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 the Ensemble InterContemporain, or below by members of the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, from The Proms 2016 Boulez completed his Éclat for 15 instruments in 1965. Properly (I think?) called Éclat-Multiples, it is (or was to be) … Continue reading Boulez: Éclat
performed by Paavali Jumppanen (from his outstanding release of the three Boulez sonatas), or in an (at least) equally superb reading from the wonderful Maurizio Pollini Boulez and tradition. L’enfant terrible. A polemic. A rebel. A radical. The guy who said … Continue reading Boulez Piano Sonata no. 2
performed by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and the BBC Philharmonic under Juan José Mena, or below by Marylene Dosse and the Stuttgart Philharmonic under Matthias Kuntzsch Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné was born 16 August, 1863 in Metz, in northeast France. His family … Continue reading Gabriel Pierné: Piano Concerto in C minor, Op. 12
performed by Régine Crespin and the L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet [The poems] form a narrative which leads from a spring-born joie de vivre (Villanelle) and a loss of innocence (Le spectre de la rose), to the … Continue reading Berlioz: Les nuits d’été, op. 7
performed by Sir Steven Isserlis and the London Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas, or below from Mstislav Rostropovich and the London Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini “Here, for once, is a violoncello concerto in which the solo instrument displays every register … Continue reading Saint-Saens Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 33
performed by the Orchestre National De L’O.R.T.F. under Jean Martinon Not the typical symphony choice is it? In fact, searches for other symphonies (on library bookshelves, the iTunes store, Amazon, etc.) are so riddled with recordings of the composer’s third symphony … Continue reading Saint-Saëns Symphony in A major
performed by Hayoung Bang, Violin; Sebastian Ortega, Cello; Serina Chang, Piano Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was born on 9 October 1835 in Paris, child of an official in the French Ministry of the Interior, who died only a few months after his … Continue reading Camille Saint-Saëns: Piano Trio No.1 in F major, op.18
Featuring Pinchas Zuckerman and the Taipei Symphony under Gilbert Varga Some things never change. Strangely like the initials of some concerts. This evening was originally to be Frank Peter Zimmerman playing a Bartok concerto, and for various secretive reasons he was unable to … Continue reading TSO’s Violinsimo
performed by Itzhak Perlman and the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta or in its original piano-accompaniment version, with Midori Goto as soloist, a must-watch: I left today’s earlier work for later in the week for a few reasons. For one, … Continue reading Ravel: Tzigane
performed by Viktoria Mullova and Bruno Canino (more about Mullova below), or below by Renaud Capuçon and (the outstandingly lovely) Hélène Grimaud Who would have thought the first violin sonata we’d tackle on this blog (after almost three years of pretty dedicated listening … Continue reading Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major
performed by the Emerson String Quartet I hope you listened to and enjoyed the very first post of July, Debussy’s string quartet. It’s one of the most famous quartets in the repertoire, I’d say, especially from a composer who lived … Continue reading Ravel String quartet in F major
performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, or the first Notation performed by the composer, also below We start off our discussion of the Darmstadt school with Pierre Boulez. Needless to say, this is going to be a tough month of articles, for … Continue reading Boulez: Douze Notations
performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Maryvonne Le Dizes, Pierre Strauch & Alain Damiens or below by Pianist Matthew Schellhorn and Soloists of the Philharmonia Orchestra: James Clark (violin), Barnaby Robson (clarinet), David Cohen (cello) Never was I listened to with such rapt attention … Continue reading Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps
performed by Peter Hill, or below by Yvonne Loriod, the composer’s second wife (please be aware that you can find the specific times for the beginning of each etude in the description of the above video, which I have copied … Continue reading Messiaen: Quatre études de rythme
or Explanation of Metaphors for two pianos (Marc Reichow, Florian Hoelscher) harp (Françoise Friedrich), percussion (Boris Müller) and narrator (Julie Comparini), under Walter Nußbaum, with text by Raymond Queneau, translated into English by the composer, on this album, a world premiere recording (the two discs are … Continue reading René Leibowitz: L’explication des Metaphores, op. 15
performed by Peter Hill, or below by Hakon Austbo “Preludes to what?” is a question that has been asked many a time by someone approaching likely far more often-performed preludes, like those of Chopin, Debussy, or Scriabin, but it is a … Continue reading Messiaen: Huit préludes
performed by the Emerson String Quartet, or below by the Kodaly Quartet Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical continuity… -Claude Debussy Our first piece in the Darmstadt Series isn’t. … Continue reading Debussy String Quartet in Gm, op. 10
Two things: Olesya Petrova is a phenomenal, breathtaking, delicate powerhouse. Simon Rattle sat (a few rows) behind me tonight (in the next section over). I’m not ashamed of the fact that I’m familiar with (very) little of Berlioz’s music aside … Continue reading NSO’s Berlioz Bash
performed by the Quatuor Parisii from the DG box set the Livre pour Quatuor, from its history as well as its overall economy, does not appear as a bloc but, in reference to Mallarmé’s Livre, like a series of detachable pages that … Continue reading Pierre Boulez: Livre pour Quatuor (1962)
(title image located here, from the Dutch National Archive) In this video of Mitsuko Uchida speaking about Schoenberg’s piano concerto, she mentions how Debussy and Schoenberg approached their rebellion against tonality in different ways. She says (I’m paraphrasing; just go watch … Continue reading Influential People: Pierre Boulez