Welcome to Week 54 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores, opera libretto and synopsis, and other helpful information. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 54.

Modest Mussorgsky
Boris Godunov - score - synopsis
     recommended audio recording: Vaneev/Kirov Opera/Gergiev
     video recommendation: Lloyd/Kirov Opera/Gergiev

Franz Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 44 - score
Symphony No. 45 - score
     recommended recordings: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Bruggen; English Concert/Pinnock; Radio Zagreb Symphony/Janigro

Johannes Brahms
Piano Sonata No. 3 - score
      recommended recordings: Hough; Grimaud

Ralph Vaughan Williams
On Wenlock Edge - score (not public domain in EU countries) - text
      recommended recordings: Partridge/Music Group of London; Ainsley/Nash Ensemble
Serenade to Music - score (not public domain in most countries) - text
      recommended recordings: conducted by Boult; Best

Queen Latifah
All Hail the Queen

De La Soul
3 Feet High and Rising

Welcome to Week 51 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores and other helpful information. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 51.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Orchestral Suites Nos. 1 and 2 - score (1) - score (2)
     recommended recordings: English Concert/Pinnock; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Marriner; English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 16 - score
     recommended recordings: Barenboim with Berlin Philharmonic; Uchida with English Chamber Orchestra/Tate

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade - score
      recommended recordings: Royal Philharmonic/Beecham; Concertgebouw/Kondrashin; many others!

Hans Werner Henze
El Cimarron - program notes - score (preview version)

Ice-T
O.G. Original Gangster

Dr. Dre
The Chronic

It's Week 20 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode in which we briefly review last week's works and look ahead to this week's playlist.

Here is the Spotify playlist for week 20.

Here are this week's pieces, along with links to the scores where available and texts with translations:

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 5 - score
String Quartet No. 6 - score

Franz Peter Schubert
Schwanengesang - score - text

Arnold Schoenberg
Erwartung - score - synopsis
A Survivor from Warsaw - text - score (not public domain in US)

Erik Satie
Parade - score - information

Tim Buckley
Goodbye and Hello
Happy Sad
     bonus: Dream Letter (Live in London 1968)
 

Welcome to Week 10 of The Works: we've made it to double digits! Start with this week's episode of the Listening to the Works podcast, then find the pieces for this week on the Spotify playlist.

Here are the pieces for this week, including links to the scores and texts where available.

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 3
String Quartet No. 4
Recommended recordings: Takacs Quartet; Quartetto Italiano; Guarneri Quartet

Franz Peter Schubert
Winterreise (text and translation here)
Recommended recordings: Peter Schreier/Andras Schiff; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau/Gerald Moore (Fischer-Dieskau recorded this song cycle several times with different accompanists; all are recommended)

Pierre Boulez
Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna
Notations I-IV for orchestra (originally for piano from 12 Notations)
Recommended recordings: Orchestre de Paris/Barenboim for both pieces; BBC Symphony/Boulez for Rituel

Freddie Keppard
Complete recordings

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
Complete 1923 recordings

Week 3 of The Works begins with the new podcast episode, in which I review last week's pieces, share a little bit about my experience with opera as a non-opera-buff, and preview the works coming up this week.

Here is the Spotify playlist containing the recordings for Week 3.

Here are pieces on this week's list, including some links to the scores where available:

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Missa Papae Marcelli
Missa Inviolata - this video is the only performance I could find.

Franz Liszt
Transcendental Études

Aaron Copland
Dance Symphony
Short Symphony

Giuseppe Verdi
Rigoletto - here is the libretto with an English translation, and here is a synopsis of the opera.

Week 2 of The Works begins with the new podcast episode, in which I review last week's pieces, discuss Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and preview the works coming up this week.

Here is the Spotify playlist containing the recordings for Week 2.

Here are pieces on this week's list, including some links to the scores where available:

György Ligeti
Cello Concerto

Franz Schubert
Die Schöne Müllerin (find the song texts and translations here)

Agustín Barrios
Guitar Works (see Spotify playlist for specific pieces)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 9

Big Joe Turner
This link shows the compilation album Big, Bad, and Blue as a 3-CD set with 61 tracks, but on Spotify it only has 28 tracks, so I have included all of those plus 6 more of his most important singles.

Eubie Blake
This link shows an LP of piano rolls made from Blake's playing between 1917-1921, recorded in 1973 under Blake's supervision. My Spotify list includes all of these songs, but I can't be sure they're the same recordings. A few other Blake pieces, played by himself, are also on the list. Most of his scores are not yet public domain, but this one is (in the US only).

Other Ragtime Composers
James Scott: Grace and Beauty and Ragtime Oriole
Tom Turpin: Saint Louis Rag
Joseph Lamb: American Beauty and Nightingale Rag