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It's in the 40's, haven't seen the sun in a week, it's Rach Piano Concerto #2, 2nd movement type of day:

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The third movement (Scherzo) from Johannes Brahms' horn trio.



And this is second-movement scherzo of a horn trio by Heinrich von Herzogenberg, a composer strongly influenced by Brahms. Herzogenberg is often thought of as a second-rate or third-rate composer--he lacks Brahms' gifts for melody and development, and often imitates Brahms openly-- but he is skillful, and at times (especially when he keeps things simple), his music has great charm, and he really pulls things off quite well.

I just finished teaching Rita Dove's poetry volume Sonata Mulattica, which is about George Bridgetower, a bi-racial violin virtuoso in the late 18th and early 19th century who premiered Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, one of the most famous and technically demanding violin sonatas in the entire violin repertoire.


Bridgetower and Beethoven evidently argued over a woman, so Beethoven destroyed his dedication to Bridgetower, and instead dedicated it to Rudolphe Kreutzer, a violinist who rejected the piece as unplayable. Bridgetower was evidently mentored by Haydn, and "adopted" by the Prince of Wales when Bridgetower's father was essentially paid to leave England because of gambling, carousing, and neglecting his son.

Anyway, here are two links to the piece: a color-coded analysis of the sonata, and a link to a performance of the first movement by Joshua Bell and the young pianist Yuja Wang.

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Way back in the dim reaches of memory, I posted a link to Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto #5.Well, this performance is outstanding, and the sound is terrific. The concerto is sometimes nicknamed "Africa" because of its many exotic sounds, alluding to North Africa--lots of orientalism in this piece. Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (from Amsterdam), conducted by Andris Nelsons.

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The waltz that is the source of the famous Nokia ringtone. You only hear it briefly a couple of times in the piece.

The aria "Song to the Moon" from Dvorak's opera Rusalka, sung by Renee Fleming.