Chabrier, España The music of French composer Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894) was a strong influence on composers Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Francis Poulenc, and is considered by some to be a major factor in the early modern music. Gustav Mahler referred to España, today’s performance … Read more
Saint-Saëns, Morceau de concert “Morceau de concert” simply denotes a concert piece. The French morceau can refer to portion of something, like a bit of food, or morsel. Camille Saint-Saëns (dates) composed this piece, originally called a Fantasie, in 1891 for the horn player Henri … Read more
Lalo, Symphonie espagnol It seems that some of the best Spanish music, or more accurately some of the best-known, was written by French composers. Bizet’s Carmen may be the best example, but there is also Ravel’s Rhapsodie espagnol, Debussy’s Ibéria, and today’s featured work Symphonie … Read more
Bruckner, Symphony No. 9 (2nd mov.) Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) might be considered one of the last great symphonists of the Romantic era. His symphonies are long and monumental. His style owed much to the influence of Wagner, although the symphonies are in many ways conservative … Read more
Massenet, Méditation The Belle Époque describes a peaceful and prosperous era between two catastrophic European wars: the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and the onset of World War I in 1914. Major advances in science and technology were accompanied by a flourishing of … Read more
Mahler, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a friend who dismissed Gustav Mahler’s music as too emotional. Or perhaps he said it was too personal. It is both highly emotional and intensely personal, although I think … Read more
Mendelssohn, Hebrides Overture Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) traveled to England in 1829. His journey included a tour of the Scottish Highlands, and there, on the Hebrides islands, he was inspired to sketch out what would become his Hebrides Overture. Among the Hebrides, Fingal’s Cave lies on … Read more
Brahms, Paganini Variations The theme of Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 has inspired numerous composers to craft a set of variations based on it. In this series, we have already featured the variations of Rachmaninov, Liszt, Lutoslavksi, and Fazil Say. But I don’t think we can … Read more
Schumann, Piano Quartet The chamber music of Robert Schumann (1810-1856) makes up a relative small portion of his large corpus of works. An extremely accomplished pianist, his compositions focus heavily on that instrument: works for solo piano, a piano concerto, and an enormous body of … Read more
Franck, Panis Angelicus I had something else scheduled as today’s Friday Performance Pick, but it can wait. I want to note instead the passing of soprano Patricia Janečková. She died of breast cancer on October 1 at the age of 25. Janečková seems to have … Read more