…I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go …
Sergei Prokofiev’s Toccata, Op. 11 for solo piano is music of the Machine Age. Launched into motion with a volley of repeated D’s, the brief and blazing piece hurtles forward as an indomitable, perpetual motor. Edgy and seemingly demonic, it takes us on an exhilarating, increasingly terrifying ride, punctuated with quirky melodic leaps, jarring dissonances, and torrents of chromaticism. Composed in 1912, this is music of the 23-year-old Prokofiev. Shocking, previously unimaginable …
The Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125 (or Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, as it is also known), was among the last orchestral works composed by Sergei Prokofiev. The dramatic, spirited musical hybrid was conceived at a time when Prokofiev faced declining health and professional adversity. In 1948, he was censured, along with other prominent composers, by the Central Committee of the Communist Party for writing music “marked with formalist perversions…alien to the Soviet …
In 1809, Beethoven received a commission to compose incidental music for the belated Vienna premiere of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Egmont. The tragic play, set in five acts, freely interpreted the heroic exploits of the sixteenth century Count Egmont, a Dutch politician and soldier who championed the liberation of the Netherlands from the autocratic rule of imperial Spain. As a consequence of his actions, Egmont was imprisoned and beheaded in 1568. Yet, his martyrdom …
Steve Reich’s Different Trains for string quartet and tape, composed in 1988, is a seminal work of American minimalism. It is music which is simultaneously in motion and at stasis. On one level, we sense the forward rush of passenger trains connecting New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles during the 1930s. On another level, we can imagine the time-altering hypnotic blur of the incessantly passing countryside from the window. The Russian composer and …
The American composer Ron Nelson, who wrote numerous works for wind ensemble, as well as for orchestra and chorus, passed away on December 24, 2023. He was 94. Leonard Slatkin once called Nelson a “quintessential American composer,” and praised his “ability to move between conservative and newer styles with ease,” adding, “The fact that he’s a little hard to categorize is what makes him interesting.” Born in Joliet, Illinois, Nelson studied with …
Released in the autumn of 1948, Sorry, Wrong Number is a classic film noir thriller, filled with shadowy, atmospheric shots, and gradually building tension. The film’s plot centers around Leona Stevenson (Barbara Stanwyck), a spoiled hypochondriac and heiress who is bedridden in her New York apartment, and who relies on the telephone for all communication with the outside world. Leona’s husband Henry (Burt Lancaster), a businessman employed by Leona’s father’s company, becomes increasingly …