Bach Prelude & Fugue in C minor, Book 2, no. 2
Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier is two sets of preludes and fugues in all twenty-four keys, major and minor. The first set was composed in 1722, and the second some twenty years later. “Clavier” refers to any keyboard instrument, and “well-tempered” refers to the system according to which the instrument is tuned, and is the subject of furious discussion among musicologists to the present day. In brief, dividing the musical scale into twelve notes can be compared to projecting a map of the world onto a flat surface – there will invariably be distortions, and “tempering” is the method used to minimize those distortions.
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Bach Prelude & Fugue in C Major, Book 2, no. 1
It's not possible to celebrate Beethoven without doing reverence to the towering figure of Johann Sebastian Bach. Under his first teacher, Gottlob Neefe, Beethoven learned both playing and composition from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which Beethoven had mastered by the age of twelve.
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Brahms Clarinet Sonata no. 2
Saturday, July 24, 2021
The sonata in E-flat, Op. 120, No. 2 is the second of the two sonatas Brahms wrote for clarinet and piano, and is notable for its lyricism and warmth. These two sonatas were the last chamber works to be penned by Brahms, followed only by the Opus 121 "Vier Ernste Gesaenge" (Four Serious Songs).
Read moreBrahms Clarinet Sonata no. 1
Almost ninety years after the publication of Beethoven’s Opus 38 Clarinet Trio, Johannes Brahms composed his two sonatas for clarinet and piano. Brahms had already decided to retire from composing, but after hearing the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld play Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, he was captivated by the beautiful tone of the instrument. He and Mühlfeld became close friends, and Brahms wrote several pieces for clarinet which were to be among his last compositions.
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Beethoven Septet, Opus 20
Beethoven’s Opus 20 Septet, composed in 1800 and published in 1802, was arguably the most popular of his works during his lifetime. It was frequently transcribed for different combinations of instruments, and in 1805 Beethoven re-worked it as a trio for clarinet, piano, and cello, and published it as Opus 38.
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Beethoven: Clarinet trio, Opus 11
In October of 1797, a 26-year-old Beethoven was steadily gaining a reputation around Vienna as a fierce pianist with a gift for improvisation strengthened by successful performances of his first two piano concerti. Just three years earlier, he had published his very first opus, a set of three bold piano trios that had already expanded the genre in scope, virtuosity and expression particularly as four-movement works after the string quartet or symphony rather than the three-movement trios of Mozart or Haydn.
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Nicholas Bruhns: Praeludium e-moll for organ
Today’s selection was submitted by a fellow music lover, who writes,
The Great Nicholas Bruhns (1665-1697). Do you know this man?
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Beethoven Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36
Beethoven spent the summer and fall of 1802 in the Heiligenstadt health resort at the recommendation of a hearing specialist, and it was here that the 31-year-old artist and composer had to accept the inevitability of his deafness. In the unsent letter known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, Beethoven pours out his agony and despair, but ends with the determination to forge a new path with his music.
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Beethoven Piano Concerto 3, Opus 37
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Although sketches for the Third Piano Concerto date back as far as 1796, it’s now believed that Beethoven composed the bulk of the concerto in the autumn of 1802, in the creative explosion that followed the Heiligenstadt Testament and the new method of composition that he announced with his Opus 34 and 35 variations.
Read moreBeethoven: Symphony No. 3 in Eb, Opus 55
In 1802, a few weeks after writing the “Heiligenstadt Testament” in which he came to terms with his worsening deafness, Beethoven composed the Opus 34 and 35 variations on original themes, sending them to his publisher with the announcement that they had been composed “in quite a new manner”. In his Third Symphony, the “Eroica”, this new manner is on grand display.
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