![Paul Hindemith - Suite 1922 [With score] @DamonJHK](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jRLf-0QWcXY/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded July 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
-Composer: (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
-Performer: Sviatoslav Richter
-Recorded in 1989
Suite 1922, for piano, Op. 26, written in 1921-22
00:00 - I. Marsch
01:36 - II. Shimmy
04:54 - III. Nachtstück
11:44 - IV. Boston
18:04 - V. Ragtime
Whereas in the Kleine Kammermusik of 1921 Hindemith chuckled good-naturedly about such shopworn forms as marches and waltzes, in the 1922 Suite for solo piano, his attitude toward the march, shimmy, Boston and ragtime is more plainly bad-tempered. In the years immediately following the First World War, Hindemith had been privately composing pastiches of popular dances of the day, but had held them back from publication, considering them mere "sports." By 1922, however, Hindemith no longer had any qualms about using popular music as a basis for serious musical statements.
In Suite "1922", satire borders on sarcasm; in the opening "Marsch," the pianist is instructed to play it "rather clumsily." The writing for the piano is unusually thick and heavy with chords, especially in the left hand; as such it is almost unrecognizable as coming from one of the master contrapuntalists of the twentieth century. The rhythm is irregular, and the harmonies -- built on dissonant, cluster-like explosions and angular aggregations of fourths and fifths -- make for a very unmarchable march indeed.
The other dance forms are similarly undermined in the suite. The second movement, "Shimmy," is based on a dance-hall variant of the foxtrot, but makes only occasional allusions to the form, spending most of its time musing on a dour, ambiguously harmonized theme. The central "Nachtstück" anticipates Hindemith's serious and contemplative mature style -- harmonically quite dark in this instance; the central section is ethereal, with haunting motives drifting about in the upper range of the keyboard. It is succeeded by an equally unsettled "Boston" -- an old American dance with similarities to the waltz. Repeated attempts to establish the requisite triple-time drift instead into tonally ambiguous (albeit fascinating) meditations. For the "Ragtime" finale, Hindemith instructs the pianist to play wildly but in strict rhythm, and to "[r]egard the piano here as an interesting percussion instrument." Dissonance reaches its maximum intensity in this loud and disturbing movement.
In 1940, Hindemith wrote to Hugo Strecker, "I think it is not necessary to reprint that awful Suite '1922'.... The piece is really not an honorable ornament in the music-history of our time, and it depresses an old man rather seriously to see that just the sins of his youth impress the people more than his better creations." That it continued to impress listeners, however, amply demonstrates its intrinsic value.
[allmusic.com]
-Composer: (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
-Performer: Sviatoslav Richter
-Recorded in 1989
Suite 1922, for piano, Op. 26, written in 1921-22
00:00 - I. Marsch
01:36 - II. Shimmy
04:54 - III. Nachtstück
11:44 - IV. Boston
18:04 - V. Ragtime
Whereas in the Kleine Kammermusik of 1921 Hindemith chuckled good-naturedly about such shopworn forms as marches and waltzes, in the 1922 Suite for solo piano, his attitude toward the march, shimmy, Boston and ragtime is more plainly bad-tempered. In the years immediately following the First World War, Hindemith had been privately composing pastiches of popular dances of the day, but had held them back from publication, considering them mere "sports." By 1922, however, Hindemith no longer had any qualms about using popular music as a basis for serious musical statements.
In Suite "1922", satire borders on sarcasm; in the opening "Marsch," the pianist is instructed to play it "rather clumsily." The writing for the piano is unusually thick and heavy with chords, especially in the left hand; as such it is almost unrecognizable as coming from one of the master contrapuntalists of the twentieth century. The rhythm is irregular, and the harmonies -- built on dissonant, cluster-like explosions and angular aggregations of fourths and fifths -- make for a very unmarchable march indeed.
