The Largo of the Concerto for Two Violins is a powerful profession of love. We know the two great loves of Johann Sebastian Bach.  His wife Maria Barbara and he were married in 1707, but she sadly died thirteen years later.  He married Anna Magdalena the next year in 1721.  Does the Largo, dating from 1731, express Bach's feelings for Maria or Anna or perhaps both?  No matter, Maestro Maull finds this movement worthy of musical exploration and discovery, and will share his thoughts.

Bach In Love

We know that the chorus, Hallelujah, from Handel’s Messiah, stirs us from the soles of our feet to the top of our head. Host George Marriner Maull sheds light on how Handel achieved such a magnificent expression through incredible musical ‘text painting.’

Hallelujah Part 1, Encore

Host George Marriner Maull, as a 9-year-old boy soprano, discovered another side of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.  He had listened to his mother play a number of his solo piano works and to LP recordings of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos. As a student at St. Peter’s Episcopal Choir School in Philadelphia, Maestro Maull encountered for the first time some of the amazing sacred music Rachmaninoff wrote.  In this episode of Inside Music, he shares one of those discoveries.

Another Side Of Rachmaninoff

Johann Sebastian Bach could create an entire movement of music from the smallest fragment of melody.  If he were alive today, he might well receive a special ecological award for being so frugal in his use of musical ideas.  Host George Marriner Maull will guide listeners through the 3rd movement of Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor.  This intensely passionate movement is filled with musical details that, when noticed, can provide an incredibly moving experience for the listener.

Incredible Gas Mileage

In this episode of Inside Music, host George Marriner Maull presents another side of composer Johannes Brahms. Brahms wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 over a long stretch of time, spanning about fourteen years of his life – but the end product was definitely worth the wait! This work continues to deeply move listeners nearly 150 years after its premiere in 1876. The bucolic third movement, which reflects a gentler, lighter aspect of Brahms, is explored by Maestro Maull.

Brahms Light

From the unseen pulsation of alternating electrical current to the readily identifiable sensation we feel when emotional tension increases and then dissipates … Tension and Release is a common phenomenon. Imagine the feeling we have on the first incline of a roller coaster contrasted with that of accelerating down the first hill. Or how about slowly stretching a rubber band and then letting it retract? Conjure up the feeling we experience as we see a disturbing image on television as opposed to our state when we change the channel. Our lives are filled with visceral tension and release events of differing lengths and intensity levels. Inside Music host George Marriner Maull explores how Beethoven and other composers effectively create this phenomenon in wordless, abstract musical sounds.

Tension And Release

The music of American composer George Gershwin remains as beloved as it was when it was written in the last century. Maestro Maull looks inside the 3rd Movement of the 1925 composition Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra –now almost 100-years-old – to demonstrate Gershwin’s amazingly elaborative and fluent creative process. With melodies as singable as those of his Broadway shows, this work evokes strong emotional reactions ... without words! 

Here's George!

In this episode of Inside Music, host George Marriner Maull explores Movement II of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major. Many people know this music as the Air on the G String due to an arrangement of this movement by German violinist August Wilhelmj in the late 1800s. In this arrangement for violin and piano, the entire melody is played on the lowest string of the violin––the G string. Today, this title might imply a somewhat strange connotation of which August Wilhelmj would have been entirely unaware! Maestro Maull stays with the original music and the original title of the movement given to it by Johann Sebastian Bach. That is, simply, Air––a song––and a profoundly beautiful one it is.

The Peaceful Bach

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is famous for many things––not the least of which was his ability to write incredibly exciting moments of symphonic music. In this episode of Inside Music, Maestro Maull guides us through some of the compositional aspects that make the fourth and final movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, a “buckle your seatbelts and hang on to your hat” musical ride! This music invariably causes audience members to literally spring out of their seats yelling “Bravo” and “Bravi” in a tumultuous standing ovation.

Race To The Finish Line

Inside Music host George Marriner Maull explores one of the most well-known classical music compositions ever written—Spring, from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. Highlighting and demonstrating Vivaldi’s verbal descriptions in this prime example of program music will be the main course of this episode’s musical repast.

Spring Has Arrived

Astor Piazzolla is the musician most associated with Tango Nuevo. However, there were a number of composer-performers who contributed to the development of this style of tango writing—fellow bandoneón player, José Libertella, among them. In the 1950’s Libertella met and performed with Piazzolla, and in 1973, together with Luis Stazo, Libertella founded the ensemble, Sexteto Mayor.

In this episode of Inside Music, Maestro Maull explores the Sextet’s 1992 recording of Melodía Oriental. Musical aspects of this tango, as well as the superb playing of first violinist Mario Abramovich, will be featured.

Not By Piazzolla...

Finnish composer Jean Sibelius had the ability to compose what might best be described as enormous, expansive “soundscapes” using a full 90- to 100-member symphony orchestra. He was personally very much in touch with the magnificent landscapes—all the natural beauty and the wildlife—of his native Finland. And he was able to translate his emotional responses into great washes of orchestral sound.

In this episode, Inside Music host George Marriner Maull explores some of the powerful symphonic moments in the final Third Movement of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5, highlighting the composer’s use of musical devices such as ostinato, and what has come to be known among scholars as ... the Swan Hymn!

