Dear Music Lovers and Supporters, This week’s music offering is The Polovtsian Dances by Alexander Borodin. The Polovtsian Dances form the final scene in Act 2 of Borodin’s opera Prince Igor. The recording is from a concert by the BSO in May 2015 and is on YouTube: BSO plays Borodin: Polovtsian Dances. About the music, Maestro Fred Devyatkin writes, “Alexander Borodin was one of the world’s most famous chemists of his day. His compositions have had such lasting appeal that now his reputation as a musical genius has superseded his medical fame. As the keynote speaker at a symposium in...

Dear Music Lovers and Supporters, This week’s musical offering is the 3rd Movement, or Menuetto-Allegretto, of the Symphony No. 101, composed by Franz Joseph Haydn (1793 or 1794). The symphony is popularly known as The Clock because of the "ticking" rhythm throughout the second movement. The recording is from a concert by the BSO in November 2018 and is on YouTube: BSO plays the Haydn Symphony No. 101 "Clock", Minuet. About the music, Maestro Fred Devyatkin writes, “Franz Josef Haydn, the father ( AKA Papa Haydn) of the classical string quartet and symphony, established the Minuet as the 3rd...

Dear Music Lovers and Supporters, Our ninth offering is the second movement from Symphony No. 101 in D major (1793-1794) by Austrian composer Franz Josef Haydn from a concert by the BSO in October 2018. The symphony is also known as “The Clock” symphony because of the "ticking" rhythm throughout its second movement. The recording is on YouTube: BSO plays Haydn Symphony No. 101, 2nd or "Clock" Movement. About the symphony, Maestro Fred Devyatkin writes, “A late work of Franz Josef from his collection of London Symphonies. His genius is in full bloom. This movement had the tick-tock that...