Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), Norway’s most celebrated composer, composed incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt in 1875. After the work’s premiere in 1876, he distilled his 90 minutes of music for the play into two relatively short suites, … Read more
Sarasate, Zigeunerweisen Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) was one of the premier violin virtuosos of his day. He wrote approximately 50 compositions, all for the violin. Most of these fall into the category of virtuosic showpieces. The most famous of these are his Carmen Fantasy and … Read more
Liszt, Orpheus The story of Orpheus is tailor-made for musical adaptation. In the Greek myth, Orpheus charms all things with his music-making. And the tale of his descent into the underworld to rescue Eurydice is filled with drama and pathos. The arts have turned enthusiastically … Read more
Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries You might think that performances of a work as popular as this would be easy to find. But I have my own criteria for what qualifies for this series, and it has taken a while to find something suitable. When … Read more
Gounod, Petite symphonie pour vents You likely know the French composer Charles Gounod (1818-1893) from his Ave Maria in which he superimposed a lyrical melody over Bach’s Prelude in C Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I). Among his operas, Faust (1859) and Romeo et Juliet … Read more
Strauss, Don Juan We have a tendency to divide people’s lives into different periods and assign categories to them. Beethoven has his reasonably well-defined early, middle, and late periods. Bach has his “stations,” which are useful for being objective facts that determined the type of … Read more
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde – Vorspiel und Liebestod Few opening statements in music are as iconic as that of the opera Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Musical scholars point to it as a turning point in the musical vocabulary of the 19th century or … Read more
Kuhlau, Fantasy for Flute Solo, Op. 38 As tiresome as talk of sheltering-in-place may be, it does prompt me to return to a theme we explored more than three years ago: music for solo, unaccompanied instruments. This week’s feature was filmed, appropriately enough, in an … Read more
Strauss, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Driving back home from Dallas recently, Professor Carol reached into her bag of road toys and put on a recording of Till Eulenspiegel. She played this particular recording, by Maestro Classics with commentary for children, primarily for our granddaughter. Of … Read more
Brahms, Trio in E-flat for Piano, Violin, and Horn Brahms’ Horn Trio stands out as unusual in several respects, for starters the mere act of inserting a horn into what otherwise might be a “piano trio.” Horn players can find themselves in various chamber ensembles, … Read more