Classical Music Playlist, December 2, 2024As a response to the devastation of World War I that had changed everything and everyone, Danish composer Carl Nielsen imbues his Symphony No. 5 with chaos that finds its way into a new musical world redefined. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 26, 2024Tchaikovsky said that a recurring theme in each movement of his Symphony No. 5 represents fate. In the symphony's first notes it sounds funereal; in the final movement it emerges triumphant. Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 23, 2024Written the year after his “Rhapsody in Blue” and with its jazz-era Charleston rhythm and blues nocturne, George Gershwin’s 1925 Piano Concerto blends both classical and jazz. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 22, 2024Claude Debussy’s only String Quartet, composed in 1893, shows him working toward what we would call his “impressionist” style (though he rejected that term). It’s today's Midday Masterpiece as we celebrate Debussy’s birthday today.
Classical Music Playlist, August 21, 2024For 30 years being very busy composing and conducting for the National Theater, Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen finally wrote his First Symphony in 1923 as he approached retirement. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 20, 2024Generally admired as the more compositionally mature of his two works in the form, the Piano Trio No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 19, 2024Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” are the composer’s musical interpretations of ten pieces of art on display at an exhibition (of over 400) honoring his artist friend who had recently passed away. It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 16, 2024One lazy afternoon, Edward Elgar improvised a new melody on the piano then, on his wife’s urging, turned it into one of his most famous compositions. Elgar’s "Enigma Variations" are today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 15, 2024In 1945 the dying Béla Bartók composed one last piano concerto for his wife to perform in concerts to support herself after he was gone. That Piano Concerto #3 by Bartók is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 14, 2024“It transports us into a world where we cannot recall ever having been before.” That’s what Robert Schumann said of the Symphony No. 9 by Franz Schubert, also known as the “Great C-major” symphony. It's today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 13, 2024In celebration of today’s 1655 birthday of Johann Christoph Denner, the man credited with inventing the clarinet, we’ll play the Johannes Brahms Clarinet Quintet for today's Midday Masterpiece.
