Latest Bassoon Podcast Episodes
What is a Mode?
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - May 09, 2024 05:09 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsMy first interaction with the musical term modes was Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant Young People’s Concert, also called What is a Mode? In that show, Bernstein showed how modes are an essential part of what makes modern music, meaning pop and rock music, tick. This was central to Bernstein’s poin...
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - April 25, 2024 04:32 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsIn 1857, Brahms wrote to his friend Joseph Joachim about his first Piano Concerto, saying, “ “I have no judgment about this piece anymore, nor any control over it.” Brahms first began sketching his first piano concerto in 1853, but it would be five full years before Brahms finished the piece, a...
Fast, Furious, Fortissimo
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - April 12, 2024 06:29 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsVery often, when I tell people that I’m a classical musician, I am told, “wow, I love classical music! It’s so relaxing!” I think almost all classical musicians have heard that before, and you know what? Sometimes, it’s true! Classical music can be relaxing! But sometimes, and actually pretty of...
Copland Symphony No. 3
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - March 28, 2024 16:16 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThere has always been a debate about “The Great American Symphony.” By the time most prominent American composers got around to writing large scale symphonic works, the symphony had very nearly gone out of fashion. To many musicians and thinkers, the symphony had passed on with the death of Mahl...
An Exploration of Klezmer Music w/ Abigale Reisman
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - March 14, 2024 07:13 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsKlezmer music has always been very close to my heart, even as a classical violinist. During the pandemic I attempted to learn Klezmer clarinet, and soon I began collaborating with the great Klezmer(and classical!) violinist Abigale Reisman on her work for Klezmer band and orchestra called Gedank...
Schumann Symphony No. 3, "Rhenish"
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - February 29, 2024 06:15 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsIn 1850, Robert Schumann accepted a position as the new Music Director in Dusseldorf. This job had a lot of responsibilities, including conducting the city orchestra. Schumann, along with his wife, the legendary pianist Clara Schumann, and their 7 children moved to Dusseldorf. The city made a hu...
Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 59, No. 1
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - February 15, 2024 08:05 - 58 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsIn 1806, the 36 year old Beethoven received a commission from the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Razumovsky. Razumovsky wanted a set of string quartets for what would soon be his house string quartet which included some of the finest players Vienna had to offer. As part of his commi...
Ethel Smyth Serenade in D
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - February 01, 2024 11:00 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsI’ve mentioned Ethel Smyth a few times in the past on this show. This is partly because of her music, and partly because she remains one of the most interesting people who ever lived. She was a composer of course, but she was also a conductor and an author, as well as a political activist. Speci...
Dvorak Cello Concerto
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - January 18, 2024 10:57 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsWhen you think of the genre of the concerto, you might be thinking of something like this: virtuoso fireworks, perhaps over romantic gestures designed simply to show the soloist off, and a rather pedestrian orchestral part, giving the soloist all of the spotlight while the conductor and orchestr...
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from Westside Story
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - January 04, 2024 07:56 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsWe're back! Welcome to Season 10! Leonard Bernstein to his wife: "These days have flown so -- I don't sleep much; I work every -- literally every -- second (since I'm doing four jobs on this show -- composing, lyric-writing, orchestrating and rehearsing the cast). It's murder, but I'm excited....
Dvorak Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" - LIVE with the Aalborg Symphony!
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - November 16, 2023 07:18 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsI had the great joy to do my first ever live edition of Sticky Notes last month with the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark. For this concert, I chose a piece that is extremely close to my heart, Dvorak's New World Symphony. The story of the New World Symphony is a fascinating one. The symphony was the...
Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - November 09, 2023 07:48 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThroughout the history of Western Classical Music, folk music has imprinted itself as an invaluable resource for composers from all over the world. In fact, it’s easier to make a list of composers who never used folk music in their compositions than it is to make a list of the composers who did!...
R. Schumann Piano Concerto
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - November 02, 2023 06:59 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsIn January of 1839, Clara Wieck, Robert's future wife, wrote to Robert, “Don’t take it amiss if I tell you that I’ve been seized by the desire to encourage you to write for orchestra. Your imagination and your spirit are too great for the weak piano.” Clara knew that she would have struck a nerv...
Brahms Violin Concerto
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - October 26, 2023 07:03 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsBrahms’ violin concerto is one of the most difficult works for any violinist to tackle. It is as virtuosic as the hardest piece of Paganini as well as being as musically complex as a Brahms symphony. It takes most violinists years or even decades to feel comfortable with this piece, and many vio...
What Does Music Mean?
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - October 19, 2023 06:32 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsToday is a bit of an unusual episode. Last month I was invited by the British Society of Aesthetics to address their annual conference. My task was to give a lecture on whatever topic I wanted, having to do with music. So, considering it was an Academic Philosophy conference, I chose the easiest...
