Tag Archives: classical music

Johannes Brahms’ Quintet for Piano and Strings in F Minor, Op. 34

Posted on 26th August 2017 by Robert

Sony has taken the occasion of pianist Leon Fleisher’s eightieth birthday to re-release a number of his recordings of a wide range of music, which happily leads me back to some of my favorite territory with this disc, the music … Continue reading →

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Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68, Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56A; Sonata in F Minor for Two Pianos, Op. 34B, Variations on a Theme By Haydn for Two Pianos, Op. 56B

Posted on 26th August 2017 by Robert

Johannes Brahms was, to put it mildly, one of the more thoughtful composers in the history of Western music, as evidenced by the fact that, although he is known to have been working on a symphony in 1854 (never finished, … Continue reading →

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Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116; Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz. 110; Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz. 74

Posted on 12th August 2017 by Robert

If you’ve been following our explorations of twentieth-century Western music, you already know a bit about Béla Bartók, one of the century’s most singular and prodigious talents. “Prodigious” because his career spanned the first half of the century, from the … Continue reading →

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Leon Fleisher’s American Album: Aaron Copland, Piano Sonata; Roger Sessions, From My Diary; Leon Kirchner, Piano Sonata; Ned Rorem, Three Barcarolles

Posted on 4th August 2017 by Robert

American music of the twentieth century, at least that variety that styles itself “serious” music, is inhabited by a range of highly independent composers. One of its most notable aspects, in fact, is its resistance to “schools” outside of the … Continue reading →

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Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote, Sonata for Cello and Piano; Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 18; George Enescu’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 25

Posted on 3rd August 2017 by Robert

Richard Strauss, to me, is one of those protean composers who developed in the artistic ferment of Europe that stretched from the 1890s to the years encompassing World War I. He was, at least as much as any of his … Continue reading →

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Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

Posted on 24th June 2017 by Robert

Terje Tønnesen, soloist and conductor on this recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, includes a liner note to the effect that the performance “represents a form of time travel in which we attempt a ‘correct’ reading of history while at … Continue reading →

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Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14, Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17 (Part II: Love Scene); Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid: Suite; Waltz; Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite

Posted on 9th June 2017 by Robert

The idea of “meaning” in music is a complex one, the pursuit of which can go all sorts of places I don’t want to go right now. Suffice it to say that most commentators feel that relating music to some … Continue reading →

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Claude Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque; Maurice Ravel’s Sonatine, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Alborada del gracioso

Posted on 15th April 2017 by Robert

After I had gained a little background in what we call “classical” music (which is to say, Western art music of whatever era and style, whether it is truly classical or not), the customary juxtaposition of Claude Debussy and Maurice … Continue reading →

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Piotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky’s The Three Piano Concertos; Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition; Mily Balakirev’s Islamey

Posted on 13th April 2017 by Robert

Piotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky seems to have made a habit of writing concertos that were condemned as “unplayable” and then took their places near the top of the roster in the romantic canon. Like his Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto in … Continue reading →

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Johannes Brahms, Piano Works

Posted on 11th April 2017 by Robert

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15 [Chicago Symphony Orchestra, James Levine, cond.]; Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 [Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink, cond.]; Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79, Three Intermezzos, Op. 117, Four Pieces … Continue reading →

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