• Dvořák: Sonatina for violin and piano in G Major, Op. 100 (arr. for viola)
• Dvořák: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87

It’s odd, but true, that one of the best-known classical symphonies about America was actually written by a Czech composer. Antonin Dvořák’s “New World” symphony was written during a trip the composer took to the states in the 1890’s, and is just one of the pieces that established him as the most distinguished and well-known of Czech composers. During his time in America, Dvořák wrote other pieces as well, including the sonatina that comes first on today’s all-Dvořák program. Then, we’ll return to a Dvořák piece that’s a bit more Old World in style: his piano quartet in E-Flat Major. Written before his trip to America, this piece reflects Dvořák’s connection to European composers, particularly Brahms, who was a strong advocate for Dvorak in building his early career. The folksong-like melodies here are reminiscent not of America, but of Dvořák’s native Eastern Europe.

• Massenet: Méditation from Thaïs
• Debussy: Sonata for violin and piano, L. 140
• Ravel: Sonata for violin and piano No. 2 in G Major

This week, we’ll listen to recordings from a recital by 19-year-old Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, who played her Boston debut at the Gardner last April with pianist Julien Quentin. Nicola’s rise to stardom started out in more or less the typical classical fashion—violin lessons from age 5, study at an elite music school in Surrey. But her big break actually came from a pretty unconventional source: the televised “Britain’s Brilliant Prodigy” competition, an across-the-pond equivalent of our own American Idol, more or less. Today we’ll listen to some excerpts from her recital—including two violin sonatas from the 20th century, both by French composers, but pretty different in their approach. Before these sonatas, a little appetizer, actually an encore from the recital: Massenet’s Méditation from the opera Thaïs, a lovely, singing solo for violin, and one of our player’s favorite pieces.

• Kirchner: Sonata No. 2 for piano
• Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44

The use of movements in instrumental music dates back to the late 16th century, and may have its roots in dance—each shift in tempo corresponded to a different set of steps. As time passed, conventions regarding the number of movements a piece should have—three for a sonata, for example, or four for a string quartet—started to become ingrained. Later, composers started to play with these very expectations, using the audience’s assumptions to turn a piece on its head. In Beethoven’s famous Fifth Symphony, the immediate transition from the end of the third movement to the beginning of the fourth is incredibly exciting, especially if you were expecting several seconds of silence. On today’s podcast, we’ll listen to works crafted both ways, with and without discernable movements. Kirchner’s Sonata shrugs off the standard three-movement classical form, instead opting for a more fluid development of musical ideas, while Schumann’s great quintet is written in standard four-movement form, with contrasting tempos. We’d like to thank music publisher G. Schirmer again for their support in helping us to podcast the music of living composers.

• Kirchner: Interlude I (November 2, 2003)
• Ravel: String Quartet in F Major (March 25, 2007)

This week, we celebrate the one year anniversary of “The Concert” with a program dedicated to music of the 20th century, including our first-ever podcast of music by a living composer. The past hundred years have been a tumultuous time for all the arts, particularly music. We’ve seen an explosion of popular music and the genesis of dozens of new genres, from jazz to rock to rap. It has been a time of tremendous change in classical music, too, and today we’ll listen to some bookends of the century—from the very beginning and the very end. We’d like to thank music publisher G. Schirmer for their support in helping us to podcast the music of living composers, starting with this program.

• The Great American Songbook (selections)

At the turn of the last century, it was boom time in the music publishing industry in New York. With over 25,000 new pianos sold each year in America, and more than 500,000 children studying the instrument, there was non-stop demand for new music. For many American families, in this pre-TV era, gathering around the piano to listen, play and sing songs was the most important form of home entertainment. And so Tin Pan Alley was born. Today we’ll listen to some songs from the glory days of Tin Pan Alley. During their concerts at the Gardner, Jennifer and Randy grouped these by themes common to the era, and we’ll hear a few from each category, on topics from modern inventions to romance to immigration and politics. Complete song list: 1. Hello My Baby (Emerson/Howard) / 2. Mind the Paint (Jerome Kern) / 3. The Land Where the Good Songs Go (Jerome Kern) / 4. Home on the Range (Higley/Guion) / 5. Play a Simple Melody (Irving Berlin) / 6. Bill Bailey (Cannon) /I Wonder Why Bill Bailey Don’t Come Home (Fogerty/Woodward/Jerome) / 7. Dixie (Emmett) / 8. I Love You Truly (Jacobs/Bond) / 9. Old Folks at Home (Stephen Foster) / 10. Swanee (George Gershwin)/ 11. Yiddisha Nightingale (Irving Berlin) / 12. Goin’ Home (Dvorak/Fisher)

• Vivaldi: G Major flute concerto, FVI, No. 15 (December 10, 2006)
• Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178 (December 8, 2006)

There is a grand tradition in classical music of showing off. Divas, virtuosos, sadists—call them what you will, but performers who can play incredibly fast, incredibly high, or just incredibly well have always had a place in the arena of the concert stage. Some pieces ask for these sorts of musical Olympics, and today we’ll give a little homage to musical show-offs. In Vivaldi’s flute concerto, the player exhibits skills in not just playing fast written runs, but also adding improvised embellishments in a slow middle movement. Skipping ahead several decades, Liszt’s sonata requires exceptional playing and interpretive abilities.

• Beethoven: Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (January 21, 2007)
• Mozart: Violin Sonata No. 26 in B-flat Major, K. 378 (January 29, 2006)

Musicians often speak of the “shadow of Beethoven” as a tremendous force in music history, influencing many of the composers who would follow the great classical master. Schubert once famously asked “who would be able to do anything after Beethoven?” But other composers cast shadows, too, even over Beethoven himself. The shadow of Mozart, for example, seems to hover over the young Beethoven in the piece which opens this podcast. We’ll hear Beethoven’s very Mozartean piano sonata, followed by some original Mozart.

• Schubert: Piano Sonata in B Major, D. 575, Op. 147 (October 14, 2001)
• Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36 (November 5, 2006)

If you google “romantic music” you’re likely to come up with two very different ideas of what that phrase means, one of which has something to do with the 19th century and the other of which has much more to do with Barry Manilow or the soprano saxophone. Of course, with Brahms and Schubert, we’re talking about the former, Romantic with a capital ‘R.’ Romanticism actually caught hold first in literature and philosophy, a movement that focused on the emotions more than the rational mind. But, in Germany particularly, music came to be thought of as the most perfect realization of the Romantic ideals.

• Mozart: Allegro, K. 497a, and Andante, K. 500a, in G Major for piano, four hands (February 18, 2007)
• Haydn: String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4 (December 17, 2006)

Haydn’s sense of musical humor was legendary, and that jovial nature can be found in both the pieces on today’s program. Listen for the lurching bass line in the first movement of the Mozart, and the similarly surprising rhythm of the final movement in the Haydn quartet, a short upbeat pattern that repeats and gains speed steadily only to be abruptly halted at its apex.

• Beethoven: Sonata for piano in G minor, Op. 49, No. 1 (January 21, 2007)
• Beethoven: Sonata for piano in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2 (January 21, 2007)

For years, music historians have fixated on dividing Beethoven’s works to fit neatly into three distinct periods: early, middle and late. In this program we’ll listen to two “early” sonatas for piano. Beethoven’s earliest music is about learning, in a lot of ways. He seems to be mastering the music around him, the style he’d grown up hearing, inherited from composers like Mozart. But there are also germs of the middle and late Beethoven: the composer revered for his musical discipline and structure, that architect of symphonic music.