performed by the Gewandhausorchester under Riccardo Chailly, or below by the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado in a performance very worth watching (cover image by Annie Gray) Now that we’re back to Bach, it’s a good time to discuss the … Continue reading Bach Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G, BWV. 1048
performed by the Gewandhausorchester under Riccardo Chailly, or below by the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado (cover image by Aaron Burden) We have made it to only the second of Bach’s six Brandenburg concertos. As you may recall, or else … Continue reading Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
performed by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly, or below by the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado (cover image by Brooke Lark) I feel such a sense of distance from people like Bach and Telemann and Handel and all the … Continue reading Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 1, BWV 1046
performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado There had to come a day when we could hear how a chord of eight tones really sounds in the brasses! (cover image by Tara Evans) Earlier in the week, we had Schoenberg’s op. 16, … Continue reading Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6
performed by Gidon Kremer and The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, with cadenzas by Alfred Schnittke (cover image by Steven Wang) This is one of only a few violin concertos we’ve discussed on the … Continue reading Beethoven Violin Concerto in D, op. 61
performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti, or below with the Vienna Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado (cover image by Nick Scheerbart) I’ve been needing to do this for some time. Back when I wrote about Brahms’ first … Continue reading Revisit: Brahms Symphony no. 1 in C minor, op. 68
performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado and all the people in this recording (Act 1 with subtitles below, Abbado and the Vienna State Opera) Still, alles still, als wär’ die Welt tot (Still, all is still, as if the … Continue reading Berg: Wozzeck, op. 7
Performed by the Orchestre National de France under Bernard Haitink, with Anne Sofie von Otter, Wolfgang Holzmair, Laurent Naouri, et al., or below by the Vienna Philharmonic and many more under Claudio Abbado So here we are with our first opera of … Continue reading Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
Performed by Maurizio Pollini and the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, or below by Mitsuko Uchida and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto, with an opus number of 58, dates from the time of … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 4 in G, op. 58
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 Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Shinyukai choir under Seiji Ozawa, Emiko Suga, soprano; Nathalie Stutzmann, contralto; or below, with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, Eteri Gvazava, soprano; Anna Larsson, mezzo-soprano The music that can change … Continue reading Revisit: Mahler Symphony no. 2, ‘Resurrection’
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Friedrich Goldman (I) Claudio Abbado (II) Marcus Creed (III) “a landmark in 20th-century music . . . probably the first work of the post-war generation of composers in which technique and imagination combine on … Continue reading Stockhausen: Gruppen
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, with Susanne Otto, Marek Torzewski, Barbara Bonney, Dietrich Knothe & Rundfunkchor Berlin under Claudio Abbado If any evidence exists that Webern’s work does not mark the esoteric “expiry” of Western music in a pianissimo of … Continue reading Nono: Il Canto Sospeso
performed by the Wiener Jeunesse-Chor, Günther Theuring, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado Today we begin a rather brief discussion of one of the pillars of the Darmstadt school, in fact of the very man who coined the phrase … Continue reading Luigi Nono: Liebeslied for mixed choir and instruments
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado (original two-piano version here) … except not, because it isn’t. The “Chorale St Antoni” was supposed or assumed at the time to have been composed by Haydn, but later found not to be so; … Continue reading Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn
performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado So while the first three string symphonies this week might not have been riveting, life-changing works, or really anything I’d put on more than background music of some kind, they are … Continue reading Mendelssohn Symphony No. 1 in Cm, Op. 11,
performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Claudio Abbado (That’s the first movement. Here are the second and third/fourth.) “O Mozart! immortal Mozart! what countless impressions of a brighter, better life hast thou stamped upon our souls!” Schubert’s diary entry … Continue reading Schubert Symphony no. 5 in B-flat, D. 485
The Overture to the Ballet performed by the Gewandhausorchester under Riccardo Chailly, or below by the Vienna Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado So we’re not talking about the entire ballet, at least not yet. Maybe we should. In any case, if you’ve … Continue reading Beethoven’s Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, op. 43
With Sergej Krylov and Roberto Abbado Speechless. Back at 中山堂 for another Taipei Symphony concert. While it’s a pretty venue, it’s not how a concert hall looks but how it sounds that matters, and in the latter regard, the Taipei Symphony more than deserves a … Continue reading Concert review: TSO’s Demons and Miracles
performed by Maurizio Pollini and the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado I find Brahms so intimidating to talk about (if you haven’t already noticed). Like I mentioned in Tuesday’s post about the piano sonata, there’s always so much going on, … Continue reading Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat, Op. 83
performed by Maurizio Pollini and the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, or the same pianist with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm I saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in Cm, Op. 37
Fugue for Thought 