Carmina Burana

Beethoven’s final piano concerto was written in 1809, a time of extreme misery for the composer, with his hearing loss peaking and Napoleon’s army occupying his hometown of Vienna. At one point, French artillery directly bombarded his apartment. The powerfully heroic, martial elements of the music owe their creation to these circumstances. The ironic “Emperor” nickname of the concerto, a clear reference to Napoleon, would have incensed Beethoven. Thankfully, he never heard it. Come and explore the vast symphonic expanses of the concerto with me, the music described in full detail. Learn how Beethoven built much of the heroic first movement from three rather simple musical ideas and how he constructed his most clever segway from the slow, lyrical second movement to the lively, dance-like third.

For Concert Insights and Lecture Notes visit:
www.morissenegor.com

Beethoven Violin Concerto

Beethoven’s Fifth is a grand pillar of Western music and a model for a multitude of catharsis symphonies that followed it well into the twentieth century, many of them classics in their own right.

I am sure you all know the famous, ta-ta-ta-taaa Fate Motive of the symphony. You probably don’t know many of its other delightful details, the oboe lament of the first movement, the lovely variations of the second, and the creepy C minor of the Scherzo tamed and segwayed into triumph in a rousing fourth movement.

Examine all these and more in detail with me. Find out what a Catharsis Symphony is. Get to know the Fifth better.

For Concert Insights and Lecture Notes visit:
www.morissenegor.com

Beethoven Symphony 5

“It is perhaps insufficiently recognized how revolutionary the ‘Jupiter’ symphony is in its ideas and their working out.”  Discover how Mozart’s last symphony, #41 was so ahead of its time. Why the Jupiter nickname? Would Mozart have approved?

A detailed explanation of the music and its historic context also includes asides on the peculiar drop in Mozart’s symphonic output, the Mannheim school of music, and Mozart’s “galant” style.

Mozart Symphony #41 (Jupiter)

Robert Schumann’s Carnaval is his most beloved piano work. It is a collection of 21 miniatures depicting the goings on in the carnival of Lent. It features dances, Comedia dell’arte characters and people he knew including Chopin, Paganini, his then fiancée Ernestine, and his future wife Clara. Carnaval seems chaotic on the surface. In actual fact it is meticulously organized, with a secret cipher in its core. Explore the details of this seminal work with my podcast describing the music in detail and the associated lecture notes with photos of the characters Schumann depicts.

Robert Schumann Carnaval

Jean Sibelius, a failed violin virtuoso, is responsible for what has surely become the most popular violin concerto of the 20th century. It is also one of the most technically challenging in the repertoire. 
Explore this remarkable concerto with me, with musical examples, every second of the music described in detail. As an added bonus, the podcast is sprinkled with tidbits about the technical demands of the work through the eyes and ears of a professional violinist. 

For Concert Insights and Lecture Notes visit:
www.morissenegor.com

Sibelius Violin Concerto

Beethoven Piano Concerto #5

Beethoven’s 7th Symphony is one of his most popular, most often performed works, so familiar that we fail to appreciate how unique it is in the composer’s canon. It is an essentially rhythmic symphony with no thematic unity. The symphony is bound together, as Lockwood indicates, by “the rhythmic consistency that governs each movement and the vitality, the élan that drives the whole work.”

Come and explore with me the history of the 7th and its musical details, particularly concentrating on those simple, almost banal rhythmic cells unique to each movement. 

For Concert Insights and Lecture Notes visit:
http://www.morissenegor.com

Beethoven Symphony #7

Moris Senegor

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