A small traversal of a few contributions to the symphonic or tone poem repertoire.
Well, here we are at the end of another series. Find the whole thing here. This one I feel was more varied, more vibrant than the Russian or German series, because the symphonic/tone poem is less a thing and more an idea. We … Continue reading The Symphonic Poem: A Wrap Up
performed by the Toulouse Capitole Orchestra under Michel Plasson It’s about trains. Or is it? So Pacific 231 is a kind of train, and Arthur Honegger was, as Wikipedia says: …widely known as a train enthusiast, and once notably said: “I … Continue reading Arthur Honegger: Pacific 231
performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit Four years after yesterday’s Pines, and more than a decade after Fountains, we have Festivals. As Wikipedia says: Each of the four movements depict a scene of celebration from ancient or modern Rome. It is … Continue reading Ottorino Respighi: Feste Romane
performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit The Pines of Rome Like I said in yesterday’s post, I have a strange nostalgic connection to these pieces. It’s not that they’re necessarily favorites, but I have a certain fond memory … Continue reading Ottorino Respighi: Pini di Roma
performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit …or Fountains of Rome While it’s a four-movement work, this entire piece takes up only about fifteen minutes. But we should back up a bit and start by saying that this … Continue reading Ottorino Respighi: Fontane di Roma
performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, Anatol Ugorski, piano N0. 200 It’s been about two and a half years that I’ve been doing this, regularly but not always very professionally. I have some articles I’m not terribly … Continue reading Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, op. 60
performed by the Chicago Symphony orchestra under Pierre Boulez The Poem of Ecstasy is the Joy of Liberated Action. The Cosmos, i.e., Spirit, is Eternal Creation without External Motivation, a Divine Play of Worlds. The Creative Spirit, i.e., the Universe … Continue reading Scriabin: Le Poème de l’extase, Op. 54
performed by The Cleveland Orchestra under Pierre Boulez There is no theory. You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law. The full French title, for what it’s worth, is La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre, and it’s a piece I’ve … Continue reading Debussy: La Mer
performed by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, or in the version from Fantasia, by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra (which cannot be embedded) Famous to a fault? Cliché? Overdone? This is one of those pieces that, like, I … Continue reading Paul Dukas: L’apprenti sorcier
performed by the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra under Theodore Kuchar, or below by the Vienna Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa Excitingly another work from Dvořák this week, with his Noon Witch, a piece I had the chance to hear live a year or more … Continue reading Dvořák: The Noon Witch, op. 108
performed by the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra under Theodore Kuchar, or below with the Polish National Radio Symphony under Antoni Wit This is our 400th post here on Fugue for Thought! We’re coming up on a more significant milestone later in … Continue reading Dvořák: The Water Goblin, Op. 107 (B. 195)
or The Wood Nymph performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä I’m excited about the next few posts for this series because they touch on a special type of tone poem. There’s nothing anywhere (that I recall) about patriotic or … Continue reading Sibelius: Skogsrået
(Spring Song) performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä If ever there was a piece that felt like one of those rare, never-to-be repeated moments in life, blue sky, sun’s warmth on your back, in a picture-perfect landscape … Continue reading Sibelius: Vårsång
performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä En saga is the expression of a state of mind. I had undergone a number of painful experiences at the time and in no other work have I revealed myself so … Continue reading Sibelius: En Saga, op. 9
performed by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Svetlanov The golden cloud slept through the night Upon the breast of the giant-rock While Rachmaninoff composed a number of symphonic poems and things, his real contribution to classical music, at least … Continue reading Rachmaninoff: The Rock, op. 7
performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolf Kempe Somehow… Despite excerpts from Don Juan being on the auditions for like, every instrument ever, and it being (I feel, right?) an outstandingly popular tone poem, I was super late to the party and … Continue reading Strauss: Don Juan, op. 20
performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolfe Kempe We’re finally doing Strauss! It’s about darn time. (Featured image is the View of the Ponte Nomentano in the Roman Campagna, by Jean Achille Benouville) As one of the few multi-movement tone poems in our … Continue reading Richard Strauss: Aus Italien
performed by the Radio Symphony Orchester Berlin under Ferenc Fricsay (but I also muchly enjoyed Antoni Wit’s reading with the Polish National Radio Symphony) What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown Hymn, the first … Continue reading Liszt: Les Preludes
performed by the Gewandhausorchester under the late Kurt Masur Tasso loved and suffered at Ferrara, he was avenged at Rome, and even today lives in the popular songs of Venice. These three moments are inseparable from his immortal fame. To … Continue reading Liszt: Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo
performed by The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernard Haitink Mendelssohn beat us to the punch with his overture/symphonic poem, but as we discussed in our introduction to this series, it’s Franz Liszt who ‘invented’ the concept of the symphonic poem, … Continue reading Liszt: Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there. Coming off the NSO’s New Year Concert of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer … Continue reading Mendelssohn’s ‘The Hebrides’ Overture
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