Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Composer: Olivier Messiaen (10 December 1908 -- 27 April 1992)
Pianist: Yvonne Loriod (Messiaen's wife)
Olivier Messiaen - Catalogue d'oiseaux, written between 1956-1958, Book 3 (Troisième livre)
00:15 - V. La Chouette hulotte (Tawny owl)
06:49 - VI. L'Alouette lulu (Woodlark)
The third book contains two shorter pieces: "La chouette hulotte" (the tawny owl) and "L'alouette lulu" (the woodlark). Each piece depicts night, the former as terrifying, the latter as peaceful.
Composer: Olivier Messiaen (10 December 1908 -- 27 April 1992)
Pianist: Yvonne Loriod (Messiaen's wife)
Olivier Messiaen - Catalogue d'oiseaux, written between 1956-1958, Book 3 (Troisième livre)
00:15 - V. La Chouette hulotte (Tawny owl)
06:49 - VI. L'Alouette lulu (Woodlark)
The third book contains two shorter pieces: "La chouette hulotte" (the tawny owl) and "L'alouette lulu" (the woodlark). Each piece depicts night, the former as terrifying, the latter as peaceful.
![Edvard Grieg - Lyric Pieces (Volume IV), op. 47 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Håkon Austbø
7 Lyric Pieces Book IV, op. 47, written in 1885-88
00:00 - I. Valse-Impromptu
02:42 - II. Album Leaf
06:15 - III. Melody
09:30 - IV. Halling
10:46 - V. Melancholy
13:39 - VI. Springdans
14:57 - VII. Elegy
The seven works that constitute Edvard Griegs Fourth Book of Lyric Pieces, published as Op. 47 in 1888, were composed from 1885-88. By mid-1885, Grieg had reconciled with his wife Nina, and together they built a home outside Bergen at Troldhaugen (Valley of the Trolls). This would serve as home to the Griegs for the rest of their days. Once completed, the considerable expense of building this elaborate house would drive Grieg back to his worktable. In these years he shaped the First Peer Gynt Suite from his incidental music of 1874-5, revised his cantata Oleg Trygvason, and completed his Third Violin Sonata for the violinist Adolf Brodsky.
It was at Brodskys in Leipzig on New Years Day, 1888 that Grieg enjoyed lunch in the company of fellow composers Johannes Brahms and Peter Tchaikovsky. Also in Leipzig, Grieg met the young English composer Frederick Delius; the two became fast friends, and Delius rejoined Grieg at Troldhaugen for the summer of that year. In May, Grieg traveled to London where he performed his A minor Piano Concerto for the last time. Joyous news arrived in the form of a letter from Griegs publisher Max Abraham with C.F. Peters; Abraham agreed to assume the remaining debt on Troldhaugen and pay it off, relieving Grieg of the responsibility of having to raise the funds to do so.
It was in this stimulating atmosphere of settling-in, reinvigorating his romance with Nina, cleaning up old business, and acquainting himself with his peers that Grieg composed the Fourth Book of Lyric Pieces.
He saved many of his freshest ideas for this set; immediately established through the bitter melodic tinge of the opening Valse-Impromptu, almost bi-tonal in its constant tension between the E major melody in the right hand against the E minor tonality in which the piece is rooted. Albumblad (Album-leaf) has an ecstatic quality that is reminiscent of somewhat later works of Scriabin. Melodie is stated over a grave, minimal, and insistent quarter- and eighth-note figure (in 6/8 time) which is sometimes voiced only in bare fifths for long stretches of bars. In Halling, a setting of a traditional duple-time Norwegian dance, the bare fifths in the accompaniment return decorated by dissonant passing tones. The melody is likewise peppered with dissonant grace notes and adjacent pitches; at one point Grieg achieves a minor ninth in the melody. Melancoli, marked Largo, is somber, as indicated by the title, and largely serves to provide thematic contrast between the Halling and Springdans (Spring or Leaping Dance) which follows. The Springdans, a triple time Norwegian dance, is similar in approach to the Halling; Grieg adds huge leaps in the left hand to the treble register and some tricky triplet figures in the right. The concluding Elegie centers around a drooping chromatic melody that is harmonized by thirds in the manner of Massenets Elegie. Perhaps an ending more respectable than ideal in this context, this piece is nevertheless haunting in its own distinctive way.
