ASMF/Marriner It’s a bit ridiculous to say I hear development or progress from this work as compared with yesterday’s piece that didn’t move me much, because they were written within weeks of each other, in May of 1772, but this symphony is, at least to me, … Continue reading Mozart Symphony No. 18 in C, K. 130
ASMF/Marriner (who I think is playing below) After telling us that Mozart composed this work in 1772 at 16 years of age (the very same month he completed K. 128) (and that “some of its sections may have been written earlier”), … Continue reading Mozart Symphony no. 17 in G, K. 129
ASMF/Marriner, who I believe also plays in the video below: Of the sixteenth symphony, Wikipedia says “The form is that of a standard three-movement Italian overture,” unlike yesterday’s work. Both the first and second movements are ‘essays in sonata-allegro form,’ … Continue reading Mozart Symphony no. 16 in C, K. 128
performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner The second of the Salzburg symphonies, no. 15 in G is in four movements and clocks in at a whopping 12 and a half minutes. Wikipedia’s … Continue reading Mozart Symphony No. 15 in G, K. 124
performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner, or below by the Vienna Philharmonic under James Levine, who observes some repeats that make the work an extra 4-ish minutes longer Well, hello again, Mr. Mozart. … Continue reading W. A. Mozart Symphony no. 14 in A, K. 114
performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer, or below with the Philharmonia Hungarica under Antal Dorati Well, here we are… at our final Haydn (symphony) for a while, after another stretch of works. Again, I promise once we … Continue reading Haydn Symphony no. 11 in E-flat (H. I/11)
performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer, or below with the Philharmonia Hungarica and Antal Dorati Phew. Good thing this symphony is awesome, because they were starting to seem a little similar. There are a few notable differences with … Continue reading Haydn Symphony No. 25 in C (H. I/25)
Adam Fischer/Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, or below by the Philharmonia Hungarica under Antal Dorati Bam. Here we are again. More Haydn. Also, MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU. If it’s still the third, come back in twelve hours. Similar to yesterday’s … Continue reading Haydn Symphony No. 19 in D (H. I/19)
Adam Fischer/Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, or below with The Philharmonia Hungarica under Antal Dorati I’ll be typing that a lot this week. Symphony number 17. H. C. Robbins Landon’s The Symphonies of Joseph Haydn states that the work might have been written by 1757, … Continue reading Haydn Symphony No. 17 in F (H. I/17)
performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer, or below by the Philharmonia Hungarica under Antal Dorati Haydn symphonies, man. There’s a ton of them. I feel bad-ish for burning through them in quick stretches like this, but if … Continue reading Haydn Symphony no. 20 in C (H. I/20)
performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, or below by The Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood (what’s with the academies?) So it’s been some time since we got around to a Mozart … Continue reading Mozart Symphony no. 13 in F, K. 112
performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer, or below by L’Estro Armonico under Derek Solomons This was originally intended to be the last post in the second installment of Haydn symphonies by fives. We did 1-5 sometime last … Continue reading Haydn Symphony no. 10 in D, H. I/10
performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer, or below by the Academy of Ancient music under Christopher Hogwood (I enjoy Fischer’s much more) So here we are again with another Haydn symphony. As I mentioned yesterday, Haydn’s catalogue is not … Continue reading Haydn Symphony no. 27 G major, H. I/27
performed (as always) by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer (from whence comes the cover image for this article), or below by the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood So we’re going to get back around to Haydn … Continue reading Haydn Symphony no. 18 in G, H. I/18
performed by The London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, or as below I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul. What … Continue reading Prokofiev Symphony no. 5 in B-flat, Op. 100
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev movement 2 movement 3 movement 4 So we’re back… for the same symphony, just eighteen years later, as in, after his fifth and sixth symphonies, but we’re going to address the real revisit (I originally … Continue reading Revisit: Prokofiev Symphony no. 4, op. 112
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, or in a version below with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra Here we are again at another revisit, from the days when I (still) didn’t know how to talk about music, but more importantly … Continue reading Revisit: Prokofiev Symphony no. 4, op. 47
performed (this time) by the Scottish National Orchestra under Neeme Järvi or below with the younger Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Another revisit! I will admit I didn’t quite get this piece or Shostakovich at the time of writing the previous article on … Continue reading Revisit: Shostakovich Symphony no. 1 in Fm, op. 10
performed by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov (this piece is featured on a list of pieces I heartily recommend to music directors for inclusion on their season programs. Check out the article here.) (I also recently wrote … Continue reading Myaskovsky Symphony no. 6 in E flat minor, op. 23
performed by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov playlist of the entire work here Yesterday we talked a bit about Myaskovsky’s early life and his second symphony. Today we’ll talk a bit more about his life and his … Continue reading Revisit: Myaskovsky Symphony no. 3 in Am, op. 15
performed by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov Second and third movement in three parts below: Second movement Third movement pt. 1 and the last part So this symphony, first of all, appears variously as a two- or -three … Continue reading Revisit: Myaskovsky Symphony no. 2 in C#m, op. 11
Fugue for Thought 