Welcome to Week 65 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. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 65.

Claudio Monteverdi
Orfeo - score - libretto and synopsis
     recommended audio recording: Concerto Vocale conducted by Rene Jacobs
     video recommendation: Nederlandse Opera conducted by Stephen Stubbs

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 23 - score
     recommended recordings: Bilson (fortepiano) with English Baroque/Gardiner; Curzon with London Symphony/Kertesz

Robert Schumann
Cello Concerto - score
      recommended recordings: Ma; Casals; Du Pre; Isserlis

Lukas Foss
Renaissance Concerto

Tan Dun
On Taoism [recorded by the BBC Scottish Symphony but not available on Spotify]

John Coltrane
Blue Train (1957 album)
Giant Steps (1960 album)

Welcome to Week 62 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 62.

William Byrd
Selected Keyboard Works:
     Pavan & Galliard, BK16
     Pavan & Galliard, BK23
     Ground, BK43
     Pavan & Galliard, BK14
     Pavan & Galliards “The Earle of Salisbury”, BK15 - score
     Pavan & Galliard “Sir William Petre”, BK3 - score
     Galliard “Mistress Mary Brownlo”, BK34 (T460) - score
[scores for all of the above can be found in volume one of this edition - BK numbers refer to the order they are presented in this collection]
     recommended recordings: Leonhardt; Moroney

John Taverner
Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas - score
     recommended recording: The Sixteen
Western Wind Mass - score
     recommended recording: Tallis Scholars

Cesar Franck
String Quartet - score

Dmitri Shostakovich
Cello Concerto No. 1
     recommended recording: Rostropovich with Philadelphia Orchestra

Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (1954 album)
“What a Wonderful World” (1967 single)

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington
The Great Summit (originally issued as two albums: Together for the First Time (1961) and The Great Reunion (1963), both from the same recording sessions in 1961)

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

Here is a list of all pieces in The Works project that are for one or more string instrument soloists (other than violin only) with orchestra. The list is arranged roughly chronologically. 

If the work doesn't have a title beyond “X Concerto” or “Concerto for X and Orchestra”, then only the composer's name is mentioned (see Walton under viola for an example). If the composer has more than one such concerto, the number or numbers are listed (see Haydn under cello for an example).

The list under each instrument heading is organized roughly chronologically.

Viola
G.P. Telemann: Concerto, TWV 51:G9
Hector Berlioz: Harold en Italie
William Walton
Paul Hindemith: Der Schwanendreher; Trauermusik
Bela Bartok
Luciano Berio: Chemins 2; Chemins 3
Morton Feldman: The Viola in My Life IV

Cello
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerti, R. 413, 424
C.P.E. Bach: Concerto, H. 439
Luigi Boccherini: Concerti, G. 476, 479, 480, 482, 483
F.J. Haydn: Nos. 1-2
Robert Schumann
Camille Saint-Saens: No. 1
P.I. Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme
Antonin Dvorak
Richard Strauss: Don Quixote
Edward Elgar
Ernst Bloch: Schelomo
Frank Bridge: Oration
Paul Hindemith
William Walton
Dmitri Shostakovich: No. 1
Benjamin Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra
Gyorgy Ligeti
Witold Lutoslawski
Henri Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain…
John Tavener: The Protecting Veil
Peter Maxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerto No. 2

Double Bass
Peter Maxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerto No. 7

Harp
G.F. Handel: Concerto, Op. 4 No. 6
Claude Debussy: Danse sacree et danse profane
Alberto Ginastera
Luciano Berio: Chemins 1

Mandolin
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto, R. 425

Guitar
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto, R. 93 (guitar or lute)
Joachim Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Fantasia para un gentilhombre
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Luciano Berio: Chemins 5

Multiple String Instruments
W.A. Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364 (violin and viola)
Johannes Brahms: Double Concerto (violin and cello)
Michael Tippett: Triple Concerto (violin, viola, and cello)
Peter Maxwell Davies: Strathclyde Concerto No. 5 (violin and viola)

Welcome to Week 35 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 35.

Domenico Scarlatti
Keyboard Sonatas: K. 82, 266, 284, 507, 214, 404, 124, 536, 494, 113, 26, 548, 37 - scores
     recommended recordings: Benjamin Frith (piano); Scott Ross (harpsichord)

Claude Debussy
String Quartet - score
     recommended recordings: Cleveland Quartet; Emerson Quartet

Heitor Villa-Lobos
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 - score
      recommended recording: cellos of the Nashville Symphony
Guitar Concerto - score
     recommended recording: Julian Bream/London Symphony
     note: Villa-Lobos' works are not in the public domain in all countries, so please follow your own country's laws when deciding whether to download the scores.

