performed by the Toulouse Capitole Orchestra under Michel Plasson It’s about trains. Or is it? So Pacific 231 is a kind of train, and Arthur Honegger was, as Wikipedia says: …widely known as a train enthusiast, and once notably said: “I … Continue reading Arthur Honegger: Pacific 231
performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit Four years after yesterday’s Pines, and more than a decade after Fountains, we have Festivals. As Wikipedia says: Each of the four movements depict a scene of celebration from ancient or modern Rome. It is … Continue reading Ottorino Respighi: Feste Romane
performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Charles Dutoit The Pines of Rome Like I said in yesterday’s post, I have a strange nostalgic connection to these pieces. It’s not that they’re necessarily favorites, but I have a certain fond memory … Continue reading Ottorino Respighi: Pini di Roma
performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez, Anatol Ugorski, piano N0. 200 It’s been about two and a half years that I’ve been doing this, regularly but not always very professionally. I have some articles I’m not terribly … Continue reading Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, op. 60
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 Cleveland Orchestra under Pierre Boulez There is no theory. You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law. The full French title, for what it’s worth, is La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre, and it’s a piece I’ve … Continue reading Debussy: La Mer
performed by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, or in the version from Fantasia, by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra (which cannot be embedded) Famous to a fault? Cliché? Overdone? This is one of those pieces that, like, I … Continue reading Paul Dukas: L’apprenti sorcier
performed by the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra under Theodore Kuchar, or below by the Vienna Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa Excitingly another work from Dvořák this week, with his Noon Witch, a piece I had the chance to hear live a year or more … Continue reading Dvořák: The Noon Witch, op. 108
performed by the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra under Theodore Kuchar, or below with the Polish National Radio Symphony under Antoni Wit This is our 400th post here on Fugue for Thought! We’re coming up on a more significant milestone later in … Continue reading Dvořák: The Water Goblin, Op. 107 (B. 195)
or The Wood Nymph performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä I’m excited about the next few posts for this series because they touch on a special type of tone poem. There’s nothing anywhere (that I recall) about patriotic or … Continue reading Sibelius: Skogsrået
performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä En saga is the expression of a state of mind. I had undergone a number of painful experiences at the time and in no other work have I revealed myself so … Continue reading Sibelius: En Saga, op. 9
performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolf Kempe Somehow… Despite excerpts from Don Juan being on the auditions for like, every instrument ever, and it being (I feel, right?) an outstandingly popular tone poem, I was super late to the party and … Continue reading Strauss: Don Juan, op. 20
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