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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Mahler’s Adagietto: Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra

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From 1988 to 1995, Michael Tilson Thomas served as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Claudio Abbado. His first association with the ensemble came in 1970 when he stepped in as a last minute replacement for Gennady Rozhdestvensky. In a recent obituary published by the London Symphony Orchestra, violinist Sarah Quinn recalls, I first worked with MTT nearly 30 years ago, when I was a nervous student sitting at the …

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Remembering Michael Tilson Thomas

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American conductor, composer, and pianist Michael Tilson Thomas passed away at his home in San Francisco last Wednesday following a battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 81. Known widely as “MTT,” Tilson Thomas served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years. He is credited with elevating the orchestra’s stature and championing adventurous new music. The grandson of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, stars of New …

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Debussy’s “La Puerta del Vino”: A Dreamy Habanera

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Dreamy and seductive, La puerta del Vino (“The Gate of Wine”) is the third piece in Claude Debussy’s Préludes, Book 2 for solo piano, published in 1913. The work is said to have been inspired by a postcard Debussy received from Spanish composer Manuel De Falla, depicting a Moorish gate at the Alhambra Palace in Granada. For the performer, Debussy provides the interpretive marking, “With sudden contrasts of extreme violence and passionate tenderness.” …

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Mendelssohn’s “Ruy Blas” Overture: Thrilling Music for a “Ghastly” Play

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Set in Romantic verse, Victor Hugo’s 1838 drama, Ruy Blas, involves a nasty practical joke with tragic consequences. Ruy Blas is a common poet who is forced to disguise himself as a nobleman to fulfill the vengeful plot of his aristocratic master. He falls in love with the Queen of Spain, who appoints him Prime Minister. When the deceit is revealed, his fall is abrupt and humiliating. Ruy Blas kills his master, Don …

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