Romantic Period

Fauré’s Dolly Suite: Charming Portraits of Childhood

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The French singer, Emma Bardac (1862-1934), was the love interest, first of Gabriel Fauré, and later Claude Debussy. Between 1893 and 1896, Fauré composed a set of six whimsically titled piano duets to mark birthdays and other events in the life of Bardac’s young daughter, Régina-Hélène, who was know as “Dolly.” In 1906, conductor Henri Rabaud orchestrated the “Dolly” Suite, and used it to accompany “an ingenious ballet” at Paris’ Théâtre des …

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Liszt’s “La Chapelle de Guillaume Tell” from “Années de Pèlerinage”: Horn Calls and Heroism

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During the 1830s, Franz Liszt embraced the romantic life of the medieval Troubadours. While in a relationship with the Countess Marie d’Agoult, Liszt wandered throughout the countryside of Switzerland and Italy, where he visited “places consecrated by history and poetry,” and found the “phenomena of nature” to be deeply stirring. These travels formed the inspiration for Années de pèlerinage (“Years of Pilgrimage”), a three-volume cycle of 26 pieces for solo piano. The …

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Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor: Rich and Seductive

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In the pantheon of composers, German Romanticist Max Bruch may not be a household name. But Bruch contributed several enduring works, including the spirited Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, the Kol Nidrei for cello and orchestra, and the Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26. The Violin Concerto is firmly rooted as a standard work in the violin repertoire, and has been ranked by audiences among the most beloved …

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Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Capriccio Espagnol”: Color, Atmosphere, and Virtuosity

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Completed in 1887, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 is a dazzling kaleidoscope of orchestral color, atmosphere, and instrumental virtuosity. It is the work of a self-trained composer, who became one the the greatest innovators of orchestration. As a teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov led the St. Petersburg Conservatory. His influence on Russian music extended to his students, who included Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Respighi. In Italian, “capriccio” means “whim.” Based on Spanish folk songs and dances, …

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Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”: Two Recordings of Pimen’s Monologue

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In the haunting opening measures of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth String Quartet, an undulating line, emerging first in the second violin and then sliding stealthily into other inner voices, snakes forward, as if to draw us into an unfolding musical narrative. The line which wanders into Shostakovich’s String Quartet of 1964 is the same undulating figure we hear throughout Pimen’s Monologue, which opens the first act of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera, Boris Godunov, composed between …

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Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: Herbert Blomstedt and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

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Last Thursday, July 11, renowned Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt celebrated his 97th birthday. Sidelined by a serious fall in December of 2023, Blomstedt resumed his conducting schedule last April; and with numerous upcoming engagements, centered in Leipzig, Dresden, and Paris, he shows no signs of slowing down. This year, in celebration of Blomstedt’s birthday, the Bamberg Symphony played I denna ljuva sommartid, a Swedish summer psalm which holds significance for the conductor. …

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Schubert’s Impromptu No. 3 in G-Flat Major: Krystian Zimerman

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Franz Schubert composed a set of eight solo piano Impromptus (D. 899 and D. 935) in the summer and autumn of 1827, months before the creation of his Winterreise song cycle, and a year before his death at the age of 31. The title, suggesting an improvisatory character piece in three-part form (A-B-A) was chosen by Schubert’s Viennese publisher, Tobias Haslinger. Long before recordings, at a time when pianos were becoming increasingly inexpensive …

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