performed by Lev Vinocour and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Wien under Johannes Wildner Find out the secret of Henselt’s hands. Franz Liszt, to his pupils (cover image by Will van Wingerden) What pianist in history excelled at the piano works of … Continue reading Adolf von Henselt: Piano Concerto, op. 16
performed by Quatuor Diotima, available on Spotify or below second, third and fourth movements (cover image by Dmitrii Medvedev) André Georges Louis Onslow was born on 27 July 1784 in Clermont-Ferrand to an English farmer and French mother, thus considered … Continue reading Georges Onslow: String Quartet no. 28 in E-flat, op. 54
performed by The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernard Haitink Mendelssohn beat us to the punch with his overture/symphonic poem, but as we discussed in our introduction to this series, it’s Franz Liszt who ‘invented’ the concept of the symphonic poem, … Continue reading Liszt: Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne
…unlike Wagner, Alkan did not seek to refashion the world through opera; nor, like Berlioz, to dazzle the crowds by putting orchestral music at the service of literary expression; nor even, as with Chopin or Liszt, to extend the field … Continue reading Charles-Valentin Alkan: Souvenirs: Trois Morceaux dans le genre pathétique, op. 15
performed by Claudio Arrau Yesterday we spoke at some length about the early history of Brahms and his classical, traditional bent. His first piano sonata and his first symphony, among other works, show clear influence from Beethoven, and a great … Continue reading Brahms: Scherzo in Eb minor, op. 4
performed by Krystian Zimerman Welcome back after our first three days of no posts since July 6 (or something). And who naturally follows the dear Mr. and Mrs. Schumann but their little protege of a composer, one Johannes Brahms? He’s … Continue reading Brahms piano sonata no. 1, op. 1
Performed by Krystian Zimerman and the Polish Festival Orchestra I didn’t really feel bad for writing somewhat coldly or dispassionately about the piano sonata; after all, I seemed more positive about it than many of the other writers and critics … Continue reading Chopin Piano Concerto no. 2, op. 21
performed by Idil Biret, or as below by Vladimir Ashkenazy Hello again, and welcome back to our second installment today, continuing our discussion about Chopin’s early mazurkas. If you didn’t catch the earlier discussions of what a mazurka is, check … Continue reading Chopin: Mazurkas, Op. 7
performed by Idil Biret from her Chopin box set, or equally excellently below, by Vladimir Ashkenazy Today, we begin with a new composer. Could there be a more logical choice? I suppose there’s Schubert, but he didn’t make it this … Continue reading Chopin Rondo in Cm, op. 1
performed by the Chicago symphony under James Levine (this is the performance I’ve been listening to, and it’s a fantastic recording. The below is apparently the same, but some of the tempi [and the audio quality] seem off…..) The above video is … Continue reading Mahler Symphony no. 7
performed by the Cleveland Symphony under George Szell It is strange that just before I really got around to listening to this piece, I was reading some articles about Schenkerian analysis and the idea of homotonality, which it seems is a … Continue reading Schumann Symphony No. 2 in C, op. 61
performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, Barbara Hendricks, soprano (my hands-down absolute favorite recording of this piece; she’s stunning. Took my breath away the first time I heard her after having listened to many other recordings, but the … Continue reading Mahler Symphony No. 4
performed, as always, by Neville Marriner and the ASMF, or below by Marriss Jansons and the Concertgebouw (apologies for the anime image, but it’s a nice performance) Mini-German: Part 2(I know he’s Austrian) Now for a slight change of pace. Sort of. While this work came a decade after last week’s Beethoven piece, it is… at least to my ears, not as far ahead of its time. That’s no criticism at all. Let me explain.For one, Eroica was just kind of a phenomenal thing. Beethoven was already into his thirties when this piece was written. Schubert was about half that … Continue reading Schubert Symphony no. 3 in D major, D. 200
performed by Nicolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (which seems not to be available online, so we will go with a slightly less favorite but almost equally as wonderful interpretation, and very much along the same lines, our … Continue reading Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in Eb, op. 55, Eroica
performed by two separate teams:the clarinet and piano duo here or a truly splendid performance by Capucon and Argerich (cello, not clarinet) Welcome to part two of our three (and a half?) part clarinet series. Today’s piece was originally written for clarinet and piano, but it seems that it is more often performed on cello. That isn’t against the composer’s wish, though, as he’d directed that the clarinet part could be played either on violin or cello as well.Schumann is a composer I’m not terribly familiar with, as evidenced by my poor attention to his symphonies I wrote about a … Continue reading Schumann’s Drei Fantasiestücke, op. 73, for clarinet and piano
performed by the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin under Riccardo Chailly; Martha Argerich, piano //player.vimeo.com/video/63725542 This is intimidating. I guess everything about this piece is except for listening to it, and sometimes even that. There’s so. much. to. say. about this piece that I almost don’t want to try. There are so many theses, recordings, liner notes, program notes, concert talks and everything else about this piece that it would be ludicrous for me to think I have anything else to add but my own opinion and feelings of the piece, so that’s pretty much all I’m going to share, aside from some basics. For the technical bits … Continue reading Centenniel Music Post: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in Dm, op. 30
performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy 2nd movement 3rd movement 4th movement This is such an impressive piece to be only an opus no. 23. For whatever reason, in my concerted efforts to come to love Scriabin, I gravitated more immediately to … Continue reading Scriabin piano sonata no. 3 in F#m, op. 23
performed by Yefim Bronfman https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/z2EDk2Zsdik&source=uds It’s funny how life is. I’d planned the writing of this piece at least a month ago as a lead-in to another set of works for piano (the actual lead in was last week’s Satie piece, but this one sets up for what is to come later), and it was for a few reasons that now seem… less important than some others that have since surfaced. This piece is perhaps not as exciting to many as his other, later, more substantial works, but in a lot of (perhaps intentional, contrived ways), may have a lot to say about … Continue reading Prokofiev piano sonata no. 1 in Fm, op. 1
I just got home. And I’m exhausted. So I probably won’t finish this tonight. Gurre-Lieder Gotta give credit where credit is due This was the first time I’ve heard a piece anything like this performed live, and while some little … Continue reading Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder (part 2 of 2)
performed live by the National Symphony Orchestra (aka Taiwan Philharmonic, aka 國家交響樂團) on 12.31.14 and 1.1.15 in Taiwan’s National Concert Hall in the Taiwanese premiere, or as below by lots of people (details in the YouTube page for the video) … Continue reading Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder (one of two)
performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm (1973 recording), or below with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Claudio Abbado So did I have that epiphany (from Tuesday’s post)? I think I may have. It seems there comes some point … Continue reading Bruckner Symphony no. 4 in Eb major, ‘Romantic’ (Haas, 1881)
Fugue for Thought 