Poster Kevin Puts
Kevin Puts, American composer
Henry Fair
Performance Today®

Inspiring Beethoven

How often have you listened to a piece of music and thought, "What on earth was the composer thinking when he/she wrote that?" Usually that reaction is reserved for something we don't like. But American composer Kevin Puts took on the question in a serious, thoughtful way. He started with the first movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, and wondered what inspired him to write it. The result is an engaging new piece, "Inspiring Beethoven." We'll hear it from a concert in North Carolina.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

Robert Schumann: Third movement from Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op. 97 (Rhenish)
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Enrique Granados: The Straw Man, from Goyescas: The Gallants in Love, Op. 11
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Gaetano Donizetti: Ah! Mes Amis, from La Fille du Regiment (Daughter of the Regiment)
Juan Diego Florez, tenor, Vincenzo Scalera, piano
Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain

Vincenzo Ciampi: Tre giorni son che Nina, from Gli Tre Cicisbei Ridicoli
Juan Diego Florez, tenor, Vincenzo Scalera, piano
Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain

Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Michel Tabachnik, conductor
Lucerne Summer Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland

Hour 2

Maurice Ravel: Epilogue from Valses Nobles et Sentimentales (Noble and Sentimental Waltzes)
The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, conductor

Bolette Roed: Improvisation on Ecossaise
Bolette Roed, recorder, David Hildebrandt, percussion
Music in Paradise Festival, Paradyz, Poland

Edvard Grieg: Anitra's Dance, from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46
The Glass Duo
International Chopin Piano Festival, Duszniki Zdroj, Poland

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in G Minor
Ana Belen Tejedor, mandolin, Yiannis Sofos, guitar
GRERT Radio, Athens, Greece

Kevin Puts: Inspiring Beethoven
The Winston-Salem Symphony, Robert Moody, conductor
Stevens Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
The Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

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