Week of March 7, 2022 - The Beethoven String Quartets This week we’ll be studying Ludwig van Beethoven through his magnificent 16 string quartets played by well-established ensembles from around the world: the Guarneri, Takács, Tokyo, and Alban Berg string quartets. These quartets offer well-defined early, middle, and late stages both in his life as well as the string quartet as a form, including the Grosse Fuge (which Beethoven wrote while he was stone deaf), and the Cavatina from String Quartet No. 13,
Week of March 14, 2022 - Sweet Spot As Bill explains: “I’ve spent my life as a classical musician devoted to the great body of standard repertoire, which began about 1685 with the birth of Bach and Handel and continued through Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven on to the present. I loved that music, but there are occasions when music composed between 1550 and 1650 will take my breath away. Madrigalists and other Italian composers, giants like Palestrina, the Gabrielis, and Orlando di Lasso. We will be listening to Renaissance composers from France, Spain, Germany, and England.
Week of March 21, 2022 - Latin Carnival Latin America has a five-century musical history forged by many different indigenous peoples clashing with Spain and Portugal, both ambitious colonial powers. Bill has a deep appreciation for Latin America’s vast and varied musical landscape. He insists “we can hear the echoes of those collisions” into our era. Highlighting Padilla and Ponce as well as Ginastera, Villa-Lobos and Piazzolla, we’ll hear harmonies from Mexico and extending throughout the region’s diverse orchestral and operatic works.
Week of March 28, 2022 - Lighthearted Music This week we feature lighthearted music. Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham called these compositions “Lollipops.” These are generally one-movement compositions intended to amuse and entertain us while we relax. Do not be fooled by their listening ease – these works can be difficult to compose and a challenge to perform. We will hear Stravinsky’s “Circus Polka,” written for fifty elephants and fifty dancers, and “The Wasps,” incidental music composed by Vaughan Williams, with a movement titled "March Past of the Kitchen Utensils.” We will also hear Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in E-flat, "The Joke." Malcolm Arnold said, "Music is the social act of communication, a gesture of friendship."
