Twentieth Century

Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” at 100

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George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was premiered one hundred years ago today, on the snowy afternoon of February 12, 1924, at Aeolian Hall on Manhattan’s West 43rd Street. The 25-year-old composer was at the piano, joined by the dance band of Paul Whiteman, the noted bandleader who commissioned the work. It was presented near the end of a marathon concert, organized and promoted by Whiteman, entitled, An Experiment in Modern Music. Purportedly in …

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Jean Françaix’s Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano: Music to “Give Pleasure”

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Jean Françaix (1912-1997) began composing at the age of six. When he was ten, his first published work caught the attention of the legendary composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger. In a comment to the boy’s parents, Maurice Ravel said, “Among the child’s gifts I observe above all the most fruitful an artist can possess, that of curiosity: you must not stifle these precious gifts now or ever, or risk letting this young sensibility …

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Barber’s Cello Sonata: Echoes of Brahms

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Imagine the kind of music Johannes Brahms might have written had he lived into the twentieth century. Chances are good that it might have sounded something like Samuel Barber’s Cello Sonata, Op. 6. The Sonata’s harmonic language is firmly rooted in the twentieth century, even as it renounces the prevailing twelve tone atonality in favor of C minor. At the same time, its melodic construction, deep, rich piano voicing, and Romantic pathos …

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Strauss’ “Capriccio”: Two Excerpts from “A Conversation Piece for Music”

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In a song or an opera, which is more important—the words or the music? Richard Strauss’ whimsical final opera, Capriccio, Op. 85, sets out to answer this age-old question. Subtitled “A Conversation Piece for Music,” it is a work of magical escapism, composed by the 78-year-old Strauss amid the horrors of Nazi Germany during the Second World War. (The premiere took place in Munich on October 28, 1942). The “opera within an …

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Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”: Winter and Spring

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During his student days, Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) attempted to run away from his Argentine Tango roots, only to return home. In 1954, he wrote a symphony for the Buenos Aires Philharmonic which earned him a scholarship to study in Paris with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. It was in a lesson with Boulanger that the young Piazzolla was encouraged to embrace his authentic voice. In his memoir, the composer recalled, She kept asking: …

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Prokofiev’s Toccata, Op. 11 for Solo Piano: An Exhilarating Musical Motor

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Sergei Prokofiev’s Toccata, Op. 11 for solo piano is music of the Machine Age. Launched into motion with a volley of repeated D’s, the brief and blazing piece hurtles forward as an indomitable, perpetual motor. Edgy and seemingly demonic, it takes us on an exhilarating, increasingly terrifying ride, punctuated with quirky melodic leaps, jarring dissonances, and torrents of chromaticism. Composed in 1912, this is music of the 23-year-old Prokofiev. Shocking, previously unimaginable …

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Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante: A Grand Hybrid for Cello and Orchestra

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The Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125 (or Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, as it is also known), was among the last orchestral works composed by Sergei Prokofiev. The dramatic, spirited musical hybrid was conceived at a time when Prokofiev faced declining health and professional adversity. In 1948, he was censured, along with other prominent composers, by the Central Committee of the Communist Party for writing music “marked with formalist perversions…alien to the Soviet …

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