[allmusic.com] Edvard Grieg - Lyric Pieces (Volume IV), op. 47 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2KU83FM7rRM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Robert Schumann - 7 Klavierstücke in Fughettenform op. 126 [With score]
Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856)
Performer: Jörg Demus
7 Klavierstücke in Fughettenform {7 Pieces in Fugue Form for Piano), written in 1853
00:03 - I. Nicht schnell, leise vorzutragen
02:00 - II. Mässig
03:51 - III. Ziemlich bewegt
06:00 - IV. Lebhaft
07:49 - V. Ziemlich langsam, empfindungsvoll vorzutragen
10:58 - VI. Sehr schnell
12:09 - VII. Langsam, ausdrucksvoll Robert Schumann - 7 Klavierstücke in Fughettenform op. 126 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2XjCuiTXpvQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Igor Stravinsky - Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra [With score]
Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 6 April 1971)
Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic
Conductor: Ali [Alexander] Rahbari
Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra, written in 1921
00:04 - I. March
01:28 - II. Waltz
03:20 - III. Polka
04:11 - IV. Galop
During the late 1910s and early 1920s, the gestation period of Stravinskys music grew longer and the peregrinations of movements from work to work grew more circuitous. Les noces, for example, went through three different versions over eight years, while the eight movements of the Three Easy Pieces and the Five Easy Pieces for piano duet migrated to become the two Suites for small orchestra.
The Suite No. 2 takes its first three movements from the Three Easy Pieces of 1914 - 1915 and its fourth movement from Five Easy Pieces of 1916 - 1917. The order of the Three Easy Pieces movements was March, Waltz, Polka. In the Suite No. 2, Stravinsky added the Galop from the Five Easy Pieces to complete the set. Stravinsky orchestrated the movements that make up the Suite No. 2 in 1921 at the request of a Paris music hall that was looking for accompaniment to a stage sketch. He tells an amusing story about the Suite No. 2 in his Chronicle of my Life: Although my orchestra was more than modest, the composition as I wrote it was given only at the first few performances. When I went to see the sketch again a month later, I found that there was but little left of what I had written. Everything was completely muddled; some instruments were lacking or had been replaced by others, and the music itself as executed by this pitiful band had become unrecognizable.
Scored for two flutes, one oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, one horn, two trumpets, one trombone, and one tuba with piano, percussion, and strings, the Suite No. 2 represents Stravinskys music in its lightest and most high-spirited mood. The polka was cited by the composer as one of the earliest examples of his emerging Neo-Classical tendencies. Although rhythmically syncopated, occasionally harmonically or melodically dissonant, and stylistically fractured, the Suite No. 2 is among Stravinskys most amusing works.
