Yuja Wang: Piano Works by Messiaen, Scriabin, Debussy, and Chopin
Olivier Messiaen composed his evening-length piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus in 1944 in occupied Paris.
Tag: Solo
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
Bach’s manuscript of the Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas dates from 1720, during his time as Kapellmeister in Köthen, though their inception probably goes back to 1703, during his time in Weimar.
Frédéric Chopin: Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49
Many critics hear the Fantaisie as a reflection of Poland’s plight after the failed 1830 November Uprising against the Russian Empire, a grand anthem for a national victory that never was.
Johannes Brahms: Sechs Klavierstücke, Op. 118
The rather dry title of Brahms’s Sechs Klavierstücke (Six Piano Pieces) conceals the enormous amount of feeling held within.
Frédéric Chopin: Mazurkas, Op. 59
Chopin wrote his mature mazurkas in exile, reinterpreting a Polish folk dance for Parisian salons. The Op. 59 Mazurkas are relatively late works, written in 1845, a decade-and-a-half after he last stepped foot on Polish soil.
Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 55, No. 2
A member of Chopin’s circle called this Nocturne “the dangerous one… the fatal nocturne.”
Claude Debussy: Images, Book 2
Debussy was not so interested in making musical versions of paintings as he was in getting at the same kinds of ideas that art did, but by other means.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Suites for Solo Cello
Bach’s six solo suites are the companions of every modern cellist. Some are simple enough to play after just a few years of study, others wait for a higher level of technical mastery.
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83
Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7 was written at the height of World War II and premiered just as the Russian Army came within reach of victory at Stalingrad.
Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52
Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 tells a story that emerges at the intersection of the imaginations of the composer, performer, and listener.