Gentle Goodbyes
The first and final movements of many symphonies and concertos end with a bang! “Send them home on a high note!” But that is not universally the case. George Marriner…
Symphony
The Joke’s On Us
Have you ever attended a symphony orchestra concert or chamber music recital, when suddenly the person next to you began to chuckle or laugh under their breath. You may have…
A Belated Valentine
The creation of emotional tension and the release of it is a common aesthetic goal among all composers of wordless, abstract music. The moment of greatest emotional intensity in a…
3-2-1 Blast Off
The psychological skill of elaboration – the ability to develop an idea or create variations of an idea – is explored in the Finale of Symphony No. 3 by Camille…
Scared ya Didn’t I?
Composer Johannes Brahms knew well the shock effect of sudden dynamic changes. George Marriner Maull exposes this Brahms trait as found in Movement 4 of Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. Inside…
This has been an incredible series. I could take in SO much more than I could at the beginning ones. You have really trained my ears!!! I have been enjoying classical music for more than 60 years (as a child my parents played classical music at dinner and we guessed the composer) but I NEVER knew how to listen before!