Bernstein on Schumann: An Analysis of the Second Symphony

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Through the years, conductors have tampered with the works of Robert Schumann, occasionally doubling instruments. Schumann’s works can be taxing for the orchestra, and some commentators cite weaknesses in the orchestration. In a 1953 analysis of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61, Leonard Bernstein shatters this myth. He suggests that Schumann’s orchestration is, in fact, innovative. For example, there is the magical introduction in which the strings (traditionally at …

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Gabriella Smith’s “Maré”: yMusic

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“Maré” translates as “tide” in Portuguese. It is the title of a brief chamber work by American composer Gabriella Smith (b. 1991). Scored for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, viola, and cello, it was written in 2017 for the New York-based sextet chamber ensemble, yMusic. It is included on the group’s fourth album, Ecstatic Science. Smith explains, I wrote it on an island in Brazil when I was staying at an artists’ colony. …

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Alexander Malofeev Plays Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor

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The opening of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 breaks all the rules. Heralded by four mighty descending notes, stated three times by the horns, the majestic and expansive theme sets up the wrong key—not the home key of B-flat minor, but its relative major, D-flat. Even more strangely, the iconic theme never returns. Still, the Russian musicologist, Francis Maes, has written that “the opening melody comprises the …

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Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041: Hilary Hahn and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

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“Bach has played a long part in my musical life,” said violinist Hilary Hahn in a 2018 interview. “I started playing the solo Bach Sonatas and Partitas when I was nine in preparation for a couple of movements that I played on my first full recital when I was ten, and shortly after that I started at Curtis…” While Bach’s six groundbreaking Sonatas and Partitas showcase the violin as an instrument capable …

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Gabriella Smith’s “Tumblebird Contrails”: Ecstatic Wings

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A vivid experience in nature formed the inspiration for Tumblebird Contrails, a work for orchestra composed in 2014 by American composer Gabriella Smith (b. 1991). In her program note, Smith writes, Tumblebird Contrails is inspired by a single moment I experienced while backpacking in Point Reyes, sitting in the sand at the edge of the ocean, listening to the hallucinatory sounds of the Pacific (the keening gulls, pounding surf, rush of approaching waves, …

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Remembering Helmuth Rilling

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Helmuth Rilling, an acclaimed German choral conductor and influential interpreter of Bach, passed away last Wednesday, February 11. He was 92. Rilling founded numerous ensembles including the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970), and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart (1981). He served as professor of choral conducting at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule from 1965 to 1989 and led the Frankfurter Kantorei from 1969 to 1982. “Music has to …

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Debussy’s “Hommage á Rameau”: A Dreamy Remembrance of the Baroque Sarabande

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For Claude Debussy, the ghost of French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) loomed large. An innovative composer of opera and harpsichord music, Rameau’s influential 1722 Treatise on Harmony earned him the nickname, the “Isaac Newton of Music.” In 1903, Rameau’s 1737 opera, Castor et Pollux, was performed in Paris. Debussy, in the audience, was heard to exclaim, “Long live Rameau, and down with Gluck!” Hommage à Rameau is the second piece in Book …

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