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Latest Listeners’ Club Posts

Piazzolla’s Sinfonietta: Before the Tango October 7, 2026

Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) had not fully embraced the nuevo tango style that would become his signature when, in 1953, he composed the Sinfonietta. The spirited three-movement work for chamber orchestra was written during a transitional period as Piazzolla completed his studies with fellow Argentine Alberto Ginastera. A […]

Debussy’s Violin Sonata: Karisa Chiu and Zhu Wang October 5, 2026

27-year-old American violinist Karisa Chiu has been awarded the Gold Medal at the 2026 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Born into a musical family, Chiu began to study the violin at the age of two with her father, Cornelius Chiu, a member of the first violin section of the Chicago Symphony. She came to international promine […]

Gesualdo’s “Moro, Lasso, Al moi duolo”: Shocking Sounds from the Late Renaissance October 2, 2026

“Extremely shocking and disgusting to the ear”—that is how English historian Charles Burney described the music of Italian late Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1561–1613) in his 1776 book, A General History of Music. With its wrenching chromaticism, raw dissonances, and strange, wandering harmonies, Gesualdo’s music still sounds edg […]

Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B Minor: A Mysterious, Passionate Reverie September 30, 2026

Cast in a single, monumental movement, Franz Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor unfolds as a mysterious, passionate reverie. Its blazing Romanticism encompasses the widest emotional spectrum—from ghostly terror and quiet melancholy to spiritual ecstasy, heroic virtuosity and soaring, grandiose triumph. This acute sense of drama has led listene […]

Louise Farrenc’s Overture No. 2 in E-flat Major: A Score Rediscovered September 28, 2026

After falling into obscurity, the music of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was rediscovered in the 1970s and 80s, and has recently surged in popularity. A trailblazing French composer, virtuoso pianist, and teacher, Farrenc was the only female tenured professor in the 19th century at the Paris Conservatory. (She was only permitted to teach femal […]

Sibelius’ “Finlandia”: A Tone Poem for Independence September 25, 2026

At the time of Jean Sibelius’ birth in 1865, Finland was an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire, having separated from Sweden in 1809. In general, the Finnish people found the political arrangement to be amicable. That changed in 1899 when Tsar Nicholas II instituted the February Manifesto which subordinated Finnish laws, disso […]

Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A Minor: The Ghosts of Brinkwells September 23, 2026

In 1918, the 61-year-old Edward Elgar was in the autumn of his career as a composer. The famous “Enigma” Variations had been written 20 years earlier, and Elgar’s output during the First World War consisted mostly of patriotic music. Once popular, the aging composer was now regarded as a regressive Romantic when compared with Stravinsky, Sc […]