“This is like an epigraph to the suite: the morning of life. In the juxtaposition of registers one can feel space, air! The melody is slightly dreamy and crystal clear. The handwriting is characteristically Prokofievian: parallel movements, covering the entire keyboard, playing through the hand, clarity of rhythm and definite sections. Extraordinary simplicity, but not […]
This sonata is a relatively simple work, less refined than most other piano sonatas. Surprisingly, there are no dynamic indications in the autograph and first edition. It is considered to be the lighter of the two ‘light sonatas’ and also the simplest of all Beethoven’s piano sonatas The first movement involves two themes, starting with […]
Sonata was written in 1792 in the city of Bonn and, together with the other two sonatas in the Op. 2 series, was dedicated to his teacher Joseph Haydn. Interestingly, Beethoven himself considered these works very successful as he dedicated them to his mentor, who was very critical of himself. These three sonatas were published […]
A work by French composer Jules Massenet, one of the most famous examples of the musical genre of elegy. This composition was originally written as a piano piece and included in Massenet’s 1866 cycle “Genre Pieces” (Op. 10) as number 5. Then, while working on the music for Leconte de Lisle’s drama Les Erinyes (staged […]
The origins of Johann Sebastian Bach’s four orchestral suites go back to the court of Louis XIV and his brilliant composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. In keeping with French taste, Lully’s operas abounded with instrumental dances. Outside of opera performances, this music took on a life of its own in the form of suites with dance movements. […]
The Prelude opens Volume 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, a cycle of preludes and fugues for keyboard instruments by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in 4/4 in sixteenth durations, it has two voices. The harmony of the prelude is generally similar to that of Bach’s time. Its tempo is not too fast. In its deviations, the […]
The Minuet in D minor, BWV Anh. 132 is a small and popular Baroque piece traditionally attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, but in the BWV catalog it is listed under “Anhang” (additional or unconfirmed works). This means that the authorship of this minuet is not fully confirmed or is somewhat doubted by researchers. It is […]
One of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works, part of a collection of 19th-century short pieces assembled from various 18th-century manuscripts written by Johann Sebastian Bach and other authors. The story of the writing of this prelude is related to the period when Bach lived in Köthen and in his early years in Leipzig, where he became […]
The career of Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian, followed in a general way the same route as that of Handel: Germany to Italy to England. Arriving in England in 1762, three years after Handel’s death, J. C. Bach established himself as a popular composer of operas and instrumental works in an […]
A musical work by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. It is part of the cycle Lyrical Pieces, written and published in 1901. The first complete recording of the Lyrical Pieces was made and released in the Soviet Union by Alexander Goldenweiser in the 1950s. The Kobold or Puck is a mythological creature from Germanic-Scandinavian mythology, often […]
The cycle of piano pieces “Poetic Pictures” (“Poetiske Tonebilde” in Norwegian) was composed by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1863. This collection consists of six short pieces, each of which conveys a particular poetic mood or image inspired by nature, poetry and the author’s personal experiences. Each piece is an independent miniature work with […]
The cycle of piano pieces “Poetic Pictures” (“Poetiske Tonebilde” in Norwegian) was composed by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1863. This collection consists of six short pieces, each of which conveys a particular poetic mood or image inspired by nature, poetry and the author’s personal experiences. Each piece is an independent miniature work with […]
