Sonata Form - or There and Back Again
In this edition of The Listening Service, Tom Service explores sonata form, used by composers to tell compelling musical stories. How can you hear them? How is it done?
Tom Service tells stories in sonata form.
This word sonata originally meant simply a piece of music. But over the course of music history "sonata form" came to mean something very specific and laid the foundations for over two hundred years of sonatas, string quartets, symphonies and concertos.
In this edition of The Listening Service, Tom explores sonata form - according to the revision guides it's all about Exposition-Development-Recapitulation. But it’s so much more than that - the template is just the bare bones of a three act drama - lyrical, exciting and compelling musical stories are told in sonata form. How can you hear them? How is it done?
With David Owen Norris at the piano, with his Sonata of the Prodigal Son.
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Music Played
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Kurt Schwertsik
Shrunken Symphony, Op. 80 1st movement: Allegro con brio
Performer: Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Dennis Russell Davies.- Oehms Classics.
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Claudio Monteverdi
Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) - Sonata sopra 'Sancta Maria'
Performer: LArpeggiata. Performer: Christina Pluhar.- Virgin.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Goldberg variations, BWV.988 - Variation 18; Canone alla sesta
Performer: Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Performer: Yuri Zhislin. Performer: Luigi Piovano.- Nimbus.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Sonata in C major, K.545?
Performer: Maria João Pires.- DG.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony no. 40 in G minor, K550 - 1st movement: Allegro molto
Performer: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Performer: René Jacobs.- Harmonia Mundi.
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Johannes Brahms
Symphony no. 3 in F major, Op.90 - 1st movement
Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Performer: Claudio Abbado.- DG.
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Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 6 in A Major 1st movment: Maestoso
Performer: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Bernard Haitink.- BR-Klassik.
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Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony no. 3 in E flat major, Op.55 "Eroica" - 1st movement: Allegro con brio
Performer: Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Performer: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.- Archiv.
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Dmitry Shostakovich
Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 2 in F major, Op.102 - 1st movement: Allegro
Performer: John Ogdon. Performer: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Performer: Lawrence Foster.- EMI.
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Igor Stravinsky
Symphony in C
Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Performer: Sir Simon Rattle.- EMI.
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Pierre Boulez
Sonata for piano no. 2 - 1st movement: Extremement rapide
Performer: Maurizio Pollini.- DG.
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Thomas Adès
Piano Quintet
Performer: Thomas Adès. Performer: Calder Quartet.- Signum Classics.
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Johannes Brahms
Symphony no. 3 in F major, Op.90 - 1st movement
Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Performer: Claudio Abbado.- DG.
Broadcasts
- Sun 11 Feb 201817:00BBC Radio 3
- Sun 22 Mar 202017:00BBC Radio 3
- Fri 27 Mar 202016:30BBC Radio 3
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