MusiLLection

Telemann played a key role in shaping musical professionalism, encouraging public performance and cultivated listening. Telemann’s Double Concerto for Two Horns and Orchestra in E-flat Major belongs to the third production of his Musique de Table ( Tafelmusik , 1733), one of the most ambitious and representative publishing ventures of his career. Far from serving merely as refined background entertainment, this “Table Music” was intended for attentive listening among cultivated audiences—a context that explains the high degree of formal craftsmanship and structural variety found throughout the collection. The concerto’s instrumentation is particularly noteworthy. Telemann designates the two solo instruments as tromba selvatica , a term that has long intrigued musicological research. It most likely refers not to the modern trumpet, but to an early natural brass instrument akin to the horn, without valves and limited in chromatic flexibility. This ambiguity reflects the fluidity of in...

The Jazz Age shaped artists and musicians alike. This painting by Lyonel Charles Feininger reflects the spirit of the era that inspired Gershwin’s music. George Gershwin first achieved fame as a songwriter, yet from the very beginning of his career he aspired to compose what was then considered “serious” concert music. That ambition took shape decisively when conductor and impresario Paul Whiteman commissioned him to write a work for a so-called “jazz concerto.” The result was Rhapsody in Blue , a groundbreaking piece for piano and orchestra that instantly transformed Gershwin into a cultural phenomenon. Just one year later, in 1925, Gershwin received a new and more demanding commission—this time from New York conductor Walter Damrosch—for a full-length concerto in the European tradition. Working simultaneously on the Broadway shows Tell Me More and Tip Toes , Gershwin composed what he initially titled the New York Concerto , later known as the Piano Concerto in F Major . The conc...

Composed between 1929 and 1931, the Piano Concerto in G Major stands among Maurice Ravel ’s final completed works. Already suffering from serious health problems, the composer did not appear as soloist at the premiere, though he conducted the orchestra himself. The concerto represents a mature synthesis of clarity, rhythmic vitality and refined orchestral colour. Ravel famously remarked that the work was written “in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saëns ,” emphasizing classical balance and formal precision. Beneath this surface, however, lies a far richer network of influences: Stravinskian rhythmic sharpness, the harmonic language of jazz encountered during his American tour, and subtle references to Spanish and Basque musical traditions. Μovements : Ι. Allergamente The first movement, Allegramente , begins without a substantial orchestral introduction. The piano enters almost immediately, while a folk-like thematic gesture is introduced by piccolo and trumpet. The structure follows ...

The graceful and lyrical atmosphere of the countryside, so vividly evoked in many orchestral works by Carl Maria von Weber , reflects the composer’s poetic sensitivity throughout his short life.   Just as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johannes Brahms wrote landmark works for the clarinet inspired by exceptional performers, Carl Maria von Weber found his own muse in the artistry of Heinrich Joseph Baermann , principal clarinetist of the Munich Court Orchestra. In 1811, Maximilian I of Bavaria commissioned Weber to compose two clarinet concertos specifically for Baermann, who would premiere them in Munich. Following the first performances, Weber recorded in his diary the “tumultuous applause” provoked by Baermann’s divine playing—testimony to the immediate impact of both the music and its interpreter. The Clarinet Concerto No. 2 adheres broadly to the Classical concerto form, though Weber introduces distinctive Romantic traits. Notably, the work contains no extended written cad...

Jelly d’Arányi, the Hungarian violinist whose virtuosic playing and deep connection to gypsy musical style inspired Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane . In 1922, Maurice Ravel was profoundly impressed by the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi, after hearing her perform traditional gypsy music from her homeland. Fascinated by its expressive freedom and virtuosity, Ravel was inspired to compose Tzigane , a work originally written for violin and piano and later orchestrated. The composition was completed in 1924 and stands as one of Ravel’s most striking homages to Hungarian and Romani musical idioms. Tzigane is conceived as a rhapsodic concert piece , rich in stylistic allusions to gypsy performance practice rather than direct folk quotation. It opens with an extended and highly demanding solo violin cadenza , unaccompanied, immediately immersing the listener in an atmosphere of improvisatory intensity. Exotic scales, ornamental inflections, and bold harmonic turns—unusual to the Western ear—d...

