November is the eleventh month. And so the Classics a Day team opted to make eleven the month's then. The challenge is to post works that are numbered 11 in some fashion, either an opus number, a series number, or even a suite number.
It turns out that there's a lot of great music associated with elevens. By the time most composers publish their eleventh opus, symphony, string quartet, or sonata, they've mastered their art. As I quickly discovered.
Here are my posts for the fourth and final week of #ClassicsaDay #November11
11/22/21 Gerald Finzi - Romance in E-flat major, Op. 11
Finzi wrote this piece in 1928 but continually revised it. He finally allowed publication in 1951.
11/23/21 George Enescu - Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 11
Enescu wrote the first of his two Romanian Rhapsodies at age 19. It draws heavily from lăutărească music (Romani folks music) and quotes several traditional dance tunes.
11/24/21 Clara Schumann - Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 11
These pieces were written for virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim. He often performed them with Johannes Brahms at the piano.
11/25/21 Sergei Prokofiev - Toccata, Op. 11
Prokofiev wrote this work in 1912, when he was 21. He premiered the piece four years later in Petrograd.
11/26/21 Paul Hindemith - Sonata for Viola and Piano in F major, Op. 11 No. 4
Hindemith completed his five Op. 11 sonatas in 1919. The first two are for violin, the third for cello, and the last two are for viola.
11/29/21 Richard Strauss Concerto for French Horn and Orchestra
Strauss composed two versions of his 1882 concerto - one for piano accompaniemtn, the other for orchestra. Strauss was 18 years old when he wrote the work.
11/30/21 Felix Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11
Mendelssohn completed his first sympjhony at age 15. It received its public premiere three years later, and was published four years after that in 1831.
11/31/21 Norburt Burgmuller Symphony No. 2 in D major
When Burgmuller died at age 26, he had completed the first two movements of his second symphony and sketched out the third movement. After his death, Robert Schumann completed the movement and arranged for the work's publication.
November is the eleventh month. And so the Classics a Day team opted to make eleven the month's then. The challenge is to post works that are numbered 11 in some fashion, either an opus number, a series number, or even a suite number.
It turns out that there's a lot of great music associated with elevens. By the time most composers publish their eleventh opus, symphony, string quartet, or sonata, they've mastered their art. As I quickly discovered.
Here are my posts for the third week of #ClassicsaDay #November11
11/15/21 Ferdianand Ries - Piano Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 11, No. 1
Ries was a piano and composition student of Beethoven's. His Opus 11, published in 1809 contained two piano sonatas.
Amy Beach - Three Songs, Op. 11
When she married Dr. Henry Beach, Amy Cheney agreed to give up performing but was allowed to continue composing. These songs were written four years into her marriage.
11/17/21 Johannes Brahms - Serenade No. 1, Op. 11
Brahms' serenades were warm-ups for his symphonies. He used them as exercises for thinking of music orchestrally, instead of pianistically.
11/18/21 Fanny Mendelssohn Henzel - Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11
Fanny composed this work as a birthday present for her sister. It wasn't published (and assigned an opus number) until three years after Fanny's death.
11/19/21 Josef Elsner - Symphony No. 1 in C major Op. 11
Elsner was one of the first Polish composers to incorporate folk music into his works. His first symphony was written in 1804, the same year as Beethoven's "Eroica."
November is the eleventh month. And so the Classics a Day team opted to make eleven the month's then. The challenge is to post works that are numbered 11 in some fashion, either an opus number, a series number, or even a suite number.
It turns out that there's a lot of great music associated with elevens. By the time most composers publish their eleventh opus, symphony, string quartet, or sonata, they've mastered their art. As I quickly discovered.
Here are my posts for the second week of #ClassicsaDay #November11
11/08/21 Alexander Scriabin - Prelude No. 11 in B minor, Op. 11
Scriabin composed his set of 24 preludes over a span of 8 years. The 11th prelude was one of the last to be composed.
11/09/21 Frederic Chopin - Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11
Although numbered "1," this work was composed after the premiere of Chopin's second concerto. The numbers indicate the publication sequence.
11/10/21 Anatoly Lyadov - Prelude Op. 11, No. 1
Lyadov's Trois Morceaux was published in 1896. The prelude is the most performed (and arranged) of the three pieces.
11//11/21 Vitezslava Karpalova - Military Sinfonietta
This Czech composer, conductor, and violinist only lived to age 25. Still, she left an impressive catalog of ground-breaking music, like this 1937 sinfonietta.
11/12/21 Arnold Schoenberg - Drie Klaverstucke
These piano pieces are generally considered the first truly atonal composition of Schoenberg. He was simultaneously working on his Wagnereque cantata "Gurre-Lieder."
November is the eleventh month. And so the Classics a Day team opted to make eleven the month's then. The challenge is to post works that are numbered 11 in some fashion, either an opus number, a series number, or even a suite number.
It turns out that there's a lot of great music associated with elevens. By the time most composers publish their eleventh opus, symphony, string quartet, or sonata, they've mastered their art. As I quickly discovered.
Here are my posts for the first week of #ClassicsaDay #November11
11/02/21 Fredinand Kuchler - Violin Concerrto in G major, Op. 11
Kuchler was a violin pedagogue as well as a violinist. His Op. 11 chamber concerto was written for student violinists to play primarily in 1st position.
11/03/21 Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11
Beethoven's trio has somewhat fluid instrumentation. The violin part is also for clarinet, and the cello part also for bassoon. So this work is often performed as a wind trio.
11/04/21 Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
This was originally the slow movement of Barber's string quartet (also Op. 11). The orchestrated Adagio was premiered by Toscanini (who had memorized the score) in 1938.
11/05/21 Hakon Borresen - Violin Concerto in G major, Op. 11
Borresen was one of Denmark's most influential composers. He was president of the Danish Composers Union, and his music was entered in the 1932 Summer Olympics Art Competition.
