Tag Archives: Saturday Symphony

One wonderful effect of this series has been my listening to a lot of music by composers I’d never heard of before. Setting aside what you hear on a regular basis in the world’s concert halls, an astonishing number of … Continue reading →

One thing I’m greatly enjoying about doing these Saturday Symphony posts is that in addition to re-exploring music I’ve known and loved for years, I’m exploring music that has been unjustly forgotten as the decades and then the centuries have … Continue reading →

Now a more obscure composer, and a symphony that’s not a traditional symphony! Hooray! Karl Goldmark was a Hungarian composer whose music was quite popular in its day, but not as much since. He’s one of those composers who isn’t … Continue reading →

UPDATE: Original video replaced, as the video I had used first was removed, for some reason…. Yes, I forgot to post this last week. This whole “two major writing projects in full force at once” thing is working out well … Continue reading →

For some reason that I’m not quite sure of, I’ve never warmed much to Brahms’s Third Symphony (F major, op. 90). I’ve listened to it more in this last week — as I write this, I’m hearing it for the … Continue reading →

Brahms’s reputation as a brooding and introspective composer probably seems hard to justify, if the only work of his with which you are familiar is his second symphony. This work, almost unversally considered to be one of the sunniest of … Continue reading →

Brahms. Johannes Brahms is one of the giant figures of late 19th-century music, and his symphonies are of sufficient import that they tend to fall into the “No classical music collection is complete without them” category. I personally consider them … Continue reading →

I know, we missed this feature last week, but fret not! We’re back, with a work I didn’t even know existed until this very morning. It’s the Symphony No. 2, subtitled “Roma”, by Georges Bizet. It’s an interesting piece, with … Continue reading →

Ooooh, here’s one of my absolute favorites. There’s just something about Russian Romantics that always calls me home. I don’t really know why that is; it’s nothing genetic or ethnic or to do with genealogy. To my knowledge, there’s not … Continue reading →

Belgian composer Cesar Franck wrote only one symphony in his life, but it’s a mainstay of the symphonic repertoire for reasons that become obvious upon hearing: it’s a powerful work, lyrical and brooding and, in the end, optimistic. Franck’d reputation … Continue reading →