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Latest Listeners’ Club Posts

Michael Torke’s “Chancel” (“Sessions, 3 A.M.”): The Virtue of Simplicity September 22, 2023

Chancel is the third single to be released from Sessions, 3 A.M, the latest album by the American composer, Michael Torke. The complete recording will be available in November. Recorded last May at the Samurai Hotel Studio in Queens, New York, Sessions, 3 A.M features a collection of fifteen brief and atmospheric pieces for solo piano which […]

Sibelius’ “The Dryad”: A Fleeting, Impressionistic Tone Poem September 20, 2023

Jean Sibelius’ impressionistic tone poem, The Dryad (Dryaden), Op. 45, No. 1, is magical and fleeting. It begins with hushed, searching melodic strands which seem to drift over a dark, desolate, and frigid nordic landscape before coalescing into a high-spirited dance. At moments, the woodwinds erupt in cackling laughter and shrieks of merri […]

Mozart’s “Il Re Pastore”: Excerpts from a Youthful Opera September 18, 2023

Mozart’s two-act opera, Il re pastore (“The Shepherd King”), K. 208, written to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, tells a fanciful story in which love and faithfulness triumph over ambition. The following brief synopsis is provided by Opera Online: Alessandro, king of Macedonia (soprano), having just conquered the city of Sidon, wants it to […]

Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major: David Oistrakh in Concert in 1968 September 15, 2023

Mozart’s earliest childhood performances as a violinist were recounted humorously by Johann Andreas Schachtner. In a 1792 letter to Mozart’s sister, Maria Anna, or “Nannerl,” Schachtner, a close friend of the family, recalled an occasion when he was invited to play second violin for an informal chamber music session at the Mozart house. Lit […]

Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5: Summoning Mysterious Forces September 13, 2023

Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5 arrived amid a six day burst of creative energy in December of 1907. In a letter, the composer’s wife, Tatyana Schloezer, reported, Sasha has already managed… to compose a fifth sonata!!! I don’t believe my ears, it is unbelievable! The sonata flowed from him in a kind of stream. […] What you have hea […]

Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” (1869 Version): “Death Does Not Frighten Me” September 11, 2023

Set in Russia between 1598 and 1605, Modest Mussorgsky’s opera, Boris Godunov, tells the story of a Tsar who usurps the throne by brutal means, bears witness to the suffering of his people, and, as a result of his misdeeds, descends into loneliness, remorse, paranoia, and madness, leading to his ultimate death. In the end, it is the Russian […]

Borodin’s String Trio in G Minor: Variations on a Russian Folk Song September 8, 2023

Alexander Borodin’s String Trio in G minor for two violins and cello unfolds in a single brief movement. Composed in 1855, it is a set of eight variations on a once popular Russian folk song, Chem tebya ya ogorchila (“What have I done to hurt you?”). A single violin begins the melancholy theme and is joined soon in a canon by the other two […]