![Edvard Grieg - Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, op. 51 [With score] @DamonJHK](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a9AkKBT37Kg/sddefault.jpg)
Uploaded September 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (2 Pianos): Dena Piano Duo
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, for Two Pianos or Orchestra, op. 51, written in 1890
Two Pianos
00:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
00:46 – Theme (Allegretto espressivo)
01:27 – Var. I
02:03 – Var. II (Energico)
02:32 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
03:05 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
04:10 – Var. V (Maestoso)
05:31 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
06:12 – Var. VII (Andante)
07:49 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
09:51 – Var. IX (Presto)
10:30 – Var. X (Andante)
12:07 – Var. XI (Tempo di Menuetto)
13:25 – Var. XII (Allegro marcato)
14:04 – Var. XIII (Tempo di Valse)
15:05 – Var. XIV (Adagio, molto espressivo)
17:54 – Finale
Orchestra
24:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
25:00 – Theme (Andantino espressivo)
25:54 – Var. I (Poco Allegro ma tranquillo)
26:30 – Var. II (Energico)
27:04 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
27:37 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
29:11 – Var. V (Maestoso)
30:22 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
31:07 – Var. VII (Andante)
32:43 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
35:01 – Var. IX (Presto)
35:44 – Var. X (Tempo di Menuetto)
37:54 – Var. XI (Allegro marcato)
38:38 – Var. XII (Tempo di Valse)
39:47 – Var. XIII (Adagio molto espressivo)
43:00 – Finale
A superb miniaturist, Grieg rarely turned his hand to large-scale musical structures. But here he brilliantly used the variation form, which is essentially a way to take a short musical example and create a large composition from a series of short pieces based on it. In this case, 24-minute work is generated from a tune found in L.M. Lindeman's fine collection of Norwegian folk tunes. Grieg composed it originally for two pianos. Its form is traditional: The theme is stated, with Grieg's own harmonization. Then follows about twenty minutes of variations upon it, and a finale which brings it back in grander fashion. While all the individual variations are interesting, what the composition lacks is a convincing feeling of over-all direction: The best sets of theme and variation lead the listener onward from variation to variation with a feeling of inevitability, and it is this that the Old Norwegian Romance lacks. The author is rather fond of it despite this fault, for the melodies (both the original one and the ones spun from it) are delightful, but it is not considered top drawer Grieg.
[allmusic.com]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (2 Pianos): Dena Piano Duo
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, for Two Pianos or Orchestra, op. 51, written in 1890
Two Pianos
00:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
00:46 – Theme (Allegretto espressivo)
01:27 – Var. I
02:03 – Var. II (Energico)
02:32 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
03:05 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
04:10 – Var. V (Maestoso)
05:31 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
06:12 – Var. VII (Andante)
07:49 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
09:51 – Var. IX (Presto)
10:30 – Var. X (Andante)
12:07 – Var. XI (Tempo di Menuetto)
13:25 – Var. XII (Allegro marcato)
14:04 – Var. XIII (Tempo di Valse)
15:05 – Var. XIV (Adagio, molto espressivo)
17:54 – Finale
Orchestra
24:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
25:00 – Theme (Andantino espressivo)
25:54 – Var. I (Poco Allegro ma tranquillo)
26:30 – Var. II (Energico)
27:04 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
27:37 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
29:11 – Var. V (Maestoso)
30:22 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
31:07 – Var. VII (Andante)
32:43 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
35:01 – Var. IX (Presto)
35:44 – Var. X (Tempo di Menuetto)
37:54 – Var. XI (Allegro marcato)
38:38 – Var. XII (Tempo di Valse)
39:47 – Var. XIII (Adagio molto espressivo)
43:00 – Finale
A superb miniaturist, Grieg rarely turned his hand to large-scale musical structures. But here he brilliantly used the variation form, which is essentially a way to take a short musical example and create a large composition from a series of short pieces based on it. In this case, 24-minute work is generated from a tune found in L.M. Lindeman's fine collection of Norwegian folk tunes. Grieg composed it originally for two pianos. Its form is traditional: The theme is stated, with Grieg's own harmonization. Then follows about twenty minutes of variations upon it, and a finale which brings it back in grander fashion. While all the individual variations are interesting, what the composition lacks is a convincing feeling of over-all direction: The best sets of theme and variation lead the listener onward from variation to variation with a feeling of inevitability, and it is this that the Old Norwegian Romance lacks. The author is rather fond of it despite this fault, for the melodies (both the original one and the ones spun from it) are delightful, but it is not considered top drawer Grieg.