“Autumn” by Nicolas Poussin, reflecting the rural imagery and seasonal symbolism echoed in Vivaldi’s concerto. The Sonnet I. Allegro The peasants celebrate with songs and dances The pleasure of a rich harvest; And, fired by Bacchus’ liquor, Many end their revelry in sleep. II. Adagio molto All are made to forget their cares and to sing and dance By the gentle air, tempered with pleasure, And by the season which invites so many To enjoy sweet slumber. III. Allegro At dawn the hunters set out, With horns and dogs and guns. The beast flees, and they follow its trail; Terrified and weary of the great noise Of guns and dogs, wounded, it struggles And, harried, dies. The Four Seasons is a cycle of four violin concertos , each offering a vivid musical portrayal of a season of the year. Autumn ( L’autunno ) is the third concerto , written in F major and published in 1725 as part of Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione , Op. 8. In this concerto, Antonio Vivaldi depic...

  Clara Schumann, an exceptional pianist and composer, was the first to perform Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor. One of the defining piano concertos of the Romantic era, Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 , grew gradually into its final form. The first movement was originally composed in 1841 as a single-movement Phantasie for piano and orchestra. At the time, Schumann struggled to find a publisher and temporarily set the work aside. Four years later, in 1845, encouraged by his wife Clara Schumann , an outstanding pianist and interpreter of his music, Schumann revised the original Phantasie , adding two further movements and shaping the concerto as it is known today. Clara Schumann gave the first performance of the original version at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on 13 August 1841. The complete three-movement concerto was premiered in Dresden on 4 December 1845 , with Clara as soloist and Ferdinand Hiller conducting. Less than a month later, on 1 Jan...

Like many composers of his time, César Franck earned his living primarily as a virtuoso performer, with broad recognition of his compositions coming largely after his death. Toward the end of his career, César Franck became increasingly aware that French music lacked a major, truly integrated work for piano and orchestra —one in which the solo instrument would not merely dominate, but participate symphonically in the musical argument. Determined to address this gap, he began experimenting with the relationship between piano and orchestra. An important step in this direction was his symphonic poem Les Djinns (1884), a work inspired by Victor Hugo’s poem. Two years later, in 1885 , Franck achieved his artistic goal with the composition of the Symphonic Variations , a work of remarkable unity, balance, and enduring expressive power. Franck originally conceived the piece as a concert-form structure in which piano and orchestra would share thematic responsibility equally. Influenced by Be...

A densely written manuscript by Brahms, from Alto Rhapsody , Op. 53, reflecting his intense contrapuntal thinking and meticulous compositional style. Johannes Brahms occupies a central place in 19th-century music, balancing classical structural discipline with deep Romantic expressiveness. His works reveal an extraordinary command of form, counterpoint, and thematic development, combined with a profound emotional intensity. Below is a curated selection of Brahms’s most significant works , grouped by genre. Symphonies: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 Orchestral music: Variations on a Theme by Haydn ("Saint Anthony Variations"), Op. 56a Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Tragic Overture, Op. 81 Concertos : Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 Piano Concerto No. 2 in B♭ major, Op. 83 Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 Double Concerto in A minor for violin and cello, Op. 10...

Georg Philipp Telemann  composed only one concerto for solo trumpet—a fact that may seem surprising, given the instrument’s great popularity during the Baroque period. The trumpet most commonly used in Telemann’s time was the high trumpet in D, prized for its brilliant and penetrating sound. Although he employed the trumpet in various orchestral contexts and even wrote a concerto for three trumpets, this work remains his sole concerto for a single trumpet soloist. The Trumpet Concerto in D major showcases both the ceremonial brilliance and the lyrical potential of the instrument, framed within a clear and balanced four-movement structure. Μovements : Ι. Adagio The concerto opens unusually without an orchestral introduction. The solo trumpet enters immediately, unfolding a long, flowing melody. Beneath it, the strings and harpsichord establish a steady, almost hymn-like rhythmic foundation, lending the movement a restrained and dignified character. ΙΙ. Allegro The second movement ...