[allmusic.com] Igor Stravinsky - Suite No. 2 for small Orchestra [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/385KhKIR-Gg/mqdefault.jpg)
![Robert Schumann - Liederkreis, op. 24 [With score]
Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 29 July 1856)
Performers: Ian Bostridge (Tenor), Julius Drake (Piano)
Year of recording: 1998
Liederkreis, 9 songs for voice & piano, Op. 24, written in 1840
00:00 - I. Morgens steh ich auf und frage
01:04 - II. Es treibt mich hin
02:12 - III. Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen
05:45 - IV. Lieb Liebchen, legs Händchen
06:38 - V. Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden
10:26 - VI. Warte, warte, wilder Schiffsmann
12:23 - VII. Berg und Burgn schaun herunter
16:00 - VIII. Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen
16:56 - IX. Mit Myrthen und Rosen
Robert Schumann, the son of a book dealer, exhibited an early love for things literary. The resulting bifurcation of his artistic leanings was articulated in a letter from December 1830, in which he lamented that If only my talent for music and poetry would so converge into a single point, the light would not be so scattered, and I could attempt a great deal. The immediate realization of this wish was the beginning of a career in music criticism (he founded a music journal in 1834); however, it would eventually see its fullest expression in the composers outpouring of German lieder. Despite the composers secret disclaimer from 1839 All my life I have considered vocal music inferior to instrumental music...But dont tell anyone this! the following year saw Schumann compose over 125 songs, many of which now constitute some of his most famous and familiar music. Among the first of his 1840 compositions were several settings of poems from Heinrich Heines Buch der Lieder, gathered under the title Liederkreis, and published as Opus 24.
The bouncy boom-chuck of the bass line and chords that accompany the first song, Morgens steh ich auf und frage, might seem to gloss over the grief of the lovelorn speaker, who finds himself unable to sleep at night, yet wanders throughout the day half-conscious. Likewise, Schumanns setting of the fourth song, Lieb Liebchen, legs Händchen, might seem a little cute for the macabre scene: a contemptuous carpenter hammering away in the lovers heart, building him a casket. Both cases, however, illuminate Schumanns particular talent for understatement: his seemingly simple lyrical outpourings are the perfect compliment to Heines often ironic touch. In the first case, as in many of his settings, slight changes in texture reveal the musical surface to be a psychological façade, beneath which stirs a tortured soul; the singers final note lands on an unresolved chord, his love unrequited, while the piano reaches the final cadential resolution alone. In the second example, there is a recurring moment of haunting disjunction: at the end of both verses, on the phrases Der zimmert mir einen Totensarg (There he builds me a coffin) and Damit ich balde schlafen kann (That I may sleep), the final three syllables are postponed by an unexpected and jarring pause; the piano proceeds with the descending minor-mode line, while the voice follows, hesitatingly out of sync, two beats later. That such subtle irony was deeply felt by the composer could be suggested by biography: at the time of his composing the Liederkreis, his attempts to gain the hand of his sweetheart, Clara Wieck, had theretofore been thwarted by her disapproving father. It would be several more months before Schumanns own love life would cease to so resemble the bleak romantic outlook offered by Heine.
A similarly effective song from Op. 24 is Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden. The graceful melody and pulsing accompaniment suggest an earnest outpouring of sorrow, even resignation; however, lingering under the surface is a bitterness made even more sour by its restrained tone. Together with other charming examples, including Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen and Mit Myrten und Rosen, this song exemplifies the variety of expression and succinct lyricism that are most characteristic of Schumanns songs.
[allmusic.com] Robert Schumann - Liederkreis, op. 24 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3DCiOA2vpnQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Franz Schubert - Fantasy for Violin and Piano [With score]
-Composer: Franz Peter Schubert (31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828)
-Performers: Szymon Goldberg (Violin), Radu Lupu (Piano)
Fantasy for violin and piano in C Major, D. 934 (Op. posth. 159), written in 1827
This easygoing, mainly lighthearted work makes it an exception to the despair and rejection that haunts many of the compositions Schubert wrote in 1828, the last year of his short life. Indeed, it can easily be imagined that in all seven movements the composer was consciously seeking the approval of the notoriously fickle Viennese musical public. Schuberts natural fluency, succulent melodies and elaborate figuration are well-displayed; nevertheless, after its first performance the work which lasts approximately 25 minutes earned only a sour comment from one critic: that it occupied rather too much of the time the Viennese are prepared to devote to the pleasures of the mind.
