Various threads or chunks of history or music organized into strings of posts.
performed by the Beaux Arts Trio, or below by the people credited in this video (cover image by Joanna Kosinska) Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born on May 29, 1897 in Brünn, Austria-Hungary, which is nowadays Brno, in what is apparently … Continue reading Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Piano trio in D, op. 1
performed by Cecil Aronowitz and the Amadeus Quartet, or as below: You have never before heard such a beautiful work from me. Brahms, writing of his quintet (cover image by Freddie Marriage) Brahms’s first string quintet, with an additional viola, … Continue reading Brahms String Quintet no. 1 in F, op. 88
performed by Tamás Vásáry, Thomas Brandis, Wolfram Christ and Ottomar Borwitzky, or below with Sviatoslav Richter and members of the Borodin Quartet (cover image by Maciej Rusek) We recently discussed the G minor quartet, op. 25, and it was a reminder … Continue reading Brahms Piano Quartet No. 2 in A, op. 26
performed by Tamás Vásáry, Thomas Brandis, Wolfram Christ and Ottomar Borwitzky, or below by Ax, Stern, Laredo, and Ma (cover image by Patrick Fischer) If you haven’t yet discovered Brahms’s chamber music, here’s a bit more for you. We’ve done a … Continue reading Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 in Gm, op. 25
performed by the Artemis Quartet or below by the Alban Berg Quartett (cover image by Shane Stagner) Well, here we are, the final installment of the groundbreaking op. 18 quartets. Op. 18 no. 6 is the only one of the … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 6 in B flat, op. 18, no. 6
performed by the Kontra Quartet (unfortunately there isn’t a recording on YouTube, but go check out all of Holmboe’s quartets on Spotify) (cover image by Trần Anh Tuấn) Covering this second quartet today means we’re 10% of the way through his twenty … Continue reading Holmboe String Quartet no. 2, op. 47
performed by Mikkel Futtrup, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra & Hannu Koivula (Again, no YouTube for today, but get used to it. Buy your music or at the very least support your artists and record labels through Spotify. You can find … Continue reading Holmboe Chamber Concerto no. 6 for violin and chamber orchestra, op. 33
performed by Johannes Søe Hansen, violin; Christina Bjørkøe, piano (cover image by Maciej Rusek) In her review of the album on which this recording appears, Catherine Nelson describes the work as “nimble and lovely” with “fluid, folk-inspired phrases.” If you read … Continue reading Holmboe Violin Sonata no. 2, op. 16
performed by Johannes Søe Hansen, violin; Christina Bjørkøe, piano (cover image by Jack Anstey) As I said at the beginning of the year, we’ve got a new series on the blog, an ongoing one, and Holmboe was one of the first … Continue reading Holmboe Violin Sonata no. 1, op. 2a
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartett (cover image by Andreea Chidu) We’re finally nearing the end of Beethoven’s op. 18 quartets that he published in 1801. This fifth quartet in the series of six … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 5 in A, op. 18, no. 5
performed by Steven Isserlis, or below by Anner Bylsma (cover image by Ashley Knedler) We’ve finally made our way around to another installment of Bach’s cello suites. I remember nearly two years ago now when I began the weekend chamber … Continue reading Bach Cello Suite no. 5 in Cm, BWV 1011
performed by Boris Berman and the Vermeer Quartet, or as below (with the composer’s wife at the piano) I had to take what I wrote from imaginary spaces defined in terms of sound and put it into the psychological space … Continue reading Schnittke Quintet for Piano and Strings
performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Vernon Handley (Very unfortunately no YouTube today, but if you have even the slightest inkling of interest, go buy this album, on which also appears the fourth symphony. It’s superb.) (cover image by Abigail … Continue reading Simpson Symphony no. 2
performed by the Delmé Quartet (cover image by Cassie Boca) We will in due course get to the composer’s fourth, fifth, and sixth quartets, which are their own trilogy with a spiritual connection to Beethoven’s three Razumovsky quartets. This third … Continue reading Simpson String Quartet no. 3
performed by the Delmé Quartet (cover image by Larm Rmah) As the first and really core composer behind the new Editor’s Choice series, we’ll have a few articles on Simpson’s music, doing a bit of catching up with his earlier stuff since … Continue reading Simpson String Quartet no. 2
performed by the Artemis Quartet (an excerpt of their performance there), or below by the Cleveland Quartet (cover image by Mona Eendra) It’s been a while since we’ve seen any of the opus 18 string quartets. We’ve only gotten through half … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 4 in Cm, op. 18 no. 4
performed by the Zurich String Trio, or below by the Grumiaux Trio (cover image by Ivan Jevtic) As I mentioned in an article earlier this week, we will be seeing lots of Beethoven this year. We’ll be seeing a dozen pieces from … Continue reading Beethoven String Trio in Cm, op. 9 no. 3
(cover image by Freddie Marriage) Unfortunately, no one can know all there is about everything. I’m at least a little ashamed to admit the degree of my unfamiliarity with, say, most of the symphonies and string quartets of Haydn, or Mozart (but … Continue reading Editor’s Choice: A New Series
See? It’s not all about Sibelius. (cover image by Luca Bravo) You can find the entire series (in reverse chronological order) here. I’m guessing that for any of you readers who wouldn’t consider yourselves to be diligent students of classical … Continue reading The Finnish Symphony in Review
performed by the Tempera Quartet (cover image by Kristopher Kinsinger) I feel that quartets are in a way the genre in which I am most at home. I use the instruments rather mildly, without any great technical finesse. Nordgren, from … Continue reading Pehr Henrik Nordgren: String Quartet no. 10
performed by the Cikada String Quartet, or as below You were not allowed to have pulse, or tonally oriented harmonies, or melodies. I don’t want to write music through negations. Everything is permissible as long as it’s done in good taste. … Continue reading Kaija Saariaho: Nymphéa