The Concierto received its first performance at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on April 15, 1982. The performers were the British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, who had commissioned the concerto, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jesús López-Cobos.
Together with Summer Night on the River it is one of Delius’s Two Pieces for Small Orchestra. The two were first performed in Leipzig on 23 October 1913.
Together with On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring it is one of Delius’s Two Pieces for Small Orchestra. The two were first performed in Leipzig on 23 October 1913.
Saint-Saëns dedicated the concerto to fellow composer-virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate, who performed the solo part at the premiere in October 1880 in Hamburg.
A 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle “Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell.” It is based on the second movement of Purcell’s Abdelazer suite (performed by The Broadway Bach Ensemble in February, 2017).
A brilliant antiphonal brass piece by the Venetian master.
Gabrieli’s music is legendary and beloved among brass players. This is one of the most frequently played, and an early example of playing different dynamic sections against each other.
The A-minor piano concerto came to fruition during a productive time in Schumann’s life. It is one of his best-known works, and one of the most widely performed and recorded piano concertos of the romantic era.
The first movement was originally composed as a “Phantasie” for piano and orchestra in 1839. His wife, Clara, was herself an accomplished pianist, and she encouraged her husband to turn it into a full-scale concerto. Five years later Schumann added an intermezzo and rondo-finale. The full three-movement concerto was premiered by Clara on December 4, 1845.
Schumann himself described this work as “something between symphony, concerto and grand sonata,” and it clearly has elements of all three. The first movement is basically monothematic, with the theme being introduced by the oboe and accompanying wind choir. In line with its origin as a “fantasy-piece,” it features abrupt changes of tempo and mood, highlighting the unusual uses to which Schumann adapts his thematic material. The intermezzo’s main theme is a classically based staccato scale motif (introduced by the piano); a second theme of sweeping lyricism is initiated by the ‘cellos. After a brief return to the first movement’s opening motif by the winds, the intermezzo leads without a break into the exuberant third movement. This finale, in A Major, is in a rondo form based on the first movement’s thematic material. It is punctuated by pianistic flourishes and cross-rhythmic syncopated passages, finishing with a sustained and dashing coda.
In 1910, the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev and his choreographer Michel Fokine took a chance on 27-year-old Igor Stravinsky to compose music for their dazzling ballet, The Firebird. The story (a conglomeration of several Russian folktales) tells of the downfall of evil Kastchei the Deathless, who seizes young princesses as captives while turning the knights who arrive to rescue them into stone. The hero Crown Prince Ivan recruits the Firebird, named for her beautiful feathers that flicker like flames, to help destroy Kastchei and free his victims.
The Firebird is pure sonic magic. The suite opens with a low, mysterious Introduction that creeps into the dazzling, fluttering woodwinds of the Dance of the Firebird. A tender, lyrical oboe melody centers the Round Dance of the Princesses, lulling the audience into safety before the orchestra erupts into the mayhem of the Infernal Dance of King Kashchei, complete with barbaric snorts and growls from the brass. In true fairy-tale fashion, order is restored through a hypnotic bassoon solo in the Berceuse (Lullaby), which leads directly into the Finale — a triumphant, brass-led celebration built on a traditional Russian folk song (in mixed-meter!) Perceptive audiences might hear that Stravinsky uses typical harmonies for music of the mere mortals, while the supernatural creatures use extended orchestral techniques, octatonic scales, and complex rhythms.
The lavish Firebird premiere was a huge success in every respect. The dancers, costumes, choreography, stage sets, and music dazzled Parisian audiences and critics alike. The 1919 Suite is a reduction of the 45-minute ballet both in length and instrumentation, tightening up the story into six movements, and is the most popular version performed today.
The Firebird is the birth of musical modernism. Without it, there would be neither Petrushka nor The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky remains deeply rooted in traditions of his teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov (the orchestral richness, the parallel octaves, the chromatic sensuality), but he is already breaking new ground. The “Infernal Dance” anticipates the primal rhythms of “The Rite of Spring,” while the static harmonies of the “Round Dance” hint at the neoclassicism of his later years. It’s a brilliant evolutionary leap: the last great “Russian” ballet and, at the same time, the first “modern” one.
In one eleven-minute movement, Fantasia transforms eight Welsh nursery tunes and lullabies, well-known to Welsh families but practically unknown outside Wales. It begins and ends with Jim Cro – also known as Dacw Mam yn Dwâd (Here’s mummy coming), which bears a striking resemblance to the American tune “Yankee Doodle.” It is bookended with the most lively tunes, and develops more melancholic tunes in the middle. Fantasia is cleverly constructed, highlighting the many colors of the orchestra while still remaining whimsical and light. The percussion evokes childhood instruments, while the harp adds strong Celtic tones. The work especially features our trumpet section.
Fantasia received its premiere in 1940 on a radio broadcast by the BBC Northern Orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra). It was a great hit, prompting an immediate commercial recording by the London Symphony Orchestra. Its popularity, especially in war-torn Wales, helped Williams to become more widely known, and it is still her most popular work and an important part of her output.
Williams said of the piece, “I can give something of myself to folksong fantasias + such things – yes I know they are derivative but they’ve got a splash of me in – because I really + truly love those traditional tunes.”