Well, what a treat!
Twelve of us shared a very pleasant evening this week.
Our organiser gave us an interesting introduction to the recognised six periods of European Classical Music – from Medieval, through Renaissance, Baroque and Classical to Romantic and modern.
She gave examples of composers from each and highlighted that music went from rigid to more fluid as time progressed and that the instruments used altered over ages e.g. Baroque – harpsichord, Classical – piano, Romantic – strings (and full orchestra).
Then she homed in on just one period – Romantic Music, sub-dividing that again into five successive distinct stages.
She shared dates and names of well-known composers from each era of Romantic Music and noted how many other lesser-known composers there actually were.
Then we settled into sampling ten well-known snippets and relaxed into absorbing them.
These are they:-
- Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata – a rather ’tinny’ rendition!
- Chopin Nocturne Op. 27 no. 2 – played on the piano by Maria Jaoa Pires, wonderfully emotionally
- Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde – Liebestod, sung by Jessie Norman
- Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake
- Puccini ‘Your tiny hand is frozen’ from La Boheme
- Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1
- Richard Strauss first of ‘Four Last Songs’, sung again by Jessie Norman – we were recommended to listen to the last song
- Sibelius’ Finlandia
- Mahler Symphony No. 5 Adagietto (Alma’s Song) – enormous orchestra with two harps!
- Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 (‘Brief Encounter’ Music)
There was lively discussion throughout.