[allmusic.com]
![Edvard Grieg - Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, op. 51 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a9AkKBT37Kg/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, op. 51 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (2 Pianos): Dena Piano Duo
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, for Two Pianos or Orchestra, op. 51, written in 1890
Two Pianos
00:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
00:46 – Theme (Allegretto espressivo)
01:27 – Var. I
02:03 – Var. II (Energico)
02:32 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
03:05 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
04:10 – Var. V (Maestoso)
05:31 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
06:12 – Var. VII (Andante)
07:49 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
09:51 – Var. IX (Presto)
10:30 – Var. X (Andante)
12:07 – Var. XI (Tempo di Menuetto)
13:25 – Var. XII (Allegro marcato)
14:04 – Var. XIII (Tempo di Valse)
15:05 – Var. XIV (Adagio, molto espressivo)
17:54 – Finale
Orchestra
24:00 – Introduction (Poco tranquillo)
25:00 – Theme (Andantino espressivo)
25:54 – Var. I (Poco Allegro ma tranquillo)
26:30 – Var. II (Energico)
27:04 – Var. III (Allegro leggiero)
27:37 – Var. IV (Poco Andante)
29:11 – Var. V (Maestoso)
30:22 – Var. VI (Allegro scherzando e leggiero)
31:07 – Var. VII (Andante)
32:43 – Var. VIII (Andante molto tranquillo)
35:01 – Var. IX (Presto)
35:44 – Var. X (Tempo di Menuetto)
37:54 – Var. XI (Allegro marcato)
38:38 – Var. XII (Tempo di Valse)
39:47 – Var. XIII (Adagio molto espressivo)
43:00 – Finale
A superb miniaturist, Grieg rarely turned his hand to large-scale musical structures. But here he brilliantly used the variation form, which is essentially a way to take a short musical example and create a large composition from a series of short pieces based on it. In this case, 24-minute work is generated from a tune found in L.M. Lindemans fine collection of Norwegian folk tunes. Grieg composed it originally for two pianos. Its form is traditional: The theme is stated, with Griegs own harmonization. Then follows about twenty minutes of variations upon it, and a finale which brings it back in grander fashion. While all the individual variations are interesting, what the composition lacks is a convincing feeling of over-all direction: The best sets of theme and variation lead the listener onward from variation to variation with a feeling of inevitability, and it is this that the Old Norwegian Romance lacks. The author is rather fond of it despite this fault, for the melodies (both the original one and the ones spun from it) are delightful, but it is not considered top drawer Grieg.
[allmusic.com]")
![Igor Stravinsky - LHistoire du soldat [With score] (Reupload)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aZrPO-1WCgQ/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - LHistoire du soldat [With score] (Reupload)
-Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
-Performers: Shlomo Mintz (Violin, Direction), Vincent Pasquier (Double Bass), Pascal Moragués (Clarinet), Sergio Azzolini (Bassoon), Marc Bauer (Cornet), Daniel Breszynsky (Trombone), Michel Cerutti (Percussion)
-Narrators: Carole Bouquet (le lecteur), Gérard Depardieu (le diable), Guillaume Depardieu (le soldat)
Lhistoire du soldat, lue, jouée et dansée [The Soldiers Tale, a theatrical work to be read, played, and danced], for 7 instruments and 3 narrators, written in 1917
[Pieces from Concert Suite]
00:17 - I. The soldiers march
02:56 - II. The soldiers violin
28:01 - III. Royal march
34:07 - IV. The little concert
37:05 - V. Tango
39:22 - VI. Waltz
41:13 - VII. Ragtime
43:15 - VIII. The devils dance
46:04 - IX. Choral
51:27 - X. The devils triumphant march
LHistoire du Soldat is neither a ballet nor a musical drama; rather, it is a little of both. It has a libretto, written in French by C.F. Ramuz, and mixes dialogue with music, dance, and drama. Stravinsky scored the work for a strange chamber ensemble, consisting of one clarinet, one bassoon, one cornet, one trombone, one violin, one double-bass, two side drums (strange because their are no instrumental doublings, and the percussion is particularly sparse). The work was designed by Stravinsky and Ramuz to be both inexpensive to perform and performable in virtually any kind of theatre. The result was what has been called a work of pocket theatre, with a story not so much set to music as accompanied by it (as Eric White notes, Stravinskys music was specifically intended to be independent from the text, so it could be performed as a concert suite). The main characters in the work are the Narrator, the Soldier, the Princess, and the Devil, and the action unfolds over six scenes. The plot is fairly simple, a Faustian tale in which the Soldier trades his fiddle to the Devil for a magic book which can