performed by the Stenhammar Quartet, or below by the Glazunov Quartet (cover image by Johannes Plenio) At the beginning one does not expect much from this piece completed under the tutelage of Nikolay Myaskovsky on November 20, 1928; a study piece and … Continue reading Dmitry Kabalevsky: String Quartet no. 1 in Am, op. 8
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa, or below by the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery Gergiev (cover image by Ian Baldwin) Next is the third symphonies of both composers, and again, Prokofiev comes out in a much better … Continue reading Prokofiev Symphony no. 3 in Cm, op. 44
performed by the Emerson String Quartet, or below by the Juilliard Quartet (cover image by Patrick Hendry) We’re going on a little journey. Come with me. Back to Bartók, and now in the second half of his output of six … Continue reading Bartók String Quartet no. 4, Sz. 91
performed by the “Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra Of The Moscow Chamber Theatre” and the Leningrad Philharmonic under Gennady Rozhdestvensky, or below (in English) by the Royal Opera conducted by Ingo Metzmacher The Nose loses all meaning if it is seen just as a … Continue reading Shostakovich: The Nose
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 Jena Philharmonic Orchestra under Frank Cramer, a world premiere recording, or below by the Danish Composers’ Society Niels Finn Høffding was born on 10 March 1899 in Copenhagen. He studied under a person I wanted to introduce earlier, … Continue reading Finn Høffding: Symphony no. 3, op. 12
performed by members of the London Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, or the below with (members of) the Berlin Philharmonic also under Boulez Greater unity is impossible. Even the Netherlander didn’t manage it. In the fourth variation there are constant … Continue reading Webern: Symphony, op. 21
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 London Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado MYCU: Part 6 In one swift stroke of genius, I wrote a wonderful post about this piece, and then Blogger ate it. I am livid. Thankfully, I have most of it still in mind. Thanks for nothing, technologies. From Wikipedia: Ida Rubinstein, the inspiration behind Boléro. Portrait by Valentin Serov. I had to check with a friend to make sure this wouldn’t sound weird, but there’s basically two things you need to know about this piece, and they are as follows: It’s a fantastic treatise in orchestration It’s like, the sexiest piece of classical … Continue reading Ravel: Bolero
performed by Martha Argerich, with the Berlin philharmonic under Claudio Abbado (this link is of Argerich with her ex-husband, not the above recording with Abbado) I really like Ravel. Quite a bit. We’ve talked about Gaspard before. It’s stunningly gorgeous. … Continue reading Ravel Piano Concerto in G
Fugue for Thought 