Classical Period

Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 2: From Imprisonment to Freedom

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Beethoven was a composer who worked and reworked musical ideas in a painstaking series of sketches. His only opera, Fidelio, provides the most extreme example. Beethoven labored over it for over ten years, creating three distinct versions (1805, 1806, and 1814), and four different overtures. The overture we know as Leonore No. 2, Op. 42a opened the original 1805 Vienna premiere of Fidelio. Ultimately, Beethoven believed that the dramatic weight of the …

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Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, “Jeunehomme”: Dramatic Surprises

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Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271 is revolutionary music filled with dramatic surprises. It has been called “one of the greatest wonders of the world” (Alfred Brendel), “perhaps the first unequivocal masterpiece of the classical style” (Charles Rosen), “Mozart’s Eroica” (Alfred Einstein), and the concerto in which “Mozart, so to speak, became Mozart” (Michael Steinberg). The 21-year-old Mozart composed this music in January of 1777, months before he …

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Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat Major: Music Born of Friendship

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In his catalogue, Mozart referred to the Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat Major, K. 495 as “a hunting horn concerto for Leutgeb.” (“Ein Waldhorn Konzert für den Leutgeb”). Joseph Leutgeb (1732-1811) was Austria’s preeminent horn player. While employed as a court musician in Salzburg, he had known Mozart as a child. Later in Vienna, the two became close friends. Composed in 1786, the Concerto is filled with warmth and good humor. …

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Haydn’s Symphony No. 87 in A Major: Festive Music for Paris

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For nearly 30 years, beginning in 1761, Franz Joseph Haydn was employed as kapellmeister at the Esterházy court. Now dubbed the “father of the symphony” as well as the string quartet, the innovative Haydn worked in the splendid isolation of the Austrian aristocratic palace. In 1779, he renegotiated his contract to allow for the sale of his music to outside patrons. Widespread fame and prestigious international commissions ensued. In 1784, Haydn received …

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Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata: Zino Francescatti and Robert Casadesus

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Beethoven composed ten sonatas for violin and piano. The giant of the set, in terms of technical demands and dramatic weight, is Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47, the “Kreutzer” Sonata. The work was dedicated to the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer who called it “outrageously unintelligible” and never performed it. Beethoven and the Afro-European violinist George Bridgetower (1778-1860) premiered this convention-shattering music at Vienna’s Augarten Theatre. Beethoven was so late …

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Beethoven’s Violin Concerto: Nathan Milstein, Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic

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Nathan Milstein (1903-1992) was one of the most elegant and innately gifted violinists of the twentieth century. The biographer Boris Schwarz called his playing, “a rare combination of classical taste and technical perfection,” adding that “the effortless nonchalance with which he achieves sophisticated technical feats is amazing.” Born in Odessa, Milstein studied with the renowned Pyotr Stolyarsky, who was also teaching the six-year-old David Oistrakh at the time. At the age of …

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Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11, “Gassenhauer”: A Clarinet and a Catchy Tune

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Composed in 1797, the Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11 is spirited, fun-loving music of the 26 year old Beethoven. It is scored for clarinet, cello, and piano. At the time, the still-emerging clarinet was a novelty. Beethoven was impressed with the sound of Viennese clarinetist Franz Josef Bähr (1770-1819). The Trio was written for Bähr, and dedicated to Countess Wilhelmine von Thun, a prominent patron of both Beethoven and Mozart. With …

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