Next...

June 21- July 4: Mendelssohn, Berlios, Schumann

            VGCM p224-245

 FELIX MENDELSSOHN

Octet in E-flat major for strings
Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream Fingal's Cave (The Hebrides) Overture
Symphonies no. 4 (Italian) and no. 3 (Scotch)
Violin Concerto in E minor

HECTOR BERLIOZ

Symphonie fantastique
Overtures: Roman Carnival and Benvenuto Cellini
Harold in Italy Les Nuits d'ete Requiem

ROBERT SCHUMANN

Carnaval for piano
Song cycles: Leiderkreis and Dichterliebe 

Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Strings Piano Concerto in A minor
Symphony no. 4 in D minor
Cello Concerto in A minor

Taking risks

After Beethoven, this rounds seems pretty tame.  I am noticing a trend that composers seem to be more adventurous with smaller pieces.   As a result, I'm enjoying the quartets, sonatas, and concertos more than I expected.  

Romance Pt 1

June 7-20: Rossini, Weber, Schubert

            VGCM p194-223

GIOACCHINO ROSSINI

Collection of opera overtures, including William Tell, An Italian in Algiers, and The Barber of Seville

Opera: The Barber of Seville

CARL MARIA VON WEBER

Overtures to Der Freischiitz, Oberon, and Euryanthe

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Symphonies

No. 8 in B minor (Unfinished),
No. 5 in B-flat major
No. 9 in C major (The Great)

Chamber music

Trout Quintet

String Quartet in D minor (Death and the Maiden)

String Quintet in C major

Piano works

Eight Impromptus, six Moments Musicaux, Wanderer Fantasy Three Piano Sonatas opus posthumous: C minor, A major, B-flat major

Lieder

Individual songs including "Erlkonig," "Gretchen am Spinn¬rade," "Heidenroslein," "Nachtstiick," "Der Doppelganger" Song cycles: Die schone Miillerin, Winterreise

Two Posts in One Day?

Now that we are starting to get into the heart of what we are after, I looked back at the list of "greatest symphonies" and realized there were also notes about the greatest pieces, greatest composers, greatest rock and roll, etc.  All on that little website i've never heard of and concocted by folks I've never heard of.  Here is the list of greatest pieces (please note the Bach B Minor Mass rating of Number 1 -- above Beethoven 9).

Beethoven Movements

Last night we listened to the Fourth.  Holy Mackerel, who knew?  Probably everybody but me.  Well, the lilt of the second movement, combined with the lilt of the second movement of the Seventh left me with a question --  if you could only take one movement number of the Beethoven Symphonies to a desert island, but you would get all nine of them, which would you take?  I reckon the question is useless since we will never get stranded on the desert island, and even if we were our radios would run out of batteries, and even if those two things could be remedied, we would then tire of nine pieces of classical music no matter how awesome.  Nonetheless, the question has been posed.  If you are tracking at home, the Sixth has five movements, so I guess you could take any two and combine them, so long as they are adjacent and encompass your selected number (i.e. if you took Movement Twos, you could get one and two OR two and three from the Sixth).