Romantic Period

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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Mendelssohn’s “Ruy Blas” Overture: Thrilling Music for a “Ghastly” Play

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Set in Romantic verse, Victor Hugo’s 1838 drama, Ruy Blas, involves a nasty practical joke with tragic consequences. Ruy Blas is a common poet who is forced to disguise himself as a nobleman to fulfill the vengeful plot of his aristocratic master. He falls in love with the Queen of Spain, who appoints him Prime Minister. When the deceit is revealed, his fall is abrupt and humiliating. Ruy Blas kills his master, Don …

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Chopin’s Nocturne in B-flat Minor, Op. 9, No. 1: Jan Lisiecki

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Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki describes Chopin’s Nocturnes as intimate music one plays for oneself, alone at night. Born in Calgary to Polish immigrant parents, Lisiecki was invited to perform at the 2008 Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw when he was 13. His affinity for the music is on display in a 2021 album of Chopin’s complete Nocturnes. He believes that “Chopin’s music flows by itself in a sense, but you …

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Dvořák’s String Sextet in A Major: A Walk Through Czech Lands

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After hearing Antonín Dvořák’s String Sextet in A Major, Op. 48 in 1941, conductor Václav Talich was overcome with the pure beauty of the work, exclaiming, “Beautiful musical ideas, a beautiful structure and a beautiful sound! God himself must have been walking the Czech Lands when his humble servant Dvořák bequeathed to us a work of such excellence and sanctity…” Filled with the Slavonic folk influences, the Sextet is the enchanting music …

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Schumann’s “The Bride of Messina” Overture: Music for a Greek Tragedy

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Friedrich Schiller’s 1803 tragedy, The Bride of Messina, tells the story of a bitter rivalry between brothers who have fallen in love with the same woman, Beatrice. She turns out to be their long-lost sister. Amid jealous discord and a clash between paganism and Christianity, the turbulent love triangle ends in a murder-suicide. The two-act play was unusual and controversial at the time due to Schiller’s incorporation of a Greek chorus, a device …

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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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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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