Eric Ewazen: Ballade, Pastorale and Dance Context American composer and teacher Eric Ewazen composed his Ballade, Pastorale and Dance in the winter of 1992-93. Commissioned by David Wakefield and Barli Nugent, to whom the piece is also dedicated, this chamber work premiered in Aspen in the summer of 1993. Ewazen Read more…
Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet in A minor Context At the young age of sixteen, Mahler was finishing off his first year at Vienna Conservatory. Studying under the great Robert Fuchs, Mahler began dabbling in composing some chamber music. Due to his hot head, Mahler tore up his very successful Piano Read more…
Charles Villiers Stanford: String Quartet No.8 Context Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) remains one of Ireland’s most popular composers. After studying at the University of Cambridge, Stanford went to Leipzig in Germany to pursue his musical studies. In 1882, when Stanford was just 29 years old, he became one of Read more…
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Clarinet Quintet in F# Minor Context Born in August 1875 in Holborn, London, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor started learning the violin at a young age. At first it was Coleridge-Taylor’s maternal grandfather that taught him until he saw his obvious abilities and paid for him to have professional lessons. At Read more…
Gaziza Zhubanova: String Quartet No.1 Context Remembered as the first successful Kazakh female composer, Gaziza Zhubanova (1928-1993) knew from a young age that she wanted to study music. In 1945, Zhubanova was offered a place to study at the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow, and then later she studied Read more…
Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen Context Composed as the Second World War was also coming to a close, Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen is an intriguing study for 23 solo strings. Commissioned by the founder and then-director of the Basler Kammerorchester, Paul Sacher, Metamorphosen was premiered by the Collegium Musicum Zürich in January 1946. Read more…
Harold Shapero: String Trio Context Harold Shapero (1920-2013) was an American composer hailing from Lynn, Massachusetts. A fine pianist, Shapero studied at Harvard where he studied under Walter Piston, Paul Hindemith and Leonard Bernstein. Whilst studying at Harvard and Tanglewood Music Centre, Shapero met some of the leading composers such Read more…
Michael Tippett: String Quartet No.1 Context Three out of the five string quartets that Michael Tippett (1905-1998) composed during his lifetime were written in a ten-year period between 1935-45. A 30 year gap between the third and fourth scuppered the composer’s initial plan of writing four quartets during one period. Read more…
Boris Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in B Minor Context The first in his collection of chamber works, Boris Tchaikovsky’s (no relation to Pyotr Ilyich) Piano trio in B minor was composed in 1953. Whilst studying at the prestigious Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky was a student of Myaskovsky and Shostakovich. Lots of Tchaikovsky’s Read more…
Mikhail Glinka: Grand Sextet Context Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) although seldom heard in concert halls today, was in fact an incredibly influential composer of his time. He is often regarded as one of the leading figures of Russian classical music, with his compositional style having an important influence on composers such Read more…