Music Heals

Playlist #10 from LGSO's Violist, Bill Zartman
Inspired from our friends in the Johnstown Symphony in Western Pennsylvania, we offer playlists of music that have proved meaningful to LGSO musicians and audience during this challenging time. There are two ways to participate:

Listen: playlists will arrive in LGSO emails. You can also follow us on Facebook.

Submit: click here to let us know what pieces have inspired you during this time.
Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson was influenced by Sibelius and wrote in many styles from Romantic to 12-tone. Much of his music was written for Swedish radio. His Pastoral Suite, written in 1938, displays his typical harmonies which make his music recognizable.
This well-known piano prelude, written in 1901, was orchestrated by Peter Lawson; an English pianist and teacher at Chetham's School of Music. It is a military sound, interrupted in the B section with a haunting Phrygian melody. It's interesting to hear which instruments were used for different motifs in the piece.
Brahm's music is so filled with melody and rich harmonies that it is easy to see the "ah!" in his name. In his biography, he is quoted as describing the many walks he loved in the forests of Austria and Switzerland as being "so filled with melodies, that one can hardly avoid stepping on them!" In my college years, I would play this movement from my 33 RPM vinyl record on my old Victrola to help me sleep.
Composer Dmitri Shostakovich risked his freedom and his life due to his reluctance to write only music which glorified the Soviet system, as dictated by those in power. Russian premier Joseph Stalin died in March, 1953.  From July through October of 1953, Shostakovich, now free to fully express himself as an artist, composed his 10th symphony. Many of his biographers are of the opinion that the 2nd movement is Shostakovich's depiction of Stalin and his reign of terror.