Composed in 1796, the Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major stands among Joseph Haydn ’s most enduring works and remains one of the very few trumpet concertos to secure a permanent place in the orchestral repertoire. Its significance extends beyond its musical charm: the concerto was written for Anton Weidinger’s newly invented keyed trumpet , an instrument that dramatically expanded the technical and chromatic possibilities of the traditional natural trumpet. This innovation allowed Haydn to treat the trumpet not merely as a vehicle of brilliance and ceremonial splendor, but as a genuinely melodic and expressive voice , capable of chromatic inflection and lyrical nuance. The concerto thus marks a historical transition—from the harmonic limitations of eighteenth-century brass writing to a more flexible and cantabile conception of the instrument. The traditional fast–slow–fast layout reflects the structural clarity of late Classical concerto form, yet Haydn’s handling of the solo instrume...

  The Concert by Nicolas Lancret reflects the social charm and growing popularity of public concerts in the eighteenth century. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote most of his piano concertos for his own performances and for his pupils. In 1785 alone, he composed three piano concertos, among them Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major , which he premiered in Vienna in March of that year. The piano concerto represents Mozart’s most decisive contribution to instrumental music. In this genre, he established a balance between soloist and orchestra that became a model for future generations. Later composers—most notably Ludwig van Beethoven —studied, emulated, and expanded upon Mozart’s concerto style. Much of the concerto’s popularity throughout the nineteenth century can be traced directly to Mozart’s mature works in this form. Μovements : I .  Allegro maestoso The opening movement begins with a stately, march-like theme in the strings. The entrance of the woodwinds lends the music a cer...

The first page of Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”, signed by Antonín Dvořák. The handwritten notes on the left trace earlier ideas and dates that the composer later fused into one of the most iconic symphonies in music history. For Orchestra: Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 & Op. 72 Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22 Concertos:  Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 Chamber Music: String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 "American" Symphonies: No. 1 in C minor "The Bells of Zlonice" No. 2 in B♭ Major No. 3 in C Major, Op. 32 No. 4 in D minor No. 5 in F Major, Op. 76 No. 6 in D Major, Op. 60 No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70 No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 No. 9 in E minor "From the New World", Op. 95 Operas: The Devil and Kate, Op. 112 Rusalka, Op. 114 Armida, Op. 115 Choral Music: Stabat Mater, Op. 58

Portrait of Antonio Vivaldi, the Venetian composer who transformed the Baroque concerto. The music of Antonio Vivaldi radiates vitality and physical presence. Its sounds breathe the air of the Mediterranean, capturing an exuberant joy of life that erupts in spontaneous excitement and pure aesthetic pleasure. Listening to Vivaldi reveals a richness of color that seems closer to painting than to abstract musical construction. His output—astonishing both in scale and variety—impresses through the inexhaustible freshness of its inspiration. Even when working within the dominant formal framework of his time, the tripartite concerto structure of allegro–adagio–allegro , Vivaldi never sounds constrained. On the contrary, he reinvigorates the form from within. The traditional concerto grosso became, in his hands, something entirely new. Vivaldi reshaped it into a forward-looking model that anticipated the symphonic idiom, allowing for the clear emergence of the soloist’s personality. He ima...

Leipzig, the city Mendelssohn shaped into a European musical center and where his Violin Concerto in E minor was first performed. Felix Mendelssohn  composed his Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 during the summer of 1844, following an exhausting concert tour—his eighth visit to England. He completed the work while spending a period of rest in Bad Soden , near Frankfurt, a setting that allowed him the calm necessary for focused composition. The concerto was premiered in Leipzig on March 13, 1845, with the solo part performed by Ferdinand David , concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and a close friend of the composer. David had worked closely with Mendelssohn on technical refinements of the violin writing, ensuring that virtuosity and musical expression remained perfectly balanced. Mendelssohn, already in fragile health, was unable to conduct the premiere, and the task was entrusted to Niels Wilhelm Gade . This concerto stands as one of the most influential violin concerto...

