An Evening Concert Special: Prairie Performances

Tonight at 7:00 pm on WILL Classical 90.9 FM for a fresh one-hour "Prairie Performances" special curated by our new John Frayne Classical Music Graduate Student Fellow Melissa "Mel" Bialecki Miller.

Thursday, July 24, 7:00 pm: A PRAIRIE PERFORMANCES SPECIAL

Rodion Shchedrin: Basso Ostinato. Joy Yang, piano

Born in 1932 and still alive at the time of this recording, Shchedrin may not be as widely known in the Euro-American classical world, but is an influential figure in the world of Russian classical music. Joy Yang will discuss the foreboding nature of the piece’s persistent ostinato, and finding joy (and Joy) in the darkness. 

Johannes Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor. Ian Hobson, piano plus members of Sinfonia da Camera.

The piece was composed at a creative crossroads for the composer, and one that went through quite the journey before becoming the work we hear performed in concert halls today. Originally conceived as a string quintet with two cellos, Brahms rewrote the work as a sonata for two pianos, before fellow composer Clara Schumann encouraged Brahms to return the music to strings, which led him to rework the piece into a piano quintet. When Brahms showed the final work to conductor Hermann Levy, Levy proclaimed that the piece was so perfect, no one would ever know it had been written for anything other than a piano quintet.