The other dance forms are similarly undermined in the suite. The second movement, "Shimmy," is based on a dance-hall variant of the foxtrot, but makes only occasional allusions to the form, spending most of its time musing on a dour, ambiguously harmonized theme. The central "Nachtstück" anticipates Hindemith's serious and contemplative mature style -- harmonically quite dark in this instance; the central section is ethereal, with haunting motives drifting about in the upper range of the keyboard. It is succeeded by an equally unsettled "Boston" -- an old American dance with similarities to the waltz. Repeated attempts to establish the requisite triple-time drift instead into tonally ambiguous (albeit fascinating) meditations. For the "Ragtime" finale, Hindemith instructs the pianist to play wildly but in strict rhythm, and to "[r]egard the piano here as an interesting percussion instrument." Dissonance reaches its maximum intensity in this loud and disturbing movement.
In 1940, Hindemith wrote to Hugo Strecker, "I think it is not necessary to reprint that awful Suite '1922'.... The piece is really not an honorable ornament in the music-history of our time, and it depresses an old man rather seriously to see that just the sins of his youth impress the people more than his better creations." That it continued to impress listeners, however, amply demonstrates its intrinsic value.
[allmusic.com]
![Paul Hindemith - Suite 1922 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jRLf-0QWcXY/mqdefault.jpg "Paul Hindemith - Suite 1922 [With score]
-Composer: (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963)
-Performer: Sviatoslav Richter
-Recorded in 1989
Suite 1922, for piano, Op. 26, written in 1921-22
00:00 - I. Marsch
01:36 - II. Shimmy
04:54 - III. Nachtstück
11:44 - IV. Boston
18:04 - V. Ragtime
Whereas in the Kleine Kammermusik of 1921 Hindemith chuckled good-naturedly about such shopworn forms as marches and waltzes, in the 1922 Suite for solo piano, his attitude toward the march, shimmy, Boston and ragtime is more plainly bad-tempered. In the years immediately following the First World War, Hindemith had been privately composing pastiches of popular dances of the day, but had held them back from publication, considering them mere sports. By 1922, however, Hindemith no longer had any qualms about using popular music as a basis for serious musical statements.
In Suite 1922, satire borders on sarcasm; in the opening Marsch, the pianist is instructed to play it rather clumsily. The writing for the piano is unusually thick and heavy with chords, especially in the left hand; as such it is almost unrecognizable as coming from one of the master contrapuntalists of the twentieth century. The rhythm is irregular, and the harmonies built on dissonant, cluster-like explosions and angular aggregations of fourths and fifths make for a very unmarchable march indeed.
The other dance forms are similarly undermined in the suite. The second movement, Shimmy, is based on a dance-hall variant of the foxtrot, but makes only occasional allusions to the form, spending most of its time musing on a dour, ambiguously harmonized theme. The central Nachtstück anticipates Hindemiths serious and contemplative mature style harmonically quite dark in this instance; the central section is ethereal, with haunting motives drifting about in the upper range of the keyboard. It is succeeded by an equally unsettled Boston an old American dance with similarities to the waltz. Repeated attempts to establish the requisite triple-time drift instead into tonally ambiguous (albeit fascinating) meditations. For the Ragtime finale, Hindemith instructs the pianist to play wildly but in strict rhythm, and to [r]egard the piano here as an interesting percussion instrument. Dissonance reaches its maximum intensity in this loud and disturbing movement.
In 1940, Hindemith wrote to Hugo Strecker, I think it is not necessary to reprint that awful Suite 1922.... The piece is really not an honorable ornament in the music-history of our time, and it depresses an old man rather seriously to see that just the sins of his youth impress the people more than his better creations. That it continued to impress listeners, however, amply demonstrates its intrinsic value.
[allmusic.com]")
![Alexander Borodin - Piano Quintet [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jViUmSHwsn4/mqdefault.jpg "Alexander Borodin - Piano Quintet [With score]
-Composer: Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887)
-Performers: Moscow String Quartet and Alexander Mndoiantz
Piano Quintet in c minor, written in 1862
00:03 – I. Andante
05:39 – II. Allegro non troppo
11:34 – III. Allegro moderato
While in Heidelberg in May 1861, Borodin met and fell in love with the pianist Yekaterina Protopopova, who soon became his wife, and who seems to have inspired in him a taste for her favourite composers, Chopin and Schumann. Later that year she fell ill, and the engaged couple wintered in Italy. There in May and June 1862 Borodin composed his Piano Quintet in C minor, the last work he would complete before his game-changing meeting with Balakirev.
