Classical Music Playlist, September 5, 2022
American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) | photo by Rayhuff-Richter
The only Piano Concerto by American composer Amy Beach is somewhat autobiographical of her past and portentous of her future. A child prodigy who knew early on that "no other life than that of a musician could ever have been possible for me" was allowed to study piano but her parents restricted her from a full career in music especially as a performer. She married at 18 to a doctor who continued this prohibition on performance but allowed her to compose. So she self-studied composition and orchestration and composed prodigiously, with nearly all her works published and performed in her lifetime. Her "Gaelic" Symphony from 1894 was an instant success in America and abroad and was the first symphony to be composed and published by an American female, as was her only Piano Concerto from 1899.
Her physician husband was also an amateur singer who wrote poetry which Amy set to music as songs whose themes she used in three movements of her Piano Concerto. One can imagine that the second movement is autobiographical, a comment on her husband’s prohibition of her pursuits, and a portent of things to come. She gives the vocal line of her song (his text; dedicated to Amy’s mother) “Empress of the Night” to the strings which is all but drowned out and quashed by the perpetuum mobile solo piano playing insistently atop it. Within ten years of her Piano Concerto's premiere (with the Boston Symphony Orchestra) her husband and mother died, releasing her from the restrictions they put on her. She then took advantage of this freedom to pursue her lifelong desire as a concert pianist with successful tours of Europe and America to great acclaim, including many performances of her Piano Concerto. For Amy Beach’s birthday today, it's our Midday Masterpiece today at 2:00 pm.
6:00 a.m.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Romance in G major
Encore Chamber Orchestra; Daniel Hege, conductor Rachel Barton Pine, violin
6:13 a.m.
Johannes Brahms
Liebeslieder Waltzes Opus 52
I Musici de Montreal; Yuli Turovsky, conductor
6:39 a.m.
Marcel Grandjany
Rhapsodie for Harp Opus 10
Yolanda Kondonassis, harp
6:48 a.m.
Arcangelo Corelli
Concerto Grosso No. 11 in Bb major Opus 6
Tafelmusik; Jeanne Lamon, conductor
7:00 a.m.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Humoresque Opus 10/2
Stephen Hough, piano
7:04 a.m.
George Frederick Bristow
Symphony No. 3 in F# minor Opus 26
Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Neeme Jarvi, conductor
7:39 a.m.
Valerie Coleman
Shotgun Houses: I. Shotgun Houses
Harlem Quartet David Shifrin, clarinet
7:46 a.m.
Edward Elgar
Introduction and Allegro Opus 47
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
8:00 a.m.
Elena Roussanova
Moments of Arrival
Prague Radio Symphony; Julius Williams, conductor
8:14 a.m.
Joaquin Rodrigo
Concierto para una fiesta
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; Sachio Fujioka, conductor Craig Ogden, guitar
8:43 a.m.
Carlos Troyer
Traditional Zuni Songs: Lover's Wooing & Zunian Lullaby
Dario Muller, piano
8:51 a.m.
George Friederich Handel
Concerto Grosso No. 1 in G major Opus 6/1 HWV 319
Academy of Ancient Music; Andrew Manze, conductor
9:03 a.m.
Gabriel Faure
Pavane Opus 50
Minnesota Orchestra; Eiji Oue, conductor
9:10 a.m.
Antonin Dvorak
Cello Concerto in B minor Opus 104
Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim, conductor Jacqueline Du Pre, cello
9:53 a.m.
Jessie Montgomery
Peace
Anthony McGill, clarinet; Gloria Chien, piano
10:00 a.m.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major BWV 1049
Linde-Consort; Hans-Martin Linde, conductor
10:17 a.m.
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Symphony No. 7 in A major Opus 92
Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique; John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
10:56 a.m.
Zenobia Powell Perry; Josephine Gandolfi, arr.
Tawawa House Suite: 3. Sunday Dance Tune
Josephine Gandolfi, piano; Deanne Tucker, piano
10:59 a.m.
Howard Hanson
MERRY MOUNT suite
Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor
11:16 a.m.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 27 in Bb major K 595
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Richard Goode, piano
11:46 a.m.
