performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, or below with the London Symphony under Robert Craft The conductor need not try to polish sounds which seem unbalanced, but watch that every instrumentalist plays accurately the prescribed dynamic, according … Continue reading Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra, op. 16
performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Carl Maria Giulini (cover image by Tao Wen) 600 Well, here we are, my 600th music post. For my long-time readers, I’m sure you’re both tired of hearing me explain how not ALL … Continue reading Mahler Symphony no. 9
performed by the Voces Intimae Quartet, or below by the Copenhagen String Quartet (cover image by Hans Eiskonen) It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. … Continue reading Sibelius String Quartet in Dm, op. 56 ‘Voces Intimae’
performed by the Quatuor Diotima, or below by the Juilliard Quartet playlist for the entire work here Qualifying Statements This is another revisit article, and one I’ve been meaning to rewrite for a long time. My previous articles on works … Continue reading Revisit: Webern’s 5 Sätze für Streichquartett, op. 5
performed by Violeta Urmana, Michael Schade and the Vienna Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez With one stroke, I have lost everything I have gained in terms of who I thought I was, and have to learn my first steps again like … Continue reading Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
performed by the Emerson String Quartet Beethoven left his mark on just about everything. If you want to talk about ‘cycles’ of piano sonatas, Beethoven has a killer one. Symphony cycle? One of the best. Piano concertos? Five of them. … Continue reading Bartok String Quartet No. 1 in A minor
performed by the Juilliard String Quartet find all the movements in this playlist on YouTube This piece has been revisited, and an updated article has been written. Please read it here. I’ll keep the original article (below) for posterity, but … Continue reading Webern: Fünf Sätze für Streichquartett, op. 5
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 Maurizio Pollini That looks intimidating, those three links, but honestly, these pieces aren’t terribly overwhelming. In total, they come to about 13 or 14 minutes of music. Very delicious, important music. While … Continue reading Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstücke, op. 11
performed by the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin under Riccardo Chailly; Martha Argerich, piano //player.vimeo.com/video/63725542 This is intimidating. I guess everything about this piece is except for listening to it, and sometimes even that. There’s so. much. to. say. about this piece that I almost don’t want to try. There are so many theses, recordings, liner notes, program notes, concert talks and everything else about this piece that it would be ludicrous for me to think I have anything else to add but my own opinion and feelings of the piece, so that’s pretty much all I’m going to share, aside from some basics. For the technical bits … Continue reading Centenniel Music Post: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in Dm, op. 30
performed by Yefim Bronfman https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/z2EDk2Zsdik&source=uds It’s funny how life is. I’d planned the writing of this piece at least a month ago as a lead-in to another set of works for piano (the actual lead in was last week’s Satie piece, but this one sets up for what is to come later), and it was for a few reasons that now seem… less important than some others that have since surfaced. This piece is perhaps not as exciting to many as his other, later, more substantial works, but in a lot of (perhaps intentional, contrived ways), may have a lot to say about … Continue reading Prokofiev piano sonata no. 1 in Fm, op. 1
performed by Pascal Rogé (from the two-disc Ravel: Piano Works from Decca) (link to a YouTube version, also a superb interpretation played by the fantastic Martha Argerich, whom I talk about below: 1. Ondine 2. Le Gibet 3. Scarbo AND … Continue reading Maurice Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand
Fugue for Thought 