That the twenty-eight-year-old composer was already ripe for adoption to the nationalist cause is evident from the opening theme, which has the contours and character of a Russian melismatic song. In fact the entire first movement is made up of variations, repetitions and derivations from this idea, dressed up in piano textures that could easily have come from Anton Rubinstein on the other side of the nationalist/academic divide.
The movement feels quite happy to end in A minor, rather than the tonic C minor, and it is in A minor that the scherzo second movement launches out, its main theme being another thinly disguised variation on motifs from the first movement. A bouncy violin theme provides contrast, and once again enthusiasm and directness of feeling, rather than sophisticated technique, carry the movement forward. The trio section rhapsodizes freely, never feeling obliged to put all five instruments together.
The finale is once again subtly derived motivically, and its initial motifs are never all that far from the surface. As with the cello sonata, the opening mood—wistful in this case—is a feint. The music soon becomes more robust, before taking flight à la Mendelssohn. Here Borodin attempts a full sonata from, complete with repeated exposition. From a Germanic perspective many ideas go to waste; from a Russian-nationalist one, however, it is entirely virtuous that they should be unhampered by excessive learning. This is music for use and enjoyment, unconcerned with conforming to ‘comme il faut’. The structure may be wayward, but this at least means that the listener is kept intrigued as to when and how it will end. Always apparently winding up, in the end it seems to wind down before reaching its full potential; but the soft conclusion suggests that Borodin knew what he was aiming at.")
![Robert Schumann - Vier Gesänge {Four Songs}, op. 142 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jYe8pkmNa-w/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - Vier Gesänge {Four Songs}, op. 142 [With score]
-Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856)
-Performers I. and IV. : Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), Christoph Eschenbach (Piano)
-Performers II. and III. : Peter Schreier (Tenor), Norman Shetler (Piano)
Vier Lieder {Four Songs} for Voice and Piano, op. 142, written in 1840 and 1852
[00:00] - I. Trost im Gesang
[02:31] - II. Lehn deine Wang
[03:21] - III. Mädchen-Schwermut
[06:23] - IV. Mein Wagen rollet langsam
Assembled from songs Schumann left unpublished at his death, the four lieder of Op. 142 were published in 1858 by Rieter-Biedermann and dedicated to Frau Livia Frege by the publisher.
Trost im Gesang (Solace in song), by Justinus Kerner, laments the lonely existence of the night traveler. Just as the traveler wanders off the path because it is difficult to see, Schumann moves from the opening E flat major to a distant D major at the center of this ternary-form structure. The accompaniment, plodding and non-melodic, follows the rhythm of the melody but not the shape.
Lehn deine Wang (Rest your cheeks [against my cheeks]), by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), was originally intended for the Dichterliebe, Op. 48; set aside by the composer, it remained unknown until after his death. Opening in G minor, the songs narrator asks a lover to lay her cheek against his so their tears may mingle. The second half of the song modulates to a new key as the narrator talks of the lovers inner flames and how he will die from loves yearning. Schumann conveys the sense of yearning by closing the song on the dominant, with no hint of resolution.
In Mädchen-Schwermut (Girls sadness), probably by Lily Bernhard, a girl weeps over her place in the joyless world. In E minor throughout, the songs melody progresses from repeated notes to a more passionate, arching shape in the second half, in which the accompaniment, too, becomes more animated. Schumann depicts the emptiness of the girls heart by abruptly stopping the right hand flourish at the end of the song, leaving only the open chord in the bass.
Mein Wagen rollet langsam (My carriage rolls slowly), by Heine, was also intended for the Dichterliebe, Op. 48. Schumanns accompaniment depicts the slow, uneven progress of the carriage through the forest, while the constantly descending voice part creates an atmosphere of low energy. In the second verse, three shadows come to the carriage and nod mockingly at the passenger; when they giggle and rush away the accompaniment becomes more animated.
