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Latest Listeners’ Club Posts

Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler” Symphony: An Artist in Society May 25, 2022

In 1934, as the Nazis rose to power in his native Germany, Paul Hindemith worked concurrently on an opera and a symphony, both of which emerged from the same musical source. The opera, Mathis der Maler (“Mathias the Painter”), is a fictional account of the life of the German Renaissance painter, Mathias Grunewald (c. 1475-1528). It is set d […]

Telemann’s Oboe Concerto in D Minor: Han de Vries and Alma Musica Amsterdam May 23, 2022

For the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), writing music seems to have been an effortless part of daily life. Celebrated alongside J.S. Bach and Handel as one of the most significant composers of his time, Telemann produced more than 6,000 works. This amazing catalogue includes at least twelve concertos for oboe (or the sli […]

Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”: Three Powerful Excerpts May 20, 2022

Manon Lescaut, Giacomo Puccini’s 1893 opera in four acts, tells a haunting story of ill-fated love. Des Grieux, a student living in poverty, falls in love at first sight with the beautiful Manon, who is being taken by her brother to live in a convent. Des Grieux convinces Manon to run away with him. Yet, soon she becomes restless and torn b […]

Pavel Karmanov’s “Get In”: A Sunny Post-Minimalist Quintet May 18, 2022

Born in Siberia in 1970, the Russian composer, Pavel Karmanov, has been called “a romantic dressed in a minimalist gown.” Perhaps more accurately, Karmanov’s music inhabits the sunny, uninhibited world of post-minimalism. Influenced by the repeating patterns and pulse of the 1970s works of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, this music embraces t […]

Remembering Teresa Berganza May 16, 2022

Teresa Berganza, the legendary Spanish mezzo-soprano, passed away in Madrid on May 13. She was 89. Berganza was especially celebrated for roles in the operas of Rossini and Mozart, as well as the title role in Bizet’s Carmen. (The conductor, Herbert von Karajan, declared her to be “the Carmen of the century.”) She joined Plácido Domingo in […]

Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”: Two Enchanting Excerpts from the Final Act May 13, 2022

Gioachino Rossini’s touching 1817 comic opera, La Cenerentola, retells the popular Cinderella fairy tale with a few wrinkles: The glass slipper is replaced with a bracelet, the wicked stepmother is, instead, a stepfather named Don Magnifico, the Fairy Godmother is replaced by the philosopher, Alidoro, and there is no magic pumpkin. Questo e […]

Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” Cycle: String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 May 11, 2022

In 1805, Count Andreas Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna, commissioned Beethoven to write three string quartets. At the time, chamber music was often conceived for the entertainment of aristocratic amateurs. In contrast, Razumovsky’s commission would be premiered by the Schuppanzigh Quartet, a group of highly skilled musicians wh […]