Welcome to Week 50 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 50.

Johann Sebastian Bach
Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 537 - score
Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C major, BWV 564 - score
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 - score
Fantasia in C minor, BWV 1121 - score
     recommended recordings: Weinberger; Hurford; Koopman; Biggs; Goode; Montero (bonus)

Johannes Brahms
Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 2 - score
     recommended recordings: Vogt; Ax
Bonus: Scherzo, Op. 4 - score

Peter Maxwell Davies
Vesalii Icones
      recommended recording: Fires of London

Max Steiner
King Kong (film score, 1933)

Miles Davis
Get Up With It

Welcome to Week 46 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode, which includes a quick overview of the nationalities of the composers in the project.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores where available. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 46.

William Byrd
The Great Service - score
     recommended recordings: Tallis Scholars; Choir of King's College, Cambridge

Niccolo Paganini
Le Streghe - score
Moto perpetuo - score

Bela Bartok
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta - score
      recommended recordings: Chicago Symphony/Reiner; Chicago Symphony/Solti

Malcolm Arnold
The Bridge on the River Kwai (film score)

N.W.A.
Straight Outta Compton

Ice Cube
AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted

Welcome to Week 43 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 43.

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 7 (Op. 59 No. 1) - score
     recommended recordings: Lindsay Quartet; Guarneri Quartet

Hector Berlioz
Requiem (Grande messe des morts) - score
     recommended recordings: conducted by Ozawa; Davis; Shaw; Munch

Erik Satie
Cinema - score
      This piece is the score to a silent film (available here with no score) entitled Entr'Acte because it was to be shown between the acts of Satie's ballet Relache.

Steve Reich
Piano Phase
Pendulum Music - score

Miles Davis
Two live sets recorded in Stockholm on March 22, 1960, later released on several compilations.

Welcome to Week 24 of The Works! There is no podcast episode this week, but next episode will discuss the works listened to in both weeks 23 and 24.

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 24.

Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine - score and text with translation
     recommended recordings: Gardiner; Parrott

Lou Harrison
Symphony No. 2 “Elegiac”

Claude Debussy
Jeux - score
      recommended recordings: Haitink; Boulez

John Williams
Jaws - film score

Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
Far East Suite
New Orleans Suite

Welcome to Week 23 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores where available. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 23.

Franz Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 13 - score
Symphony No. 14 - score
Symphony No. 15 - score

Frederyk Chopin
Ballade No. 3 - score
Ballade No. 4 - score
     recommended recordings: Rubinstein; Horowitz; Cortot; Zimerman

Michael Tippett
Triple Concerto (Concerto for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Orchestra)

Frank Zappa
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life

John Barry
Dances with Wolves (film score)

Week 5 of The Works begins with episode 5 of Listening to the Works, on your favorite podcast platform. We talk about how film music fits into the project and the difference between recordings of piano music and programming for actual recitals and concerts.

Here's the Spotify playlist for the coming week.

Here are the works on the list for Week 5:

Aaron Copland
Fanfare for the Common Man
(recommended recordings: Boston Pops/Williams; US Air Force Band; London Symphony/Copland; Philadelphia Orchestra/Ormandy)
Symphony No. 3
(recommended recordings: New York Philharmonic/Bernstein; Philharmonia Orchestra/Copland)

Leos Janacek
Glagolitic Mass
(recommended recordings: Czech Philharmonic/Mackerras; London Symphony/Tilson Thomas)

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Stanzas to the Blessed Virgin (consists of 8 madrigals)
1. Vergine bella (score; text)
2. Vergine saggia (score; text)
3. Vergine pura (score; text)
4. Vergine santa (score; text)
5. Vergine sola al mondo (score; text)
6. Vergine chiara (score; text)
7. Vergine quante lagrime (score; text)
8. Vergine tale è terra (score; text)
(recommended recordings: Hilliard Ensemble; Akademia)

Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Selected early recordings

New Orleans Rhythm Kings
Selected early recordings

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