[allmusic.com]")
![Edvard Grieg - 4 Norwegian Dances, op. 35 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k7hH14ycSTo/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 4 Norwegian Dances, op. 35 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (Piano 4-hands): The Cologne Piano Duo
-Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
-Conductor: Ole Kristian Ruud
4 Norwegian Dances for 4-hands or Orchestra (orchestrated by Hans Sitt), op. 35, written in 1880
Piano 4-hands
00:00 - I. Allegro marcato
05:29 - II. Allegretto tranquillo e grazioso
07:37 - III. Allegro moderato alla marcia
10:18 - IV. Allegro molto
Orchestra
15:04 - I. Allegro marcato
20:42 - II. Allegretto tranquillo e grazioso
23:22 - III. Allegro moderato alla marcia
27:08 - IV. Allegro molto
The Norwegian Dances (4), Op. 35, (1883) of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1845-1907) are for the most part based on tunes he found in Ludvig Mathias Lindemans folk song collection Mountain Melodies Old and New. Like many sets of national dances from the nineteenth century Brahms Hungarian Dances and Dvoráks Slavonic Dances, for example Griegs Norwegian Dances were originally scored for piano duet to satisfy demand for music to be played in the home. They were later orchestrated by the Czech-born conductor Hans Sitt and it is in this guise that they are best known to later audiences.
All four of the dances are in simple ternary form. Three of the four the first, third, and fourth have quick outer sections and slower inner sections while the second reverses this order. Taken as a whole, the Norwegian Dances are in symphonic form, that is, the first and fourth dances (Allegro marcato and Allegro molto) are more expansive and more developed while the two central dances are like the Intermezzos central movements of Brahms symphonies with the second (Allegretto tranquillo e grazioso) taking the place of a slow movement and the third (Allegro moderato alla Marcia) serving as a march-like Scherzo à la the later march-scherzos of Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 6.
Like all of Griegs best music, the Norwegian Dances are filled with achingly beautiful tunes set to supple chromatic harmonies, joyously festive tunes above cheerful rhythms, and the occasional faux-frightening tunes with skittering harmonies. At least two sections of the dances the cheerful opening of the first dance and insouciant opening of the second are nearly as well-known as the first Peer Gynt Suite or the Holberg Suite.")
![Edvard Grieg - 12 Melodies (Vinje-Songs), op. 33 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kEyHrhf6Lgk/mqdefault.jpg "Edvard Grieg - 12 Melodies (Vinje-Songs), op. 33 [With score]
-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performers (Songs except No. 2): Monica Groop (Voice), Roger Vignoles (Piano)
-Performers (Song No. 2): Anne Sofie von Otter (Voice), Bengt Forsberg (Piano)
12 Melodies after Poems by A. O. Vinje for Voice and Piano, op. 33, written in 1873-80
00:00 - I. Guten {The youth}
03:00 - II. Våren {Spring}
08:23 - III. Den Særde {The wounded heart}
10:42 - IV. Tyteberet {The whortleberry}
12:22 - V. Langs ei Å {Beside the stream}
14:05 - VI. Eit Syn {A vision}
15:54 - VII. Gamle Mor {Old mother}
17:47 - VIII. Det Förste {The first thing}
20:09 - IX. Ved Rundarne {At Rundarne}
22:28 - X. Et Vennestykke {A broken friendship}
24:03 - XI. Trudom {Faith}
26:40 - XII. Fyremål {The goal}
In April 1880, Grieg began composing again after a long period of travel and performing. He was inspired by the poetry of Aasmund Olafsson Vinje. Vinje (1818-1870) was truly a poet of the nineteenth century, his Romanticism following in the footsteps of Heine, Byron, and Goethe, and with a nationalistic feeling not only for subject matter, but also for language, using a country version of Norwegian. This suited Griegs desire to use Norwegian folk idioms in his music, and these songs are considered his first genuinely Norwegian songs. Grieg initially set 15 poems, but published only ten of these in Op. 33, adding two others that he had composed earlier. The songs were published in two books, in multiple languages. Grieg worked closely with the translators, hoping to accurately capture the feel of the original texts, but not always succeeding, even with that close relative of Norwegian, Danish. This helps explain why the songs are much better known in Norway than anywhere else. From the simplicity of a description of nature in Langs ei Å to the breathless dance of the fleeting vision in Eit Syn, and the dissonance of bitterness in Eit vennestykke (A Broken Friendship), the music is determined by the text in each song; the mood and words of the poem determine the mood and harmonies of the music. Most of the songs are strophic, all are representative of Griegs gift for melody, and even if the folk music idioms are not obvious, the songs are unmistakably Griegs. The set begins with Guten (The Youth), a warning to a restless youth. This is followed by what is probably Griegs best-known song (other than Solveigs Song), Våren (Spring), later orchestrated along with the third song, Den sårede (The Wounded Heart). Langs ei Å (Beside the Stream), the fifth song, was written in 1877, while the seventh, Gamle Mor (The Old Mother), was written in 1873, but neither is out of place with the later songs. No. 6, Eit Syn (A Vision), is one of the more popular of the 12, as are No. 9, Ved Rundarne (At Rondane), and the final song, Fyremål (The Goal). In that final song, the bitterness inherent in much of the others is resolved through Vinjes hopeful text and Griegs strong-minded, melodious opening and lyrical middle section of his setting.
