This piece was finished by Felix Mendelssohn in 1845. While it is a piece centered around a solo violin, it is actually one of Mendelssohn’s largest orchestral pieces. It was written for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, a timpani, and strings. The piece is in four four time, which means that it has four beats per measure and the quarter note receives the designation of one beat. As well, the piece is in the key of e minor which means that it has one prevalent sharp.

It took about 7 years for Mendelssohn to complete this work. The soloist for the premiere of this piece was Ferdinand David with the Leipzing Gewandhaus Orchestra, of which Mendelssohn was the principal conductor. Today this piece is one of the most widely played violin concertos ever.

Personally, I have heard this piece live twice. One was performed by the New York Philharmonic and the second was by the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The concert where the second was performed was quite interesting because the conductor  wanted to promote female composing. This led to the orchestra ending the concert with a choral piece by Fanny Mendelssohn that was song by the orchestra. As such, this was one of my favorite concerts. Please let me know any of your experiences with this piece.

This piece was composed in 1888 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and it was his 35th published work. It centers around the key of F major, having one flat. As well, it begins in 4/4 time, with for beats per measure with the quarter note receiving the one beat designation, and moves to 3/4 time which has only 3 beats per measure but maintains the quarter note serving as the beat. The entire piece includes four movements and was orchestrated for a symphonic orchestra.

This piece tells the story of an Arabian King who was betrayed by his first wife who had cheated on him. On order to gain his revenge, he had her killed and to appeased his broken heart, took a new wife everyday. In the morning, however, he would have each one killed so that they could never betray him. One day, he married a woman named Scheherazade who sought to end this useless killing.  In order to save her own life, she would tell the king stories each night, but leaving the best part for the next day, forcing the king to let her live if he wanted to hear the end of the story. After over a thousand nights, she healed the king’s broken heart and they had truly  fallen in  love with each other.

This piece gained much publicity when it was used in the gold medal winning performance of the American Ice Dancing tandem. I personally, had heard this piece before this event when I was first being exposed to classical music. I came across a CD of songs that the New York Philharmonic was going to play during t heir upcoming season and this was one of the pieces on that disc. While it is a goal of mine, I haven’t seen this piece performed live in concert. If any of you have, please let me know in the comment section.

In the spirit of the holidays, I will be writing about a piece played most often during the winter holiday season. The piece itself is an oratorio written by George Frederic Handel in 1741. It features a number of different movements, each of which may be in a different key and time signature, with a number of solos throughout the piece scattered between many vocal parts. The most famous movement is known as the Hallelujah Chorus and another well known movement is  For Unto Us a Child is Born.

My person experience with this piece comes from an annual event in New York known as the Messiah sing in. Here, people can buy tickets to come sing selected movements from Messiah with other fans of the piece. The organizers bring a number of conductors, with a change of conductors for each selected movement. Participants can sit anywhere and include classical music enthusiasts, school/professional performing groups, and casual residents and visitors to New York. It was an odd experience for me at first, being a Bass II in my usual choral performing groups, I usually sit around other Bass II’s. However, at the Sing In, I happened to sit next to an alto which was surprising at first. Luckily, I was able keep a solid handle (pardon the pun) on my part. The group itself, was, as expected, not perfect, since it wasn’t balanced or organized in any way. The conductors, to their credit, did a phenomenal job of keeping it together which led to an acceptable final result. Thank you so much for reading and please let me know about any encounters you’ve had with this piece in the past. Also, be sure to comment your favorite movement from this piece.

Bolero was was first performed in 1928 and has since  become the most famous composition of Maurice Ravel. The piece is in the key of C major which features no flats or sharps and the in 3/4 time, meaning that there are three beats per measure with the quarter note serving as one beat. It is a one movement piece that was originally commissioned for an opera by famed Russia actress Ida Rubinstein.  It was initially composed for a full orchestra made up of a piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, one English horn, two clarinets, one bass clarinet, two saxophones, two bassoons, one contrabassoon, four horns, one piccolo trumpet, three trumpets, three trombones, one bass tuba, one timpani, two snare drums, one bass drum, one pair of symbols, one gong, one celesta, one harp, and strings.

