performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Alfred Brendel, piano, or below with Günther Weissenborn as pianist (not to be confused with the earlier op. 24 of the same name) …my most romantic music ever, with much of you in it, dearest Clara The voice … Continue reading Schumann: Liederkreis, op. 39
performed by Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, piano While we’ve addressed Schubert as the composer of symphonies and some solo piano works, his real fame and the bulk of his output comes from Lieder, songs for voice, and our piece today is one … Continue reading Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795
performed by Peter Schreier and Andras Schiff, or below with Schreier and Walter Olbertz as pianist Here we are, jumping ahead to the latest of Beethoven’s works on the blog so far, after seven piano trios, eleven string quartets, ten … Continue reading Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte, op. 98
performed by the Artemis Quartet, or below by the Belcea Quartet Here we are, finally halfway through Beethoven’s Haydn-inspired (or at least influenced) installment of the six quartets, his first six, published as op. 18. As a matter of fact, … Continue reading Beethoven String Quartet no. 3 in D, op. 18 no. 3
performed by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under David Zinman Radiant beams shoot through this region’s deep night, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy everything within us except the … Continue reading Beethoven Symphony no. 5 in Cm, op.67
performed by Yefim Bronfman, Truls Mørk and Gil Shaham with the Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman, or below by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink with: Renaud Capuçon, violin Gautier Capuçon, cello Frank Braley, piano So our first … Continue reading Beethoven Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56
for violin, viola and cello, performed by the Zurich String Trio, or below by the Grumiaux Trio So it’s 2017 and all… We’ve yet to complete even our traversal of the op. 18 string quartets, and that will slowly but surely … Continue reading Beethoven Serenade in D major, op. 8
We’re quite spoilt here in Taipei. I won’t go on again about having seen the world-famous ensembles from Berlin, Vienna, Chicago, and Munich come visit, along with the likes of the Concertgebouw and Philharmonia, and on and on, but we … Continue reading Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Taipei
performed by the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra under Urs Schneider on Naxos, or below by Francesco D’Avalos and the Philharmonia or this recording for better recording quality, maybe my preference Yes, you read that right, a symphony no. 3, op 153. … Continue reading Joachim Raff: Symphony no. 3 in F, op. 153 ‘Im Walde’
performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Gustav Leonhardt, or below by The English Concert under Andrew Manze Another Bach. There are many of them. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born on March 8, 1714 to Johann … Continue reading C.P.E. Bach: Symphony no. 2 in E-flat, Wq. 183/2
featuring Julie Comparini, available here or in iTunes I’ve recently been interested in people’s musical backgrounds, or (formal) lack thereof, and how it informs their eventual careers or interests in music. Ms. Julie Comparini was one of those people, but … Continue reading Podcast: From Bach to Brecht
performed by the Talich Quartet, or below in a nice performance from the Halcyon Music Festival with a small introduction The opening of this work seems like such a mature, polished, well-executed work for a young, early composition like a first string … Continue reading Mendelssohn String Quartet no. 1 in E flat, op. 12
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 David Tudor, or the first below by Herbert Henck II here, also played by Henck So… Karlheinz Stockhausen… I have decided that in the future, for composers getting their first post here on the blog, I will include their … Continue reading Stockhausen: Klavierstücke I-IV
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 Vienna Philharmonic under Carlos Kleiber Many hail this as the greatest recorded performance of the Brahms, and it is indeed exquisite. We are here, I must admit, with even a little bit of apprehension, at the end … Continue reading Brahms Symphony no. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
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 Fine Arts Quartet I’ll be referring to this article on AllMusic by Blair Johnston throughout my little discussion below. I didn’t really know much about the work, and hadn’t learned much about it from anywhere else, but that is … Continue reading Schumann String Quartet in A minor, Op. 41 no. 1
performed by the Talich quartet To be clear, this is not Mendelssohn’s String Quartet no. 1 (which is confusingly also in E-flat major) but it is his first string quartet. This one was written in 1823, but not published until 1879. At the time of writing, the fourteen-year … Continue reading Mendelssohn String Quartet in E-flat, (posth.)
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 Amsterdam Sinfonietta under Lev Markiz, or below by the Northern Chamber Orchestra under Nicholas Ward Here we are at our third and final string symphony for the week, digging into early Mendelssohn stuff. Number three is the … Continue reading Mendelssohn String Symphony no. 3 in E minor
Fugue for Thought 