Romantic Period

Brahms’ Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2: Emanuel Ax

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Completed in 1893, the Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118 were among Johannes Brahms’ final works. They drift into a world of dreamy introspection and wistful nostalgia. The lengthening shadows of autumn are at hand. Brahms dedicated the collection to Clara Schumann. Op. 118, No. 2, the Intermezzo in A Major, is at once majestic, melancholy, and longing. Marked Andante teneramente (“tenderly”), it has been described as a cradle song. Developing from …

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Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns: A Novel Showcase for an Instrument Reborn

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In the early 19th century, valves began to appear on horns. It was an innovation which expanded the instrument’s virtuosic possibilities. Previously limited to a series of pitches based on the harmonic series, the horn could now glide up and down the chromatic scale. Robert Schumann took notice and was eager to exploit the new technology. He described his Konzertstück (“concert piece”) for Four Horns in F Major, Op. 86 as “something …

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Remembering Christoph von Dohnányi

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Christoph von Dohnányi, the German conductor and longtime music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, passed away last Saturday, September 6, two days shy of his 96th birthday. Dohnányi was born in Berlin into a high profile family.  His grandfather was Ernst von Dohnányi, a Hungarian composer and pianist. His uncle was the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In 1945, when Dohnányi was 15 years old, his father and uncle were sent to a …

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Chausson’s Concert for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet: A Glorious Hybrid

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Completed in 1891, Ernest Chausson’s Concert for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet, Op. 21 is a glorious hybrid. With the violin and piano functioning as solo protagonists set against the larger ensemble of the quartet, its musical dialogue resembles the Baroque concerto grosso. Brimming with bold virtuosity, it takes us on a dramatic journey that is virtually unique in the chamber music repertoire. The unusual title, suggesting a “harmonious ensemble,” recalls the …

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Wagner’s “Faust” Overture: A Tone Poem Inspired by Goethe

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As a teenager, Richard Wagner developed a fascination with Goethe’s Faust.  Allegedly, at the age of 16, Wagner hid a copy of the play among his school books. For the rest of his life, allusions to Faust, and direct quotations, recurred throughout his writings. The Faustian archetype, in which the protagonist, in a deal with the devil, exchanges his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures, inspired music by numerous composers including Liszt, …

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Verdi’s “Luisa Miller”: Five Excerpts from an Opera Involving Love, Intrigue, and Poison

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Giuseppe Verdi’s 1849 opera, Luisa Miller, broke new ground. With a tragic, convoluted story centering around love, betrayal, class struggle, jealous rivalry, and violence, it displayed an increased psychological depth. The orchestra played a greater dramatic role. The last of Verdi’s “middle period” operas, Luisa Miller set the stage for the composer’s celebrated later works, such as La traviata, Rigoletto, and Aida. The Lyric Opera of Chicago provides the following brief summery: Verdi’s sumptuously …

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

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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 …

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