Ravel was heavily inspired by the Spanish dance known as the “bolero” for this piece. The piece itself is very repetitive to the point where it is the same phrase of music replayed over and over by different sections and at different dynamic levels throughout the duration of the approximately 19 minute piece. Although, open further investigation, there are slight variances with each repetition that can only be discerned from careful listening. That being said, it is still a lovely piece to listen no matter how much you want to dissect it.

My first experience with this piece was at my second ever Opening Gala for the New York Philharmonic. This was the grand finale piece after a featured performance by Yo-Yo Ma. For the first time since I had started following classical music, the performers at this convert were  wearing color rather than black and white and this confused me for the first few pieces. However, it all became clear during Bolero when the curtains that were hung at the back of the stage “changed” colors with each repetition of the phrase, (with the use of colored spotlights of course). The effect created by this action was dazzling and, pardon the pun, shed a whole new light on the piece that I found to be quite appropriate. As always, thank you for reading and please share you thought in the comments.

Meditation was written in 1894 by Jules Massenet for the opera, Thais. This selection is in the key D major; which features two predominant sharps which are F sharp and C sharp. It also lies in common time which stands for 4/4 which features four beats per measure and the quarter note has the designation for one beat. It was originally orchestrated for a solo violin, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, two horns, SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) chorus, two harps, and strings, however, the most famous arrangement for this piece does not feature the SATB choir.

Today, the piece is used most by world class solo violinists, such as Joshua Bell, who travel the world to play with different orchestras, as an encore piece. The cello virtuoso, Yo-Yo Ma has even done a recording of this piece with Kathryn Scott as the pianist that was transcribed for cello and piano.

My first experience with this piece was, luckily, a performance by a world class solo violinist. I distinctly remember sitting in the wings of the second tier at Avery Fisher Hall at my first Opening Gala for the New York Philharmonic. When Itzhak Perman walked out onto the stage I immediately felt a certain confidence coming from him that I had never felt from any other violinist before. This was the first piece I heard him him play. Upon hearing the first  note from his violin, I began to feel like I was flying. It was truly an unrepeatable experience. To all of those who haven’t heard this piece before, i recommend that you stop everything you are doing, sit down, and just listen to it. Whenever I need to calm down, I will instantly play this piece in my mind. As always, thank you for reading and please leave your comment below.

P.S. This recording happens to be the exact one that I heard at Lincoln Center a few years ago.

The Barber of Seville, the overture of which was composed by Gioachino Rossini, premiered in February of 1816. The piece itself is written primarily in the key of G major; which has one sharp consistent throughout the piece. That sharp is F sharp. Also, the time signature of the piece is “4/4”, which means that each measure is 4 beats long and the quarter note serves as one beat. Since this is an opera, it was composed for a specific style of pit orchestra. Since the play has been performed many times since its debut, you can find many adaptations of the theme for almost all sizes of orchestras.

The play itself was poorly received by the public at first, but it would gradually see an increase in popularity. An interesting aspect of this composition is the inclusion of an oboe line in the original score. At the time, the use of the basso buffo voice in composition was frowned upon. However, Rossini was able to see and capitalize in the comedic qualities of this style of voice for  this play. This was one of the primary reasons why the show received much higher reviews after its second performance than after the first; it simply took time for the audience to accommodate and adjust itself to the unique style of composition Rossini used so well.

Can any of you remember any experience you have had with this piece? Many of you may say no, not because you aren’t familiar with the piece, but because you didn’t know the name of it when you heard it. My first experience with the piece is most likely the same as yours. This piece was featured in an episode of the “Looney Toons”, a popular cartoon series. In the episode, (which will be linked beneath the usual recording of the piece), Bugs Bunny dresses up as butler and process to continually mess up another characters shave. The episode is quite well timed with the music which gives it quite a funny quality. I remember being a toddler and laughing around on the floor when watching this particular episode. Little did I know I would be writing this review so many years later. Eventually, I want to see the original play to bring my experience full circle. Thanks for reading and please share your experiences with this piece. I am very excited to hear your stories.

Link to Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OloXRhesab0

Link to Episode (with live orchestra): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZfaVoebk-A

This piece was a part of one of Handel’s oratorio’s; namely, Solomon. Handel composed the music between May 5 and June 13 of 1748. It was originally orchestrated for 2 oboes however, it has been transcribed into arrangement for various other groups such as string quartet. This song itself is in the key of B flat major which means that two flats are present throughout the piece; those being b flat and e flat. It is also, as with most baroque compositions, written in common time which denotes that there will be four beats per measure and the quarter note will receive the denotation of one beat.

