The Evening Concert

Mozart's 23rd Piano Concerto dates from early 1786. Scholars believe that Mozart was at the piano (conducting, as well) for the premiere of this work that same Spring.

"You don't know what it means to the likes of us when we hear his footsteps behind us" - Johannes Brahms, referring to (his) Beethoven) looming presence over the musical landscape of the 19th century.*

While Debussy's "La Mer" (symphonic poem in three sections) would appear to be programmatic (music describing something) he felt otherwise about the work.....it was (paraphrasing Hanslick) "Music for Music's sake".

Tonight's performances of the 8th and 9th Symphonies of Beethoven close out the 2014 BeethovenFest in Bonn from Deutsche Welle Radio.

We continue our "BeethovenFest in Bonn" series, then an audio depiction of 'The Sea' from Debussy, "absolute music" from Brahms by way of his 3rd Symphony, and more on this week's "Evening Concert".

Surely the experience of those in WWII concentration camps had to feel like 'the end of time'. Messaien knew that feeling as he was a POW in a camp, where he wrote the "Quartet 'For the End of Time'".

The "Airborne" Symphony is a history of human flight in sound. The work is dedicated to the Eighth Air Force.

The 101st Symphony by Haydn dates from 1793-4. Marc-Andre Hamelin dates from 1961. He'll play the Keyboard Concerto [No.11] [date unknown] on tonight's "Evening Concert".

Is it whimsy, intent, synchronicity, irony, or some other circumstance when a composer 'self-references' their work by quoting music they wrote? The third movement of Mozart's 25th Piano Concerto uses a melody from his opera Idomeneo.

It's not just apocrypha to relate that Beethoven loved the "Woods". He carried a notebook with him so as to jot down (music) ideas as they came to him on his walks. The 6th Symphony contains some of those ideas....