What’s this program about?
Rossini, the master of bel canto opera, retired young, rich, and famous. Decades later, in old age and ill health, Rossini returned to composition and crafted a liturgical mass as his final work, a work both spiritual and theatrical, Petit Messe Solonnelle.

Works Discussed: Rossini’s Petit Messe Solonnelle

Where you can find:
Petit Messe Solonnelle

What’s this program about?
Chopin would have been surprised at the idea of a solo piano recital in a concert hall. Professor Carol talks about the programming of recitals and works of Bach-Busoni, Beethoven, Chopin, and Debussy.

Works Discussed: Bach-Busoni Chorale Preludes; Beethoven Sonata No. 21, Opus 53 (“Waldstein”); Chopin Sonata No. 2; Debussy “Children’s Corner”

Where you can find:
Bach-Busoni Transcriptions
Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata
Debussy’s “Children’s Corner”
Chopin Sonata No. 2

What’s this program about?
Professor Carol gives a biography of Schumann’s early years, comparing Schumann’s youthful work Papillons with his later Fantasy in C Major against the backdrop of his courtship of the young pianist Clara Wieck and the emerging Romantic image of the artist.

Works Discussed: Schumann: Papillons, Op. 2; Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17

Where you can find:
Sviatoslav Richter
Wilhelm Kempff
Leon Plantinga, Schumann as Critic

What’s this program about?
Beethoven sliced and diced his themes, using musical rhetoric that rebelled against the natural melodic style of Mozart and that charted a path into 19th-century Romanticism. Professor Carol uses the Piano Sonata in E-Flat, Op. 31, to show how he did it.

Works Discussed: Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E-Flat, Op. 31

Where you can find:
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Op. 31

What’s this program about?
A youthful Brahms finds his signature style early in the Opus 10 Ballades based on the Scottish Ballad “Eduard” by Herder.

Works Discussed: Brahms: Four Ballades, Op. 10

Where you can find:
Brahms Op. 10 Ballades

What’s this program about?
In post-revolutionary France, the piano had replaced the harpsichord and the driving force behind the arts was moving from the court to the salons of Paris high society. Two composers, Liszt and Chopin, capitalized on these changes in very different ways and between them defined the future of piano music.

Where you can find:
Twelfth International Cliburn Piano Competition
Parisian Worlds – Chopin

What’s this program about?
A ballad tells a story, and this popular literary form was appropriated by Romantic composers into songs. Carol explains how the ballad was transformed by Chopin into solo piano works.

Works Discussed: Chopin, Ballade No. 4 in F Minor; Chopin, Impromptu No. 2; Schiller, Der Taucher (The Diver).

Where you can find:
Chopin Nocturnes and Ballades
Chopin Impromptus

What’s this program about?
Carol discusses Jeffrey Kahane’s performance with the Fort Worth Symphony, performance practices of piano concertos in Mozart’s time, cadenzas, and how stylistic conventions of the Classical era affected the ability of one person to take the dual role of soloist and conductor.

Works Discussed: Mozart, Overture to The Magic Flute; Mozart, Piano Concert No. 24 in C Minor (K. 491)

Where you can find:
Mozart – Piano Concertos #22 & 24
The Mozart Album – Canadian Brass