Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
Joshua Weilerstein
Sticky Notes is a classical music podcast for everyone, whether you are just getting interested in classical music for the first time, or if you've been listening to it and loving it all your life. Interviews with great artists, in depth looks at pieces in the repertoire, and both basic and deep dives into every era of music. Classical music is absolutely for everyone, so let's start listening! Note - Seasons 1-5 will be returning over the next year. They have been taken down in order to be re-recorded in improved sound quality!
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 23, 2021 • 56min
Debussy La Mer
It's 1905 and you've just come to the premiere of Debussy's La Mer. The orchestra begins playing, and a magical and completely unique journey begins. Gone are the peaceful and placid portrayals of water in music of the past. Instead, you hear strange harmonies and a diffuse language that seems to revel in ambiguity. In fact, it sounds more like an impression of the sea than anything. This is the story of Debussy’s La Mer, one of the most beautiful, strange, and compelling pieces of music ever written.
Sep 16, 2021 • 45min
Mozart Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter"
Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony is a piece that can practically define the classical era symphony. Mozart pulls out every trick in the compositional book and practically sums up everything written before him. It is a symphony full of musical cliches, self-references, and in some cases, flat out thefts from other composers. But as always with Mozart, the thrill of his originality shines through at every moment. Today we’ll explore just how Mozart created this masterpiece of art and musical architecture. Join us!
Sep 9, 2021 • 56min
Schumann Symphony No. 2
Schumann’s life was marked with severe mental health issues. In 1844, Schumann suffered one of his worst breakdowns yet. He was dizzy, weak, had vision problems, couldn’t sleep, and couldn't listen to music. By 1845 Schumann slowly began to recover and the first wholly new work he produced was a symphony in C Major. As Schumann said, “I began to feel more myself when I wrote the last movement, and was assuredly better....still, it reminds me of dark days.” Today, we'll talk all about this huge symphony!
Sep 3, 2021 • 1h 4min
Brahms Symphony No. 2
Brahms spent much of his life battling with his ambition to write great symphonies and his terror at the spectre of Beethoven looming over him. His first symphony was a success, and with immense relief, Brahms quickly turned out a second symphony in just 4 months, a bit less than the 14 tortured years it took him to craft the first. At first glance this symphony sounds pastoral and idyllic, but there are plenty of clouds in this seminal masterpiece, something we'll discuss throughout the show. Join us!
Aug 26, 2021 • 46min
How to Understand(and Enjoy!) Atonal Music, Part 2: The Wars of the 1950s
The 1950s featured a musical battle, pitting composers like Boulez, Carter, and Babbit against Bernstein, Copland, and Messaien. But how did the Post World War II movement towards total serialism and the avant-garde came about? And how did even the most forward thinking of artists become caught between the two camps of the tonalists and the serialists? We'll talk all about this today, as the battles between these two camps have ensnared almost every composer and continue to this day. Join us to learn more!
Aug 19, 2021 • 53min
How to Listen to (and Enjoy!) Atonal Music, Part 1
This week we're talking all about atonal music! I'm going to tell you all about the history of this controversial development in classical music, its development, and perhaps most importantly, I’ll try to find a way to help you enjoy this music in all of its complexity, intensity, and yes, beauty. Part 1 is focused on 12 tone music and the beginnings of this powerful movement that transformed 20th century music, and according to some, ruined it. If you're ready to give atonal music a shot, join us!
Aug 12, 2021 • 1h 1min
The Degenerates: Music Suppressed by the Nazis
From the end of WWI until 1933, classical music in Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe was flourishing, with composers such as Zemlinsky, Weill, Krenek, Korngold, Schreker, Schulhoff, Haas, Krasa, and Ullmann writing spectacularly innovative and thrilling music. The Nazis exiled or murdered many of these musicians while in power, but their music lives on. I've never found researching an episode so moving, enraging, and inspiring. Join us this week in this journey of rediscovery - you won't regret it!
Aug 5, 2021 • 56min
Sibelius Symphony No. 2
In 1901, in the throes of the Finnish Independence movement, Jean Sibelius composed his legendary 2nd Symphony. Sibelius’ close colleague, the conductor Robert Kajanus, said that the symphony "strikes one as the most broken-hearted protest against all the injustice that threatens at the present time to deprive the sun of its light and our flowers of their scent." But is the symphony actually about Finnish Independence? Or was it simply, as Sibelius said, “a confession of the soul”? Join us for a deep dive!
Jul 29, 2021 • 58min
Dvorak Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"
Within three months of his arrival in New York, Antonin Dvorak was enamored with the sound of American music. Quickly he put forth what was at the time a controversial idea: "In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music..." This inspiration is threaded through almost every note of the New World Symphony, with a healthy dose of Dvorak's Bohemian roots and Germanic tradition as well! Join us as we explore this legendary masterpiece from every angle.
Jul 22, 2021 • 1h 9min
Havergal Brian, "Gothic Symphony"
Havergal Brian’s ambitious Gothic Symphony has been called many things - massive, ambitious, barbaric, incompetent, insane, moving, brilliant, awful, torture, and much more. It is almost never performed due to the forces it requires and its two hour duration. Today on the show I’ll tell you about the background to this monumental work, and then I’ll try to walk you through the structure of this symphony. Like a Gothic cathedral, there are lots of corners to get lost in, but I'll try to keep you on the path!