[allmusic.com]")
![Francis Poulenc - Le bal masqué [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kTqC28EKFFs/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Le bal masqué [With score]
-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
-Text: Max Jacob (2 July 1876 – 5 March 1944)
-Conductor: Antonio Plotino
-Performers: Nicolas Rivenq (Baritone), Alberto Negroni (Oboe), Giampiero Sobrino (Clarinet), Rino Vernizzi (Bassoon), Francesco Tamiati (Piston), Enrico Calini (Percussion), Massimiliano Damerini (Piano), Giulio Plotino (Violin), Alfredo Persichilli (Cello)
Le bal masqué, Cantate profane sur des poèmes de Max Jacob pour baryton et orchestre de chambre, FP 60 (1932)
00:00 - I. Prèambule et air de bravoure
03:47 - II. Intermède
06:11 - III. Malvina
08:06 - IV. Bagatelle
10:13 - V. La dame aveugle
12:58 - VI. Finale
Francis Poulenc was introduced at an early age into the Parisian cultural circles in which prominent figures like Cocteau and Satie moved, and his early compositions (that is, those that came before his religious awakening in the mid-1930s) reflect the decidedly effervescent aesthetic values that Poulenc and the other members of Les Six, in response to the emotional viscosity and heavy handedness of the Austro-German musical establishment, came to represent. Among Poulencs contributions to this early Parisian style was an approach to musical development and continuity that neither developed or continued: themes didnt grow out of each other organically, they appeared pell-mell, piled on top of each other, strung along with carnivalesque variety; harmonic progressions bypassed modulation in favor of bootlegger turns and chromatic acrobatics. Fittingly, Poulenc was very fond of the surreal, shape-changing images and incongruous plots that filled the poems of Max Jacob (1876 - 1944), and set many of them to music. Among these are the four poems appearing in Poulencs Profane Cantata, Le Bal Masqué (The Masked Ball).
The work came as the result of a commission from the Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Noailles to compose a work for a 1932 concert at the Théâtre de Hyères. The poems, taken from Jacobs 1921 anthology, Laboratoire central, held for Poulenc a kind of odd Bradbury-esque nostalgia, and many of Jacobs images evoked faint fragments of memories. The song cycle reaches our ears, too, as a grab bag of unsorted, mismatched textual and musical remembrances. Poulencs score calls for a solo baritone (or mezzo), oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, piano, violin, cello, and percussion. This ensemble offers a broad timbral array, which allows the composer to be as playful with register and orchestration as he is with melody and harmony. His menagerie of melodies is passed from instrument to instrument, treating his clever lines with skillfully idiomatic charm and humor.
The cycle is structured in such a way that the four songs are separated by instrumental passages either autonomous movements, such as the Interlude between the first and second songs, and the Bagatelle that separates the third and fourth; or extended instrumental prefaces, such as the Caprice that precedes the Finale, or, for that matter, the long introduction to the first song. The Preamble begins with an infectiously peppy romp, bringing to mind the Darwinian cocktail party from Milhauds Création du Monde. The baritone enters, singing of a mysterious Madame la Dauphine, Chinese Peasants, and cannons made of goose fat. The most readily identifiable connections between this strange collection of observations are phonetic ones, which Poulenc makes abundantly clear through incessant repetition (Madame la Dauphine-fine-fine-fine-fine.... a peasant from Chine-chine-chine-chine... you get the idea). Elsewhere, the text is treated even more clownishly. A maudlin thirty-second note run introduces the overly-rhapsodic benediction that closes Malvina. Worse yet, the closing lines of the last poem in the cycle the singer, following the composers instructions très violent and exagérément articulé, tries to achieve an ever-climactic conclusion, repeating the last words an inexcusable number of times; and just when we think he might be finished, he leaps saucily into his falsetto range for a delightfully ridiculous finish.
