Franck - Organ Chorale No. 3 in A Minor

In the summer of 1890, Cesar Franck was riding in a cab when it was struck by a horse-drawn trolley. He suffered a fainting spell and a slight head injury, but he thought it wasn't serious enough to warrant treatment and went on his way. Soon it became difficult for him to walk and he had to give up his teaching at the Conservatoire and went on vacation to try and recuperate.  He went back to the Conservatoire in the fall of 1890 but contracted an upper respiratory ailment that soon changed to pneumonia. He died November 8, 1890.

It was during this vacation that he completed the three Chorales For Organ.  They are considered very important pieces in the organ repertoire, and bear the imprint of Francks later compositional style.

The Chorale No. 3 in A Minor begins as a toccata and has a contrasting second theme before it goes into a new theme played adagio. The finale of the piece hears the toccata return and the weaving in and out of the other themes heard in the piece.

 Very seldom has there been a composer of the importance of Franck that has left such a relatively small output of compositions.  Franck began his career as a virtuoso pianist and composer, but he ceased to compose anything of any import until the last twelve years of his life.  With a handful of compositions, including the Three Chorales For Organ, Franck's place in music history is assured.

Bartók - Concerto For Orchestra

When his native Hungary went to the side of Nazi Germany as an ally, Béla Bartók left the country and came to New York.  He was a fine pianist, and he and his wife made ends meet by giving concerts and working on translating old Hungarian books into English for Columbia University and also got a grant from the University to work on a large collection of Serbian and Croatian folk songs.

There was little interest in Bartók's compositions in the U.S. and he had difficulty composing. When his health turned bad with what was eventually diagnosed as leukemia, he no longer could make his living giving concerts and doing research and had to depend on his friends to support him.  When Serge Koussevitzky commissioned Bartók for a piece for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, his inspiration returned and he composed the Concerto For Orchestra. 

Bartók said that he called it a concerto for orchestra rather than a symphony because he treated the instruments in each section of the orchestra in a virtuosic way. It is cast in 5 movements:

I. Introduzione. Andante non troppo - Allegro vivace -  Bartók was fond of writing what he called 'night music' as this movement begins with. It then goes through various fugal treatments of themes and it is cast in sonata form.
II. Giuoco Delle Coppie. Allegretto scherzando - The so-called 'game of pairs' begins with the side drum tapping out a rhythm and then each section of the orchestra has 2 instruments play in different intervals, bassoons are a minor sixth apart, oboes are in minor thirds, clarinets in minor sevenths, flutes in fifths and muted trumpets in major seconds.
III. Elegia. Andante non troppo - Another example of  Bartók's 'night music', this movement is based on themes first heard in the first movement.
IV. Intermezzo Interrotto. Allegretto - This movement has a melody that is interrupted by Bartók's parody of the march theme from the 7th Symphony 'Leningrad' of Shostakovich. This symphony had been secreted out of Russia on microfilm and a subsequent competition by conductors as to who would conduct the American premiere. The symphony was played over the radio when Bartók heard it.
V. Finale. Presto - This is written in sonata form, and also has some fugal moments along with snippets of folk songs added for good measure.

The Concerto For Orchestra is Bartók's most popular composition but Bartók didn't live long enough to see how popular it became. It is written in a more traditional style than many of his other works. After writing a Sonata For Solo Violin and the Piano Concerto No. 3,  Bartók succumbed to leukemia in 1945.

Liszt - St. Francis of Assisi Preaching To The Birds

Franz Liszt was a complex man.  He was a member of the musical and social avant-garde of his time, thus thought nothing of living with women and having children without being married, yet he was a very religious man of traditional Catholicism. How Liszt managed to account for his behavior within his strict religious views are a marvel. But there was always a priestly side to Liszt. Early in his life he had given serious thought to becoming a priest, only to cast aside the thought in favor of the life of a traveling piano virtuoso with everything that went with it. Liszt began drinking and smoking early in his life. No one really knows when his sexual exploits began, but if that was anything like the rest of his young life it started early too.

All of the travel, cavorting, drinking and such finally caught up with Liszt and he retired from the concert platform in 1847 at the age of 35.  He had by this time left the mother of his three children, Countess Marie d'Agoult for another royal lady Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein,the wife of a Russian Prince.  Both Liszt and the Princess wanted to marry, but the Princess' husband (not to mention the Pope himself) would not grant her a divorce. The two never did marry, and while Liszt remained involved with her until her death,  they no longer lived together after 1863 when Liszt began living in a small apartment near Rome.   When Liszt's son died in 1859 and his youngest daughter died in 1862, it had a profound affect on Liszt. He declared to his friends that he would live a solitary existence from then on. He took minor orders and was occasionally called the Abbé Liszt.  From then on, he divided his time between Rome, Budapest and Wiemar and composed, taught and participated in music festivals.

