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Latest Listeners’ Club Posts

Sibelius’ “Luonnotar”: A Mythic Tone Poem for Soprano and Orchestra December 8, 2023

In Finnish mythology, Luonnotar is the female spirit of nature, and the daughter of the heavens. Also known as Ilmatar, she is at the center of the creation story which is told in Cantos 1 of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. Lonely and bored, Luonnotar floats aimlessly for centuries in a vast, celestial void, before dropping into th […]

Sibelius’ Second Symphony: The Creation of a Divine Mosaic December 6, 2023

The famous 1907 meeting between Jean Sibelius and Gustav Mahler in Helsinki revealed two opposing, yet equally compelling, conceptions of the symphony. Mahler insisted that “the symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.” In contrast, Sibelius expressed admiration for the symphony’s “style and severity of form, as well as […]

Bach’s Viola da Gamba Sonata in G Major, BWV 1027: “The Loveliest, the Purest Idyll Conceivable” December 4, 2023

The popularity of the viola da gamba was already fading when J.S. Bach composed three sonatas for the instrument (BWV 1027–1029) in the late 1730s. A predecessor to the cello, the bowed, fretted string instrument evolved from the Spanish vihuela in the late 15th century, and flourished during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Evidence su […]

Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, “Ballade”: Shunsuke Sato December 1, 2023

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Belgian violinist, Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), was regarded as “The King of the Violin.” The conductor, Sir Henry Wood said, “The quality of tone was ravishingly beautiful…He seemed to get more color out of a violin than any of his contemporaries.” Commenting on the naturalness and flow of Ysaÿe’s rub […]

Debussy’s “Feuilles Mortes”: A Desolate Landscape November 29, 2023

Feuilles mortes (“Dead Leaves”) is the second piece in Book II of Claude Debussy’s Préludes for solo piano. Composed in 1913, the music suggests the vivid colors and atmosphere of an impressionistic painting. It evokes a bleak and desolate late autumn landscape—perhaps one in which a frost has already descended. Debussy’s interpretive marki […]

Bach’s Violin Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052R: Virtuosity and Fire November 27, 2023

Bach was a master of adaptation and reuse. He made a habit of crafting harpsichord concerti out of previously written concerti for other instruments. Such is the case with the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, which is believed to be a transcription of a long-lost Bach violin concerto. The score is filled with passages which fit ne […]

Duke Ellington’s “The Mooche”: Three Classic Recordings November 24, 2023

The Mooche was one of Duke Ellington’s signature pieces. Composed in 1928 by Ellington and the jazz promoter Irving Mills, it is an example of the Duke’s characteristic “jungle style,” with its exotic, pseudo-African undercurrents. These are the jazz age sounds which filled Harlem’s Cotton Club in the late 1920s. According to Ellington, the […]