Johann Sebastian Bach Sonata in A major, BWV 1015 Before taking up his post as Cantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1723, Bach served as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen (1694-1728). The young Prince was of the Calvinist … Continue reading
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Program Notes: Raphaël Sévère & Paul Montag
Posted onAlexander Borodin Sonata for Cello and Piano in B Minor (adapted for clarinet & piano by Raphaël Sévère) The role of the noisy neighbour in music history is an unjustly neglected theme for research but well worth considering in the … Continue reading
Program Notes: Jeremy Denk
Posted onJohann Sebastian Bach English Suite No. 3 in G Minor, BWV 808 Bach’s keyboard suites are a remarkable amalgam of the florid keyboard idiom of the French, the lyrical gift for vocal melody of the Italians, and the sober contrapuntal … Continue reading
Program notes: Maximilian Hornung & Benjamin Engeli
Posted onRobert Schumann Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Op. 102 Long before Martha Stewart made middle-class home furnishings a “thing,” the Biedermeier period (1815-1848) ushered in a bourgeois age of cozy home interiors that celebrated domestic family life and gave music a … Continue reading
Program notes: Paul Lewis
Posted onBeethoven’s Late Piano Sonatas If ever a composer were to be remembered as going out swinging, that composer would be Beethoven. As ‘sunset’ periods go, the blaze of glory that the late piano sonatas and quartets, the Diabelli Variations, the … Continue reading
Program notes: Ian Bostridge & Wenwen Du
Posted onFranz Schubert Winterreise It is a fact of musical life that there are commonly accepted ‘right’ ways (and even more ‘wrong’ ways) of performing the great works of past. These works arrive on our music stands embedded with notions of ‘stylistic … Continue reading
Program Notes: Joseph Moog
Posted onLudwig van Beethoven Sonata in C minor Op. 13 (Pathétique) At the end of the 18th century, a young Ludwig van Beethoven burst upon the scene with a musical personality that mixed brooding machismo with emotional vulnerability. This unusual combination … Continue reading
Program notes: Yun-Chin Zhou
Posted onDomenico Scarlatti Three Sonatas The 550-odd sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti are perhaps the most successful works to migrate from the harpsichord to the modern grand piano. Their transparent texture of simple two- and three-part keyboard writing has one foot in … Continue reading
Program notes: Steven Isserlis & Robert Levin — Performance 2
Posted onLudwig van Beethoven 7 Variations on Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte Wo046 Beethoven’s second set of cello and piano variations on a tune derived from Mozart’s Magic Flute was composed in 1801, five years after his … Continue reading
Program notes: Steven Isserlis & Robert Levin — Performance 1
Posted onLudwig van Beethoven 12 Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus Wo0 45 In 1796 Beethoven paid a visit to the court of King Friedrich Wilhelm II in Berlin, and cellists the world over are glad that he did. … Continue reading