Stravinsky’s Concerto in E-flat, “Dumbarton Oaks”: A Sparkling Neoclassical Dialogue

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The riot-inducing 1913 premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s primal ballet score, The Rite of Spring, changed the course of 20th century music. Yet, ultimately, it was an artistic one-off. The final, cacophonous notes of the Sacrificial Dance faded away, and soon, with the 1920 ballet score for Pulcinella, Stravinsky’s style took another sharp and unexpected turn. Austere, witty, and pared down, the new neoclassicism returned to the balance, form, and symmetry of Bach and …

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Brahms’ Trio in E-flat Major for Horn, Violin, and Piano: Music of Nature

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In May of 1865, following the death of his beloved mother Christiane three months earlier, Johannes Brahms retreated to the picturesque seclusion of Baden-Baden in Germany’s Black Forest. It was here that Brahms composed his Trio in E-flat Major for Horn, Violin, and Piano, Op. 40. He worked in a room which, in his words, “looks out on three sides at the dark, wooded mountains, the roads winding up and down them, …

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Michael Torke’s “Unseen” (No. 5): A Shifting Kaleidoscope

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Last month, we listened to the first single from Unseen, the newest work of American composer Michael Torke. The piece, scored for orchestra, unfolds in nine brief movements, and continues in the direction of Torke’s recent groove-based chamber works, Being (2020), Psalms and Canticles (2021), and Time (2022). The complete album for Unseen will be released on May 10. Unseen, No. 5, which came out yesterday, emerges from a single pulsating rhythmic pattern in the strings. The piece develops …

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Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture: A Witty Musical “Thank You”

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In 1879, the University of Breslau in Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland) awarded Johannes Brahms an honorary doctorate in philosophy. The acclaimed composer, who never attended college, had little use for academic titles. When Cambridge University attempted to bestow a similar honor three years earlier, Brahms declined, forgoing lionization and sea travel—both of which he despised—for the quiet comfort of his home. His postcard response to the faculty in Breslau was met with …

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Handel’s Sonata in D Major, HWV 371: Music Ripe for Reuse

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After 300 years, the music of Handel continues to draw us in with richly expressive melodies and a vivid sense of drama. Both are apparent in the Sonata in D Major, HWV 371 for violin and basso continuo. In the opening of the first movement (Affettuoso), the violin line appears to outline an ascending D major triad, only to arrive on an E, one pitch too far. The next phrase extends even …

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Remembering Kalevi Kiviniemi: Organ Music of Jean Sibelius

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Kalevi Kiviniemi, the renowned Finnish concert organist, passed away on April 3 at his home in Lahti after suffering a heart attack. He was 65. Kiviniemi’s international career blossomed in the late 1980s, with recitals throughout Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia. He was at home among the world’s greatest organs, and performed frequently at Notre-Dame in Paris. Kiviniemi was the first to record the complete organ works of Jean Sibelius. …

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Martha Argerich Plays Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major

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The Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19 is music of the youthful Beethoven. Composed between 1787 and 1789, it predated the First Concerto, but was published out of sequence. Filled with charm and exuberance, it follows the model of Mozart. The acclaimed pianist, Martha Argerich is now an octogenarian, yet her performance of this music sparkles with youthful vitality. (Amazingly, she was already performing Beethoven Concerti at the age of 8, as …

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