Symphony

Remembering Michael Tilson Thomas

by

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 …

Read more

Bernstein on Schumann: An Analysis of the Second Symphony

by

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 …

Read more

Brahms’ Fourth Symphony: A Tragic, Expectation-Shattering Farewell

by

For first-time listeners, Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor can be shocking and expectation-shattering. Composed in 1884, Brahms’ final symphony does not take the journey from darkness to light (a minor key to a major key) charted by so many Romantic symphonies, beginning with Beethoven’s Fifth. Negating the heroic transformation of his First Symphony, Brahms leaves us with a stark, tragic resolution in E minor. He concludes the Symphony with …

Read more

Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony: Alain Altinoglu and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony

by

Composed during the war-torn summer of 1943, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor attempts to take a journey from tragedy to triumph. It is the same C minor to C major trajectory we encounter in Beethoven’s Fifth, Brahms’ First, Bruckner’s Eighth, and Mahler’s Second. Yet for many listeners, the victory feels hollow. Perhaps there is even a hint of sarcasm. Shostakovich described his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies as “requiems,” written amid …

Read more

Haydn’s Symphony No. 87 in A Major: Festive Music for Paris

by

For nearly 30 years, beginning in 1761, Franz Joseph Haydn was employed as kapellmeister at the Esterházy court. Now dubbed the “father of the symphony” as well as the string quartet, the innovative Haydn worked in the splendid isolation of the Austrian aristocratic palace. In 1779, he renegotiated his contract to allow for the sale of his music to outside patrons. Widespread fame and prestigious international commissions ensued. In 1784, Haydn received …

Read more

Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 1, “Polyphonic”: An Exuberant Exploration of Counterpoint

by

There is an adage that composers, as they age, write music of increasing contrapuntal complexity. The phenomenon can be heard in the music of Mahler and John Adams, but Estonian minimalist Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) followed a decidedly different path. In his youth, Pärt embraced the prevailing modernism, and the 12-tone system of Arnold Schoenberg, in which the twelve notes of the chromatic scale are treated equally so as to negate the …

Read more

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

by

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 …

Read more