Pierre Schaeffer
Etude aux chemins de fer
Symphonie pour un homme seule (with Pierre Henry)

Otto Luening
Fantasy in Space
Low Speed

Vladimir Ussachevsky
Sonic Contours
Reverberation (with Luening)
Transposition (with Luening)

Miles Davis
6 tracks recorded March 6, 1954
originally released as 10” LP, Miles Davis Volume 3; later included in the Miles Davis Volumes 1 & 2 compilations (1956 on 12” LPs)

Bags' Groove – 12” LP released in 1957 from recording sessions on June 29 and December 24, 1954

4 tracks recorded July 9, 1955
originally released as 12” LP Blue Moods; later included on double-LP Collectors' Items (1973)

'Round About Midnight – 12” LP released in 1957 from recording sessions on October 26, 1955, June 5 and September 10, 1956

Welcome to Week 34 of The Works! This Thursday, February 19, we commemorate Gyorgy Kurtag's 100th birthday. Start with this week's podcast episode.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 34.

Gyorgy Kurtag
Kafka-Fragmente - text

John Dowland
Lachrimae or Seven Tears - score

C.P.E. Bach
Cello Concerto, H. 439, Wq. 172 - score
Magnificat - score

Henri Vieuxtemps
Violin Concerto No. 5 - score

Miles Davis
4 tracks recorded January 21, 1949
4 tracks recorded April 22, 1949
4 tracks recorded March 9, 1950
all of the above later compiled as Birth of the Cool (1957)

2 tracks recorded October 5, 1951
originally released on Miles Davis: The New Sounds; later included on double-LP Collectors' Items (1973)

6 tracks recorded May 9, 1952
originally released as 10” LP, Young Man with a Horn; later included in the Miles Davis Volumes 1 & 2 compilations (1956 on 12” LPs)

3 tracks recorded January 30, 1953
originally released on 12” LP, Collectors' Items (1956); later included on double-LP Collectors' Items (1973)

6 tracks recorded April 20, 1953
originally released as 10” LP, Miles Davis Volume 2; later included in the Miles Davis Volumes 1 & 2 compilations (1956 on 12” LPs)

Welcome to Week 27 of The Works! There is no podcast episode this week, and this post is coming late in the week, but the next post, with a podcast episode, will come soon.

The pieces for this week are listed below, along with links to scores where available. Here is the Spotify playlist for Week 27.

Morton Feldman
The Viola in My Life 1 (for viola and chamber ensemble)
The Viola in My Life 2 (for viola and chamber ensemble)
The Viola in My Life 3 (for viola and piano)
The Viola in My Life IV (for viola and orchestra)

Edward Elgar
Cello Concerto - score
     recommended recording: Jacqueline du Pre with London Symphony/Barbirolli

Johannes Ciconia
O rosa bella - score
Sus une fontayne
Le ray au soleyl
Una panthera - score
Ut te per omnes - score
O Padua, sidus praeclarum - score
Petrum Marcello Venetum - score
Doctorum principem - score
O felix templum - score
Gloria (score) and Credo “Regina Gloriosa”
Gloria (another one of five settings)

Thelonious Monk
Selections from Blue Note singles and 10" LPs (1947-51), collected under “Genius of Modern Music”
Selections from Prestige 10" LPs (1952-54)
The Unique Thelonious Monk (Riverside 12" LP, 1956)

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

Welcome to Week 14 of The Works! Start with this week's podcast episode. We review last week's works, talk about which composers will be most often found throughout this project, and look ahead to this week's playlist.

Here is the Spotify playlist for week 14.

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

Giacomo Carissimi
Jephte
   text and translation here

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Don Giovanni
   synopsis, libretto and translation here
   If you don't listen to the whole opera, at least listen to “Là ci darem la mano” and maybe some of the other tracks from the highlights album.

Edvard Grieg
Sonata for Cello and Piano

Pierre Boulez
Répons

Roy Orbison
selected songs

Ricky Nelson
selected songs

Jerry Lee Lewis
Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1964) - only part of the album is available on Spotify. Also listen to the original studio versions of a few of his most important songs.