Portrait of Franz Liszt, whose revolutionary approach to the piano concerto redefined the balance between soloist and orchestra. Franz Liszt first became involved with this concerto as early as 1832, during his youth. However, his relentless touring as a virtuoso pianist across Europe left him little time for sustained compositional work. As a result, the concerto was completed only in 1849 and continued to undergo revisions for several years thereafter. The premiere finally took place in Weimar in 1855, conducted by another towering figure of Romantic music, Hector Berlioz . The concerto is Romantic in every sense. It departs decisively from the Classical three-movement concerto model of Mozart and Beethoven and adopts a cyclical form , in which the same musical ideas reappear and are transformed throughout the work. This unifying principle gives the concerto remarkable coherence despite its rich variety of moods. Movements: I. Allegro maestoso The concerto opens with a commandin...

In this Organ Concerto, Handel famously imitates birdsong, a rare and charming example of musical pictorialism in his instrumental output. The characteristic calls of the cuckoo and the nightingale give the work its enduring subtitle and contribute to its immediate appeal. Like Handel’s other organ concertos, Concerto No. 13 was composed to be performed during the intervals of his oratorios. It was first presented on April 4, 1739, at the Royal Theatre in London, just two days after its completion, alongside the oratorio Israel in Egypt . Many of these concertos—including this one—contain extensive ad libitum passages. During these sections, the organist was expected to improvise freely, using the written material merely as a framework. Handel himself was a superb organist and astonished audiences with the brilliance and inventiveness of his improvisations. Movements: - Larghetto The concerto opens with a brief orchestral introduction presenting a gentle, expressive theme. The orga...

During the early 1780s, while working as an independent musician in Vienna, Mozart composed his first horn concerto. With this work, he placed the horn at the very heart of the orchestra, elevating an instrument with a relatively limited natural range to a prominent solo role. In doing so, he opened the way for the horn’s expressive use in later concertos by other composers. Mozart was fully aware of the horn’s technical constraints, yet he explored its unique color with remarkable imagination. He contrasts the horn’s rounded, noble tone against the fuller orchestral texture, allowing melodies to flow seamlessly from one instrumental group to another. Each thematic idea is carefully shaped according to instrumental character. This is especially evident in the opening movement, where two contrasting melodic worlds are presented: the strings introduce a direct, confident and robust theme, while the horn responds with a gentler, more reflective melody, subtly drawing the orchestra into...

During the Baroque era, European musical language gradually shifted from the equal polyphonic weave of the Renaissance toward a system grounded in tonal hierarchy and structural clarity. The establishment of basso continuo and the increasing emphasis on contrast did not merely represent technical developments; they signaled a new conception of musical architecture, in which tension unfolds through departure and return. Within this evolving aesthetic, the concerto became a field of formal precision. Antonio Vivaldi played a decisive role in shaping the three-movement fast–slow–fast structure and in consolidating the ritornello principle as an architectural foundation. Dramatic momentum arises not from thematic complexity, but from the alternation between stable recurring sections and episodes that explore new tonal areas. The Concerto for Strings in A Major, RV 158 is a characteristic concerto ripieno . There is no soloist; intensity emerges from the collective force of the string e...

Vivaldi’s Summer evokes suffocating heat and the sudden violence of storms, where nature turns oppressive and destructive. Among the four concertos of The Four Seasons , Summer stands as the most intense and dramatic. In this work, Antonio Vivaldi transforms nature into a living force, oppressive and threatening rather than benign. The concerto follows an accompanying sonnet—traditionally attributed to the composer himself—which guides the listener through heat, exhaustion, fear, and finally devastation. I. Allegro non molto "Under a hard season, fired up by the sun Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine We hear the cuckoo’s voice; then sweet songs of the turtle dove and finch are heard. Soft breezes stir the air but threatening the North Wind sweeps them suddenly aside. The shepherd trembles, fearing violent storms and his fate." The opening movement unfolds beneath a merciless sun. The music conveys heaviness and fatigue through restrained motion and har...