Beethoven
Hagen Quartet at the Konzerthaus
Tonight I had the pleasure of hearing the Hagen Quartet play at the Konzerthaus (I am in Vienna and will be here for the next 2.5 months, so I am certainly looking forward to a lot of concerts!). This ensemble is one of the premier string quartets in the world and as usual they did not disappoint — except for the fact that they did not play an encore! The program was Beethoven op. 18/4, Bartók’s String Quartet no. 1, and Brahms’s op. 111 Quintet, also featuring Antoine Tamestit as the second viola. Needless to say, the performance was virtually flawless and highly appreciated by the crowd.
Those Six Seconds of Music that Can Make a Difference
I cannot deprive you, dear readers, of the transformative experience that I had earlier on today while listening to Wilhelm Kempff’s interpretation of Beethoven’s piano sonata op. 27, no. 2. I do not know when this video was filmed, but I suspect that Kempff, who was born in 1895, must have been well into his eighties at the time of this recording.
Gerhard Oppitz in Munich
Spätwerk (= Late works). There are two basic implications when talking about late works. First, the conventional view that late works are rich compositions by a mature and wise composer. This approach stresses the dignity and complexity of the compositions and implies that they embody the summit of an artist’s compositional development. Seen in this […]
Vengerov just wants to have fun
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio in E major K 261 (arranged for violin and piano by Max Rostal – Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 7 in c minor Op. 30 No. 2 – Sergey Prokofiev: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in f minor Op. 80 – Dmitri Shostakovich: Selection […]
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