Contemporary Classics April 16, 2019 - Richard Power's Orfeo Show 3

Sergei Prokofiev: Visions fugitives, Op. 22:

Sergei Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives, Op. 22, are a series of 20 short piano pieces composed between 1915 and 1917. They were written individually, many for specific friends of Prokofiev's.  Together they were premiered by Prokofiev on April 15, 1918, in Petrograd, Soviet Union. The pieces are whimsical musical vignettes and, although dissonant, are pleasant, effervescent, and bright, as if Prokofiev wished to show a slower, more joyous side of his imaginative personality.

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto

Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was written in 1935 (the score is dated 11 August 1935) and stemmed from a commission from the violinist Louis Krasner. When he first received the commission, Berg was working on his opera Lulu, and he did not begin work on the concerto for some months. The event that spurred him into writing was the death by polio of 18-year-old Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma Mahler (once Gustav Mahler's wife) and Walter Gropius. Berg set Lulu aside to write the concerto, which he dedicated "To the memory of an angel". The piece combines the twelve tone technique, typical of serialistic music learned from his teacher Arnold Schoenberg with passages written in a freer, more tonal style. It is in two movements, each divided into two sections:  Movement I: Andante (Prelude) & Allegretto (Scherzo) and Movement II:  Allegro (Cadenza) and Adagio (Chorale Variations)

George Rochberg: String Quartet No. 3

George Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 3 is an important piece in American contemporary music literature. Written in 1971 and premiered on May 15, 1972, by the Concord String Quartet, the third string quartet was an important move away from serialism for Rochberg. String Quartet No. 3 is composed in five movements, with the first two and last two movements played without pause. This ultimately results in the work being heard in three large sections: Introduzione: Fantasia & March, Variations and March & Finale: Scherzos and Serenades. Sections of atonality are superimposed with tonal and expressionist sections.  It is written in Arch form with the first two and final two movements reflecting each other.

John Cage: HPSCHD: Solo VII

HPSCHD is composed of 7 solo pieces for harpsichord and 52 computer-generated tapes. The harpsichord solos were created from randomly processed pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Gottschalk, Busoni, Schoenberg. HPSCHD  was conceived as a highly immersive multimedia experience and received its premiere performance before an audience of 6000 on May 16, 1969, at the Assembly Hall of Urbana Campus, University of Illinois. Here is the final piece Solo VII.