Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 73: Night Fantasies

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Robert Schumann composed the dreamy and mercurial Fantasiestücke (“Fantasy Pieces”), Op. 73 in a burst of creativity over the course of two days in February of 1849. Set in A major and A minor, the work was first conceived for the melancholy, nostalgic voice of the clarinet. Later, Schumann indicated that the clarinet part could be performed on violin or cello. The three movements unfold in A-B-A song form and flow together without …

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Remembering Felicity Lott

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English soprano Felicity Lott passed away on May 15 following a battle with cancer. She was 79. Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Lott began singing lessons at age 12. While studying at the Royal Academy of Music she met pianist Graham Johnson who would become her lifelong accompanist. Her operatic debut came with the English National Opera in 1975 when she sang the role of Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Appearances at …

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Heifetz Plays Gershwin: Selections from “Porgy and Bess”

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Jascha Heifetz and George Gershwin were close friends who often performed together. The two celebrated American musicians shared a common Russian-Jewish heritage. Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, while Heifetz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. Escaping the Russian Revolution, he emigrated to the United States in 1917, and became a citizen in 1925. Heifetz urged Gershwin to compose a violin concerto, but the project never materialized. Gershwin’s life was cut short at age …

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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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