provide wealth. He later becomes disillusioned, loses his wealth, and meets the Devil again in a card game. He gets the devil drunk, regains his fiddle, and uses it to cure the local Kings daughter, who has been ill. He then fends off the Devil with his fiddle playing, and marries the Princess. The Soldier lives happily until he decides to leave his new town and visit his old home. Once he leaves the safety of his new town, he is captured by the Devil, and must accompany him to Hell. The music in the first half of the work is largely incidental; it is the music of the final two scenes, particularly that of scene five, which is the most interesting. Scene five contains the Princesss three dances: a Tango, Waltz, and Ragtime. Waltzes had appeared earlier in Stravinskys works (notably in Petrushka), but this was the first appearance in any of Stravinskys music of such contemporary music as tangos or ragtime music. Stravinsky insisted that LHistoire du Soldat was strongly influenced by jazz, thereby claiming a place for himself in the history of music as one of the first art music composers to use jazz in a significant way; however, recent scholarship suggests that Stravinsky probably didnt know any true jazz, and indeed the date of the work, 1918, predates the age of jazz in Europe by a number of years. Stravinsky also used Lutheran chorale melodies and a quasi-gypsy tune in the work. LHistoire du Soldat features the violin throughout (making an obvious connection to the fiddle in the story), and contains some of Stravinskys most clever orchestration; as is usual with Stravinsky, orchestral color is at the fore of this work, with each individual instrument used soloistically. The texture of the piece is generally contrapuntal, with ostinati and complex rhythms, and the tonality is localized; there is no overall harmonic scheme, but rather tonally stable sections mixed with bitonal clashes.")
![Edvard Grieg - 6 Songs, op. 48 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/amnUXXAUFSs/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 6 Songs, op. 48 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (Voice), Ilmo Ranta (Piano)
6 Songs for Voice and Piano, op. 48, written in 1884-88
00:00 - I. Gruss {Greeting}
01:15 - II. Dereinst, Gedanke mein {Some day, my thought}
04:33 - III. Lauf der Welt {The way of the world}
06:10 - IV. Die verschwiegene Nachtigall {The silent nightingale}
10:00 - V. Zur Rosenzeit {At Rose Time}
12:35 - VI. Ein Traum {A Dream}
The period between autumn of 1887 and the spring of 1890 found Grieg giving piano recitals throughout Europe and composing very little. The Six Songs, Op. 48 were, along with the Op. 49 Songs, the only works published during this period. More remarkably, the Op. 48 Songs were set to German texts, the first time since the Op. 4 set of songs that Grieg had used the German language (although the Op. 48 set is often sung in a Norwegian translation by Nordahl Rolfsen). In any event, these are much more mature than the early German settings; to this day they are periodically used as recital pieces.
The first two of the set, according to the manuscripts, were written in September 1884 while Grieg was living in Lofthus, earlier than the other four. Gruss (Greeting), strikes a cheerful atmosphere from the outset with a series of upward arpeggio figures which then serve as an accompaniment to the vocal line. The through-composed song is based on a poem by Heine and is generally more German than Norwegian in style. The second song, Dereinst, (Once upon a Time) is a setting of a poem by Emanuel Geibel, and is quite opposite in feeling to the exuberant Gruss. Grieg sets this poem strophically, in a molto andante tempo and hymn-like style.
The remaining four songs of the Op. 48 group were composed between August 15 and 20, 1889. Lauf der Welt (The Way of the World), is based on a three-stanza poem by Uhland. Set in ABA form, the song is peppered with folk music elements, notably a pedal tonic fifth through the first fourteen bars. Die verschwiegene Nachtigall (The Silent Nightingale), is based on a poem by Walther von der Vogelweide, the great German poet of the Middle Ages. It also features folk elements, with a strophic setting, embellished vocal line, and imitation of the nightingales song in the accompaniment. The fifth song, Zur Rosenzeit (At Rose Time), is a setting of a poem by Goethe; its dissonant piano part, jarring syncopations, and angular vocal line suggest that rose time is not a happy time. The final and arguably most significant song of the set, Ein Traum (A Dream) is based on a poem by Friedrich Bodenstedt. Here, Grieg strikes a hopeful, contented mood, and accordingly the harmonies and vocal line are more serene than in the prior song. It is, moreover, a big song with a vocal range from middle C to high A flat a factor that may have contributed to its popularity.
