This week on “Toccata.” 7/07/13
I hope you can join me this Sunday at 6 on WBJC for “Toccata.” We’ll hear a fine performance of the Organ sonata No. 1 by Felix Mendelssohn, who was a virtuoso organist and wrote quite a bit of very fine music for the King of Instruments. then we’ll Brahms’ Sonata for 2 Pianos. It’s actually an arrangement by the composer of his great Quintet for Piano and Strings in f minor, a work that he struggled with. He originally sketched it for a string quartet, then for a string quintet, thought about making it a string sextet, and then his friends Joseph Joachim and Clara Schumann told him the work needs a piano. Thus was born the Quintet. Shortly after completing the work, Brahms arranged it for 2 pianos, in all likelihood so that he could play it with Clara Schumann, and it became his Op. 34b. We’ll hear a fine performance of the Sonata for 2 Pianos by Brahms this Sunday. I look forward to your company!
