Seong-Jin Cho Plays Chopin
Frédéric Chopin composed his fourth Ballade, Op. 52, in 1842 in Paris. He dedicated it to Baroness Rothschild, who had invited him to play in her residence and introduced him to the Paris aristocracy. Chopin …
Composers Archive
Orpheus Plays Schumann’s Symphony #2
Schumann‘s Second Symphony began to take shape at the end of 1845, shortly after his recovery from a nervous breakdown. He made the following comment to Felix Mendelssohn: “drums and trumpets have been sounding in …
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata #31
Ludwig van Beethoven composed sonatas for piano over his entire lifetime. He died at age 57, and he left us with 32 of these sonatas that generations of musicians and ordinary people have enjoyed. My …
Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #5
Piotr Tchaikovsky composed his Fifth Symphony between May and August 26, 1888, and conducted the first performance in Saint Petersburg on November 17 of that year. Theodore Thomas, who would found the Chicago Orchestra two …
Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante KV 364
The Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart is a hybrid concerto-symphony, a concerto format in which solo instruments tend to blend into an orchestral fabric. In this case, it is believed that Mozart chose it as a …