George Frederic Handel, one of three major Baroque composers, was born in Germany in 1685. However, many of his most famous compositions were written in Britain which is quite easy to tell because they feature a distinctly elegant, British aura rather than the powerful aura often, (but not always), emitted by pieces written by German composers. Since the time of the publication of this piece, it has developed into a song often played at weddings due to its orderly, precise dynamic changes that gives it a soothing, delicate feel.

Personally, I have experience with this piece in a way that many others do not. Since I myself play the violin, I can fondly remember sitting in the back of my Middle School’s 7th and 8th Grade String Orchestra playing this song with some of the most talented orchestral members to pass through the school district, (who were all leading instrumentalists with featured roles in each piece). While this definitely improved the overall quality of the performance, I couldn’t help feel a little bit of extra pressure to do well since it would be the 8th grader’s last concert in the Middle School, (it was a real passing of the torch moment). My music teacher was, as usual fantastic at teaching us “little” 7th graders how to play the piece correctly while allowing the 8th graders to shine, (I still marvel at her mastery of that orchestra and, up to this day, remains one of my favorite teachers ever). Anyways, I hope, when you listen too it, you can enjoy it as much as I do. Please comment any pleasant memories with this piece or any other piece that you may have had and, as always, thank you for reading.

Bass Clef

This piece was the 37^th published work of Ludwig van Beethoven. It was composed for a piano soloist, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in E-flat, 2 trumpets in C, timpani, and strings. The piece is written in the key of c minor meaning it has three flats, those being b flat, e flat, and a flat. This piece is written mostly in 4/4 time meaning that there are four beats per measure and a quarter note receives one beat. This piece is made up of three movements.

After famously going deaf towards the end of his career, Beethoven is widely regarded as the greatest overall composer of all time, a sentiment that I agree with. His work spans the classical and romantic periods in music and his longevity, while certainly not Mozart’s, is to be admired. Being only his 37^th work, this was one of his earlier pieces. Beethoven would [later?] dedicate this piece to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia.

Given the great quality of all of Beethoven’s works, it is easy for certain pieces to be overlooked and labeled as “just another great piece from Beethoven”. However, I feel that this piece deserves more than being swept aside. It is a great piece in its own right that fits with Beethoven’s fiery spirit. While still being categorized as a piano concerto, the piece itself does not rely solely on the piano to advance the melody; instead the piano merely introduces the themes for the rest of the orchestra to pick up on. Throughout the piece, Beethoven keeps the orchestra apart from the piano, not letting them play with each other, (not counting background chord support), which builds to a dramatic ending incorporating everyone. Thanks and please comment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEH17GCig34                                               -Bass Clef

This piece was the 92^nd published work of Antonin Dvorak and the piece was written for a full orchestra. The piece is centered around the key of A Major which features three sharps, those being F sharp, C sharp, and G sharp; however, Dvorak utilizes different key signatures in small sections throughout the piece. This pieces is mainly in cut time which means that the time is really 2/2, (cut from the standard time signature of 4/4), in which there are two beats per measure and the half note serves as one beat. This piece, being an overture, only has one movement.

Dvorak wrote this piece in 1891as the second part of a trilogy of pieces that he wrote for “Nature, Life, and Love”, which means that this piece represents life. Known as a Romantic composer, Dvorak is best known for his 9^th Symphony, “From the New World”. However, along with Slavonic Dances, this piece is a major work of his with deep Bohemian influence.

This is a piece that is very close to my heart since it is the first piece I heard performed live from a professional orchestra. I will never forget being a 13 year old sitting in the eight row of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall hearing the New York Philharmonic masterfully perform this piece. I owe it to this piece that I love classical music as much as I do today. When I listen to the piece now, I am still discovering new, interesting aspects that I haven’t noticed before, (I suggest focusing on the cello line if you have time to listen twice). With quick, flowing runs written for instruments that usually don’t perform those types of melodies, it is a challenge to play and inspiring to listen to. As always, thank you for reading and please leave any feedback in the comments section.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYMpt5Lg3cw                                                   -Bass Clef