Bach: Concerto in D minor for one clavier * Concerto in F minor for one clavier * Concerto in C Major for two claviers * Concerto in C minor for two claviers * Concerto in D minor for three claviers * Concerto in C Major for three claviers * Concerto in A minor for four claviers. Beethoven: Concerto No. 1 in C (Op. 15) * Concerto No. 2 in B-flat (Op. 19) * Concerto No. 3 in C minor * Concerto No. 4 in G (Op. 58) * Concerto No. 5 in E-flat (Op. 73). Brahms: Concerto in D minor (Op. 15) * Concerto in B-flat (Op. 83).
A History of the Concerto may be read from cover to cover, but readers may also use the extensive index to focus on specific concertos and their composers. Numerous musical examples illuminate critical points. While some readers may want to study the more detailed analyses with scores in hand, this is not essential for an understanding of the text.
Veteran music critic David Hurwitz provides an accessible, comprehensive, and fresh survey of Beethoven’s symphonies, overtures, concertos, theatrical music, his single ballet and other music for the dance, and several short pieces worth getting to know. Beethoven’s orchestral works include some of the most iconic and popular pieces of classical music ever written. This book offers chapters on Beethoven’s handling of the symphony orchestra and his contributions to its evolution, as well as his approach to musical form in creating large, multi-movement works. The musical descriptions provide helpful strategies for listening that invite both beginners and experienced enthusiasts to treat even the best known pieces as something fresh, new and relevant. In addition, Hurwitz provides extensive lists of recommended recordings of all of the music surveyed, highlighting the wide range of issues in Beethoven interpretation and performance, as well as the history of his music. He encourages readers to listen actively and critically, as they build their own Beethoven discographies according to their personal tastes and preferences. The book is accompanied by online audio tracks of Beethoven works selected by Hurwitz.
My Nine Lives is a powerful and stirring memoir of one of the greatest pianists of the postwar era—an inspiring tale of courage, compassion, and triumph over outstanding odds. At the peak of his career, celebrated pianist Leon Fleisher suddenly lost the use of two fingers on his right hand. Miraculously, at the age of sixty-six, he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, and learned to manage it through a combination of physical therapy and experimental Botox injections. In 2003 Fleisher returned to Carnegie Hall to give his first two-handed performance in over three decades and brought down the house. With his coauthor, celebrated music critic Anne Midgette, Fleisher reveals here for the first time the depression that threatened to engulf him as his condition worsened, and the sheer love of music that rescued him from complete self-destruction.
The universally acclaimed and award-winning Oxford History of Western Music is the eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin's provocative, erudite telling of the story of Western music from its earliest days to the present. Each book in this superlative five-volume set illuminates-through a representative sampling of masterworks-the themes, styles, and currents that give shape and direction to a significant period in the history of Western music. Music in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries , the second volume Richard Taruskin's monumental history, illuminates the explosion of musical creativity that occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Examining a wealth of topics, Taruskin looks at the elegant masques and consort music of Jacobean England, the Italian concerto style of Corelli and Vivaldi, and the progression from Baroque to Rococo to romantic style. Perhaps most important, he offers a fascinating account of the giants of this period: Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Laced with brilliant observations, memorable musical analysis, and a panoramic sense of the interactions between history, culture, politics, art, literature, religion, and music, this book will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand this rich and diverse period.
Introducing a new theory of musical form for the analysis of instrumental music of the classical style. The book provides a broad set of principles and a comprehensive methodology for analysing phrases and themes to complete movements. Illustrated with over 250 annotated musical examples by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
Offering comprehensive coverage of classical music, this guide surveys more than eleven thousand albums and presents biographies of five hundred composers and eight hundred performers, as well as twenty-three essays on forms, eras, and genres of classical music. Original.
Lindeman, a musicologist, traces and defines the historical development of the concerto form as it passed from Mozart to succeeding generations. He then assesses Beethoven's contributions, and examines the classical model of the form in the early 19th century by overviewing several early romantic composers' works. Subsequent chapters analyze and assess the responses of five precursers of Schumann, whose work offers a synthesis of radical experiments and traditional tenets. He concludes by suggesting that concertos of Lizst offer a road into further developments of the genre in the second half of the century. Illustrated with bandw portraits of composers and excerpts from musical scores. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Rodney Trudgeon's Concert Notes is a collection of essays on famous classical, orchestral compositions. The pieces in this collection – short reflections on well-known classical compositions – have appeared in concert programmes that have accompanied performances by the Cape Town and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestras. The author is a well-known radio host and presenter on Fine Music Radio. He is an expert on the range of musical genres that broadly fall under the category 'classical music'. The text that comprises Rodney Trudgeon's Concert Notes is structured alphabetically according to composer and gives a broad overview of the development of classical music, starting with the Baroque period and ending with modern, atonal music. Each piece is dedicated to a particular musical composition, describing its highlights, its history, and what makes it unique. Broadly, the pieces are grouped together according to the following three broad categories: ouvertures, concertos, and symphonies, mimicking the structure of concert programmes. Each entry also includes a short biography of its composer. Trudgeon's style is easy to read and accessible to all readers: from those who listen to classical music regularly to those who are unfamiliar with it. Overall, this collection is a useful and informative musical guide, making a case for listening to orchestral music.
Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn’t exist. By examining one hundred of his compositions, a portrait emerges of the man behind the music. Lebrecht has immersed himself in the rich catalog of Beethoven recordings and presents a unique picture of the man through his music. He selects the best recordings of one hundred key pieces, showing the composer as we’ve never seen him before. Unruly, offensive, and hopeless in so much of his life, yet driven to a fault and devoted to his art, conquering deafness to pen masterpieces. Norman Lebrecht has been grappling with this icon at the heart of music for his entire life. Who was the irascible, unpredictable, warped genius who stretched what music could do to the breaking point? In this unique examination, Lebrecht attempts to understand the power of this man through his compositions, the history of who has performed them, and what it has meant to successive generations of audiences. In turn a detective story (we learn who Elise of “Fur Elise” is for the first time) and a confession, Why Beethoven aims to rise to the challenge of how to encompass the relentless energy of this singular genius. With a narrative that mirrors the wayward sequence of Beethoven’s compositions, Beethoven emerges as a cornerstone of the world as we know it.
