Contrapunctus
Recordings

Listening routes

Recordings from the Hall grouped by a feature they share: a returning theme, several tunes at once, changes in the orchestra, short complete pieces. Each button starts the recording without leaving the page.

Return of the theme

Satie’s second ending closes on a D minor chord. Elsewhere, returns come in a new key or with the whole orchestra playing.

  1. Erik Satie · Trois Gymnopédies

    I. Lent et douloureux

    The opening returns with few changes. At the end, F♯ becomes F♮ and the music moves from D major to D minor.

  2. Ludwig van Beethoven · Symphony No. 5, Op. 67

    I. Allegro con brio

    A written repeat brings the opening back intact. Later, a lone oboe interrupts its return.

  3. Antonio Vivaldi · The Four Seasons · Spring, RV 269

    I. Allegro

    The full strings return to the opening ritornello between the violin passages imitating birdsong and storms.

  4. Joseph Haydn · Symphony No. 94 “Surprise”

    II. Andante

    A C major tune goes through four variations, starting with quiet strings and ending with the full orchestra.

  5. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · Symphony No. 40, K. 550

    I. Molto allegro

    The second theme is first heard in B♭ major. When it returns, it is in G minor.

Several tunes at once

Bach wrote four voices for a keyboard player’s two hands. Handel passed a tune between the parts of a choir, then brought all the voices together on the same words.

  1. Johann Sebastian Bach · The Well-⁠Tempered Clavier, Book I · BWV 869

    Fugue in B minor

    Four voices enter in turn, and one pair of hands keeps their lines apart.

  2. François Couperin · Les Nations

    La Piémontaise · Sonade

    The four players play three parts, two upper melodies and a shared bass.

  3. Johann Sebastian Bach · Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, BWV 1050

    I. Allegro

    Flute, violin and harpsichord exchange phrases until the harpsichord plays alone.

  4. Johannes Brahms · Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

    IV. Allegro energico e passionato

    Thirty variations on an eight-bar pattern, passed through the orchestra.

  5. George Frideric Handel · Messiah, HWV 56

    Hallelujah

    The choir sings the words together, then the parts enter one after another with the same tune.

Changes in the orchestra

Ravel kept the tune the same and changed the instrument playing it. Elsewhere, the orchestra is reduced to strings and harp, and a piano depicts a drowned cathedral.

  1. Maurice Ravel · Boléro

    Two melodies pass from one instrument to the next while the snare drum repeats its rhythm without change.

  2. Gustav Mahler · Symphony No. 5

    IV. Adagietto — Sehr langsam

    Mahler uses only strings and harp, long bowed phrases above plucked notes.

  3. Claude Debussy · Préludes, Book I

    X. La cathédrale engloutie

    A piano depicts distant bells, a great organ and the water that closes over them.

  4. Nikolai Rimsky-⁠Korsakov · Scheherazade, Op. 35

    III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess

    A broad violin tune is followed by a dance for the woodwind, with a snare drum keeping time.

Under four minutes

Each recording is a complete piece or movement, from a loud piano étude to a quiet operatic prelude.

  1. Alexander Scriabin · Étude in D♯ minor, Op. 8 No. 12

    Patetico

    A melody in octaves sounds above a left hand that leaps across the keyboard.

  2. Edward Elgar · Variations on an Original Theme “Enigma”, Op. 36

    IX. Nimrod — Adagio

    Elgar’s orchestral portrait of August Jaeger, the friend who kept him composing.

  3. Erik Satie · Trois Gymnopédies

    I. Lent et douloureux

    A piano dance in which the bass plays one beat ahead of the chords.

  4. George Frideric Handel · Messiah, HWV 56

    Hallelujah

    For choir, with four independent voices.

  5. Antonio Vivaldi · The Four Seasons · Spring, RV 269

    I. Allegro

    The violins imitate birdsong, and a brief thunderstorm interrupts the spring morning.

  6. Giuseppe Verdi · La traviata

    Act I · Prelude

    After high, quiet strings comes a love song; the lower strings take it up beneath decoration in the violins.

  7. Sergei Rachmaninoff · Prelude in C♯ minor, Op. 3 No. 2

    Rachmaninoff at the keyboard, recorded in 1919.