performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, or as below with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg-gLhGxpV8 (cover image by Terry Tan De Hao) Okay, all you lovers of a good subtitle, here we … Continue reading Beethoven Symphony no. 6 in F, op. 68 ‘Pastoral’
performed by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly (cover image by Shirly Niv Marton) Ah, Beethoven. As I’ve written about before, there’s that great sense of ‘spirituality’ in his music, an underlying, captivating magic about the beauty and often subtle … Continue reading Beethoven Coriolan Overture, op. 62
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or in a superb performance below by the American Quartet I am thinking of devoting myself almost entirely to this type of composition… Beethoven, to a publisher, regarding his composition of the Razumovsky quartets (cover … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 7 in F, op. 59 no. 1
featuring Piotr Anderszewski Something Old, Something New A world premiere, an old favorite, and a tough sell on Sibelius It’s not every concert you go to that you need to hear a work you haven’t heard live before. I’m working on … Continue reading NSO’s Lemminkäinen
performed by the Artemis Quartet or below by the Alban Berg Quartett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4pkT371U9g (cover image by Shane Stagner) Well, here we are, the final installment of the groundbreaking op. 18 quartets. Op. 18 no. 6 is the only one of … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 6 in B flat, op. 18, no. 6
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B9ftTBLJU0 (cover image by Andreea Chidu) We’re finally nearing the end of Beethoven’s op. 18 quartets that he published in 1801. This fifth quartet in the series of … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 5 in A, op. 18, no. 5
performed by Gidon Kremer and The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, with cadenzas by Alfred Schnittke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy4Giri3QY4 (cover image by Steven Wang) This is one of only a few violin concertos we’ve discussed on … Continue reading Beethoven Violin Concerto in D, op. 61
performed by Gidon Kremer and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, or below with Itzhak Perlman and the Berlin Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim (cover image by Andrea Sonda) Well, I’ll try not to repeat myself too much, but … Continue reading Beethoven Romance for Violin and Orchestra no. 1 in G, op. 40
performed by Gidon Kremer and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt, or below by Itzhak Perlman and the Berlin Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim (cover image by Steven Wang) As we saw and (I think) discussed at the beginning of … Continue reading Beethoven Romance for Violin and Orchestra no. 2 in F, op. 50
performed by the Artemis Quartet (an excerpt of their performance there), or below by the Cleveland Quartet (cover image by Mona Eendra) It’s been a while since we’ve seen any of the opus 18 string quartets. We’ve only gotten through half … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 4 in Cm, op. 18 no. 4
performed by Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich https://youtu.be/oqNM8DMm3SA?t=35m14s (cover image by Rodion Kutsaev) Today’s work is the third and final installment in the op. 12 piano sonatas, completed in 1798 and dedicated to Antonio Salieri, with whom Beethoven studied for … Continue reading Beethoven Violin Sonata no. 3 in E-flat, op. 12 no. 3
performed by Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich https://youtu.be/oqNM8DMm3SA?t=19m27s (cover image by Annie Spratt) As discussed in Monday’s post, these three violin sonatas are Beethoven’s first, dating from 1798, and dedicated to Antonio Salieri, the supposed antagonist of that Mozart film. … Continue reading Beethoven Violin Sonata no. 2 in A, op. 12 no. 2
performed by Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqNM8DMm3SA (cover image by Annie Spratt) Do you think there could be anything challenging about this work? Well, you’d probably not have agreed with the critics of Beethoven’s time. As this is the … Continue reading Beethoven Violin Sonata no. 1 in D, op. 12 no. 1
performed by the Zurich String Trio, or below by the Grumiaux Trio (cover image by Ivan Jevtic) As I mentioned in an article earlier this week, we will be seeing lots of Beethoven this year. We’ll be seeing a dozen pieces from … Continue reading Beethoven String Trio in Cm, op. 9 no. 3
performed by Trio Wanderer, or below by the Castle Trio, on period instruments (cover image by Martin Oslic) More Beethoven! Today’s work acts as sort of an introduction to what we’ll be doing in the month of August, similar to … Continue reading Beethoven Variations in E-flat piano trio, op. 44
featuring Rudolf Buchbinder and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra The short version of the story is that I had high expectations for this event, and I was still blown away. Magnificently wonderful. About three months ago, I was able to hear all … Continue reading Buchbinder plays Beethoven
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 the Zurich String Trio, or below by Perlman, Zukerman, and Harrell This trio is the second in a series of three works that make up the opus no. 9, the first of which we discussed yesterday. This set … Continue reading Beethoven String Trio no. 4 in D, op. 9 no. 2
performed by the Zurich String Trio or below by the Grumiaux Trio Here we have from Beethoven another set of early works published under the same opus number, the three op. 9 string trios. We’ll be discussing one per article, … Continue reading Beethoven String Trio no. 3 in G, op. 9 no. 1
performed by Jean Efflam-Bavouzet, or below by Annie Fischer In the two posts from earlier this week, we discussed the other two sonatas from Beethoven’s op. 10, the fifth sonata, in Cm, as well as the sixth, in F. These … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Sonata no. 7 in D, op. 10 no. 3
performed by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, or below by Annie Fischer In today’s work, as with all previous Beethoven sonatas, and likely with all future ones as well, we turn to the wealth of knowledge to be found in the lecture series … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 6 in F, Op. 10, No. 2
Fugue for Thought 