Romantic Period

Strauss’ Horn Concerto No. 1 In E Flat Major: Youthful Outdoor Adventures

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Composed in 1883, the Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 11 is music of the young 19-year-old Richard Strauss. “We sense his young confidence,” says William Caballero, Principal horn player of the Pittsburgh Symphony. “We also hear the gentle, warm, reflective side of Strauss.” Even as a teenager, Strauss knew the horn intimately. His father, Franz Strauss, was the respected first horn player of the Munich Court Orchestra. Strauss inscribed …

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Dvořák’s Te Deum: A Festive Cantata for the New World

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In the summer of 1892, three months before he was scheduled to depart his Czech homeland for America, Antonín Dvořák received a commission for a festive cantata. The request came from Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, the American philanthropist and arts patron who, in 1885 founded the National Conservatory of Music in New York. It was Thurber who recruited Dvořák to serve as the fledgling institution’s director. The cantata would allow the composer to introduce …

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Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B Minor: The “Unfinished”

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Mystery surrounds the two movements of Franz Schubert’s unfinished Eighth Symphony. Why, after nearly completing a piano score for a succeeding scherzo in the autumn of 1822, did he stop? Although the 25-year-old Schubert lived six more years, in the words of musicologist Michael Steinberg, “he seemed not to give it another thought,” choosing instead to move on to other large-scale works such as the “Great” C Major Symphony. Perhaps the onset …

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Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2: Dmitry Shishkin with Mischa Damev and the Mariinsky Orchestra

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After hearing the premiere of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, the pianist and composer Sigmond Stojowski remarked that it “began with Bach and ended with Offenbach.” In a previous post, we explored this brilliant and exhilarating work, which shakes up the traditional concerto form with a slow and solemn first movement, a bright scherzo for the second movement, and a concluding presto. Now, let’s listen to this emotionally …

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Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals”: The Kanneh-Masons and Friends

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In February of 1886, Camille Saint-Saëns set aside work on his Third Symphony to write The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saëns considered it an act of compositional frivolity for a purely private audience. He prohibited public performances of the work during his lifetime out of fear that  it would damage his reputation as a serious composer. The Carnival of the Animals is full of parodies and inside jokes. A quote of Offenbach’s famous …

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Franck’s Choral No. 3 in A Minor: An Epic Farewell

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The mighty Choral No. 3 in A minor for organ was the final work of César Franck. Composed in 1890, it is an epic farewell. Filled with chromaticism and moments of haunting dissonance, its progressive harmony pushes at the boundaries of tonality. The symphonic scale of the music, with its array of tonal colors, was influenced by the magnificent three-manual Aristide Cavaillé-Coll pipe organ Franck played for 30 years at Paris’ Basilica of …

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Mendelssohn’s “Venetian Gondola Song,” Op. 30, No. 6: Daniel Barenboim

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Felix Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola Song, Op. 30, No. 6 for solo piano evokes a dreamy, nocturnal Venetian scene. A quiet, longing melody emerges over a barcarolle rhythm. It suggests gently lapping water, and the hypnotic repetition of the gondolier’s oar. The brief work is set in melancholy F-sharp minor. Its final notes fade suddenly into the night. Composed in 1835, it concludes Book II of Mendelssohn’s collection of Songs Without Words. This …

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