Poulenc eventually sobered up a bit, and in his middle years he composed a large body of rather reverent sacred works. Still, pieces like the Laudamus Te from the Gloria, and the finale of his swansong, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, demonstrate the youthful and invigorating wit of his earlier works.
[allmusic.com]")
![Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 19 Dissonance, K. 465 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kcfDxgfHs64/mqdefault.jpg "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - String Quartet No. 19 Dissonance, K. 465 [With score]
-Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
-Performers: Quatuor Mosaïques
String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, written in 1785 [Haydn Quartet VI]
00:06 - I. Adagio - Allegro
14:08 - II. Andante cantabile
22:18 - III. Menuetto. Allegro
28:36 - IV. Allegro molto
The last of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn, K. 465 is officially in the sunny key of C major, but it owes its Dissonant nickname to its slow, tense introduction, full of unresolved harmonies over a throbbing cello line. Soon enough, this disorienting Adagio gives way to the first movements bright, Allegro main matter. The first violin sings out the short-phrased principal theme, which the other instruments soon pick up in contrapuntal imitation. A second, more jittery melody and a third in triplets all become fodder for a brief development section, although its the first theme, now with a minor cast, that dominates the proceedings until the recapitulation soothes the troubled quartet the exposition returning, of course, without the baggage of the dissonant introduction.
The second movement, Andante cantabile, wraps itself in warm F major, with all four instruments exploring a variety of highly lyrical thematic passages. Third comes a witty, Haydn-esque Minuet (and one that would influence Beethoven), full of sudden dynamic contrasts and pitting various combinations of instruments against each other. The brief Trio section dips into C minor for an episode of agitated pathos. As it begins, the finale (Allegro) has every indication of being a conventional if quick rondo, but the music continually veers into unexpected harmonic territory, skidding into the minor and fragmenting the themes; this is perhaps a sonata-allegro movement, with the development section split among the episodes of a rondo. Performers may play this as either comedy or drama, but the music is really a bold melding of the two.
[allmusic.com]")
![Igor Stravinsky - Ebony Concerto [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/klQY_X1clMs/mqdefault.jpg "Igor Stravinsky - Ebony Concerto [With score]
Composer: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June 1882 6 April 1971)
Clarinet: Michel Arrignon
Ensemble: Ensemble InterContemporain
Conductor: Pierre Boulez
Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band, written in 1945
00:00 - I. Allegro moderato
03:00 - II. Andante
05:33 - III. Moderato - Con moto - Moderato
Stravinsky wrote his Ebony Concerto for jazz bandleader Woody Herman, who premiered it with his ensemble the Thundering Herd in March 1946. It is modeled on the Baroque concerto grosso and obviously incorporates jazz styles popular during the wartime era. Cast in three very short movements the whole work lasting about nine minutes it is scored for clarinet and jazz band.
Ebony Concerto opens with a lively Allegro moderato, where the themes are rhythmic and quite jerky in their unpredictability. Everything sounds Stravinskyan, though, the jazz elements fusing naturally with the composers neo-Classical style. The most lyrical-sounding theme comes on clarinet and trombone, recalling a theme in ragtime from the composers Lhistoire du soldat. A reprise of the main material makes up the second half of the first movement.
The middle panel is a bluesy Andante, an almost funereal piece in its lazy, dark mists and lower-range writing for the clarinet. The brief middle section is perky and playful, but the main theme returns in all its delicious gloom to close out the movement. The finale, marked Moderato Con moto Moderato Vivo, begins slowly and darkly then turns lively when a cool, bluesy theme is played by clarinet. The music from the opening returns before the playful Vivo section is presented. The work ends slowly, with the kind of tranquil mood, if not the sound of the first movements close from the composers contemporary Symphony in 3 Movements.
