George Walker: Lyric for Strings
George Walker’s Lyric for Strings elegizes his grandmother, who was born into slavery but lived long enough to see her grandson solo with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Author: Benjamin Pesetsky
Benjamin Pesetsky is a composer and writer. He serves on the staff of the San Francisco Symphony and also contributes program notes for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony.
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93
The longest gap in Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonic output was the eight years between his Symphony No. 9, in 1945, and No. 10, in 1953. In between, he was denounced by Soviet authorities for a second time, accused of “formalism”—writing music without a proper social purpose.
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43
Both Sergei Rachmaninoff and Niccolò Paganini were virtuosos of their eras. There the similarities seem to end.
Grażyna Bacewicz: Overture (Uwertura)
Bacewicz wrote her Overture (Uwertura in Polish) in Warsaw in 1943 under German occupation. It was not premiered until September 1945, in a very different world.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39 in E-flat major, 40 in G minor, and 41 in C major (Jupiter)
In about nine weeks over the summer of 1788, Mozart wrote three symphonies that embraced an idiosyncratic personal vision.
Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana
The opera Cavalleria rusticana is musically gorgeous, dramatically gripping, slyly inventive, and historically significant. “It was like a door that suddenly blew open onto a sealed room. A fresh, cool wind from the country blew away the faint smell of mildew,” remembered one Italian critic.
Maurice Ravel: Introduction et allegro
Maurice Ravel’s Introduction et allegro is really a little harp concerto commissioned by the Érard instrument company in response to a competitor, Pleyel, commissioning Claude Debussy’s similar Danse sacrée et danse profane. The two companies were engaged in harp war, each championing a different technology.
Claude Debussy: String Quartet in G minor
Claude Debussy released his String Quartet in 1894 with the designation Op. 10 and the words “1er Quatuor” (first quartet) on the cover. Both labels are misleading, since he hadn’t actually published nine previous compositions and never wrote a second quartet.
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en concerts: Concert No. 5 in D minor
The Pièces de clavecin en concerts are Rameau’s only works for keyboard with additional instruments. The Concerto No. 5 in D minor has three movements, each named in honor of another musician or performer from Rameau’s day.
Jean Françaix: Quintet for Flute, Harp, and String Trio
Jean Françaix, still composing into the mid-1990s, was one of the last living people with a direct connection to the great French tradition of the early 20th century. He was mentored by Maurice Ravel who observed that “among the child’s gifts I observe above all the most fruitful an artist can possess, that of curiosity.”