This episode is additionally sponsored by Ginny Johnston.

Simply Sibelius

The Adagio in G Minor—sometimes attributed to the Italian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751)—was actually written by Remo Giazotto, a 20th century musicologist, scholar and biographer of Albinoni. Giazotto made no attempt to obscure the fact that he had written the work when he published it in 1958. But frankly, it doesn’t matter. This single movement is a very beautiful one which has been used in the soundtracks of no less than twenty-six feature films! In this episode of Inside Music, Maestro Maull explores some of the musical aspects of this stand-alone movement that make it so emotionally moving for so many individuals. 

This episode is additionally sponsored by Dr. Jacqueline Phillips.

Adagio in G Minor

Frédéric Chopin’s Polonaise in A-Flat Major, Op. 53, nicknamed the “Heroic” is—without question—one of the composer’s most well-known compositions. Inside Music host George Marriner Maull will explore some of the musical aspects of the work that make it so thrilling to listen to and so beloved by classical music fans. He will also touch on the polonaise (not to be confused with the culinary dressing mayonnaise!)—the Polish dance that became a musical form used by composers as a vehicle for expressing their musical ideas.


What's A Polonaise?

George Frideric Handel’s Concerto for Harp has never achieved the “household name” status his oratorio Messiah has. But this delightful work is absolutely worthy of music listeners’ attention. Maestro Maull will feature the first movement to highlight aspects of the elements of music which Handel employed, and the almost magical sound of the harp in Handel’s style of composing. Handel wrote only one concerto for this instrument, and it may have been the only harp concerto written by anyone during the Baroque Era of musical composition. If it’s not already on your play list, tune in to this episode of Inside Music!  

Handel's Concerto for What

Host George Marriner Maull explores the difference between hearing and listening while exploring details of the final movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4.  Aspects of Bach’s use of elements of music are revealed.

A Little Bach Music

The importance of noticing re-harmonization in music is demonstrated utilizing the piano music of Béla Bartók and Claude Debussy.  Host George Marriner Maull plays and speaks about a simple Slovakian folk song harmonized, then re-harmonized by Bartók.

Change That Chord

The psychological skill of elaboration  – the ability to develop an idea or create to variations of an idea – is explored in the Finale of Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns.  Maestro Maull highlight’s Saint-Saëns’s perspicacious facility for reimagining his own musical ideas.

3 - 2 - 1 Blast Off

The last ten minutes of the final movement of Beethoven’s final symphony are so full of emotionally moving detail that host George Marriner Maull devotes two episodes of Inside Music to this investigation.  In Part 1, he examines one of the less well-known musical influences on Beethoven…the Turkish street bands of Vienna. Musical text painting is also initially explored.

Beethoven's 9th - The Last 10 Minutes Part 1

Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is thought by many to be one of his most accessible scores for listeners. Commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation, the composition received its premiere in December 1944 in a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Maull guides us through Movement II, Presentation of the Couples, a humorous demonstration of the timbres of the symphony orchestra in pairs.

Two Timbres Over Easy

Maestro Maull misappropriates the title of one of Felix Mendelssohn’s most beloved scores, the Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream to start the second season of Inside Music. The delightful Scherzo is explored.

A Midautumn Night's Dream

This episode features the music of Claude Debussy, and his suite for piano - "The Children’s Corner".

Golliwog's Satirical Cakewalk

The romantic music of Alexander Borodin is explored in this episode of Inside Music.  Maestro Maull will focus on the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin's opera Prince Igor.  These dances were a favorite composition of Diana Finocchiaro, in whose loving memory this episode is dedicated.

Take My Hand

George Marriner Maull, Artistic Director of The Discovery Orchestra and three-time Emmy-nominated public television personality, has helped millions of individuals nationwide  become more perceptive listeners and to heighten their classical music listening pleasure!

Whether on the podium or in lecture settings, his enthusiasm for classical music is contagious. His blog posts and thought leadership pieces on listening have been featured by The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and worldwide by Minnesota Public Radio, London-based Bachtrack, The Violin Channel, Pick the Brain, and Arianna Huffington’s new site Thrive Global.  His tweets and YouTube Discovery Orchestra Chats continue to attract followers on six continents, and public radio stations WBJC-FM in Baltimore, WWFM in New Jersey and NPR-KJZZ in Phoenix have featured interviews with Maestro Maull.

As host of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Classical Overtures for over a decade, Maestro Maull has presented pre-performance chats before world-renowned ensembles and artists such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum, Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Yo-Yo Ma, Yuja Wang, Itzhak Perlman and Renée Fleming.  Now in its second season, Maestro Maull’s radio program Inside Music on WWFM The Classical Network is broadcast on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month at 7:30 pm.

Maestro Maull is featured as conductor and host of three Emmy-nominated Discovery Concerts©, all previously distributed nationally by American Public Television:  Bach to the Future©, Discover Beethoven’s 5th© and Discover Vivaldi’s Four Seasons©.  All are available to viewers online at Amazon.com, as well as his 8 part signature series, Fall in Love with Music©.

Inside Music with George Marriner Maull

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