William Grant Still Symphony No. 1., "Afro-American"
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - October 12, 2023 06:23 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsOn October 29th, 1931, The Rochester Philharmonic presented the world premiere of a new symphony by the composer William Grant Still. A symphonic premiere is always something to look out for in musical history, but this one had an even greater significance. The premiere of Wiliam Grant Still’s F...
(Part 2) - The Music of World War II and the Holocaust with "Time's Echo" writer Jeremy Eichler
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - October 05, 2023 06:12 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThis is another episode where I highly recommend listening to Part 1 from last week before listening to this episode! It was a great honor to speak with the critic and cultural historian Jeremy Eichler about his remarkable new book "Time's Echo." In today's episode, we speak about Richard Straus...
The Music of World War II and the Holocaust with "Time's Echo" writer Jeremy Eichler (Part 1)
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - September 28, 2023 05:40 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsI had the great pleasure and honor this week(and next week) to speak with the author of the new book Time's Echo Jeremy Eichler. The book chronicles four composers and their varied reactions to World War II and the Holocaust, including Schoenberg, Strauss, Shostakovich, and Britten. This week we...
Mahler Symphony No. 4, Part 2
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - September 21, 2023 04:03 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsIf you haven’t listened to Part 1 of this episode about Mahler's 4th symphony, I highly recommend doing that, as every movement of this symphony builds to the "Heavenly Life" of the last movement. On Part 2, we'll be going through the 3rd and 4th movements. Mahler told his friend Natalie Bauer-L...
Mahler Symphony No. 4, Part 1
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - September 14, 2023 06:48 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsAfter the truly heavenly slow movement of Mahler’s 4th symphony, a soprano emerges and sings a song literally called “The Heavenly Life.” It is a symphonic ending like no other, one that leaves the listener peaceful and contented after taking a long(but not as long as usual) and winding journey ...
Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 132, Part 2
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - September 08, 2023 09:54 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsIf you joined me last week, you heard about the severe intestinal illness that Beethoven suffered from during the year of 1825. Beethoven thought that he was near death; he was spitting up blood, in terrible pain, and regularly begged his doctor for help. Ensconced in Baden, a Viennese suburb ...
Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 132, Part 1
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - August 31, 2023 04:53 - 45 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsI had long hesitated to write a show about any of Beethoven’s late string quartets. These are pieces that professional quartets spend the better part of their careers grappling with, struggling with, failing with, and much more rarely, succeeding with. They are some of the most extraordinary p...
Nielsen Symphony No. 4, "Inextinguishable"
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - August 24, 2023 05:59 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsAt the top of the score for the Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s 4th symphony, he wrote: “Music is life, and like it, inextinguishable.” This could easily be the shortest podcast I’ve ever done. I could leave you with that quote and then play you the beginning of the symphony, and you would unde...
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - August 17, 2023 12:57 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThe stories, legends, and myths about the trials and travails of composers lives are legion, like Beethoven’s battles against fate, Mozart and Schubert’s struggles with finances, Brahms’ failures with women, Mahler’s troubles with just about everyone, and Shostakovich’s near fatal interactions w...
Elgar Cello Concerto
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - August 10, 2023 07:06 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsElgar's Cello Concerto was composed in the shadow of World War 1. It was a piece that marked a profound shift in Elgar's outlook on life and music, and was his last major work before a long silence caused by the death of his wife Alice. It is a piece of remarkable passion for a composer like Elg...
Romeo and Juliet in Classical Music
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - August 03, 2023 04:42 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThe "love theme" from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture is one of the most famous themes in the history of Western Classical Music. The story it accompanies might be the most famous Western play ever written. Just like Eine Kleine Nachtmusik seems to define the powdered wig era ...
Mozart Symphony No. 38, "Prague"
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - July 27, 2023 06:51 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsVery few cities have had a relationship with a single person, especially a foreigner, like the city of Prague and its love affair with Mozart. Here’s what Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart’s librettist for some of his greatest operas, said about it: "It is not easy to convey an adequate conception of the...
Jean-Louis Duport Cello Concerto No. 4
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - July 20, 2023 05:40 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThank you to Nicole for sponsoring today's show on Patreon! Have you ever heard of Jean-Louis Duport? I imagine that unless you are a professional cellist, or someone who studied cello as a child, you probably haven’t. Even though my sister is a professional cellist, I had never heard of him b...
Brahms B Major Piano Trio
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - July 06, 2023 11:45 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsWhen we listen to the music of Johannes Brahms, we often are reminded of the image of the portly bearded Brahms at the piano, eyes closed in a soulful pose. Brahms’ works always, even in his youth, seemed to have a burnished maturity about them. As I’ve said many times on this show, Brahms’ musi...
Sibelius Violin Concerto
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast - June 29, 2023 06:20 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThere’s a joke among classical musicians that the only parts of a piece that matter are the beginning, the end, and one place in the middle. I don’t think its something that anyone really believes in, but the value of the beginning of a piece in setting the scene cannot be ignored, and the abso...