It was about this same time that Liszt wrote St. Francis of Assisi Preaching To The Birds for piano. The piece was one of a pair of what Liszt called Legends.  This piece hears the piano in imitation of birdsong with chains of trills and tremolos until St. Francis himself begins to preach to them and the birds that are in the trees silence their singing and listen to him and the birds on the ground walk up to the saint and circle him to listen. According to the legend, St. Francis preaches to the birds that they have much to be thankful to God for and that they should sing their praises to Him every day.

The music is one of Liszt's greatest works. Gone is the Liszt of technical fireworks and brilliant passage work. Replacing it is a Liszt that has the technique serve the musical idea with the result being a gentle, spiritual piece of musical story telling.

The pianist playing the piece in the video is Wilhelm Kempff, not the first name a music lover might think of in the music of Liszt. But Kempff plays with the gentleness and poetry this piece needs.

Beethoven - String Quartet No. 11 'Quartetto Serioso'

Chamber music by its very nature is a more intimate form of music. While in modern times it is played in concert halls, it was originally meant for more private performance in homes and smaller recital halls. In the 19th century before recordings, music making in the home was a form of entertainment shared by many.  The string quartet was a popular form of chamber music, and many composers tried their hand at it sooner or later.

While Haydn didn't necessarily invent the string quartet, he certainly helped codify it as a form. Mozart took his lead from Haydn and contributed his genius to the quartet also.  These were the two composers that loomed over Beethoven when he was composing his first set of six quartets, Opus 18. As was Beethoven's way, he seldom stayed very long in any niche with his compositions. That's not to say he  had no style, but that it could be broad and encompass quite different ideas. The String Quartet No. 11 is one of his giant-step compositions that is quite different from his other string quartets in form and feeling.

Beethoven always showed his originality, even in his first quartets, but he also worked hard to have them conform somewhat to the form as devised by Haydn. He managed to straddle the two extremes of originality and conformity with his first six quartets. His next three quartets, the so-called Rasumovsky Quartets of opus 59 show his development in his craft and the gap between creative originality and tradition grew wider. His next quartet, No. 10  nicknamed 'The Harp' because the strings play pizzacato a lot in the first movement follows the trend. The 11th got its nickname from the tempo indication of the third movement, allegro assai vivace ma serioso.  The overall feeling of the quartet is indeed serious, and there are some surprises along the way.


The 11th was composed in 1810 but did not have its first performance until 1814.  The first movement opens with the four strings playing the first theme loudly in unison, somewhat of a surprise as to the suddenness of the beginning and the downright harshness of it. The second theme is sweeter in nature in the beginning, but there also outbursts within it. An experienced listener who is hearing this quartet for the first time would be expecting to hear the exposition repeated as the style of the times dictated, but Beethoven has no repeat signs and the music jumps right into the development and recapitulation. The first movement is very short, usually less than five minutes, which in itself is a break from the traditional long first movements. Beethoven boiled down the contents of the first movement to the essence of expression.

The second movement is in song form and leads into the third movement, a scherzo of the most 'serious' kind. The finale goes through a gentle beginning, a spirited rondo movement proper and ends up with all things, a fast, upbeat, short coda that ends the work. This rather 'happy' musics appearance in an otherwise quite serious work can be interpreted in a number of ways. Perhaps Beethoven felt the need to lighten the mood before the end of the quartet, or perhaps he was just playing with the emotions of the listener as he used to do when he improvised on the piano by playing something heavy and then something light at the end.

This quartet is like a conversation between four people, a spirited conversation to be sure, but a conversation and not an argument. What the subject matter of the conversation is in words is anybodies guess. But that conversational quality of chamber music in general and the string quartet in particular, is what's so attractive about it. This quartet with its condensed first movement, surprises that run throughout and the way it ends keeps it somewhat of an enigma. But that too makes it attractive to the ear. And when regard is given for the quartets that come after this one, the great late quartets of Beethoven, we realize that we have heard only the beginning of his genius in the form.

Haydn - Symphony No. 103 'Drum Roll'

Joseph Haydn began his career as a composer just as the Baroque era of music was winding down. He was one of the composers of the time that was exploring different techniques and sounds for musical expression. In his years as a composer there was a steady increase in complexity and richness in his music. His two trips to London, England enriched his technique even further. The set of twelve symphonies he wrote for his London visits are the culmination of his symphonic style. Indeed, Haydn wrote no more symphonies after his 104th, the last in the London series. Maybe Haydn himself realized that he had reached as far as he could go in the form.

But the London symphonies are not merely more difficult and rich. They are surely that, but they are also more  accessible to the listener. Haydn not only could compose learned and valid 'classical' music, but music that  was popular. The Symphony 103 is a good example.