[allmusic.com]
Original Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccwFZ6-COec")
![Benjamin Britten - Phantasy Quartet [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ksdSIBBGtnI/mqdefault.jpg "Benjamin Britten - Phantasy Quartet [With score]
-Composer: Edward Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976)
-Performers: Gernot Schmalfuß (oboe), Andreas Krecher (violin), Niklas Schwarz (viola), Armin Fromm (violoncello)
Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, op. 2, written in 1932
Brittens fondness for the oboe shows in his orchestral writing. Time and again, he used the high, clear sound of the oboe to pierce through the general sound, often using it as if a single voice against the world.
The first third of the twentieth century is marked by works by many British composers in the form of chamber music named Fantasy. This is simply because of the periodic issuing by a wealthy patron of a commissioning prize for such works. Britten composed this Phantasy Quartet for the great British oboist Leon Goossens. It brought him national and international attention, being performed on the BBC in 1933 and at the annual International Society of Contemporary Music Festival in 1934, an extraordinary occurrence for the work of a composer who was still, at time of composition, a teenager.
The work also exhibits a formal procedure which Britten was to use numerous times throughout his career, that of framing a composition in one way or another. In this case, the work begins and ends with a legato oboe song over a string accompaniment consisting of one of Brittens typical disjunct march ideas. Britten builds the work in an arch form comprising, within the frame of the arch, a sonata form of development and recapitulation, a development section (in a very slow tempo) occupying the central position of the arch. It is an uncommonly inventive form, executed with considerable technical skill. Within all this technique, the music is uncommonly expressive.
Britten does not attempt to deny the oboe its natural tendency to predominate in this ensemble, so that work stands or falls on the artistry of the soloist on that instrument. In return, Britten gave the soloist an extraordinarily interesting and engaging piece of music.")
![Rebecca Clarke - Viola Sonata [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kyhWWyDHIfM/mqdefault.jpg "Rebecca Clarke - Viola Sonata [With score]
-Composer: Rebecca Clarke (27 August 1886 – 13 October 1979)
-Performers: Antoine Tamestit (viola), Ying-Chien Lin (piano)
00:00 – I. Impetuoso
07:20 – II. Vivace
11:09 – III. Adagio
Rebecca Clarkes Sonata for Viola and Piano is first known of in 1919, when the composer was 33 years old. Clarke had moved to the United States in 1916, after being disowned by her father. She had been supporting herself with some success as a soloist.
The first reference to the Viola Sonata was upon its submission to a composition competition sponsored by Clarkes neighbor, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Out of 72 entries, Clarkes Sonata tied for first with a piece by the Swiss composer, Ernest Bloch. In the end Bloch was declared the winner, despite all the judges favoring Clarke—it was decided that declaring Clarke the winner would smack of favoritism on Coolidges part. It was also suspected by some that the name Rebecca Clarke was a pen-name of a male composer, as few imagined the possibility of a competent female writing such music. The piece had its première at the Berkshire Music Festival in 1919, and was well received. It, along with the Piano Trio of 1921 and the Rhapsody for cello and piano of 1923, represent the zenith of her compositional career, though afterwards Clarke wrote hardly any more music. The sonata was first published in 1921 by Chester Music.
Clarke gives us an incipit on the first page of the sonata, a quote from La Nuit de mai (1835) by the French poet Alfred de Musset:
Poète, prends ton luth; le vin de la jeunesse
Fermente cette nuit dans les veines de Dieu.
Poet, take up your lute; the wine of youth
this night is fermenting in the veins of God.
The sonata is cast in three movements. The first movement, marked Impetuoso, begins with a vibrant fanfare from the viola, before moving on into a melodic and harmonic language reminiscent of Achille-Claude Debussy and Ralph Vaughan Williams, two important influences on Clarkes music. Her language is at times very chromatic and shows the invention of Debussy in the use of modes and the whole-tone scale. The second movement, marked Vivace, makes use of many interesting special effects like harmonics and pizzicato. The final movement, Adagio, is both pensive and sensual in its language. However, Clarke works in a special surprise: a segue into a restatement of themes from the first movement. The sonata ends in a lush and brilliant pyrotechnical display, showing off the full range of the viola, as well as the piano (whose part is of equal difficulty.) Because of the many different obstacles the piece presents, as well as its highly idiomatic writing, it is becoming more and more a staple of the violists repertoire.
