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Week 54: Gavottes Are Backwards 

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

Week 52: Suites and Symphonies 

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…

Week 50: More Cowbell 

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

Week 18: O King, The Waltz King, and The King 

Welcome to Week 18 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode in which we briefly review last week's works, talk about the opera list for the project, and look ahead to this week's playlist.

Here is the Spotify playlist for week 18.

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

Giacomo Carissimi
Oratorio: Jonah (Jonas) - score
Oratorio: Judicium Salomonis - score
Oratorio: Judicium Extremum - score

Johannes Brahms
String Quintet No. 2 - score

Igor Stravinsky
Concerto for Piano and Winds
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
Movements for Piano and Orchestra

Duke Ellington
The Blanton-Webster Band 1940-42

Week 12: Fugue Subjects and Bel Canto 

Welcome to Week 12 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode.

Here is the Spotify playlist for week 12.

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

Anonymous
Gregorian Chant - this album and this album performed by Ensemble Gilles Binchois

Johannes Brahms
String Quintet No. 1

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Symphony No. 2

Duke Ellington
Early recordings on Brunswick and Vocalion - note: I have arranged the playlist so that the pieces NOT composed by Ellington are at the end, after the second recordings of the Brahms and Rachmaninoff pieces.