The striking opening Adagio makes free use of the sounds and idioms of traditional gypsy music, the piano capturing the tremolando of the Hungarian cimbalom (a sort of hammered dulcimer) while the violin swoops and pirouettes around it in extravagant arabesques. The Fantasia adopts a plan remarkably similar to that of the better-known (and, let it be said, more profound) Wanderer Fantasy for solo piano. In the third section Schubert again makes use his own song Sei mir gegrüsst, and its inclusion lifts the work onto an altogether higher plane. As with much of Schuberts chamber music, the harmonic scheme is complex, oscillating in strange ways around the keys of C major (in which the work begins and ends) A major, A minor, and the softly glowing A flat major.
(allmusic.com) Franz Schubert - Fantasy for Violin and Piano [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4fskKDq9bgw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Edvard Grieg - 6 Reminiscences from Mountain and Fjord, op. 44 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Monica Groop (Voice), Roger Vignoles (Piano)
Rejseminder fra Fjeld og Fjord {Reminiscences from Mountain and Fjord}, Songs for Voice and Piano, op. 44, written in 1886
00:00 - I. Prologue
03:00 - II. Johanne
05:39 - III. Ragnhild
07:49 - IV. Ingeborg
09:59 - V. Ragna
12:11 - VI. Epilog Edvard Grieg - 6 Reminiscences from Mountain and Fjord, op. 44 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/52iKumD7b9Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![Claude Debussy - La plus que lente (Orchestral Version) [With score]
-Composer: Claude-Achille Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)
-Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Bernard Herrmann
La plus que lente [English: The more than slow], L. 121, written in 1910 [actually for Piano solo], arranged by Debussy himself:
-Instruments: Flute, Clarinet, Piano, Cimbalom, Strings
The history of Debussys celebrated waltz La plus que lente is an engaging one. The composer kept on his mantelpiece a small sculpture by Claudel entitled La valse, and so skilled was its creator in transforming rhythmic movement into mass, writes Paul Roberts (in his book Images: The Piano Music of Claude Debussy), that one has the impression of being able to touch a waltz, of experiencing its essence in another medium. Like Ravel, who saw the waltz as the touchstone of decadence, and in La valse used it to suggest the inevitable collapse of imperial Vienna, Debussy was fascinated by the waltz form as much for its human and social implications as for its purely musical ones. Whereas in Debussys virtuoso piano piece Pour les octaves the music expresses the inner meaning of the form in Roberts words, its energy, movement, and line, and its power to excite and take the dancers out of themselves the intentions, and indeed the effect of La plus que lente are quite different.
The title might be translated into English as The Even Slower Waltz; at the time it carried subtle connotations beyond the evocation of a popular style. La plus que lente appeared soon after the publication of Book I of Debussys Preludes, in 1910. It represented Debussys laconic reaction to the pervasive influence of the slow waltz in Frances coffee-houses, dance-halls, and salons. But, writes Frank Howes, La plus que lente is, in Debussys wryly humorous way, the valse lente to outdo all others. Apparently Debussy handed the manuscript of this piece to the gypsy fiddler Leoni, whose Romany band played to great popular acclaim in the ballroom of the New Carlton Hotel in Paris. It was almost certainly here that Debussy got the idea for the work in the first place. Perhaps the composer was deliberately aiming La plus que lente at a less sophisticated audience than he normally wanted to address through his music, but it contained a vaguely condescending Stravinskyan irony that a hotel audience might or might not have detected.
