Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B Minor: A Mysterious, Passionate Reverie

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Cast in a single, monumental movement, Franz Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor unfolds as a mysterious, passionate reverie. Its blazing Romanticism encompasses the widest emotional spectrum—from ghostly terror and quiet melancholy to spiritual ecstasy, heroic virtuosity and soaring, grandiose triumph. This acute sense of drama has led listeners to search for programmatic associations. For some, the themes paint characters from the “Faust” legend. (Liszt was composing his epic “Faust” Symphony during …

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Louise Farrenc’s Overture No. 2 in E-flat Major: A Score Rediscovered

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After falling into obscurity, the music of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was rediscovered in the 1970s and 80s, and has recently surged in popularity. A trailblazing French composer, virtuoso pianist, and teacher, Farrenc was the only female tenured professor in the 19th century at the Paris Conservatory. (She was only permitted to teach female students). Her father was a master craftsman, the fourth generation in a line of painters and sculptors who were …

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Sibelius’ “Finlandia”: A Tone Poem for Independence

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At the time of Jean Sibelius’ birth in 1865, Finland was an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire, having separated from Sweden in 1809. In general, the Finnish people found the political arrangement to be amicable. That changed in 1899 when Tsar Nicholas II instituted the February Manifesto which subordinated Finnish laws, dissolved the Finnish army, and enforced Russian as the principal language. This was the environment in which Sibelius composed …

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Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A Minor: The Ghosts of Brinkwells

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In 1918, the 61-year-old Edward Elgar was in the autumn of his career as a composer. The famous “Enigma” Variations had been written 20 years earlier, and Elgar’s output during the First World War consisted mostly of patriotic music. Once popular, the aging composer was now regarded as a regressive Romantic when compared with Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Ravel. Industrial slaughter in the trenches changed the nature of music. The world Elgar had know …

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Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 854: A Plaintive Pastorale

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The Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 854 is the ninth piece in Book I of J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, composed in 1722. The prelude is a flowing pastorale. Its lilting triplets, unfolding in 12/8 time, evoke the gentle bucolic dance of the shepherd. What begins as a sunny musical conversation between higher and lower voices, takes a plaintive turn. A shadowy dissonance (0.26) is followed by a weeping descending …

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Keith Jarrett: “Country”

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With Country, pianist Keith Jarrett fuses jazz with early American gospel and folk influences. The sunny melody and harmony are direct and diatonic. This is the fifth track on the 1978 studio album, My Song. (In a previous post we heard the title track). Jarrett is joined by Scandinavian musicians Jan Garbarek (tenor saxophone), Palle Danielsson (double bass), and Jon Christensen (drums). Critic Ted Gioia writes that the group, known as the European Quartet, …

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Saint-Saëns’ “Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse!” from “Samson et Dalila”: A Dark Prayer

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Throughout Camille Saint-Saëns’ 1877 opera, Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, the cunning and seductive Dalila has three prominent mezzo-soprano arias. In the most famous, Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix from Act II, Dalila lures Samson by comparing her heart to an open flower. Earlier in Act II, while seething with vengeance, she utters to the Philistine gods the dark prayer, Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse! Verse le poison dans son sein! (“Love! …

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