Romantic Period

Schumann’s Second Symphony: Juraj Valčuha and the Houston Symphony

by

Last February, we explored Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C Major, a work unified by a single motivic thread which runs through its four movements. Emerging as a mystical trumpet call in the Symphony’s opening, this motto (an ascending fifth) rings out as a triumphant statement in the Symphony’s concluding moments. For Schumann, a composer who faced inner demons, this majestic, life-affirming work can be heard as the musical equivalent of …

Read more

Remembering Roger Norrington

by

Sir Roger Norrington, the English conductor known for historically informed performances, passed away last Friday, July 18. He was 91. Born in Oxford, Norrington rose to prominence in the 1960s when he revived and championed the choral music of the 17th century German composer, Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). In 1962, Norrington founded the Schütz Choir. He went on to found the London Classical Players, an ensemble he led until 1997. In later years, he …

Read more

Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”: Overture-Fantasy After Shakespeare

by

Perhaps as a result of his turbulent personal struggles, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was drawn to stories of doomed love. It is a theme which runs through the Pushkin-inspired operas, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, the ballet Swan Lake, the Manfred Symphony, and the hellish Dante-inspired tone poem, Francesca da Rimini. Predating all of these works was the Overture-Fantasy on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, composed in 1869 by the 29-year-old Tchaikovsky. The …

Read more

Balakirev’s “Islamey”: A Spirited Dance from the Caucasus Mountains

by

It was a trip to the Caucasus Mountains that inspired Russian composer Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) to write Islamey: Oriental Fantasy, one of the most technically challenging works ever conceived for solo piano. In a letter, Balakirev commented on the spirited folk music he heard there, as well as the natural beauty of the region, which lies at the intersection of Europe and Asia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: …the majestic …

Read more

Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”: Music Inspired by Shakespeare

by

As a teenager, Felix Mendelssohn was drawn to the works of Shakespeare, especially the shimmering fairytale magic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After reading a German translation of the comedy, Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny wrote, We were entwined in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Felix particularly made it his own. He identified with all of the characters. He recreated them, so to speak, every one of them whom Shakespeare produced in the immensity of …

Read more

Remembering Alfred Brendel

by

Alfred Brendel, the Czech-born Austrian pianist, writer, composer, and lecturer, passed away on Tuesday (June 17) at his home in London. He was 94. Largely self-taught after the age of 16, Brendel followed a unique path to the top. As a teenager, he was already an author and an exhibited painter. At the age of 14, in the final days of the Second World War, he dug trenches in Yugoslavia. In 1949 …

Read more

Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger” Overture: Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Staatskapelle Dresden

by

Richard Wagner’s 1868 opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (“The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”), is a comic love story, set in the sixteenth century. Its plot centers around the historical Master Singers, an ancient guild of amateur poets and musicians who were primarily middle class master craftsmen of various trades. The guild’s Tabulatur, or law book, established an intricate system of rules which dictated the structure and performance of songs. The opera’s principle theme involves …

Read more