Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor: Tempestuous and Dramatic

With the symphonies and other large-scale works behind him, Johannes Brahms was at the height of his artistic maturity when, during the summer of 1886, he composed the Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108. The last of Brahms’ violin sonatas, Op. 108 is also the most tempestuous and dramatic. Unfolding in four movements rather than three, it is set in the turbulent key of Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony and …

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Schoenberg’s “Transfigured Night”: At the Tonal Precipice

Famously, in the early years of the twentieth century, Arnold Schoenberg plunged over the precipice into the world of atonality. A natural outgrowth of late Romantic chromaticism, the new music gave equality to all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, and abolished the kind of hierarchy that allowed for a tonal center of gravity. Schoenberg adapted the system of Serialism to manipulate the resulting twelve tone rows. Standing at the tonal precipice, …

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Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus”: Sublime Simplicity

Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel insisted that Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, K. 618 is “too simple for children, and too difficult for adults.” Indeed, this simple choral, unfolding over 46 measures, imparts a cosmic “rightness.” It says all that needs to be said. The score is inscribed with a single interpretive marking—sotto voce, which implies a hushed, reverent tone. This motet was composed in the final six months of Mozart’s life, concurrently with The …

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Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major: A Magical Operatic Drama

Mozart wrote six piano concerti in 1784. Each distinct in atmosphere, they served as dazzling vehicles to highlight the composer’s skill as one of Vienna’s superstar keyboard players. Among these works, Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 has a special story. Mozart wrote it for his beloved student, Barbara (“Babette”) Ployer, the teenage niece of an adviser to the Salzburg imperial court, who lived outside of Vienna. Proudly, he …

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Jennifer Higdon’s Oboe Concerto: Majesty, Beauty, and Grace

Regarding her Oboe Concerto, composed in 2005, American composer Jennifer Higdon writes, “I have always thought of the oboe as being a most majestic instrument, and it was a pleasure to be able to create a work that would highlight its beauty and grace.” Unfolding in a single movement, the Concerto begins with the nostalgic, pastoral voice of the solo oboe, emerging on an extended B-flat over a serene, searching chorale in …

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Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9 (Version for Choir): Valentina Peleggi and the São Paulo Symphony Choir

In a 1945 letter to the Bach Society of São Paulo, composer Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote, The music of Bach is without question the most sacred gift to the world of art…Since Bach expressed his thoughts of God and the universe through his musical creations originating from his own country, he gave the most spiritual expression of human solidarity, we should also understand, love and cultivate the music that is born and lives, …

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Remembering Norman Carol

Norman Carol, the legendary American violinist and concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1966 to 1994, passed away on April 28 in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. He was 95. Born in Philadelphia to Russian immigrant parents, Carol began playing the violin at age six, and performed his first concert at nine. Following initial studies with Sascha Jacobinoff, he entered the Curtis Institute of Music at 13, where he was a student of Efrem Zimbalist. …

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