Category: Classics on Sunday

TWO and a bit pieces of music today to showcase a pair of wonderfully talented brothers. Renaud and Gautier Capuçon were born in Chambéry, close to the French Alps, in … Continue readingBrotherly brilliance

ON Tuesday I wrote about the sheer joy of taking part in a school production of Gilbert and Sullivan, and this made me think of a couple of Sullivan’s serious compositions. He … Continue readingSullivan songs

THIS extraordinary work was brought to my attention by our commenter SiberianRhod, and I thank him. It was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) in 1878, when he was 38. This … Continue readingTchaikovsky’s Hymn of the Cherubim, Op 41

I DON’T find all of Sibelius’s work very accessible, but his early Karelia Suite is a delight, particularly, in my opinion, the first and third movements. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is widely recognised … Continue readingSibelius’s Karelia Suite

AT A guess, the best known and most popular Beethoven piano concerto is the majestic No 5, but this one is my favourite. The first time I heard the second … Continue readingBeethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor, Op 37

TWO of the most beautiful pieces of music I know are based on the same Roman Catholic prayer, the Ave Maria or Hail Mary. This is it: Hail Mary, full of grace,the Lord … Continue readingAve Maria

THIS delightful work is a combined musical thank you letter and a joke about academic stuffiness. The career of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was something of a slow burn, and he … Continue readingBrahms’s Academic Festival Overture, Op 80

WOLFGANG Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote 23 piano concertos, only two of which were in minor keys (which tend to sound less cheerful). This is the first, K466, written in 1785. The … Continue readingMozart’s Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor

I HAVE the feeling that Haydn is a bit under-rated these days. Maybe it is because he did not die tragically young like Mozart or Schubert, or have the misfortunes … Continue readingHaydn’s String Quartet Op 76, No 3, ‘Emperor’

THE French horn player Barry Tuckwell died this month at the age of 88. He was rated a genius on the notoriously difficult instrument, involving as it does blowing air … Continue readingBarry Tuckwell