TRADITIONAL
The Keel Row
; John Rutter, conductor Cambridge Singers
11:48 a.m.
Lodovico Viadana
Sinfonia Musicali: La Bergamasca Opus 18
The Wallace Collection; Simon Wright, conductor
11:52 a.m.
Edward K. (Duke) Ellington
The River Suite: IV. The Lake
Buffalo Philharmonic; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
12:00 p.m.
Vincent d'Indy
Symphony on a French Mountain Air
Boston Symphony Orchestra; Charles Munch, conductor Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, piano
12:26 p.m.
Jeff Lambert
Chicago Summer
Minneapolis Guitar Quartet
12:32 p.m.
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger
Earina Suite
Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra; Michail Jurowski, conductor
12:53 p.m.
Antonin Dvorak
Slavonic Dance No. 5 in A major Opus 46
Cleveland Orchestra; Christoph Von Dohnanyi, conductor
12:57 p.m.
Johannes Brahms
Piano Trio No. 1 in B major Opus 8
The Rembrandt Trio
1:28 p.m.
Antonio Vivaldi
Violin Concerto No. 10 "The Hunt" in Bb major Opus 8 RV 362 (La Caccia)
Accademia Bizantina; Carlo Chiarappa, conductor Carlo Chiarappa, violin
1:37 p.m.
John Williams
Theme from The Patriot
Boston Pops Orchestra; Keith Lockhart, conductor Middlesex County Fifes & Drums
1:46 p.m.
Gustav Holst
Morris Dance Tunes
New Zealand Chamber Orchestra; Nicholas Braithwaite, conductor
2:00 p.m.
Amy Beach
Piano Concerto in C# minor Opus 45
English Chamber Orchestra; Paul Goodwin, conductor Joanne Polk, piano
2:38 p.m.
Antonio Lauro
Venezuelan Waltz No. 3 "Natalia" (Vals Venezolano)
Sharon Isbin, guitar; Colin Davin, guitar
2:42 p.m.
Gabriel Faure
Masques and Bergamasques Opus 112
Lyon National Orchestra; Emmanuel Krivine, conductor
2:56 p.m.
Gaspar Sanz
Canarios
Chatham Baroque
3:00 p.m.
Wilhelm Stenhammar
Excelsior! Opus 13
Royal Scottish Orchestra; Petter Sundkvist, conductor
3:14 p.m.
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 3 "Scottish" in A minor Opus 56
Chamber Orchestra of Europe; Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor
3:56 p.m.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
TSAR SALTAN: Flight of the Bumblebee
Olga Kern, piano
3:58 p.m.
Hugo Alfven
Swedish Rhapsody No. 1 "Midsummer Night Vigil" Opus 19
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Paavo Berglund, conductor
4:12 p.m.
Ludwig Van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 15: III. Heiliger Dankgesang in A minor Opus 132 3rd Movement
A Far Cry
4:29 p.m.
Wynton Marsalis
Violin Concerto in D: IV. Hootenanny in D
Philadelphia Orchestra; Cristian Macelaru, conductor Nicola Benedetti, violin
4:40 p.m.
George Friederich Handel
Saul: Sinfonia HWV 53
The English Concert; Trevor Pinnock, conductor Trevor Pinnock, organ
4:57 p.m.
Hubert Parry
Symphonic Variations
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Adrian Boult, conductor
5:12 p.m.
Tessa Lark
Applachian Fantasy
Tessa Lark, violin
5:17 p.m.
Richard Strauss
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite Opus 60
Berlin Philharmonic; Simon Rattle, conductor
5:52 p.m.
Johann Christoph Pezel
Sonata No. 21
Ludwig Guttler Brass Ensemble; Ludwig Guttler, conductor
5:57 p.m.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Opus 30
Cleveland Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
6:40 p.m.
George Friederich Handel
Solomon: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
6:44 p.m.
Alun Hoddinott
Folksong Suite
Royal Ballet Sinfonia; Andrew Penny, conductor
6:55 p.m.
Leonard Cohen
Hallelujah
City of Birmingham Cellos Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello
