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Deceptive Cadence
12:03 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

The Good Friday 5: Musical Passion Stories You Must Hear

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Credit Wikimedia Commons
This 1653 engraving by Rembrandt inspired composer Frank Martin to write his oratorio Golgotha in 1945.
Credit Sony Classical
Credit Harmonia Mundi
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By and Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 5:17 pm

For Christians around the world, this week, leading up to Easter Sunday, is one of the most meaningful in the religious calendar. The dramatic story of Jesus' final days, as related in the four Gospels of the New Testament, has been meaningful for composers, too, and a rich source for many musical settings of the Passion story. J.S. Bach is still the benchmark when it comes to composing Passions. His St.

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Classics in Concert
1:29 pm
Wed March 27, 2013

Live At Carnegie Hall: Jonathan Biss and The Elias String Quartet

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Credit Melanie Burford / for NPR
Pianist Jonathan Biss and members of the Elias String Quartet brought their Schumann: Under the Influence program to Carnegie Hall.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Pianist Jonathan Biss and members of the Elias String Quartet have embarked on a season-long immersion into the music of Robert Schumann. "Each of the many programs the project encompasses will feature not only Schumann's music but the music that shaped him, and the incredibly wide swath of music that owes a debt to him," Biss says.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
This Zankel Hall concert (at Carnegie Hall) opened with a performance of Mozart's Piano Quartet in E-flat, K. 493.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Pianist Jonathan Biss with three members of the London-based Elias String Quartet (violinist Sara Bitlloch, violist Martin Saving, and cellist Marie Bitlloch) take bows after Mozart's Piano Quintet in E-flat, a piece Biss says "thrives so much on the small and unexpected detail."
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Alone on the Zankel Hall stage, the Elias String Quartet plays the dramatic String Quartet No. 2 by Leos Janacek. Written in the final year of the composer's life, the music is fueled by the passion he held for a woman 37 years his junior.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Zankel Hall was sold out for this concert, one of many Jonathan Biss and the Elias String Quartet have performed around Europe and North America in the project called Schumann: Under the Influence.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Janacek subtitled his String Quartet No. 2 "Intimate Letters," a reference to the 700 letters he wrote to the younger woman he longed for.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Pianist Jonathan Biss joins the Elias Quartet for the New York premiere of a brand new piece, the Piano Quintet by the young New York composer and Timothy Andres. There are connections between the new work and Schumann's Piano Quartet in E-flat, which anchored this concert.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
The Elias String Quartet performers — violinists Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant, violist Martin Saving and cellist Marie Bitlloch — acknowledging the applause from the appreciative audience at Zankel Hall.
Credit Melanie Burford / For NPR
Composer Timothy Andres (second from left) is called on the Zankel Hall stage to accept applause after a performance of his new Piano Quintet, a joint commission from Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Performances, Wigmore Hall in London, and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw.
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Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 9:31 am

In October, pianist Jonathan Biss set out on a vision quest, a season-long immersion in music by Robert Schumann. Biss and the members of England's Elias String Quartet have been exploring Schumann and associated composers in cities throughout Europe and North America, including a Carnegie Hall concert webcast live on this page (and at WQXR) Tuesday, April 2 at 8 p.m. ET.

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Deceptive Cadence
11:04 am
Wed March 27, 2013

Marches Madness: 'Turkish' Mozart, Jazzed By An Expert

Credit Douglas Miller / Getty Images
The Mehter Turkish Army Band, wearing traditional Ottoman Era costumes, in a 1957 photo.
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By Anastasia Tsioulcas

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