiona No one in the 1950s noticed, that I am always breaking up the structures, that I was creating a whole new symphonic form. Pettersson, from Paul Rapoport’s Allan Pettersson, p. 21 … Continue reading Pettersson Symphony no. 7
Fugue for Thought 