Stravinsky, Petrushka Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka opens amid the festivities at the Shrovetide Fair. And since Shrovetide takes place this week, now may be a good time to look at Petrushka? Despite my Anglican leanings, I did not grow up hearing about “Shrovetide.” In South Louisiana, … Read more
Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf Several times in the course of writing this series (four years now) I have taken up a topic that I stick with for a few weeks, although I try to be sure each week’s entry can stand alone. Last week … Read more
Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition The Russian artist Viktor Hartmann died suddenly in 1873 at the age of 39. A few months later in 1874, a memorial exhibition of Hartmann’s works was held. Mussorgsky owned two paintings by Hartmann that were included in the exhibition. … Read more
Soloviev-Sedoy, Evening Song – Leningrad The World Cup has been all over the news lately. Here in Germany, the flags came out for the occasion. Germans do not display their national flag routinely as we Americans do. Their 20th-century history leads them to shun displays … Read more
Glinka, Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture Yes, that’s a little guy on a horse about to do battle with a giant’s head. Not a whole giant, just the Head. So we must be deep into some fairy tale—in this case Pushkin’s Ruslan and Ludmilla. Ludmilla has … Read more
Kapustin, Jazz Concert Etude No. 1 This past weekend, Professor Carol and I had dinner with friends, a husband and wife who had Carol as a professor when they were at SMU. They both went on to earn their doctorates in piano performance and, fortunately, … Read more
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme In contrast to the composers known as the Might Five, discussed in the prior post, Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was far more committed to the use of Western European forms. Russia had looked West since the time of Peter the Great’s … Read more
Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain Some people like to associate the tone poem Night on Bald Mountain with Halloween. I could have featured this work in late October to coincide with that occasion, but I think that would only confuse things. Mussorgsky originally titled the work St. John’s … Read more
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 (2d movement) Since we focused on Sibelius last week while traveling between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, it seems fitting to focus this week on a Russian composer. Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) certainly fills the bill as Russian, but he is not the … Read more
Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini While we’re on the subject, let’s go ahead and add one more work to finish out this series on Paganini. We started with Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 and then went to Liszt’s Etude based on the same work. … Read more