performed by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, or below with the Columbia Orchestra under the composer’s baton (cover image by Jingda Chen) And now for something completely different. It’s almost shocking to me, despite being the sole writer and … Continue reading Stravinsky: Feu d’artifice
performed by Andreas Bach, or below by someone (entire playlist for the work here) (cover image by Aaron Blanco Tejedor) Back to Bartók. And to folk music, sort of. Bartók’s collection of Ten Easy Pieces (or Tíz könnyű zongoradarab, in Hungarian) dates from … Continue reading Bartók: Ten Easy Pieces, Sz. 39
performed by the Stanislas Quartet and Christian Ivaldi (cover image by Easton Oliver) Florent Schmitt was born on September 28, 1870 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 19, studying with Fauré, Massenet, Dubois, and Lavignac. … Continue reading Florent Schmitt: Piano Quintet in Bm, op. 51
performed by Les Siècles under François-Xavier Roth, interviewed in the video below, with the piece itself available on Spotify (cover image by Bruno Abatti) François-Clément Théodore Dubois was born on August 24, 1837 in Rosnay in Marne. He studied with, among … Continue reading Théodore Dubois: Symphonie Française
performed by Anne Sofie von Otter and the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado or, because she’s an outstanding performer and it’s a (somewhat unclear) video of a live performance, Jessye Norman and the London Symphony under Pierre Boulez If you’ve … Continue reading Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder
performed by the Quatuor Diotima and Sandrine Piau, or below by the New Vienna String Quartet and Evelyn Lear If I had to pinpoint a moment in musical history, a piece in particular that is the breaking point, the straw that … Continue reading Schoenberg String Quartet no. 2, op. 10
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis, or below with Davis and the Staatskapelle Dresden I’ll be honest: this is a work that really never made a single impression on me until I sat down to focus … Continue reading Elgar Symphony no. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55
performed by the folks in this video: second and third movements Amy Mary Cheney Beach was born on September 5, 1867 in New Hampshire. She showed a stunning talent for music from an extremely young age, but her musical career … Continue reading Amy Beach: Piano Quintet in f sharp minor, op.67
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 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 Chicago symphony under James Levine (this is the performance I’ve been listening to, and it’s a fantastic recording. The below is apparently the same, but some of the tempi [and the audio quality] seem off…..) The above video is … Continue reading Mahler Symphony no. 7
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan Okay, before anyone gets their panties in a wad, this piece is NOT twelve-tone or atonal or anything. Let’s get that clear. In introducing the Second Viennese School (2VS), perhaps it is odd … Continue reading Anton Webern: Passacaglia, op. 1
This article has been marked as in need of a revisit. That’s where I feel like I didn’t do the piece justice or have more to say (usually because I didn’t know it nearly well enough or didn’t have the right perspective). I’ll keep the original article for posterity, but publish a new version that will eventually be linked here for my new take on it. performed by the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky This piece was written in 1906-07 and premiered in 1908 with the composer conducting. I will talk about some of its background … Continue reading Rachmaninoff Symphony no. 2
Fugue for Thought 