The six songs were first published by Peters in 1889, and were dedicated to the Swedish Wagnerian soprano, Ellen Nordgren Gulbranson.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - 19 Norwegian Folk Songs for Piano, op. 66 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bE1ptuE4q1k/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 19 Norwegian Folk Songs for Piano, op. 66 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Gerhard Oppitz
19 Norwegian Folk Songs for Piano, op. 66, written in 1896-97
00:00 - I. Kulokk {Cow-Call}
01:16 - II Det er den største Dårlighed {It is the greatest Foolishness}
02:25 - III. En Konge hersked i Østerland {A King ruled in the East}
03:33 - IV. Siri Dale-visen {The Siri Dale Song}
04:51 - V. Det var i min Ungdom {It was in my youth}
07:27 - VI. Lok og bådnlåt {Cow-Call and cradle song}
08:58 - VII. Bådnlåt (Cradle song)
09:51 - VIII. Lokk {Cow-Call}
10:54 - IX. Liten va guten {Small was the Lad}
11:54 - X. Morgo ska du få gifta deg {Tomorrow you shall marry}
13:19 - XI. Det stander to Piger {There stood two Girls}
14:50 - XII. Ranveig
15:18 - XIII. En liten grå Man {A little grey man}
16:07 - XIV. I Ola-dalom, i Ola-Kjønn {In Ola valley, in Ola lake}
18:13 - XV. Bådnlåt {Cradle song}
20:29 - XVI. Ho vesle Kari var {Little Astrid}
21:27 - XVII. Bådnlåt {Cradle song}
24:05 - XVIII. Jeg gar i tusen tanker {I wander deep in thought}
28:17 - XIX. Gjendines Bådnlåt {Gjendines cradle song}
The 19 Norwegian Folksongs, Op. 66 are remarkable pieces, as Grieg himself knew. He wrote to the Dutch composer, Julius Röntgen, of having put some hair-raising chromatic chords on paper. The excuse is that they originated not on the piano but in my mind. If one has the Vøringfoss beneath ones feet, one feels them more independent and daring than down in the valley.
Indeed, the harmonies that Grieg employs in Op. 66 are even more strongly chromatic in flavor than those in his previous set of Norwegian Folk Tunes Op. 17, often to the extent that some of the chords and progressions would undoubtedly grate on the ear of the folk song purist. Nevertheless, given the fundamentally banal character of the original songs, some commentators have conceded that Griegs chromatic treatment tends to enhance their haunting charm.
Among the 19 tunes are several longer pieces, as well as three derived from cattle calls, the brief snatches of melody that were originally sounded to call cattle back to the fold, and have a kind of charming, far-away character. Among the most attractive is I Ola-Dalom, i Ola-Kjönn (In Ola Dale), No. 14, which Delius later used as the source of the theme for On hearing the first cuckoo in spring. The melody is treated strophically, and an interlude between each verse determines the style of accompaniment for the next.
Another remarkable piece is No. 18, Jeg går i tusind Tanker (In deepest thought I wander), the most purely pianistic and at four minutes long the longest of the collection. Based on a flowing 16-bar tune, the piece is marked andante religioso, and is characterized by the same fervor and sincerity of Griegs last opus (74), the Four Psalms for unaccompanied choir.
