Romantic Period

Berlioz’ “Béatrice et Bénédict”: Four Excerpts from the Comic Opera

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Beatrice and Benedict, the principal characters of Hector Berlioz’s 1862 comic opera of the same name, quarrel, hurl taunts and insults at one other, and then fall in love. Berlioz described the two-act opera, based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, as “a caprice written with the point of a needle.” It was his final completed work. Biographer David Cairns observes that “listening to the score’s exuberant gaiety, only momentarily touched by sadness, …

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Schubert’s “Die Götter Griechenlands” (“The Gods of Greece”): A Song of Alienation

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Friedrich Schiller’s 1788 poem, Die Götter Griechenlands (“The Gods of Greece”), is filled with nostalgia and longing for the long-vanished world of Greek antiquity. Rebelling against mechanical philosophy, it idealizes man’s harmonious interaction with the Greek gods and nature. Schubert’s 1819 song, Die Götter Griechenlands, D. 677 sets only a fragment of the lengthy poem. It begins with a faltering three note motif (E-D-E), repeated by the piano, followed by the despairing opening …

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Borodin’s “Prince Igor” Overture: Dramatic Sweep

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Alexander Borodin’s four-act opera, Prince Igor, is based on the medieval Russian nationalistic epic, The Tale of Igor’s Campaign. It tells the story of a 12th century military campaign, launched by the Prince of Novgorod-Seversk against the Polovtsians, an invading nomadic Tartar tribe. Quickly, the campaign takes a disastrous turn, and Igor and his son, Vladimir, are taken prisoner. A member of the group of composers known as the “Russian Five,” Borodin …

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Remembering John Nelson

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American conductor John Nelson passed away on March 31, 2025. He was 83. Born in San José, Costa Rica, to American missionary parents, Nelson studied at Wheaton College and later at the Juilliard School. He went on to serve as music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (1976-1987), Opera Theatre of St. Louis (1985-1988), the Caramoor Music Festival in New York (1983-1990), and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris (1998-2008). Additionally, he …

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Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor: Exploring Dreams and Passions

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Gabriel Fauré’s motivation for writing the Piano Quartet No. 2, in G minor, Op. 45 remains something of a mystery. There was no commission. The work appears to represent the composer’s personal exploration of the magical possibilities regarding an unusual combination of instruments: piano, violin, viola, and cello. Only Mozart, and a handful of other composers, had ventured into this territory. Arriving seven years after Fauré’s First Piano Quartet, the G minor …

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Liszt’s “Au Lac de Wallenstadt” from “Années de Pèlerinage”: Sighing Waves

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…Thy contrasted lake, With the wild world I dwell in, is a thing Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake Earth’s troubled waters for a purer spring. These lines from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage form the poetic caption for Franz Liszt’s Au lac de Wallenstadt (“At Lake Wallenstadt”). Following the exalted La chapelle de Guillaume Tell, with its distant Alpine horn calls, Au lac de Wallenstadt is the second movement of Liszt’s …

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Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons”: March, Song of the Lark

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In the 19th century, writers such as Charles Dickens commonly published books in monthly installments which appeared in popular periodicals. Published on the first day of each month in 1876 in the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist, Tchaikovsky’s piano cycle, The Seasons, Op. 37a reached listeners in a similar way. Subtitled “12 characteristic scenes,” the atmospheric works are miniature tone paintings. Tchaikovsky composed them concurrently with the ballet, Swan Lake. In this era before recordings, …

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