The Violin Concerto No. 2 in C-sharp minor, Op. 129, was Dmitri Shostakovich's last concerto. He wrote it in the spring of 1967 as an early 60th birthday present for its dedicatee, David Oistrakh. It was premiered unofficially in Bolshevo, near Moscow, on 13 September 1967, and officially on 26 September by Oistrakh and the Moscow Philharmonic under Kirill Kondrashin in Moscow.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10, No. 3, was dedicated to the Countess Anne Margarete von Browne, and written in 1798. This makes it contemporary with his three Op. 9 string trios, his three Op. 12 violin sonatas, and the violin and orchestra romance that became his Op. 50 when later published. The year also saw the premiere of a revised version of his second piano concerto, whose original form had been written and heard in 1795.
Angela Hewitt, is a Canadian classical pianist. She is best known for her Bach interpretations.
F major is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B♭, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative minor is D minor and its parallel minor is F minor.
Pieter Hellendaal was a Dutch composer, organist and violinist.
Hyacinthe Jadin was a French composer who came from a musical family. His uncle Georges Jadin was a composer in Versailles and Paris, along with his father Jean Jadin, who had played bassoon for the French Royal Orchestra. He was one of five musical brothers, the best known of whom was Louis-Emmanuel Jadin.
The Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66, was written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1845 and published in February 1846. The work is scored for a standard piano trio consisting of violin, cello and piano. Mendelssohn dedicated the work to his close friend and violinist, Louis Spohr, who played through the piece with the composer at least once.
Carl Maria von Weber wrote his Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73 for the clarinettist Heinrich Bärmann in 1811. The piece is highly regarded in the instrument's repertoire. It is written for clarinet in B♭. The work consists of three movements in the form of fast, slow, fast. It was premiered in Munich on 13 June 1811, with Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in attendance.
Lawrence Power is a British violist, born 1977, noted both for solo performances and for chamber music with the Nash Ensemble and Leopold String Trio.
Louis Spohr's String Quartet No. 3 in D minor, Op. 11, was completed in 1806, then published in 1808. It is the first of eight quatuors brillants written by Spohr. Inspired by similar works written by Viotti and Rode, the composition is a mini-concerto, written to provide the composer with the means of demonstrating his skills with a violin in a more intimate setting than a concert hall.
The Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26, by Johannes Brahms is scored for piano, violin, viola and cello. It was completed in 1861 and received its premiere in November 1862 by the Hellmesberger Quartet with the composer playing the piano part. It has been especially noted for drawing influence from composer Franz Schubert. Lasting approximately 50 minutes, this quartet is the longest of Brahms's chamber works to perform and one of the longest piano quartets in the repertoire. He also made an arrangement of this quartet for two pianos.
The Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147, is the last composition by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was completed on July 5, 1975, weeks before his death. It is dedicated to Fyodor Druzhinin, violist of the Beethoven Quartet.
The Rondo for Violin and Strings, D 438, is a composition in A major by Franz Schubert. He wrote the rondo in 1816. Like the roughly contemporary Adagio and Rondo concertante in F major, D 487, the work is a concertante piece designed to highlight the skills of the violin soloist.
From March 1816 to August 1817, Franz Schubert composed four violin sonatas. All four were published after the composer's death: the first three, D 384, 385 and 408, as Sonatinas in 1836, and the last one, D 574, as Duo in 1851. Schubert composed two more pieces for violin and piano, in October 1826 and December 1827 respectively: a Rondo, D 895, which was published during the composer's lifetime (Op. 70), and a Fantasy, D 934, which was premiered in January 1828, less than a year before the composer's death.
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17, is the only piano concerto written by the Polish composer and pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. It was written in the composer's twenties, with the first movement dating back to 1882, although the majority of the work was composed in 1888 and scored in 1889. After its completion, the composer showed the concerto to his friend Saint-Saëns, who admired it, and especially the andante movement. It premiered the same year in Vienna, achieving great success, where it was conducted by Hans Richter.
