#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalNine Week 3
September is the ninth month of the year. And so the #ClassicsaDay team decided to make the number the theme. For September 2018, the challenge is to post classical works that have to do with the number nine.
I chose to alternate between nonets, opus nine compositions and works with a catalog number of nine. Here are my posts for the third week:
Sergei Rachmaninoff – Trio élégiaque No. 2, Op. 9
Rachmaninoff’s second Trio élégiaque was written in 1893, in memory of Tchaikovsky. It parallels the structure of Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor. Rachmaninoff revised the work for publication in 1906.
Alexander Scriabin – Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68
Scriabin’s ninth piano sonata was completed in 1913. It was given the title “Black Mass,” (not by Scriabin), and is in some ways seen as a companion sonata to his seventh, which he titled “White Mass.” Both feature extreme chromaticism and dissonance, verging on atonality at times.
Georg Fridrich Handel: Overture to “Teseo” HWV 9 (1712)
“Teseo” is HWV 9. Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis catalog numbers aren’t precisely chronological, so this isn’t the ninth work Handel wrote. HWV groups compositions by type, then by date. Nos. 1-49 are operas, so “Tesso” is the ninth opera Handel wrote.
Bohuslav Martinu – Nonet No. 2 H. 374 (1959)
Martinu wrote three nonets. The first exists only as a fragment. The second, “Stowe pastorals” is for 5 recorders, clarinet, 2 violins, and cello. The third – Nonet No. 2 – is for the traditional 5 winds/4 strings configuration –flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, contrabass.
Samuel Barber – Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Barber started work on his single-movement symphony in 1935 and completed it two years later. It was the first symphonic work by an American composer to be performed at the Salzburg Festival.
