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Latest Listeners’ Club Posts

Bach’s “Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer”: An Easter Lullaby April 3, 2026

Sanfte soll mein Todeskummer (“Gentle shall be my contemplation of death”) is a sacred tenor aria from Bach’s Easter Oratorio, BWV 249. Sung by Simon Peter following the discovering of the empty tomb of Christ, it is a serene reflection on death as a peaceful slumber. Accompanied by recorders, with their pastoral connotations, the aria unfo […]

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, “Jeunehomme”: Dramatic Surprises April 1, 2026

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271 is revolutionary music filled with dramatic surprises. It has been called “one of the greatest wonders of the world” (Alfred Brendel), “perhaps the first unequivocal masterpiece of the classical style” (Charles Rosen), “Mozart’s Eroica” (Alfred Einstein), and the concerto in which “Mozar […]

Purcell’s “Sound the Trumpet”: Celebratory Music for a Royal Birthday March 30, 2026

In the festive countertenor duet, Sound the Trumpet, English Baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695) did not use actual trumpets. Instead, he called upon the singers to imitate the regal, antiphonal calls of these “instruments of joy.” First performed in April of 1694, this music is part of Come Ye Sons of Art, Z.323, the Ode for Queen M […]

Andy Akiho’s “Pentalateral I”: Sandbox Percussion March 27, 2026

The music of American composer Andy Akiho (b. 1979) is infused with the sounds of the Caribbean. Based in Portland, Oregon and New York City, Akiho is a virtuoso percussionist whose primary instrument is the steelpan, a drum developed in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1930s. According to his biography, As a pannist, Akiho has a deeply physical […]

Schumann’s “The Bride of Messina” Overture: Music for a Greek Tragedy March 25, 2026

Friedrich Schiller’s 1803 tragedy, The Bride of Messina, tells the story of a bitter rivalry between brothers who have fallen in love with the same woman, Beatrice. She turns out to be their long-lost sister. Amid jealous discord and a clash between paganism and Christianity, the turbulent love triangle ends in a murder-suicide. The two-act […]

Bach’s “O Lamm Gottes, Unschuldig,” BWV 618: Canon Alla Quinta March 23, 2026

Typically, a musical canon involves a melodic line which is imitated by one or more voices after a set duration, resulting in a magical contrapuntal layering. In the chorale prelude for organ, O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (“O Lamb of God, innocent”), BWV 618, Bach expanded on this idea by creating a canon “alla quinta” (“canon at the fifth”). […]

“The Two of You”: Early Sondheim March 20, 2026

Sunday marks the 96th anniversary of the birth of American composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021). In 1952, long before musicals such as West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods brought him fame, the 22-year-old Sondheim submitted a song to Kukla, Fran and Ollie, a popular television show involving puppets. Broadcast fr […]