The symphony earns its nickname from the drum roll for timpani that opens the introduction to the first movement.  It is slow and solemn,  and after a few bars leads into the first theme which is the opposite of the introduction as the tempo quickens and the mood lightens. The music of the introduction appears once again near the end of the movement and is whisked off by the first theme and horns.  The second movement is in variation form. There are two contrasting themes, the first in C minor, the second in C major, so this is actually a double variation. Each tune is heard in succession in variations.  The third movement is a Minuet with a heavy accent on the first beat which gives it more of an impression of a peasant dance than a refined, courtly dance. The last movement begins with a call from the horns, a pause, and the music proper begins. The horn call motif is heard throughout the movement, and it comes to a close.

Alkan - Selections From 48 Esquisses For Piano

The name Charles Alkan conjures up piano pieces of staggering difficulty,  immense length and  musical depth. And rightly so, with his Concerto For Solo Piano and other works that display a musical mind capable of creating colossal tapestries of complexity. But Alkan also had another side to his genius, that of a miniaturist. The Esquisses are an excellent example of Alkan's ability to have his musical say in much shorter pieces.

The title translates as 'sketches' and the set contains 49 sketches of tremendous variety and mood. Many of the pieces are also playable by pianists with a less than concert hall technique. They are a perfect introduction to the diversity of Alkan's musical thought. Most of the sketches are short, some very short.  The entire set of 49 sketches (the title says there are 48, but there are 49) can be played in about 75 minutes, so that averages out to about a minute and a half for each piece. Alkan's shifting moods are dealt with as they arise, and when the mood has run its course the piece stops.  The entire set makes for a good listen, but I've narrowed it down to eight of my favorites from the set:

• No.4 Les Cloches (The Bells) -  The piano begins with the tolling of bells that continues throughout.
• No. 10 Increpatio (rebuke, harsh criticism) - The piano's harsh opinion. About what, we don't know. 
• No. 16 Fantasia -  A rippling right hand runs a sprint, and the piece ends quickly.
• No. 18 - Liedchen (ditty) - A simple song.
• No.32 - Minuetto - Not really a minuet, but at the tempo of a minuet. The beginning is sad, with a middle section in a faster tempo and lighter mood.
• No. 37 Scherzettino -  A piece played very fast.
• No. 45 - Les Diablotins (little devils) - A short church chorale is interrupted by the demons. Each time the chorale is heard it is responded to , until the diablotin has the final word. 
• No. 49 Laus Deo (praise God) - A solemn, slow,  beginning that reminds the ear of different pitched bells tolling together gives way to a more  reverent hymn. The bells return at the end.  

Litolff - Concerto Symphonique No. 5

Living a complicated lifestyle evidently was a part of Litolff's personality. He traveled Europe on concert tours, got married and divorced, spent time in prison, had to escape from Germany after he participated in the revolution of 1848, married a widow of a music publisher and managed the publishing firm into a successful venture, settled in Paris, was a piano teacher and conductor, was married four times - the last to a woman seventeen years old when he was 57 years old, was afflicted with rheumatism in later life but still continued to compose.  It was a life filled with hard work, travel, romance, hardship, depression and physical pain in later years.

Composing was evidently part of Litolff's personality also, as he composed throughout his life, sometimes amid thunderous turmoil. The Concerto Symphonique No. 5  is his Opus 123 and was written in 1869. He died in 1891, 22 years later and continued composing, mostly operas,  up until the end.

The Concerto Symphonique No. 5  has some differences from the previous ones. For one thing, the other Concerto Symphonique's are not by any means easy to play, but the fifth is even more demanding.  The fifth never achieved the popularity of the others. In the other works the scherzo is the second movement, in the fifth it is placed third.  Overall, the general feeling of the fifth is a little more serious, somewhat more complicated.

The work opens with a long orchestral section before the piano joins in in the give-and-take style that Litolff used in all the concertos. The second movement is a slow, lyrical song. The third movement is the most diabolical sounding scherzo Litolff ever wrote.  The fourth movement's cadenza is written out and is a fugue derived from part of the theme that opens the movement.

Litolff and Liszt knew and admired each other's music, and each ones music influenced the other. The concertos of Litolff show the influence of Liszt in structure and harmonic language, and the fact that Liszt dedicated  his first piano concerto to Litolff can be meant as a tribute to his influence. For a musician that composed so much and was friends with and admired by such other composers as Liszt and Berlioz, the four Concerto Symphoniques  are really the only pieces available on recordings, and only one recording of each one at that. Litolff's most popular piece of music is the scherzo from the Concerto Symphonique No. 4  which is available in a few recordings. It would be a good thing to be able to hear more of this composer's music, in the concert hall and on recordings.

Litolff - Concerto Symphonique No. 5