Symphony

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major: The Apotheosis of Dance

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In his 1850 treatise, The Artwork of the Future, Wagner famously described Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 as “the apotheosis of dance itself…dance in its most exulted form.” Indeed, this sunny, jubilant, Bacchanalian music is infused with a visceral and infectious sense of physical motion. Jan Swafford writes that “the Seventh dances unlike any symphony before: it dances wildly and relentlessly, dances almost heroically, dances in obsessive rhythms whether …

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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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Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, “Classical”: Musical Time Travel

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If Haydn had traveled 100 years into the future, what kind of music might he have written? The 25-year-old Sergei Prokofiev provided a compelling answer with his Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25, widely known as the “Classical” Symphony. Filled with grace, elegance, exuberance, and humor, it is compact music, scored for the pared-down classical orchestra. Bold 20th century harmony meets traditional sonata form. In his autobiography, Prokofiev wrote, “It …

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Haydn’s Symphony No. 65 in A Major: Strange Theatrical Surprises

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Strange, theatrical surprises abound in Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 65 in A Major. Numbered out of sequence, the Symphony may have originated as incidental music for a play presented at the private theater of Haydn’s patron, Prince Esterházy. Scholars such as Elaine Sisman have speculated that the play may have been Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The year of composition, perhaps 1768, is uncertain. Regardless, the music captures the free-spirited experimentation of a composer working in the splendid …

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Mahler’s Adagietto: Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra

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From 1988 to 1995, Michael Tilson Thomas served as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Claudio Abbado. His first association with the ensemble came in 1970 when he stepped in as a last minute replacement for Gennady Rozhdestvensky. In a recent obituary published by the London Symphony Orchestra, violinist Sarah Quinn recalls, I first worked with MTT nearly 30 years ago, when I was a nervous student sitting at the …

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Remembering Michael Tilson Thomas

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American conductor, composer, and pianist Michael Tilson Thomas passed away at his home in San Francisco last Wednesday following a battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 81. Known widely as “MTT,” Tilson Thomas served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years. He is credited with elevating the orchestra’s stature and championing adventurous new music. The grandson of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, stars of New …

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Bernstein on Schumann: An Analysis of the Second Symphony

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Through the years, conductors have tampered with the works of Robert Schumann, occasionally doubling instruments. Schumann’s works can be taxing for the orchestra, and some commentators cite weaknesses in the orchestration. In a 1953 analysis of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61, Leonard Bernstein shatters this myth. He suggests that Schumann’s orchestration is, in fact, innovative. For example, there is the magical introduction in which the strings (traditionally at …

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