Chopin's E minor and F minor Piano Concertos played a vital role in his career as a composer-pianist. This Handbook reevaluates them so that their many outstanding qualities can be fully appreciated. It describes their genesis, Chopin's own performances and his use of them as a teacher. A survey of their critical, editorial and performance histories follows, in preparation for an engaging narrative analysis of the concertos as embodied in sound. The final chapter investigates Chopin's enigmatic "third concerto," the Allegro de concert.

Brahms's First Symphony has been hailed as Beethoven's Tenth. Its controversial status and relationship in the Beethovenian tradition is considered alongside other important issues in the early reception history of this key work in the symphonic repertory. David Brodbeck begins with an account of the lengthy genesis and complicated background to the writing of the symphony, before providing a thorough critical reading of the work, movement by movement. In particular, Professor Brodbeck reveals a dense web of extra-compositional allusions--references in the music to works by J. S. Bach,...

Portrays the musical era between 1750 and 1830 against its intellectual and cultural background and describes both its famous and obscure composers.