Welcome to Week 52 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 52.

Giuseppe Verdi
Aida - score - libretto & synopsis
     recommended audio recording: conducted by Solti
     video recommendation: Metropolitan Opera/Levine

Franz Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 30 - score
     recommended recordings: Philharmonia Hungarica/Dorati; Camerata Rhenania/Gmur
Symphony No. 31 - score
     recommended recordings: Orchestra of St. Luke's/Mackerras; Concentus Musicus Wien/Harnoncourt
Symphony No. 43 - score
     recommended recordings: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra/Weil; English Concert/Pinnock

Johannes Brahms
Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1 - score
      recommended recordings: Biret; Richter

Hans Werner Henze
Symphony No. 4
      recommended recording: Berlin Philharmonic/Henze

Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill

Arrested Development
3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of…

Welcome to Week 33 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 33.

John Dowland
selected solo lute music - scores
     recommended recordings: McFarlane; Lindberg; O'Dette

Cesar Franck
Les Eolides - score
     recommended recording: Liege Philharmonic/Paul Strauss

Gyorgy Kurtag
The Sayings of Peter Bornemisza - texts - link to publisher's site with score samples

Giuseppe Verdi
La Traviata - score - synopsis and libretto
     recommended audio recordings: conducted by Kleiber; conducted by Bonynge
     recommended videos: stage performance conducted by Patane; Zefirelli film conducted by Levine

Brian Eno
Ambient 1: Music for Airports

Brian Eno and David Byrne
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Laurie Anderson
Big Science

Welcome to Week 25 of The Works! There may or may not be a podcast episode this week.

Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 25.

Here are this week's pieces:

Giuseppe Verdi
Don Carlo [aka Don Carlos] - score - synopsis, libretto and translation

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 13 - score

Gabriel Faure
Elegie for Cello and Piano - score
Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano - score
Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano - score

Erik Satie
Vexations - score (not in the public domain in the US)

Duke Ellington
The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
This One's for Blanton

Week 4 of The Works! Here's the new podcast episode, in which I review last week's pieces, talk about listening to music in other languages, and preview the works coming up this week.

Here is the Spotify playlist containing the recordings for Week 4.

Here are the works on this week's list, including some links to the scores (and other relevant information) where available:

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra
Album: On the Boardwalk (read the liner notes here)

Eubie Blake
I wanted to listen to his appearance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, but I don't have access to it. If you do, listen to it this week! Here's information about the album, and here's one piece from it.

Dmitri Shostakovich
Music (Op. 116) from the film Hamlet (not to be confused with the incidental music he wrote for the play)
Watch the film or listen to the recording of the suite (Op. 116a) conducted by Yablonsky (alternate recording conducted by Sinaisky)

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 2
This symphony includes vocal parts. The texts and translations can be found here.
Recommended recording: Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Klemperer (alternates: City of Birmingham Symphony/Rattle; New York Philharmonic/Bernstein; NYPO/Walter)

J. S. Bach
15 Two-Part Inventions
15 Three-Part Sinfonias (or Inventions)
Recommended recording on piano: Angela Hewitt (alternates: Glenn Gould; Andras Schiff) and on harpsichord: Ton Koopman

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.