[allmusic.com]")
![Béla Bartók - Violin Sonata No. 1 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b_C9qQhApvE/mqdefault.jpg "Béla Bartók - Violin Sonata No. 1 [With score]
-Composer: Béla Viktor János Bartók (25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945)
-Performers: James Ehnes (Violin), Andrew Armstrong (Piano)
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, op. 21 (BB. 84), written in 1921
00:00 – I. Allegro appassionato
12:29 – II. Adagio
23:52 – III. Allegro
Béla Bartók wrote both of his violin sonatas for the Hungarian violinist Jelly dAranyi. Of the two works, the Sonata No. 1, Op. 21, is more traditional, both in structure and temperament; its three clearly delineated movements are marked by a character that is alternately rhapsodic and violent, but always virtuosic. Despite any appearance of conventionality, however, the sonata represents one of Bartóks most radical statements in its expressionistic rhetoric and its near-atonal harmonic and melodic language (notwithstanding the nominal indication that it is in the key of C sharp minor). The arresting opening bars are underpinned by fast, dissonant arpeggios from the piano that evoke the sounds of the cimbalom, a dulcimer-like instrument from Bartóks native Hungary. The violinists first statement is broad and chromatic, a passionate declamation in a setting of nocturnal fantasy. Both harmonically and melodically, these opposing elements recall Bartóks contemporaneous stage pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin, completed in piano score two years previously. The movement is discursive and often impulsive; while there is confluence and cooperation between the two instruments throughout, thematic material is rarely shared. In this highly dissonant context, the occasional consonance sounds peculiar. A subsidiary theme, for instance, features the interval of a major sixth; often perceived as almost cloyingly sweet, it here emerges in an entirely different light. A searching cadenza-like solo passage for the violin opens the second movement. The piano eventually joins in with a series of ascending chords, no less unsettled for their limpid, impressionistic sonority; even in the turbulent setting of this work, Bartóks debt to the music of Debussy and Ravel is evident. A middle section is ominous and imposing, with frightening, arpeggiated octaves in the piano, increasing in volume as if some catastrophe were imminent; the violin, meanwhile, cries out in double stops and chords. The octaves recede, giving way to the desolate air of the opening. The finale is a series of increasingly wild dances, folk-like in style but wholly expressionistic. Bartók here makes his greatest demands upon the players virtuosity and stamina as he leads them through a series of episodes that, however abstract in nature, arrange themselves roughly into a rondo form. Midway through is a grotesque pesante section marked by a thick and heavy stamping tread in the piano and detached skirlings from the violin in diffident response. The frenetic dance rhythms return, bringing the work to a grim conclusion. The Sonata No. 1 was premiered in Vienna by violinist Mary Dickenson-Auner and pianist Eduard Steuermann; dAranyi and Bartók first performed it at a private recital in Londons Hungarian Legation in March 1922.
[allmusic.com]")
![Maurice Ravel - Chansons madécasses [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bb1Swd9xrl0/mqdefault.jpg "Maurice Ravel - Chansons madécasses [With score]
-Composer: Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937)
-Performers: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), Wolfgang Sawallisch (Piano), Karheinz Zoller (Flute), Wolfgang Boettcher (Cello)
Chansons madécasses, song cycle for voice, flute, cello and piano, written in 1925-26
00:04 - I. Nahandove
05:24 - II. Aoua
09:18 - III. Il est doux de se coucher
During the final phase of Maurice Ravels career, he experienced hampered creativity and a confused emotional state which in the years that followed evolved into a preoccupation with economy of means and ensemble combinations. For example, the Chansons madécasses (Madagascar Songs), with their unique chamber ensemble, was, as Ravel indicated, a kind of quartet in which the voice plays the part of the main instrument. The vocal line is uncharacteristic of Ravels detached and objective style; instead the song sensuously and frightfully declares its message. The texts, taken from the eighteenth century Creole poet Evariste-Desire de Parny, are a cry for liberation from colonialism, exploitation, and slavery as they occurred in Madagascar. Nahandove depicts the erotic seduction of a native woman, in which Ravel uses the cello in counterpoint to the flute and piano. Aoua! is the frightful warning of the deceiving and dangerous white men; it opens with shrieks of the songs title, made on descending minor thirds. The vocal line is supported by dissonant piano crunches, while a tam-tam effect is made by the resonances of the piano and low notes of the flute. Aoua! was probably the most discussed of the three songs. When it was sung by Jane Bathori in 1925, at a concert in the Paris Salle Majestic, it was well received, except by a few members of the audience, who found the songs message especially disturbing because fighting was occurring in Morocco. The song comes to a bitter ending where the singer again proclaims mefiez-vous des blancs (Dont trust the whites). Il est doux, featuring exotic timbres, returns to the earlier sexual lure. The first complete performance of the three songs was in 1926. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, an American patroness of chamber music, made only one suggestion when she commissioned the songs, in regards to the instrumentation of the accompaniment; the choice of text reveals Ravels interest in the exotic.
Ravel stated that he viewed the years shortly before and during which the Chansons madécasses were written as a turning point in his career. In that time he turned from harmonic techniques to the spirit of melody. The composer revealed in a late interview that these three songs were his favorites.