[allmusic.com] Claude Debussy - La plus que lente (Orchestral Version) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5OiClD0X-Yk/mqdefault.jpg)
![Edvard Grieg - Sigurd Jorsalfar, op. 22 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Vocal soloist: Håkan Hagegård
-Choir: Bergen Philharmonic Choir
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
Sigurd Jorsalfar, incidental music, op. 22, written in 1872
00:00 - I. Introduction to Act 1
02:14 - II. Borgilds dream
06:00 - III. At the Matching Game
09:42 - IV. Northern Folk
15:40 - V. Homage March
25:03 - VI. Interlude I
26:50 - VII. Interlude II
30:28 - VIII. The Kings Song
Edvard Grieg began to compose his incidental music for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnsons play Sigurd Jorsalfar (Jorsalfar the Crusader) in 1873, two years before he undertook his much better known Peer Gynt music for Ibsens verse drama. The play itself is rarely staged, although its roots in the mystical world of Nordic folklore still remain compelling, but it should not surprise us that Griegs incidental music has achieved greater success than the original stage drama. The plot concerned the joint rulers of twelfth-century Norway, two brothers Sigurd and Øystein, and the maiden Borghild, who is loved by the first, but whose own feelings for the second go unheeded.
Grieg subsequently issued a set of three orchestral fragments and two songs from Sigurd Jorsalfar, the most famous of which is the splendid and patriotic Homage March, with its rousing introductory fanfares, broad main melody, and touchingly reflective trio section. The march is heard only during Act III of the play, when the brothers are reconciled following a contest, The Matching Game, which takes place in the Kings Hall, as the monarchs and their respective supporters debate who shall be sole ruler, and which shall claim the hand of Borghild. She has chosen Sigurd, but he declares that his destiny lies elsewhere he must first seek the glory of his nation abroad, and sings the patriotic song The Northland Folk with his warriors.
The play ends with The Kings Song, a further noble pledge to deeds of valor both at home and elsewhere, but the latter stages of the work are again dominated by the strains of the Homage March itself. At its second appearance, ushered in by four solo cellos, the march builds impressively toward a statement in double note values as the procession of devoted subjects of the two brothers fill the stage. Griegs incidental music also includes Borghilds Dream, a dramatic representation of the heroines inner turmoil and confusion over her troth. The incidental music was scored for orchestra, tenor or baritone soloists, and chorus. Only the stirring Homage March is regularly performed, and any revival of the complete play is indeed a rare event.
[allmusic.com] Edvard Grieg - Sigurd Jorsalfar, op. 22 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5j0NS_X4Hd8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 6 [With score]
-Composer: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (25 September 1906 – 9 August 1975)
-Orchestra: WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne [WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln]
-Conductor: Rudolf Borisovich Barshai
Symphony No. 6 in b minor, op. 54, written in 1939
00:00 - I. Largo
18:53 - II. Allegro
24:39 - III. Presto
When Shostakovich was writing this symphony in 1939, the artistic atmosphere in Soviet Russia was in a transitional state. Though government censorship was still pervasive, composers were encouraged to write anti-German propaganda, at least until the period of the Nazi-Soviet treaty. When Germany invaded, of course, Soviet cultural bosses were forced to turn their attention to the war, and anti-German music came back into fashion.
Shostakovich had indicated his intention to write a choral symphony about Lenin in 1938, but would not get around to it for another 22 years, until the Symphony No. 12 (1960-1961). He undoubtedly felt compelled to write patriotic music or to promise to do so since he had already incurred the wrath of party censors with his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which was banned in 1936. His decision to abandon the idea of composing a Lenin symphony instead of his purely instrumental Symphony No. 6 probably had something to do with fears that if such a patriotic work were greeted unenthusiastically by party arts officials, he might end up in a labor camp or cemetery with some of his less fortunate colleagues. Perhaps he sensed that Stalin may not have wanted all the glory and attention of the Revolution attributed to Lenin, and thus decided to steer clear of the idea for the time being.
In any event, Shostakovich produced a work whose gloomy and intense opening panel is counterbalanced by a pair of jovial and light movements. Put together, they are shorter than the opening Largo, and the contrast presented by their cheerfulness and wit gives the symphony a somewhat split personality. The main theme of the first movement is presented in the lower strings: it is a muscular, dark melody that is repeated in many guises during the exposition. A new theme finally appears on the English horn to launch the second subject group, and then the material is reprised, but in a much more compact way.
