György Ligeti: Musica ricercata
Musica ricercata was written for the “bottom drawer”— Ligeti knew it could not be performed in Hungary behind the Iron Curtain. But for him alone, it was a new beginning, built from the most basic musical elements.
Category: Program Notes
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Trio in E-flat major, Op. 3
Beethoven was best known as a pianist, but he also played violin and viola, and this is his first published work for strings alone.
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 20, No. 4
In 1772 Charles Burney visited Vienna and reported hearing “exquisite quartets by Haydn,” probably from Op. 20. The D-major quartet is richly colored, frequently inflecting into minor.
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in C major, Op. 33, No. 3, “The Bird”
Haydn’s “The Bird” quartet sheds much of the drama and gloom of his middle period. Grace notes suggest the chirping birds of the nickname.
Claude Debussy: Syrinx for Solo Flute
Debussy’s Syrinx is the piece that launched a thousand solo flute pieces. Its two-and-a-half minutes are evocative and filled with color.
Joseph Haydn: Divertimentos in G and C major, Hob. IV:7–8
Haydn developed a sideline writing for the growing commercial market. There was a lot of money in selling new works, or repackaging parts of old ones, like in these divertimentos.
Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8
Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 1 is a youthful work. But the piece we hear today was revised in 1889, 35 years later, at the pinnacle of his career.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 1, No. 1
The sharp opening of Beethoven’s first piano trio announced to the world that a new, important composer had arrived: it was this piece that he chose to publish as his Op. 1, No. 1.
Maurice Ravel: Violin Sonata No. 1
This is the first and less famous of Ravel’s two violin sonatas, published long after his death, in 1975.
Benjamin Britten: Violin Concerto, Op. 15
Britten was motivated by pacifism in the face of war in Europe. His violin concerto is uneasy, with lyrical lines built on a dangerously unstable foundation.