For Your Listening Pleasure

"Mozart: Sonatas for violin and piano" When considering Mozart’s violin sonata output, scholars are quick to distinguish his “childhood” sonatas (K 6-15 and K 26-31) from his “mature” sonatas (numbered 17 to 36), composed in the decade spanning 1778 and 1788. As we know, Mozart was adept at both the violin and piano and, if he was writing these to his level of prowess at the instrument, we have to ask ourselves who’s the boss in the Mozart sonatas for violin and piano – the violinist or the pianist? More at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/K3772931 [First time on our podcasting channel]

"Piano, Piano" The piano duo becomes more popular as a compositional genre in the mid- to late- 18th century. We know Mozart would play piano duets with his sister, and write sonatas for that combination, so did Schubert write extensively for duets. Brahms' Hungarian dances, Dvořák's Slavonic dances, Liszt's reductions of the Beethoven symphonies... All piano duets! More at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast184

"Last Night of the Proms (Part 2)" To complete this two-part Last Night of the Proms from 2004, after the intermission, “Last Night” favourites by Wood, Parry and Elgar are on the program. Alan Titchmarsh,is the television presenter. More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/LNP200402 [First Time on our podcasting channel]

"Last Night of the Proms (Part 1)" This two-part series of Listener Guides presents the entire Last Night of the Proms from Saturday 11 September 2004. Part 1 follows more-or-less the trappings of a standard classical concert with works by Dvorak, Richard Strauss, Vaughan-Williams and Barber. Alan Titchmarsh,is the television presenter. More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/LNP200402 [First Time on our podcasting channel]

"Ton Koopman Plays J. S. Bach" Rudolf Garrels built the organ in the great church of Maassluis in the years 1730-1732. It was a gift of Govert van Wijn, a rich citizen of Maassluis, ship owner and former treasurer of the fishery committee. The organ was first used on the 4th of December 1732, the day on which Govert van Wijn turned 90. This makes it an instrument of Bach’s era. This Listener Guide features Period instrument specialist Ton Koopman playing four Bach organ favourites on the restored Rudolf Garrels Organ of the Grote Kerk, Maassluis, Netherlands.More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/02ToccataAdagioAndFugueInCB [First Time on our podcasting channel]

Our ongoing survey of the Beethoven sonatas resumes with the Pathétique and Waldstein sonatas played by Wilhelm Kempff, who is also featured soloist on the First concerto.Read our commentary on September 13 @ https://itywltmt.blogspot.com/, details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast323-Playlist

"FP of Mahler's ;Symphony opf A Thousand' [1910]" Mahler’s Eighth is the last of his works to be premiered in his lifetime. The occasion was a triumph—"easily Mahler's biggest lifetime success," according to biographer Robert Carr. The nickname “Symphony of A Thousand” comes from the amassed forces in Munich. It is not in fact certain that more than 1,000 performers participated in the Munich premiere. La Grange enumerates a chorus of 850 (including 350 children), 157 instrumentalists and the eight soloists, to give a total of 1,015. However, Carr suggests that there is evidence that not all the Viennese choristers reached the hall and the number of performers may therefore not have reached 1,000. More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/MahlerSymphonyNo.8Solti [First Time on our podcasting channel]

"9/11" Composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death on December 5, the Requiem was finished not by Salieri as Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus suggests, but rather by Franz Xaver Süssmayr who was Mozart’s copyist. The work had been “anonymously” commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg asa requiem mass to commemorate the February 14 anniversary of his wife's death. It serves today to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the terror attacks in the US. More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Pcast097

"Norddeutsche Orgelschule" 17th and 18th century German organ composers can be divided into two primary schools: the north and the south German schools (sometimes a third school, central German, is added). The stylistic differences were dictated not only by teacher-pupil traditions, but also by technical aspects such as the quality and the tradition of organ building, and by certain composers who would help spread national styles by travelling and learning from other countries' styles. This Listener Guide features three composers we associate with the north German school - Sweelinck, Buxtehude ad J. S. Bach. More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast217

"Waltzes for Piano" This Listener Guide proposes a number of piano waltzes, from the Romantic era all the way to recent times. The times change, yet the time signature doesn’t and this short sampling of waltzes highlights moments of musical character and ingenuity. Whether they are from the pen of great pianist-composers (Chopin, Debussy and Rubenstein) or that of a master of song like Billy Joel, you never get tired of listening to these lilting melodies!More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast219

"Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité" is a modern piece of organ music by Olivier Messiaen. The work's title is also loaded with elements quite relevant to the composer: his spiritual nature, the church and organ that he was associated with for 60 years, and the number 3... More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast152

"French Organ Masterworks" The majority of our selections today are digitized vinyl performances from the 1950’s and 60’s that were featured on the site Dovesong.com, dedicated to “the Positive Music Movement”. There is nothing unusual to linking French organ music to a spiritual music movement – as the composers were for the most part devout in their religious practices, and were associated with many famous churches in France – Widor at St-Sulpice, Messiaen at La Trinité, even Franck at Ste-Clothilde. More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/02ChoralPourOrgueFWV38 [First Time on our podcasting channel]

"Paganini: 24 Caprices, op. 1" In 1947, American violinist Ruggerio Ricci was the first violinist to record the complete 24 Caprices, Op. 1, by Paganini, in their original form. Ricci's first recording – our feature - was on the Shellac recording label (he later made three other recordings of the Caprices, including his 1997 recording on Paganini's own Guarneri, Il Cannone, on loan to him by the City of Genoa, Italy.). More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/RuggieroRicci-PaganiniCaprices [First Time on our podcasting channel]

The musical life of Britain would be different in many ways if it were not for the British choral tradition: it is nourished as much by the music of renaissance Italy, baroque Germany, Enlightenment Austria or Romantic Russia as British music. Read our commentary on September 6 @ https://itywltmt.blogspot.com/, details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast322-Playlist

"Mozart: Four Piano Sonatas" Today’s Listener Guide presents four of the 18 “numbered” piano sonatas in Mozart’s catalog. These sonatas are modest in scope when compared to Beethoven’s or Chopin’s, but varied in their pianistic requirements and in their overall texture. All four of the sonata performances are captured “live”, three of them from the Mozart and Beethoven musical scholar Paul Badura-Skoda. More info in our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/07SoneteNo.18EnFaMajeurK.53 [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]