Romantic Period

Tchaikovsky’s “The Tempest”: The 19th Century’s Greatest Film Score

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No one was going to the movies when Tchaikovsky wrote his Shakespeare-inspired tone poem, The Tempest, in 1873. Motion picture technology was only in its infancy. Yet from a contemporary perspective, this music is deeply cinematic. Like every great film score, it gives us a visceral feeling of atmosphere. It seems larger than life, suggesting expansive and colorful vistas. Its recurring “love theme” doesn’t develop as pure music. Instead, it gives us a sense …

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Fauré’s “Ballade in F-Sharp Major”: Bending Harmony

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Gabriel Fauré’s Ballade in F-sharp Major, Op. 19 is filled with harmony-bending moments. For example, listen to the opening of the piece. The first phrase follows a graceful and beautifully consonant arc. Then at the 0:26 mark, we get a sudden, wrenching dissonance. Floating over a serene, hypnotically repeating rhythmic line, this music doesn’t seem far off from Erik Satie’s dreamy Gymnopédies, published ten years later in 1888, or the second movement of …

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Joyful Sounds of Praise: Five Musical Settings of Psalm 150

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Today marks the 1,000th post of The Listeners’ Club. In celebration of this milestone, I want to thank our growing community of readers and subscribers, and all who take time to comment and share this incredible music with friends. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to His abundant greatness. Praise Him with the blast of the …

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New Release: Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

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We explored Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor in a previous post featuring Bruno Walter’s 1959 studio recording with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. As a supplement to that classic recording, let’s listen to Manfred Honeck’s newly-released, Hybrid SACD album with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, recorded live in Heinz Hall. The ninth in an acclaimed series of Pittsburgh Live! recordings, this new album offers an amazing level of clarity that allows us …

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Remembering Jessye Norman: Eight Extraordinary Recordings

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Jessye Norman, the legendary American opera singer and recitalist, passed away on Monday. She was 74. Norman was born in the segregated south in Augusta, Georgia. She was surrounded by music at an early age, listening to radio broadcasts of operas and singing in church as a child. At the age of 16, she was offered a full scholarship to Howard University where she studied voice with Carolyn Grant. She went on …

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Inmo Yang Plays Paganini

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Last weekend, the Richmond Symphony’s season opened with concerts led by Marin Alsop. The program, perhaps one of the most memorable of my career in the RSO, included a performance of Paganini’s First Violin Concerto by the young Korean violinist, Inmo Yang. Yang, who was awarded First Prize at the 2015 Paganini Competition, brought more than stunning technique and poise. The Concerto was infused with the elegance and bel canto warmth of Italian opera. …

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Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto: Khatia Buniatishvili in Concert

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Franz Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto begins with a hauntingly romantic melody. We hear it first in the solo clarinet, accompanied by a woodwind chorale. For a composer whose music is often filled with larger-than-life virtuoso bravura, these quiet opening bars seem surprisingly unassuming, perhaps even lamenting. They open the door to the magic and mystery of the piano’s entrance a moment later, in which the melody is outlined in arpeggios which seem …

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