performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Alban Berg Quartet (cover image by Francisco De Legarreta C.) We find ourselves now at the second of Beethoven’s three Razumovsky quartets. The works were written in 1806 for the Russian … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 8 in Em, op. 59 no. 2
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 Quartetto Italiano and Maurizio Pollini, or below by the Amadeus Quartet with Christoph Eschenbach (cover image by Vidar Nordli Mathisen) Have you ever had that experience of meeting (well, more like being in the presence of) someone … Continue reading Brahms Piano Quintet in Fm, op. 34
featuring lots of people; more details below Wagner’s music is great. Like, great in the same way that saying Mt. Everest is large. I don’t know how the man could stand himself, though, really, or how anyone else could even … Continue reading NSO’s Parsifal
performed by Barry Douglas, or below by Anatole Kitain (cover image by Simon Matzinger) The sixteen waltzes of Brahms’ op. 39 are dedicated to Eduard Hanslick and were completed by 1866. They were originally written for piano-four-hands. There were two … Continue reading Brahms: 16 Waltzes, op. 39
performed by Luka Okros, or below by Maria João Pires (cover image by Annie Spratt) I have been waiting for your letter and have in the meantime filled several books with pieces…. You once said to me that I often … Continue reading Schumann: Kinderszenen, op. 15
performed by Alfred Brendel A rapid glance shows us eleven pieces of music on a small scale; but an infinite amount lies bewitched in their magic circle! They contain few musical words, but much is said with them—as every initiated person will willingly … Continue reading Beethoven: 11 Bagatelles, op. 119
performed by the Arditti Quartet (I find it unbelievable that the Arditti Quartet’s recordings are no longer in print and are therefore not available on Spotify or anywhere. Some copies can still be found on Amazon or other places, as … Continue reading Henze String Quartet no. 1
performed by Dumas and Pires (cover image by Joshua Torres) In typical subtitle fashion, the Spring label was given to this work after the composer’s death, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s inaccurate or unwarranted. Beethoven’s fifth violin sonata was completed … Continue reading Beethoven Violin Sonata no. 5 in F, op. 24, ‘Spring’
performed by Gidon Kremer and Martha Argerich, or below by Maria João Pires and Augustin Dumay (cover image by Jez Timms) Beethoven’s fourth violin sonata dates from 1801 and is dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries, an Austrian nobleman, banker, and … Continue reading Beethoven Violin Sonata no. 4 in Am, op. 23
performed by Rostropovich and Richter (cover image by Joanna Kosinska) The second cello sonata of Beethoven has the same provenance as its sibling in the opus five. Both works were written in 1796 in Berlin, when the composer met King … Continue reading Beethoven Cello Sonata no. 2 in Gm, op. 5 no. 2
performed by Mstislav Rostropovich and Sviatoslav Richter, or below with Maisky and Argerich (cover image by Eddie Garcia) I told you we weren’t done with Beethoven. The young composer’s first cello sonatas are not only his first, but sort of… the first of their kind. … Continue reading Beethoven Cello Sonata no. 1 in F, op. 5 no. 1
performed by the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble & Zdenek Jilek, or below with Daniel Hoexter (piano) with members of the Concertgebouw Orchestra (cover image by Aaron Burden) Listening to this work, it just doesn’t surprise me that there aren’t very many works … Continue reading Beethoven Quintet in E-flat for Piano and Winds, op. 16
performed by Rudolf Buchbinder, or below by Alfred Brendel (cover image by Rodion Kutsaev) Each performer has the freedom here to create something different… Sir Andras Schiff (cover image by Rodion Kutsaev) As discussed in the article from earlier this … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Sonata no. 20 in G, op. 49 no. 2
performed by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, or below by Alfred Brendel (cover image by Rodion Kutsaev) If you were to listen to the piano sonatas of Beethoven based on the order of their opus numbers, after a dozen and a half increasingly … Continue reading Beethoven Piano Sonata no. 19 in Gm, op. 49 no. 1
performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, or as below with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner (cover image by Terry Tan De Hao) Okay, all you lovers of a good subtitle, here we are … 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
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 Cecil Aronowitz and the Amadeus Quartet, or as below: You have never before heard such a beautiful work from me. Brahms, writing of his quintet (cover image by Freddie Marriage) Brahms’s first string quintet, with an additional viola, … Continue reading Brahms String Quintet no. 1 in F, op. 88
performed the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Schwarzkopf and Fischer-Dieskau under Otto Klemperer (cover image by Tom Barrett) Formal composition on the requiem began in 1865, after a very important, very tragic event that same year, the death of the composer’s … Continue reading Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45
Fugue for Thought 