Tag Archives: Tone Poem Tuesday

Tone Poem Tuesday

Oops! I had a piece selected and had started writing the post to go with it, when I realized…that piece is better presented next Tuesday, and not today. It’ll all be clear then. Meanwhile, here is an old favorite of mine, … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday

I’ve mentioned this many times, but for several days after 9-11, I was unable to listen to music at all. I am constantly surrounded by music, but for those three or four days, I just couldn’t. Finally I found my way back … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday

First, a quote from Evenings with the Orchestra by Hector Berlioz: In a certain opera house of northern Europe, it is the custom among the members of the orchestra, several of whom are cultivated men, to spend their time reading books–or … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday

The things you learn on the radio! This morning I heard this piece, and after it was done I learned why they played it: on this date in 1962, the lower deck of the George Washington Bridge, which connects Manhattan … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday

Our local classical station, WNED, tends to be a bit heavy on the Dvorak. They play a ton of him. Like, a whole lot. Sometimes I think they need to tone down the Dvorak a little. Other times I choose to listen … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday

Sometimes I need to go back to the beginning of my classical music roots. I had heard a lot of classical music as a kid, thanks to my parents’ music-listening habits and my sister’s piano lessons, and then later my horn, … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday

It’s August! I think August would count at “Midsummer”, right? Thus, here is some Mendelssohn: the overture to his suite of incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  

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Tone Poem Tuesday

Technically, this isn’t a tone poem; it’s right up-front about being a concerto. But what a concerto it is, and it’s a masterpiece of tone painting as well. It is also a programmatic work, intended to tell a story. The … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday: Farewell, Andre Watts

Pianist Andre Watts has died. Watts was 77 years old when he died of prostate cancer last week. Born in 1946, Watts was best known for his expressive performances of piano music from the Romantic and early modern eras, which … Continue reading

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Tone Poem Tuesday

John Adams’s first orchestral work, written in 1979, came well before the operatic work that made him well-known in the 1980s. It’s an interesting listen: solemn and meditative, and yet shot through with an odd kind of mystical optimism. On … Continue reading

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