Carl Maria von Weber: Bassoon Concerto Context Carl Maria von Weber’s ever-popular Bassoon Concerto in F Major was originally composed in 1811, but was later revised in 1822. Whilst visiting Munich in 1811, Weber was asked to put a concert on for the Queen. After impressing the court with his Concertino for Clarinet and Read more…
Amy Beach: Piano Concerto in C# Minor Context Amy Beach was born in 1867 in New Hampshire. It has been extensively documented that Beach was a child prodigy when it came to music performance. Records say that she was able to sing forty songs by the time she was one. Read more…
Keiko Abe: The Wave Impressions Concerto for Marimba Context Keiko Abe’s The Wave Impression Concerto for Marimba was composed in 2002 and it is written for orchestra, marimba. Abe explains in this short paragraph what this concerto is all about: “This piece consists of three contrasting musical elements and the approaches Read more…
Malcolm Arnold: Concerto for Harmonica Context Composed in 1954, Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Harmonica was premiered by harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler at the Royal Albert Hall in the same year. The BBC Symphony Orchestra accompanied Adler for this concerto. Clocking in at around nine minutes in duration, this concerto is Read more…
Jennifer Higdon: Percussion Concerto Context Composed in 2005, Jennifer Higdon’s exciting Percussion Concerto has received very high acclaim from the media and from audiences around the world. Throughout the 20th Century and beyond, the growth of the percussion section is far more vast than any other section within an orchestra. Higdon writes in Read more…
Ursula Mamlok: Concerto for Oboe Context Born on February 1st, 1923, Ursula Mamlok was born in Berlin, Germany into a primarily Jewish family. Her biological father, Hans Meyer, died when she was a baby, but her mother remarried fairly soon after. Mamlok composed and performed as a child in Berlin, however, Read more…
Antonio Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto in E minor Context Antonio Vivaldi composed a vast amount of concertos for a range of different instruments. No less than 230 of those are for violin, with the second most popular concerto soloist being the bassoon for Vivaldi. Out of the 39 bassoon concertos that Read more…
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor Context Over the course of his lifetime Robert Schumann only composed one piano concerto. It was completed in 1845 and premiered in Dresden in December of the same year. Schumann’s wife, Clara Schumann, premiered the concerto. The work is dedicated to Ferdinand Hiller, Read more…
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Sérénade mélancolique Context Sérénade mélancolique was composed in early 1875 by Tchaikovsky at the request of violinist Leopold Auer. Scored for solo violin and orchestra, it was the first work of its kind that Tchaikovsky composed. It was composed at the same time as his iconic Piano Read more…
John Adams: Saxophone Concerto Context Jointly commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo Foundation. The world premiere took place in Sydney in August 2013, with saxophonist Timothy McAllister, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and John Read more…