[allmusic.com]")
![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 16, K. 428 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bkNWCx-2AbU/mqdefault.jpg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 16, K. 428 [With score]
-Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
-Performers: Quatuor Mosaïques
String Quartet No. 16 in E-flat Major, K. 428, written in 1783 [Haydn Quartet III]
00:06 – I. Allegro non troppo
10:40 – II. Andante con moto
24:50 – III. Meunetto. Allegro
31:07 – IV. Allegro vivace
Of Mozarts six quartets dedicated to Haydn, this is one of the most genial and, in some respects, most Haydn-esque in its delight in unexpected shifts of harmony. Mozart worked on this quartet over the course of two months in summer 1783; perhaps he had this piece in mind when in his dedication he described the group as the fruit of a long and laborious effort it seems he knocked each of the others off in as little as a single day. It is believed that this may have been one of the pieces performed at a quartet party the following year in which the players were violinists Haydn and Dittersdorf, violist Mozart, and cellist Vanhal.
The opening Allegro ma non troppo movement initially seems to ease itself in, Haydn style, with a slow introduction, but this turns out to be merely a somewhat broad, harmonically teasing short statement that rambles straight into the cheerful first subject. Playfulness suffuses the themes, with little phrases tossed imitatively among the instruments and a clucking motif holding the material together. Skies darken somewhat in the brief development section, perhaps a mild allusion to Haydns dramatic Sturm und Drang period, but good cheer returns with the recapitulation, which subtly varies the material rather than merely repeating it.
The Andante con moto is more serious, with most of the instruments playing a noble progression of chords while one member, often the cello, winds a dignified melody through the harmonic foundation. Oddly, that initial melody devolves into a routine bass line of triplets while the chords resolve into more of a melody. The movement is in what was at the time considered the Romantic key of A flat major, but a moment of harmonic uncertainty causes the melody to lose its bearings after its first statement, leaving a skeletal variation on the theme before the first section is repeated. This time the theme overcomes the episode of harmonic instability after nothing more than a brief pause for the players to find their way back home.
The minuet begins with either a gentle sneeze or a donkey bray, depending on the performers forcefulness, surely a Haydn-esque effect. It then proceeds in a fairly stately fashion, except for braying interruptions and humorously hesitant episodes, as if the players were tiptoeing through an especially tricky patch of music. The trio section, coming before a repeat of all of this, noodles a troubled little tune over a bass drone.
The finale, Allegro vivace, alternates a teasingly hesitant series of chords with boisterous passage work an effect of on your mark, go! The energetic second subject refuses to trip over its offbeat chords. The first theme returns, then gives way to a melodramatic episode culminating in a passage that overlaps material drawn from both the chords and the passage work from the beginning. The music reappears in its original form, prepares to scamper away quietly, but ultimately makes a grander exit with four loud, affirmative chords.
[allmusic.com]")
![Igor Stravinsky - Symphony in C [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bmnfwnfnKBA/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - Symphony in C [With score]
Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971)
Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor: Herbert von Karajan
Recorded in: 1969
Symphony in C, written between 1938 and 1940
00:00 - I. Moderato alla breve - Tempo agitato senza troppo accelerare - Tempo 1
11:00 - II. Larghetto concertante - Doppio movimento - Doppio valore
17:27 - III. Allegretto
22:26 - IV. Largo - Tempo giusto, alla breve
Just as Igor Stravinskys 1930 Symphony of Psalms bears a dual dedication to God and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on its fiftieth anniversary, so does the title-page of the Symphony in C from ten years later, describing the work as having been composed to the glory of God, [and] dedicated to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of its existence. The commission had been offered to Stravinsky by Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss on behalf of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1938, but it was not until November of 1940, with Stravinsky conducting, that the Orchestra could give the world premiere of the finished work. For, while the commission was certainly a welcome one, the actual progress of the work was interrupted first by a series of personal tragedies the deaths of his wife, daughter and mother, during 1938 and 1939 and then, of course, by the outbreak of war in late 1939 that precipitated Stravinskys emigration to California. The Symphony in C, then, is a composition whose four movements were composed in four different cities and two continents over a span of just under two years.
If the years between 1938 and 1940 were turbulent ones for both Stravinsky and the community of nations around the world, it doesnt show in the work: here is pure music, unruffled by the dynamics of personal emotion and, following Stravinskys heartfelt beliefs on the subject, making absolutely no pretense at expressing anything except the fundamental drives of a composer struggling to come to grips, really for the first time in his life, with symphonic form. Stravinsky himself felt that there is some stylistic difference between the first half of the work, composed in Paris and Sancellmoz, and the second half, composed in Massachusetts and California, but these distinctions of direction (or perhaps taste) are, after all is said and done, relatively minor, and in performance the Symphony comes across as essentially a very well-unified body of music.
Most of the musical narrative in the first movement, Moderato alla breve, can be traced to one use or another of a single musical idea. This cell, a rising step (either half- or whole-) followed by a falling fourth, finds expression in the very opening bars as a dramatic series of rising B natural octaves that, after a rapid crescendo, complete the motive (by rising to C and then falling back down to G) before the woodwinds take over to give, in slower note values, the whole-step form of the motive (D-E-B). Soon enough, the oboe expounds on the original form at some length over a background of constant eighths in the strings.
In the Larghetto concertante that follows, Stravinsky explores the riches of the orchestra by using a series of more or less solo textures. The Allegretto serves as the Symphonys scherzo; sharp timpani and violin strokes get the movement underway, but the woodwinds quickly take over with music of considerable wit and ingenuity.
A dreary Largo for bassoons, horns, and trombones opens the last movement. After about a minute, however, the tempo guisto alla breve body of the movement breaks in, and soon the three-note motive recurs that defined the first movement. During the coda the winds give this ur-motive a treatment in dense, slowly-moving chords, to which the strings add just one final comment.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - 7 Childrens Songs, op. 61 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/buxdX2nJPcI/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 7 Childrens Songs, op. 61 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (Voice), Love Derwinger (Piano)
7 Barnlige Sange {Childrens Songs} for Voice and Piano, op. 61, written in 1894
00:00 - I. Havet {The Ocean}
01:09 - II. Sang til Juletæet {The Christmas Tree}
03:38 - III. Lok {Farmyard Song}
04:26 - IV. Fiskervise {Fishermans Song}
05:36 - V. Kveldssang for Blakken {Good-night Song for Dobbin}
08:15 - VI. De norske fjelde {The Norwegian Mountains}
11:48 - VII. Fædrelands-Salme {Hymn of the Fatherland}")
![Zoltán Kodály - Dances of Galánta [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/daepERU8rnE/mqdefault.jpg "Zoltán Kodály - Dances of Galánta [With score]
Composer: Zoltán Kodály (16 December 1882 6 March 1967)
Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra
Conductor: Iván Fischer
Dances of Galánta (Galánti táncok), for orchestra, written in 1933
Despite the prominence of folk music in his career, Kodály was a type of artist/scholar an omnicompetent musician who composed fastidiously crafted chamber works richly colored by a fascination with French music, Debussy in particular, that were accepted by an international public long before they were embraced by his countrymen. He did not come to prominence in his native land until his Psalmus Hungaricus, given its premiere in 1923, took the audience by storm and went on to performances around the world. The first version of his opera Háry János (1926) met even greater success. The pattern of cosmopolitan influence and international acceptance, coupled with incomprehension and hostility at home, is paralleled in the career of his exact contemporary, the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski. But Szymanowski came to Polish folk music late in life, seizing upon it as a basis for a major stylistic turning point; Kodály grew up in the provinces, hearing folk music all around him. Beginning in 1905, he began collecting folk songs, eventually notating over 4,000 examples and publishing landmark scholarly articles on his discoveries. Among them was the gulf between authentic folk song, usually modal, and folk music overlaid by popular European dance idioms spiced with flamboyant gypsy ornamentation verbunkos music. Before Kodály and Bartók, authentic Hungarian folk music was overshadowed by verbunkos music, which had come to be accepted as the national Hungarian idiom. Even Liszt, seduced by the brilliance of gypsy musicians, was moved by it, and much of the material included in his Hungarian Rhapsodies is verbunkos in origin. Kodálys family moved to the village of Galánta before he was two and remained there for some seven years. Thus, when he was commissioned for a work by the Budapest Philharmonic Society in 1933 to commemorate its 80th anniversary, Kodály turned to his origins. Curiously, most of the material of Dances of Galánta is verbunkos-related, though its companion piece, the Marosszék Dances, employs authentic folk tunes. After an evocative flourish, a series of dances the sultry and insinuating giving way to the exhilarating and scintillant brilliantly conceived in opulent, glowing orchestral sonorities, place Dances of Galánta shoulder to shoulder with such ripe masterpieces as Fallas Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Dukas La Péri while looming as perhaps the last and finest composition in the mold of Liszts Hungarian Rhapsodies. Kodály conducted the Budapest Philharmonic at its premiere on December 19, 1934.
