150. Nine is the magic number! Farrenc, Nonet
By turns grand and genial with moments of great inventiveness and wit, Louise Farrenc’s Nonet for wind and strings is a bit of magic!
Listening time 37 mins (podcast 7′, music 30′)… Listen
149. Keeping us fresh since 1784: Haydn, Piano trio No.19
Meeting his boss’s insatiable desire for new content ‘forced’ [his word] Joseph Haydn to write original, inventive music that sounds as fresh and full of life today as when it was written. And he wrote so much great music that I only heard this piano trio for the first time this week – and it’s wonderful stuff. Listening time 19 mins.… Listen
144. On the edge of possibility: Beethoven, “Appassionata” Sonata
Often on the edge, in life and music, Beethoven goes to extremes on the piano to show us the extreme depth of his feelings. His Appassionata Sonata is every bit as intense as its name suggests! Listening time 33 mins (podcast 10′, music 23′)… Listen
143. Genesis and Resurrection: Fanny Mendelssohn, Easter Sonata
Lost for 150 years and then, because it was so good, presumed to have been written by her brother, Fanny Mendelssohn’s Easter Sonata for piano is passionate, intense, lyrical and dramatic… and the story of its rediscovery is no less compelling. Listening time c36 mins… Listen
135. Uplifting melancholy and passionate languor: Granados Spanish Dances
Music that seems to conjure all the tastes, smells and senses of Spain – or my expectations of them (as someone who’s hardly been there): Spanish dances for piano by Enrique Granados. Perfect music if you just want to feel warmer, but it’s also an opportunity to bask (Basque? [sorry]) in some gloriously wistful melancholy that seems to underpin all six of these pieces. Somehow it’s not a melancholy that makes one feel sad – it seems as uplifting and nourishing as the warm sun on a cold winter’s day. Listening time: podcast 12 mins; music 25′.… Listen
133. A woman on the money: Clara Schumann, Piano Trio
Urbane sophistication mixes with poetry and drama in Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, her biggest piece from a small catalogue of great music. Better known in recent times as the wife of Robert Schumann, it was Clara who was an international star as the leading pianist of their day. It was composing, though, that brought her the greatest joy and her music is full of deep inspiration and honesty. Listening time … Listen
132. The strange disappearence of Emilie Mayer: Mayer, Symphony no.7
Brand new old music in this episode: a great forgotten symphony by a composer forgotten for around 150 years, Emilie Mayer. It’s memorable, tuneful and inventive – a real discovery! Listening time 48’… Listen
131. Into the woods: Weber, Der Freishütz overture
Terror, excitement and delight – all there in handfuls as Carl Maria von Weber takes us into the depths of the forest for a folk tale of magic, sorcery, love, good and evil. One of my long time favourites and a brave new world for German opera in Der Fresichütz (“The Free-shooter”). Are you brave enough to go down to the woods today? Listening time, 20mins… Listen
122. The height of passion? Haydn, Symphony No.49
It’s not about that sort of passion, but this symphony La Passione is intense, dark, thrilling, and one of Haydn’s best! Listening time c30 minutes (podcast 5.5′, music 23′)… Listen