performed by David Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter Dmitri had been wanting to write a new, second concerto for me as a present for my 60th birthday. However, there was an error of one year in his timing. The concerto was … Continue reading Shostakovich Sonata for Violin and Piano in G, Op. 134
performed by Nicola Benedetti and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits (a new and wonderful recording) or below by the dedicatee and premiere performer of the work, David Oistrakh, and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Heinz Fricke There are many kinds of … Continue reading Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Opus 77 (99)
performed by the Emerson String Quartet Shostakovich was a prolific composer, as we have discussed, but it was rather late in his life that he got around to string quartets. He was in his thirties before he completed his first, in … Continue reading Shostakovich String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 68
performed (live) by the Emerson String Quartet, from their box set of the quartets “I visualized childhood scenes, somewhat naïve and bright moods associated with spring.” Dmitri Shostakovich from Epstein, Paul. Emerson String Quartet: “Shostakovich: The String Quartets” I wrote … Continue reading Shostakovich String Quartet no. 1 in C, Op. 49
A concert review. What a fantastic program. Also, I think I’m going to stop including “concert review” in the titles of my concert reviews. Isn’t it obvious? Should be. Just added that first line there. The titles get too long … Continue reading NSO’s Shostakovich: His Humor and Seriousness
All six of them. These pieces have been interjecting themselves into my life lately. When I started the String Quartet Series back in February, I decided to start with Bach because it’d been two and a half years on the blog and … Continue reading Concert Review: Alexander Rudin plays Bach
performed by the Chicago Symphony orchestra under Pierre Boulez The Poem of Ecstasy is the Joy of Liberated Action. The Cosmos, i.e., Spirit, is Eternal Creation without External Motivation, a Divine Play of Worlds. The Creative Spirit, i.e., the Universe … Continue reading Scriabin: Le Poème de l’extase, Op. 54
performed by the USSR Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Svetlanov The golden cloud slept through the night Upon the breast of the giant-rock While Rachmaninoff composed a number of symphonic poems and things, his real contribution to classical music, at least … Continue reading Rachmaninoff: The Rock, op. 7
Well, we’ve come a long way. Almost 100 years, to be exact, with some leaps and skips here and there, and there’s obviously plenty we didn’t get to. If you haven’t been following along, you can reach the entire series … Continue reading The Russian Symphony Series: A Wrap-up
performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Marriss Jansons One of the largest symphonies in the standard repertoire, along with most of Mahler, bits of Bruckner, and some Shostakovich (but this is his longest). This recording comes in at around … Continue reading Shostakovich Symphony no. 7 in C major, op. 60 ‘Leningrad’
performed by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov (this piece is featured on a list of pieces I heartily recommend to music directors for inclusion on their season programs. Check out the article here.) (I also recently wrote … Continue reading Myaskovsky Symphony no. 6 in E flat minor, op. 23
performed by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov playlist of the entire work here Yesterday we talked a bit about Myaskovsky’s early life and his second symphony. Today we’ll talk a bit more about his life and his … Continue reading Revisit: Myaskovsky Symphony no. 3 in Am, op. 15
So… kind of finally, we get around to this guy. The cover image for this article is a far less common (to me…?) image of the composer, not the one below that everyone’s used to seeing: Anyway, he’s outstandingly famous now … Continue reading Influential People: Igor Stravinsky
This is another one of those concerts I have (very proudly, I might add) managed to gather people together to attend. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin enjoyed quite a fantastic turnout on its opening night, and I was very glad at that performance to have been … Continue reading Concert review: NSO’s Fireworks from Russia
“No one was more famous during their lifetime, and few were more quickly ignored after death.” – Faubion Bowers “No composer has had more scorn heaped on him or greater love bestowed.” -The Great Soviet Encyclopedia So this is another … Continue reading Influential People: Alexander Scriabin
performed live by (again) the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky, or in a very nice performance below by the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra (perhaps before they were ‘Royal’?) under Vladimir Ashkenazy This, this other terrible first. The … Continue reading Rachmaninoff Symphony no. 1 in D minor, op. 13
as performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Jascha Horenstein; Earl Wild, piano Wait, what? A piano concerto? Yes. So it just now occurred to me that this is the composer’s opus no. 1. And that is only another supporting reason for … Continue reading Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no. 1 in F#m, op. 1
performed by the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky “[Tchaikovsky] also knew my Third Symphony, which is dedicated to him. Much in it found his approval and, at his request, I often played the scherzo of the … Continue reading Alexander Glazunov: Symphony no. 3 in D, op. 33
performed by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under Stanislav Vavrinek or here by the people sourced for this video (USSR Radio & TV something?) “In his youth Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later the influence came from … Continue reading Arensky Symphony No. 1 in B minor, op. 4
So this article comes along far more because of who the man taught than any other influence his compositions had. We’ve talked about Anton Arensky only once before, with regards to his piano concerto. It was a work unabashedly modeled after … Continue reading Influential People: Anton Arensky
performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky (or in the other recording below by Concertgebouw under Karel Mark Chichon) Heaven forbid! Do not touch it; alter nothing. Your modulations are neither extravagant nor faulty. Your artistic instinct … Continue reading Borodin Symphony no. 2 in B minor