Category: M’s Classical Choice

I came across this lovely piece while researching the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers, for which Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote a popular tune. https://am-records.com/2019/02/13/onward-christian-soldiers/ It comes from his 1873 oratorio The Light of … Continue readingArthur Sullivan: Yea, Though I Walk

Schubert wrote this piano duet between January and March of 1828, the last year of his life, when he knew that he was dying. He dedicated it to his pupil … Continue readingSchubert Fantasy in F minor, D 940

Mozart wrote this in 1789 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. It has some similarities with his Clarinet Concerto, which he wrote for Stadler two years later, two months before his … Continue readingMozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K 581

This work is best known for the second movement, Air, which was arranged later into Air on a G-string. However the whole thing is lovely. Bach (1685-1750) wrote it in around 1730. In the … Continue readingJ S Bach: Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major, BWV 1068

The first time I heard the second movement of this concerto I could not believe how beautiful it was. I still feel the same. Beethoven wrote it in 1800, when … Continue readingBeethoven: Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor, Op 37

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) composed this lovely work in 1842, when he was 32. It is considered one of his finest compositions. It was innovative in teaming the piano with a … Continue readingSchumann: Piano Quintet in E flat, Op 44

I first heard this in 1998 at St Bride’s, Fleet Street. It was the funeral of the great former Daily Mail editor Sir David English, who was ten times the … Continue readingGabriel Fauré: In Paradisum

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music that I know. I was fortunate enough to sing it in my school choir, and I have asked for it … Continue readingMozart: Ave Verum Corpus K618

I studied the first movement of this for music O-level in 1965. Beethoven wrote it in 1812, when he was 42. He dedicated it to his patron Archduke Rudolph Johannes Joseph … Continue readingBeethoven: Violin Sonata No 10 in G major, Op 96

When I was at school in the 60s, there were several highly talented musicians among the pupils, and I often heard this work. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote his Ballades, Op … Continue readingBrahms: Ballade Op 10, No 1