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One of the most important works, if not the most important work, leading from the classical era to the romantic era was Beethoven’s 9th and final symphony. By this time he began composing this work Beethoven was already completely deaf. When he started to notice hearing loss, his doctors told him to go live out in the meadows where it is quiet. This obviously did not work and while he was out there he wrote a letter saying he wanted to commit suicide. The reason he didn’t is because Beethoven realized no one else could write what he had in his mind and he decided to live and write a final symphony.

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This Largo from Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was secretly dedicated to victims of the great purges who died in the Gulags. Accounts of people at the premier say relatives of these victims were crying for there lost love ones in the audience. Soviet officials on the other hand, interpreted this work as “demonstrating the struggle of the party”

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Written after Stalin’s death, this was dedicated by Shostakovich, “To the victims of Fascism and War”.

This is a great emotional work and is definitely worth the listen. You can hear references to his cello concerto in later movements.

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Left to right: Maurice Ravel, Vaslav Najinsky, Romola Najinsky. Photo by Igor Stravinsky

These great artists broke the norm of French art music. In the late 19th century the Paris Conservatoire had a very conservative grip on the music of France creating composers who were masters of dated forms that didn’t contribute to the advancement of music. These composers had great technique but couldn’t create anything new. Ravel and Stravinsky operated completely outside of this norm and created magic that had never been seen before.

Both of these men collaborated with Vaslav Najinsky and Sergei Diagalev (not pictured) with the ballet Russe which was known for Avant-guarde ballet. The Now famous works Bolero, and The Rite of Spring were products of this collaboration.

This collaboration changed the course of music in the 20th century in a way that is unimaginable.