Romantic Period

Schumann’s Six Fugues on B-A-C-H and Six Canonic Etudes: Contrapuntal Explorations

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“What art owes to Bach is to the musical world hardly less than what a religion owes to its founder,” said Robert Schumann. (Eric Frederick Jensen) Championed in part by Mendelssohn, the first half of the 19th century saw a revival of interest in the music of J.S. Bach. Nine days after their wedding, Robert and Clara Schumann began an extensive study of Bach’s counterpoint together. The occasion was documented by Clara …

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Schumann’s Second Symphony: Drums, Trumpets, and Triumph

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“For several days, drums and trumpets in the key of C have been sounding in my mind,” wrote Robert Schumann to Felix Mendelssohn in a September, 1845 letter. “I have no idea what will come of it.” These recurring musical reveries were the seeds of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61, sketched over the course of two weeks in December of 1845, and completed a year later. As he …

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Remembering Kazuyoshi Akiyama

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Kazuyoshi Akiyama, the renowned Japanese conductor, passed away last Sunday, January 26. He was 84. Akiyama made his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1964. The collaboration was so successful that, within two months, he was given the dual posts of music director and permanent conductor. He went on to serve as assistant conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (1968-1969), and music director of the American Symphony Orchestra (1973-1978). His reputation …

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Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F Minor: Krzysztof Urbański and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony

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From childhood, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was drawn to the music of Mozart. The four-year-old Tchaikovsky was moved to tears when he heard a St. Petersburg orchestra play excerpts from Don Giovanni. Later, he recalled the experience as “a pure revelation…During several weeks I did nothing but play this opera through from the piano score; even as I fell asleep I could not part with this divine music, which pursued me long into my happy …

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The Artistry of Ferruccio Busoni: Historic Recordings from 1922

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Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), who died 100 years ago last July, was a musical renaissance man. The Italian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, writer, and editor has been called “the first truly modern composer.” He is also remembered for numerous enduring transcriptions of the music of J.S. Bach. Busoni associated with such a disparate group of contemporaries as Schoenberg, Sibelius, and Edgard Varèse. His small circle of students included Kurt Weill. The pianist Alfred …

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Berlioz’ “L’Enfance du Christ”: The Shepherds’ Farewell and Final Chorus

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Hector Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ, Op. 25 (“The Childhood of Christ”) is a Christmas oratorio in three parts. It tells the story of the flight of the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus) into Egypt following King Herod’s decree that all newborn children in Judaea be massacred. Berlioz wrote the text, which is based on the Gospel of Matthew 2:13. The work was first performed at Paris’ Salle Herz on …

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Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”: Juraj Valčuha and the Houston Symphony

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Founded in 1913 by philanthropist Ima Hogg, the Houston Symphony has long been regarded as one of America’s major league orchestras. Its past music directors include Andrés Orozco-Estrada (2014–2022), Christoph Eschenbach (1988–1999), André Previn (1967–1969), John Barbirolli (1961–1967), and Leopold Stokowski (1955–1961). Stokowski and the Houston Symphony gave the American premiere of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, “The Year 1905,” and made the first commercial recording of the work. On the recording, the …

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