The second movement is marked Allegro and immediately takes on a playful character. While the music and orchestration sound like Shostakovich, the spirit of Prokofiev seems to hover above. Although there is some tension and conflict in the middle section, the impression left by this Scherzando is one of joy and good humor.
The finale, marked Presto, is exuberant, almost ecstatic throughout most of its duration. Even the subdued and brief middle section seems eager to hand the reins back to the infectious good spirits of the main material. The ending is one of the most joyous, colorful, and unpretentious the composer ever wrote. There is neither bombast here nor an extraneous note.
Shostakovichs Symphony No. 6 was premiered on November 5, 1939, and received little notice. Coincidentally, Prokofievs Alexander Nevsky, a product of the anti-German tendency then prevalent, also received its first performance at the same concert, garnering much acclaim. Some have conjectured that Shostakovich may have been fortunate that his symphony drew little attention, for Soviet censors might have singled out the tragic first movement as too cerebral and confusing. A typical performance of the work lasts just under 30 minutes.
[allmusic.com] Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 6 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5ryR1OHx34w/mqdefault.jpg)
![Olivier Messiaen - Prelude for Piano (1964) [With score]
-Composer: Olivier-Eugène-Prosper-Charles Messiaen (10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992)
-Piano: Roger Muraro
Prélude pour piano [Prelude for Piano], writen in 1964
Olivier Messiaen, one of the best-known French composers of the twentieth century, worked for much of his life as an organist. He was also a fine pianist, and he wrote several major works for that instrument as well as featuring it in many of his orchestral compositions. After his death in 1992, his widow, Yvonne Loriod, also a fine pianist, discovered a few unpublished manuscripts amongst Messiaens papers. One of these was a short Prelude for piano, dating from 1964. By this point in his career, Messiaen had achieved what could be termed his mature style, including all the elements that would remain part of his music throughout the rest of his life. He had already composed most of his solo piano music by then: Vingt Regards sur lEnfant-Jésus in 1944 (religious theme, rich modal harmonies, chant-inspired melodies, distinctive virtuosity); Quatre Études de Rythme in 1949 - 1950 (serial techniques, very influential on younger composers such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen); and Catalogue dOiseaux in 1956 - 1958 (use of birdsong as primary determinant of melody, texture, and form).
While this unpublished prelude from 1964 is relatively minor, at some two and a half minutes in duration, it actually incorporates all of the features Messiaen had introduced in his more important piano works of the previous two decades. The piece opens with a stately, joyous theme, harmonized with open intervals and major triads. Low pedal points add a dissonant note, though, and soon flurries of birdsong break out of the texture. A rootless, serial passage is sounded in plain quarter notes, before the birdsong returns and swoops down to the low register. The second statement of the material includes additional elements such as high-register flutters and chordal-rhythmic elements such as a short-short-long progression. A cadential major triad closes the prelude, ornamented with one last flutter of birdcall.
[allmusic.com] Olivier Messiaen - Prelude for Piano (1964) [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5yQ00rL6_j0/mqdefault.jpg)
![Edvard Grieg - Haugtussa {The Mountain Maid}, op. 67 [With score]
-Composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers: Monica Groop (Voice), Love Derwinger (Piano)
Haugtussa {The Mountain Maid}, Song Cycle for Voice and Piano, op. 67, written in 1895
00:00 - I. Det syng {The Enticement}
03:30 - II. Veslemöy {Veslemöy. The Young Maiden}
06:20 - III. Blåbær-Li {Blueberry Slope}
09:14 - IV. Møte {The Tryst}
13:30 - V. Elsk {Love}
16:05 - VI. Killingdans {Kids Dance}
17:42 - VII. Vond Dag {Hurtful Day}
20:22 - VIII. Ved Gjætle-Bekken {At the Brook} Edvard Grieg - Haugtussa {The Mountain Maid}, op. 67 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6TronoEtXds/mqdefault.jpg)