[allmusic.com]")
![Dmitri Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No. 2 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/e92zMFbDSQ4/mqdefault.jpg "Dmitri Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No. 2 [With score]
Composer: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September 1906 9 August 1975)
Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
Cello: Mstislav Rostropovich [Also the dedicatee]
Cello Concerto No. 2, op. 126, written in 1966
00:00 - I. Largo
13:59 - II. Allegretto
18:19 - III. Allegretto
Shostakovichs last major work before his first heart-attack his first intimation of his own mortality was the Second Cello Concerto. Composed in the early months of 1966, the Cello Concerto seems to have started life as what Shostakovich called his Fourteenth Symphony. In the event, however, the work evolved into the concerto, although the works symphonic character was so pronounced that Shostakovich wrote to his friend Isaak Glikman ...that the Second Concerto could have been called the Fourteenth Symphony with a solo cello part (Shostakovich, A Life, Laurel Fay, p. 247).
Although the work was conceived and composed prior to the deterioration of his health, the Second Cello Concerto is, for the most part, a dark and ominous work with a long and introspective opening Largo and a counter-balancing Allegretto finale, which is a sort of dusky barcarolle. Indeed, the work ends with the curious clock-work percussion which closed the Fourth Symphony of 1935 and which would close the Fifteenth and final symphony of 1971. Yet the work is not all gloomy: the central movement, also an Allegretto, is based in part on a popular song of the 20s, Pretzels, Wholl Buy my Pretzels? Apparently, Shostakovich and some of his close friends saw in the New Year of 1966 with a game of Name that Tune and Shostakovich played that tune which he said was one of his favorites. One of the party guests was the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the dedicatee and first performer of the Second Concerto.
Scored for pairs of winds with double bassoon, a pair of horns and of harps, plus a large percussion section, Shostakovichs Second Concerto is a darkly lit work with flashes of light. The outer movements are rhapsodically composed around pivotal climaxes and the central movement is a sardonic scherzo of a type that Shostakovich had been writing since his E flat major Scherzo of 1923 - 1924. The lack of display for the soloist and the inward nature of the music has denied the Second Cello Concerto the popularity of the First Concerto of 1959; nevertheless, it is a great, if underappreciated, work.
[allmusic.com]
Original Audio: https://youtu.be/oEU5y_Qjvpw")
![Francis Poulenc - Cello Sonata [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eIla8wtCc7E/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Cello Sonata [With score]
Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 30 January 1963)
Performers: Pierre Fournier (cello), Jacques Février (piano)
Sonata for cello and piano [Sonate pour violoncelle et piano], FP 143, completed in 1948
00:00 - I. Allegro - Tempo di marcia
05:48 - II. Cavatine
13:06 - III. Ballabile
16:46 - IV. Finale
Woodwind pieces dominate Poulencs chamber music oeuvre, but the Cello Sonata, like the somewhat earlier Violin Sonata, is a substantial work finding the composer at the height of his powers, and his tongue planted less firmly in his cheek.
Despite a rather rude initial outburst from the piano, the sonata-form first movement, Allegro (tempo di marcia), leavens its fragmentary fanfare-like motifs with lyrical, good-humored material for the cello. One important theme is especially broad, romantic, and bittersweet, although much of the development section is given over to playful treatments of the melodies, with staccato piano accompaniment to cello pizzicato.
The slow second movement, Cavatine, is one of Poulencs most tenderly songful creations. After a long introduction, the cello takes up a mournful, nostalgic theme, and with the piano subjects it to several elaborations, some intense, some hesitant, ending with a lullaby for lost souls.
Unusually for Poulenc, an extra movement separates the slow section from the finale. This Ballabile a word suggesting a dance-like nature is a playful intermezzo offering a nod to the music hall in its outer sections. A trace of wistfulness colors the still cheerful middle portion.
The Finale begins with a stern cello recitative over sour piano chords, pausing for an eerie passage of harmonics. The movements main matter scampers quickly through several episodes of short-breathed cello phrases and rippling piano passagework, with time out midway and again just before the end for more tender if occasionally dizzy music. The movement concludes with the recitative with which it began.
Original Audio: https://youtu.be/dzGlnvG53hU , https://youtu.be/m8K8kkPDvYs")
