Romantic music as a movement refers to the expression and expansion of musical ideas established in earlier periods, such as the classical period. Romanticism does not necessarily apply to romantic love, but that theme was prevalent in many works composed during this time period. More appropriately, romanticism describes the expansion of formal structures within a composition, making the pieces more passionate and expressive. Overall, composers during this time (1820-1910) expanded on formal ideas in a new and exciting way.
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Far from the troubled, coarse libertine that has become an archetype of the Romantic composer, Felix Mendelssohn was something of an anomaly among his contemporaries. His own situation -- one largely of domestic tranquility and unhindered career fulfillment -- stands in stark contrast to the personal Sturm und Drang familiar to his peers. Mendelssohn was the only musical prodigy of the nineteenth century whose stature could rival that of Mozart.
Mendelssohn was a true Renaissance man. A talented visual artist, he was a refined connoisseur of literature and philosophy. While Mendelssohn's name rarely arises in discussions of the nineteenth century vanguard, the intrinsic importance of his music is undeniable. A distinct personality emerges at once in its exceptional formal sophistication, its singular melodic sense, and its colorful, masterful deployment of the instrumental forces at hand. A true apotheosis of life, Mendelssohn's music absolutely overflows with energy, ebullience, drama, and invention, as evidenced in his most enduring works: the incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826-1842); the Hebrides Overture (1830); the Songs Without Words (1830-1845); the Symphonies No. 3 (1841-1842) and No. 4 (1833); and the Violin Concerto in E minor (1844). While the sunny disposition of so many of Mendelssohn's works has led some to view the composer as possessing great talent but little depth, his religious compositions -- particularly the great oratorios Paulus (1836) and Elijah (1846) -- reflect the complexity and deeply spiritual basis of his personality.
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Chopin (March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849) was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father and came to be regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. In November 1830, at the age of twenty, Chopin went abroad. After the suppression of the Polish 1830–31 Uprising, he became one of the many expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration. In Paris he made a comfortable living as composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. After some ill-fated romantic involvements with Polish ladies, from 1837 to 1847 he conducted a turbulent relationship with the French writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant). Chopin the Polishvirtuoso pianist and piano composer of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as the greatest Polish composer, always in frail health, at 39 in Paris he succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis.
pic 1849Chopin's music for the piano combined a unique rhythmic sense, frequent use of chromaticism, and counterpoint. This mixture produces a particularly fragile sound in the melody and the harmony, which are nonetheless underpinned by solid and interesting harmonic techniques. He took the new salon genre of the nocturne, invented by Irish composer John Field, to a deeper level of sophistication. Chopin reinvented genres, namely the étude, by changing it by expanding on the idea and making them into gorgeous, eloquent and emotional showpieces.
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Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.
Grieg is renowned as a nationalist composer, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. Early works include a symphony (which he later suppressed) and a piano sonata. He also wrote three sonatas for violin and piano and a cello sonata. His many short pieces for piano — often built on Norwegian folk tunes and dances — led some to call him the Chopin of the north. Although Grieg's smaller scale pieces are the most successful musically, the Piano Concerto is his most popular and still frequently performed. The slow movement, with its folk-like melodies, is perhaps its most successful feature.
Other well-known works are the Lyric Pieces (for piano), and the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt. Despite In the Hall of the Mountain King being one of Grieg's most popular and enduring compositions, he himself did not care much for it. In a letter to a friend he wrote about the "infernal thing reek[ing] of cow-pies and provincialism." Grieg's popular Holberg Suite was originally written for the piano but later arranged for string orchestra. Grieg wrote songs with lyrics from Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and others Grieg's songs now feature frequently in recitals and it is perhaps in these and the Lyric Pieces that his originality shows itself most convincingly.
In the spring 1903, Grieg made nine 78-rpm gramophone recordings of his piano music in Paris; all of these historic discs have been reissued on both LPs and CDs and, despite limited fidelity, show his artistry as a pianist. Grieg also made live-recording player piano music rolls for the Welte-Mignon reproducing system, all of which survive today and can be heard.
Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long period of illness. His final words were "Well, if it must be so"
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Millennium Classics - Classical Treasures ( 97min ^162mb)
01 - F.Mendelssohn - Symphone No.4 in A major, Op.90 'Italian'-Allegro vivace (7:44)
02 - F.Chopin - Prelude, Op.28 No.15 'Raindrop' (7:26)
03 - E.Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46-Morning (4:14)
04 - E.Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46-Ase's Death (4:46)
05 - E.Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46--Anitra's Dance (3:59
06 - E.Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46--In the Hall of the Mountain King (2:42)
07 - F.Chopin - Nocturne No.16 in E flat major, Op.55 No.2 (4:46)
08 - B.Smetana-Ma Vlast - No.2- Vltava (Die Moldau) (12:06)
09 - E.Grieg - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16-I- Allegro molto moderato (12:45)
10 - F.Mendelssohn - Midsummer Night's Dream, Op.21-Scherzo (4:55)
11 - A.Dvorak - Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95 'From the New World'-II- Largo (13:29)
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