Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

When the great pianist and composer Frederic Chopin decided to write a piano sonata in 1837, fashions had turned against the genre itself. Perhaps it was a feeling that Beethoven had essentially "finished" the genre, or perhaps it was a sense that a non-Germanic composer couldn't ...  Show more

As I've often said, I love doing Patreon-sponsored episodes in part because they allow me to discover music I might never have encountered otherwise. Today's episode is one of those, because the truth is that before I made it, I had heard of Finzi, but that was about it. I knew n ...  Show more

I have had several people request that I record some Debussy preludes so here is the first! This prelude is one of Debussy's best-known works. It was composed just over 100 years ago and appeared in Debussy's first book of preludes. This piece is composed after the legend of the ...  Show more

Here we talk about what distinguishes music from the Classical Period. We will analyze key pieces of music and discuss famous composers during this era. 

A fun, almost comical, moment before Beethoven stepped away from the symphony for a decade and wrote his ultimate triumph.