PROGRAMME NOTES

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Jonathan Davies

Mar 4
3 min

Grace Williams / Carillions (1965)

1. Moderato con moto 2. Allegretto alla pavana 3. Lento Rapsodico 4. Allegro agitato Carillions by Grace Mary Williams (1906-1977) is one...

Rita Fernandes

Nov 29, 2020
2 min

Richard Strauss / Metamorphosis for 23 Strings (1945)

Richard Strauss' (1864-1947) 'Metamorphosen for 23 Strings' (1945), premiered in 1946 in Zürich. The piece was dedicated to the...

Oran Johnson

Nov 22, 2020
6 min

Gustav Mahler / Symphony #9 - 1. Andante comodo (1912)

After beginning his post as conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, late romantic Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler would...

Jonathan Davies

Nov 15, 2020
5 min

Conlon Nancarrow / Studies for Player Piano (1948-1992)

These notes introduce the studies for player piano and consider some of their performance impossibilities.

Rita Fernandes

Nov 8, 2020
5 min

Ludwig van Beethoven / Symphony No.6 'Pastoral' (1808)

This symphony celebrates the humility and grace of nature. Being explicitly programmatic, it stands alone among Beethoven's other symphonies

Peter Havlat

Nov 1, 2020
4 min

Francis Poulenc / Sonate pour Flûte et Piano (1957)

A brief background and description of Poulenc's celebrated sonata for flute and piano.

Phoebus Kyriakoudis

Oct 24, 2020
8 min

Dmitri Schostakovich / Symphony No.5 (1937)

Shostakovich responds to the harsh critique by the Stalinist regime of his time with a work both devastating and enticing.

Zack Dickerson

Oct 18, 2020
5 min

Richard Wagner / Wesendonck Lieder (1858)

The Wesendonck Lieder represent a key moment in Wagner’s life. They explore illicit love, 19th-century philosophy, and a new musical style.

Rita Fernandes

Oct 11, 2020
5 min

Alban Berg / Lulu (1935)

An ingenious mix of contemporary techniques, operatic legacy and cultural developments, Lulu explores sexuality in often brutal ways.

Zack Dickerson

Oct 4, 2020
4 min

Ludwig van Beethoven / An die ferne Geliebte (1816)

A look at Beethoven's song cycle in celebration of his 250th birthyear and examining its romantic and revolutionary nature.

Rita Fernandes

Sep 27, 2020
4 min

Jacob Kirkegaard / 4 Rooms (2006)

Layered sound recordings of four separate rooms in the post-Chernobyl 'alienation zone' by Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard.

Phoebus Kyriakoudis

Sep 20, 2020
8 min

Manos Xatzidakis / For a Little White Seashell (1947)

A suite for piano that illustrates the dialogue of the old and new in search for emotional truth in post-war Greek music.

Rita Fernandes

Sep 13, 2020
5 min

Richard Strauss / Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896)

This tone poem of epic proportions goes above and beyond in musically translating Nietzsche's novel of the same name.

Rita Fernandes

Sep 6, 2020
5 min

Alban Berg / Altenberg Lieder Op.4 (1912)

Rita Fernandes / Based on Peter Altenberg's picture-postcard texts, these songs explore Berg's short-lived aphoristic style.

Rita Fernandes

Aug 30, 2020
3 min

Schoenberg and Webern: Viennese Explorations

Rita Fernandes / Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No.1 and Webern's Five Pieces for Orchestra

Rita Fernandes

Aug 12, 2020
2 min

Johannes Brahms / Symphony No.1 (1876)

Rita Fernandes / The story of this symphony begins long before Brahms' birth, but instead at that of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony...