Ravel’s “La Valse”: Viennese Twilight

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Maurice Ravel’s glittering orchestral tone poem, La valse, is filled with ghosts of an over-waltzed bygone Vienna. Alex Ross describes the haunting work, completed in 1920, in terms of “Old Europe waltzing in the twilight…This is a society spinning out of control, reeling from the horrors of the recent past toward those of the near future.” Originally titled “Wien,” La valse was written in response to a commission from Serge Diaghilev, impresario …

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Bach’s Chaconne and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 1178: A Lost Treasure Found

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In 1992, musicologist Peter Wollny came across two dusty unattributed musical manuscripts in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Wollny recalled, The handwriting of the score just fascinated me, and I had this vague feeling that these bits of paper could be interesting some day. So I made photocopies and created a file that I dragged around with me for 30 years. The two works were chaconnes for organ. Featuring variations …

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Gluck’s “Melody” from “Orfeo ed Euridice”: Ginette Neveu

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In his book Great Masters of the Violin, musicologist Boris Schwarz remembered the powerful musicianship and magnetic stage presence of French violinist Ginette Neveu (1919-1949): No one who saw or heard her could forget that impression—the serious concentration, the complete immersion in her task, the burning yet controlled intensity. To speak of technique is pointless because it never served for display—it was always subordinate to a musical goal. At the age of 15, …

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Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” Overture: Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra

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When Andris Nelsons was five years old, his parents took him to see a production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser. The Latvian conductor recalls that his parents prepared him for the occasion by playing an LP of the opera at home. He was also introduced to the story, based on German medieval legend, of a knight who is pulled between the pleasures of earthly love and lust and the redemptive love of sacred devotion. According …

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Mozart’s “The Impresario” Overture: Comedy with Music

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In January of 1786, Mozart was hard at work on The Marriage of Figaro when he received an attractive imperial commission. Emperor Joseph II was hosting visiting nobility at Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace. The festivities included a duel between two competing forms of opera. At one end of the room was Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, K. 486 (“The Impresario”), representing German singspiel. At the other end, Antonio Salieri represented Italian opera buffa with Prima la …

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“Poinciana”: Keith Jarrett Trio

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After hearing American jazz pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal (1930-2023) deliver a refined, minimalist performance of the Latin standard, Poinciana, Keith Jarrett remarked, This is swinging more than anything I’ve been listening to, but they’re doing less. What’s the secret here? A similar effortless cool groove emerges in a performance of Poinciana featuring the Keith Jarrett Trio, recorded at the Palais des congrès de Paris on July 5, 1999. The concert can be …

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Lera Auerbach’s “Cetera Desunt,” Sonnet for String Quartet No. 3: Aftertones of Shostakovich

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Cetera desunt translates from Latin as “the rest are missing.” Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach (b. 1973) chose this title for her String Quartet No. 3, composed in 2006. She describes the work as a “sonnet for string quartet.” Its eight sections, each bearing a Latin title, mirror the form and rhyme scheme of a strambotto romagnuolo sonnet, a poetic structure which dates back to 12th century Sicily. Cetera desunt is an homage to the …

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