Franz Liszt was captivated by the poetry of the 14th century humanist, Petrarch, who wrote ardent love poetry in honor of a woman he hardly knew, named Laura.  Liszt thought of these pieces as his own sonnets in honor of his beloved Marie, the Countess Marie D'Agoult.

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Liszt:  Three Sonnets of Petrarch.

Roberto Plano, piano

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More information:  http://www.robertoplano.com/

Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on September 10th, 2009.
©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org

Debussy planned to write six sonatas before he died, for various combinations of instruments, but only got around to writing three before he died of colon cancer.  This Cello Sonata is the first one he finished.  He originally wanted to call it "Pierrot angry with the moon", refering to the unhappy clown character in Commedia dell'arte theater.  You can imagine PIerrot in this music: whimsical and funny, but occasionally revealing an undercurrent of sadness.

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Debussy:  Sonata for cello and piano

Raphael Popper-Keizer, cello; Gloria Chien, piano.

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More information:  http://www.chameleonarts.org/

Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on September 30th, 2009.
©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org

Mendelssohn used his own song as a theme throughout this beautiful string quartet.  It asks the question, "Is it true that you wait for me each evening under the arbor -- that you ask the moon and the stars about me? Is it true?  Oh, tell me!"
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Mendelssohn, Felix:  String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 130
Pacifica String Quartet
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Simin Ganatra, violin; Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin; Masumi Per Rostad, viola;  Brandon Vamos, cello
More info:  http://www.pacificaquartet.com/

Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on November 16th, 2007.
©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org

During the 1750's, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was a musician in the court of Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia.  In addition to being a shrewd and powerful king, Frederick was quite an accomplished flutist, so it's not surprising that most of C.P.E. Bach's flute compositions come from this period.  Sonatas like this one show off the beauty of the flute, of course, but they also serve as showcases for the art of the keyboard -- C.P.E. was a harpsichord virtuoso.  We hear them played by modern virtuosos, Fenwick Smith and John Gibbons.
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Bach, C.P.E.: Sonata in G for flute, W.86 (1755)
Fenwick Smith, flute; John Gibbons, harpsichord
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More information:  http://fenwicksmith.com/ and http://necmusic.edu/faculty/john-gibbons

Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on September 11th, 2009.
©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org

During the 1750's, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was a musician in the court of Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia.  In addition to being a shrewd and powerful king, Frederick was quite an accomplished flutist, so it's not surprising that most of C.P.E. Bach's flute compositions come from this period.  Sonatas like this one show off the beauty of the flute, of course, but they also serve as showcases for the art of the keyboard -- C.P.E. was a harpsichord virtuoso.  We hear them played by modern virtuosos, Fenwick Smith and John Gibbons.
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Bach, C.P.E.: Sonata in G for flute, W.86 (1755)
Fenwick Smith, flute; John Gibbons, harpsichord
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More information:  http://fenwicksmith.com/ and http://necmusic.edu/faculty/john-gibbons

Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on September 11th, 2009.
©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org

Franz Liszt was deeply inspired by the landscape, music and culture of Italy, where he went for a while in the 1830's with his lover and the mother of his three children, Marie d'Agoult.  The result of these travels was his Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), in two sets of pieces published several years later.  These three pieces were published as a supplement to the Second Year.
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Liszt:  Venezia e Napoli
Roberto Plano, piano
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More information: http://www.robertoplano.com/i_index.asp

Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio on September 10, 2009.
©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org
 

Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann had a special relationship - there's no denying it.  Brahms wrote to his friend Joachim, "I often have to restrain myself forcibly from just quietly putting my arm around her..."  As for Clara, when she played his G major Violin Sonata, she wrote to Brahms, "...I could not help bursting into tears of joy over it."  There's no evidence of hanky-panky between them, but let's face it - he was head-over-heels in love!

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Brahms:  Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78

Helena Winkelman, violin; Anton Kernjak, piano

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More information:  http://www.winkelman.ch/Helena/

Recorded in a live broadcast in WGBH's Radio Studio One on January 11th, 2005.
©2009 WGBH Educational Foundation.
http://www.wgbh.org/classical email: classical@wgbh.org