I’ve spoken before about how difficult it is for me to explore and begin to enjoy opera the way I listen to most other music. For me, as for most people, it’s an auditory experience, and I’ll listen to music while I’m … Continue reading 20th Century Opera: a series
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time (as in, any more than about twice), you’ll know I’m a sucker for a good series. I try to approach things in an organized, logical manner, so I like to … Continue reading Various Violin Virtuosity
performed below by the Playground Ensemble Of all the quartets discussed so far, I feel this one has the traditional(ish) ideas of Schoenberg, the dense intensity and purpose of Babbitt, and the deep impression and atmosphere of Dutilleux, although I … Continue reading Ruth Crawford Seeger: String Quartet 1931
performed by Robert Taub. The CD is available here The first of these three pieces is above on YouTube, and if it’s even the least bit intriguing, I would highly recommend buying the album. Here we are, at a place I have … Continue reading Milton Babbitt: Three Compositions for Piano
Epilogue: Total Serialism a.k.a Influential People: Milton Babbitt It’s been a while. If you haven’t read or don’t remember a three-part series I wrote a few months back on the beginnings of the twelve-tone system, go check out the first … Continue reading Dodecaphony: Part 4 (a.k.a. Influential People: Milton Babbitt)
I have come to love string quartets. It seems this group of four instruments has the perfect balance of succinct compactness, clarity, cohesion, and range of expression. There are times when a quartet sounds perfectly like a quartet, with four … Continue reading Some 20th Century String Quartets: A small series
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
To continue our discussion of the twelve tone scheme and the Second Viennese School, we’re going to talk today about the method itself. I’m going to be up front with you, though. I’m not a professional musician, I am not … Continue reading Dodecaphony: Part 2
Do-what? (a.k.a. Influential People: Arnold Schoenberg) part 2 here part 3 here This was going to be a simple introduction to the early works of the Second Viennese School, and to that group of composers itself, but as with many … Continue reading Dodecaphony: Part 1
performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, Barbara Hendricks, soprano (my hands-down absolute favorite recording of this piece; she’s stunning. Took my breath away the first time I heard her after having listened to many other recordings, but the … Continue reading Mahler Symphony No. 4
performed by Martin Frost and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra So here we are in our final installment of a brief but surprisingly enjoyable miniseries on the clarinet. What’s left? Well, we haven’t had a concerto yet, and this week’s piece brings us solidly into the modern era, with a piece written within the lifetimes of some people still around today. Copland’s clarinet concerto was written shortly after his third symphony. I feel like this shouldn’t be the piece we use to first represent Copland on the blog, as he has lots of other stuff worth talking about, but in the … Continue reading Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto
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
…on themes of Carl Maria von Weber in an absolutely phenomenal performance by Herbert Blomstedt and the San Francisco Symphony, here, or below by the Royal Concertgebouw under Riccardo Chailly So again, relative to last week’s sprawling, enormous piece, this … Continue reading Paul Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis
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 I would suggest reading the new article instead. performed by the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra … Continue reading Mahler Symphony no. 6
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 I would suggest reading the new article instead. performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly Piano- Jean-Yves Thibaudet Ondes Martenot- Takashi Harada recorded at the Grotezaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam in 1992 This “symphony” (referred to by Wikipedia as a “large-scale piece of orchestral music”), was written from 1946-1948, and, like the other not-actually-a-symphony 20th century work I listened to recently, this piece is ALSO a commission from Serge Koussevitsky (thru an organization). Koussevitsky commissioned Turangalîla … Continue reading Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie
Fugue for Thought 