Classical Music

The Vienna of Mozart and Mahler

February 16, 2008

What’s this program about? Vienna drew musicians from all over Europe, luring them with Imperial support for the arts and a public eager for music.  Mozart and Mahler came to work in Vienna more than a century apart, and both experienced success and frustrations in this opera-loving city so rich in architectural and cultural splendors. [...]

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What Does “Classical” Mean?

October 9, 2007

  In popular usage, “classical” means anything that lasts and is passed down from generation to generation. It also refers to the particular style of music, rich in contrast, that flourished in late 18th-century Vienna. Professor Carol talks about classicism from Mozart to Brahms to Prokofiev.   Works discussed: Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C [...]

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Rossini’s Petit Messe Solonnelle

May 18, 2007

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 [...]

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Beethoven the Musical Wordsmith

January 23, 2007

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 [...]

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The Taste of Mozart

September 14, 2006

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, [...]

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