Posted on by tjphilbrick

Top 25 #19 – Nachtmusik

Hello all,

This week we will hear Mozart’s famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik (“a little night music”). No list of the greatest hits would be complete without it.

We may know Mozart best for his piano compositions (or even this piece), but at the peak of his popularity he was primarily an opera composer. In fact, at the time he wrote the Nachtmusik, he was simultaneously composing his famous opera Don Giovanni (which, to be honest, also could have been featured on this list). He considered the Nachtmusik as an insignificant side project that was not worth publishing. In fact, the Nachtmusik was never performed in Mozart’s lifetime. It was discovered after his death by a German researcher who convinced Mozart’s widow to sell it for publication. It is therefore ironic that it has become one of his most well-known compositions.

Everything about the Nachtmusik is quintessentially Mozartian: the lightness of the bow strokes, the sense of barely-contained excitement, the operatic solo lines, etc. Notice the similarities between this piece and the format of an opera. For instance, each movement uses the 1st violin line to introduce a solo theme (essentially an aria) that returns at the end to wrap everything together.

Enjoy!

T

Posted on by tjphilbrick

Top 25 #11 – Peer Gynt Suite

Hello all,

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family!

This week, we will hear a piece that those of you who have been here for awhile have definitely heard before – Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite. It is performed in the video above by the Limburgs Symphony (Amsterdam) under the direction of Maestro Otto Tausk.

The Peer Gynt Suite is a musical rendition of Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 drama “Peer Gynt,” which depicted the story of a Norwegian peasant-hero. Initially, Ibsen did not intend for the play to be performed with musical accompaniment. However, halfway through the composition process, he changed his mind and reached out to his good friend Edvard Grieg. Despite having no experience writing music for plays, Grieg agreed to create a score for the production of “Peer Gynt.” Ibsen’s play has largely been forgotten, but Grieg’s musical representation of it has become a central component of the musical universe.

There are four movements in the Peer Gynt Suite. First, you’ll hear “Morning,” which opens the drama with the awakening of the hero character. Second, you’ll hear “The Death of Ase,” which creates the primary tension in the drama. Third, you’ll hear “Anitra’s Dance.” Fourth and finally, you’ll hear what may be the most famous of all Grieg’s compositions: “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” This is one of the most well-known and widely-loved orchestral compositions of all time, and I trust that, after hearing it, you’ll see why.

Enjoy!

T

Posted on by tjphilbrick

Top 25 #9 – The Trout

Hello all,

This week’s music continues our series on the Top 25 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music. We will hear the Piano Quintet in A Major by Franz Schubert, popularly known as the “Trout” quintet. It is performed by the principal string members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (the first chair members of each string section – violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley, violist Mate Szucs, cellist Bruno Delepelaire, and double bassist Matthew McDonald) with Yannick Rafalimanana on piano.

The Trout Quintet is one of the most widely performed pieces of chamber music in all of classical music. Along with the Mendelssohn octet and a few other mainstays, it is featured at nearly every chamber music festival in the world.

Schubert wrote the Trout Quintet while on vacation in the Austrian alps. The fact that he was overwhelmed by the “inconceivable” beauty of the mountains is clearly evident in the joyous, even rapturous lyricism of the piece. Albert Einstein, himself an amateur violinist who loved chamber music, wrote that “we cannot help but love” the Trout Quintet. It is Schubert at his carefree best, with no hint of the somber colors that he began to explore after contracting syphilis in his later years.

It is important to note that this is chamber music. In other words, the Trout Quintet was not meant to be performed in a concert hall. It was meant to be performed in a living room or some other intimate setting for friends and family. This has significant implications not just for how the quintet is to be performed but also how it is to be heard.  

A few comments on each of the four movements:

  • The first movement is unforgettable. Listen for the main theme at 1:53.
  • The second movement has two parts – see if you can tell them apart.
  • The third movement, a Scherzo, turns the second movement’s two parts on their head, reverses their order, and doubles their speed.
  • The fourth movement is the most important. It is a set of variations on the tune of Die Forelle, or in German, “The Trout.” Die Forelle was a short song written by Schubert in 1817 for soprano and piano. He created this song by setting to music the text of a poem by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart about a trout being caught by a fisherman.
  • The Quintet finishes with an Allegro that revisits the Die Forelle theme a few times.

Enjoy!

T