Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born in 1840, and wrote his first symphony at the age of 26. This symphony is considered to be his first notable work, written at the same time that he had accepted a professorial post at the Moscow conservatory. Tchaikovsky started writing this symphony in March 1866. Work proved sluggish. A … Read more
Allegro ma non troppo Molto vivace Adagio molto e cantabile Presto Completed in 1824, by which time Beethoven was completely deaf, his Ninth Symphony is one of the best-known works of the Western classical repertoire. Musicologist Edward Downes described it as “one of the greatest achievements of the human spirit”. The words were taken from … Read more
Wilhelm Richard Wagner’s talents spanned composing, theatre directing and conducting, but he’s primarily known today for his magnificent operas. His compositions are renowned for their complex texture, rich harmonies and orchestration and the elaborate use of “leitmotifs” – musical phrases associated with characters, places, ideas or elements of the plot. Few of us in the … Read more
Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No 2 in D Major was started in 1900 in Italy and finished in 1902 in Finland. It was first performed in Finland in that year with the composer conducting. The Symphony was an immediate success and established Sibelius as a major composer. Its reception outside of Finland was less enthusiastic, and … Read more
Beethoven was already an established pianist when he moved to Vienna in 1792 to study under Haydn and he soon established a reputation as a piano virtuoso and improviser in the salons of the nobility. Recognizing the genius and potential of his pupil, Haydn requested that Beethoven publicly call himself “student of Haydn”. The relationship … Read more
Franz Joseph Haydn, was born in 1732, in Rohrau, on the Austrian-Hungarian border. At the age of five, he was sent to Vienna to live with a cruel uncle, where in between floggings he learnt the violin, clavier and kettledrum. Three years later, he became a chorister in St Stephen’s Cathedral Vienna. He stayed here … Read more
Vaughan Williams, the fiftieth anniversary of whose death is being marked this year, and his music, life and personality widely celebrated, did not number his symphonies, but the London Symphony was his second, premièred in March 1914. The only copy of the score was sent to a publisher in Germany just as World War I … Read more
