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Latest Listeners’ Club Posts

Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony: A Cosmic Return Home December 7, 2022

Gustav Mahler famously described Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), as “half simpleton, half God.” Indeed, Bruckner was an eccentric figure marked by contradictions. Although he spent the latter part of his life in cosmopolitan Vienna, he never shed his rural Upper Austrian roots. An eminent organist who was long employed at the Augustin monastery […]

Monteverdi’s “Pur ti Miro”: The Final Love Duet From “L’incoronazione di Poppea” December 5, 2022

Claudio Monteverdi’s 1643 opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea (“The Coronation of Poppaea”), begins with a clash between mythological deities. In the prologue which precedes the first act, the goddesses of Fortune and Virtue each argue that they hold the most power over humankind. Soon, their disagreement is interrupted by the god of Love, who […]

Stravinsky’s Danses Concertantes: Concert Music in Search of a Ballet December 2, 2022

Igor Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes unfolds as an abstract ballet. Its quirky cast of instrumental “characters” become virtual “dancers” in a witty, neoclassical drama. The titles of its five movements evoke the sections of a ballet. Motion, elegance, and a joyful athleticism abound. Stravinsky had just emigrated to the United States and […]

Beethoven’s String Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 3: The Apex of a Genre November 30, 2022

In November of 1792, the young Ludwig van Beethoven left Bonn, the provincial city of his birth, to resettle in glittering, cosmopolitan Vienna. Two years after this momentous move, Beethoven completed the String Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 3. The piece marked the 24-year-old composer’s first foray into the genre. A successor to the Baroque t […]

Anna Clyne’s “This Midnight Hour”: A Cinematic Journey Through the Night November 28, 2022

This Midnight Hour, an evocative tone poem by the English composer, Anna Clyne (b. 1980), suggests the shadowy nocturnal world of film noir. Written in 2015, the single movement orchestral work unfolds as a haunting cinematic journey. Growling low strings initiate a spine-chilling “chase” down desolate alleyways. Amid the throb of an elevat […]

Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals”: A Zoological Romp November 25, 2022

In February of 1886, Camille Saint-Saëns set aside work on his Third Symphony to engage in a brief burst of compositional frivolity. He admitted to his publishers that it was “such fun” he could not resist. The piece in question was The Carnival of the Animals, a humorous musical suite made up of fourteen short, parody-filled movements. Eac […]

Telemann’s Sonata in D Major, TWV 44:1: Bremer Barockorchester November 23, 2022

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was one of the most prolific composers of all time. The German Baroque composer produced 3,000 compositions, half of which have been lost. These include 1,700 cantatas, 600 orchestral suites, and numerous operas and concertos. Telemann was the godfather of J.S. Bach’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Telemann in […]