Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade Scheherazade has to rank as one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most colorful orchestral suites. Composed in 1888, it was inspired by the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. The King has a distressing habit of executing his wives after a single night, but Scheherazade … Read more
Sibelius, The Oceanides After Wellerman last week, we might as well continue with the sea theme. Artists have found numerous ways to portray the natural elements. For composers, it’s a bit more complicated since music lacks the concrete imagery that can be found in other … Read more
Sviridov, Snowstorm I came to know the music of Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov (1915-1998) almost entirely through Professor Carol. One of her best lectures preceded a concert in the Van Cliburn Series by the late Russian singer Dmitri Hvorostovky. He was performing Sviridov’s song cycle Russia … Read more
Holst, The Planets (Mars) The last few weeks have taken us through some rather vivid and dramatic music: Strauss, Copland, Sousa, and even The Magnificent Seven. This week continues along those lines with the rousing tone poem The Planets by Gustav Holst. Very early in this … 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
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
Respighi, Pines of Rome I have considered trying to identify musical works likely to appeal to boys. I’m not sure how to define the age range, but I suspect it doesn’t matter. Music that appeals to young boys probably appeals to old boys. It’s like … Read more
Liszt, Les Préludes I sometimes think of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) as a neighbor. You can find numerous references to him and to his house throughout the materials on this site. Professor Carol wrote about the house this past summer as she sat outside with the … Read more
Dukas, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice We are in Germany, Halloween is upon us, and Goethe’s house sits 100 yards away. So what makes more sense for this week’s pick than The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a poem by Goethe set to music by Paul Dukas? Goethe’s poem, Der Zauberlehrling, … Read more
Holst: The Planets (IV Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity) If you grew up listening to the musical themes from Star Trek and Star Wars, you will find the sounds of Gustav Holst’s The Planets quite familiar. (No, I’m not even suggesting musical plagiarism, a subject … Read more