[Wikipedia.org]")
![Francis Poulenc - Sonata for two Pianos [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kzmlskID3pc/mqdefault.jpg "Francis Poulenc - Sonata for two Pianos [With score]
-Composer: Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
-Performers: Pascal Rogé and Jean-Philippe Collard
Sonata for two Pianos FP 156, written in 1952-53
00:00 - I. Prologue. Extremement lent et calme
05:59 - II. Allegro molto. Très rythmé
11:06 - III. Andante lyrico. Lentement
17:23 - IV. Epilogue. Allegro giocoso
While extensive, Francis Poulencs catalogue of music for the piano consists largely of miniatures and character pieces, both singly and in sets. Poulencs Sonata for Piano Duo is one of the composers most ambitious and substantial works for the instrument; as such, it has emerged as one of the standards of the two-piano repertoire.
Though Poulenc had written a Sonata for Piano Duet (that is, for two players at one instrument) in 1918, it wasnt until late in his career that he began to produce works for two pianos. He dedicated the Sonata for Piano Duo, completed in 1953, to the piano duo of Gold and Fizdale, who had long championed the composers Concerto for Two Pianos (1932). While the Sonata is a serious and demanding work for audiences and performers alike, Poulencs essential qualities as a composer are evident throughout; at no time does his musical language lapse into arcana.
The contrast between bustling movement and extraordinary calm is one of the hallmarks of the Sonata. The work contains a number of allusions to church bells not the clangorous peals of Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition, but evocations of a gentler sort, more like the suggestion of a village church. The first movement, marked Prologue, is assertive and passionate, almost Schumannesque. The central section provides a moment of quiet contrast, while a tolling effect in the coda brings the movement to its end. The Allegro Molto is a scherzo characterized by jaunty, agitated themes. The Trio starts dramatically, ultimately receding into ethereal quiet. The Andante Lyrico opens with a chorale that summons forth the sound of a carillon; this simple beginning builds with an ever-increasing weight. The sprightly, playful Epilogue rounds out the work with the kind of exuberant finish that is characteristic of Poulencs multimovement works. The mood darkens as the movement pushes forward to a tragic climax; the gravity is dissipated, however, with a spirited burst at the conclusion.
[allmusic.com]")
![Robert Schumann - Romanzen und Balladen I, op. 45 [With score]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l9i003cc53M/mqdefault.jpg "Robert Schumann - Romanzen und Balladen I, op. 45 [With score]
-Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856)
-Performers: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Bariton), Gerald Moore (Piano; I and II), Jörg Demus (Piano; III)
Romanzen und Balladen I, 3 Songs for Voice and Piano, op. 45, written in 1840
00:00 - I. Der Schatzgräber {The Treasure-Seeker}
03:15 - II. Frühlingsfahrt {A Spring Journey}
06:17 - III. Abends am Strand {Evening by the Sea}
Schumann wrote these three songs during 1840, one of his most prolific and happy periods. However, the first song, Abends am Strand (which is third in the collection), was written in April, to a Heine poem, and the second two were written in October to Eichendorff poems, but they are still somewhat unified by a theme, if not as tightly as a song cycle; each concerns a search, the first, an obsessive search for treasure, the second, the varying searches of two friends for accomplishments, the last, the search for other lands.
Only one of these searches is unambiguously successful. The first begins with ominous, heavy minor descending passages from the piano, depicting the frenzied digging and also the eventual rock fall. There is a moment of melodious contrast with the angels song, and an almost mockingly light touch as the rocks and debris crush the treasure hunter, and his search ends with his death.
In the second, the assured, almost strutting marching theme that opens the song and the happiness of one man, with his wife and children and home (written with such a warmth and tenderness the listener can imagine Schumann is reflecting his own seemingly assured future happiness with Clara), are a vivid contrast to the more adventuresome melodiousness of the one who went further afield in his searches, and was drawn by seductive sirens. Whether this is a sad contrast or not is up to the interpreters.
Though the piano paints a clear picture of the rising mists and rippling waters, Schumann also carefully preserved the ambiguity of the last poem, which makes it unclear whether the sailor is enjoying rest after his voyages or wishes to be upon the boat disappearing over the horizon. The music describing the strange lands is compelling, but so is the tranquility of the music depicting the night, without any overt cry of longing for those lands.
[allmusic.com]")
