Music

"Thank you so much for making these wonderful pieces available! I plan on listening to and sharing them all." --Podcast listener

About The Concert

Since 2006, the Gardner Museum's free classical podcast The Concert has made world-class performances recorded live at the museum available to listeners across the globe.

A new program is posted on the 1st and 15th of every month, so check the website often or subscribe to receive automatic updates. You can also listen to individual musical tracks through our online music library.

Current Episode

Episode 136: Beethoven's Maiden Voyage
Works for voice, piano, and string quartet performed by Jeanine De Bique, soprano; Warren Jones, piano; and the Borromeo String Quartet.

  • Wolf: Six Songs
  • Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3

Some composers distinguish themselves in a single genre: Hugo Wolf, for example, whose brilliant lieder are like mini-monodramas, containing a whole world of feeling in less than two minutes of music. We’ll start with a selection of six of Wolf’s songs. But our main order of business on this podcast is a composer who can’t be bound by one signature form: Beethoven. Though published as number three in his first set of string quartets, the D Major quartet was in fact the first string quartet Beethoven wrote. Beethoven had waited about eight years from the time he arrived on the scene in Vienna before trying his hand at string quartets; some have postulated that this may well have been due to the shadow that his own teacher at the time, Haydn, cast over the form. When Beethoven finally published the set of six quartets from which this piece hails, he did it right. These quartets aren’t yet the work of a revolutionary, but they demonstrate Beethoven’s complete command of the form, and they clearly positioned him as one of its greatest living proponents. It was an important turning point: in 1802, Haydn fell sick. Though he battled his illness for several more years, he wouldn’t live to complete another quartet. The quartet, it seemed, had a new king.

Sharing

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Acknowledgements

We’d like to thank the following individuals and institutions, whose help and support have made this project possible:

  • The musicians, without whose artistry, vision, and support we would not have been able to create this podcast.
  • The Berkman Center for their legal expertise in the complex and fascinating world of digital intellectual property.
  • Liberated Syndication for hosting our podcast.
  • Our talented recording engineer, Tom Stephenson of Emmanuel Recording.

We welcome your comments and suggestions! Email us at podcast@isgm.org.

 

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