Time and Transformation

Hungarian composer Erno Dohnanyi’s Symphonic Minutes is divided into five movements, each only one or two minutes in length. Each movement retains a typically classical form, including a rhapsody, a scherzo, a theme and variations, as well as a rondo. Michael Berkovsky and Coral Solomon then perform Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos and orchestra. Inspired by Mozart and Balinese gamelan, the work features lively rhythms, graceful melodies, and playful dialogue between the two pianos and orchestra, blending wit, lyricism, and brilliance. Finnish composer Jean Sibelius structured his Symphony no. 2 from a rising three-note motif out of which all other themes are generated—a compositional practice Arnold Schoenberg described as “developing variation.” The first movement also bears a relationship to Richard Strauss’ famous tone poem, Tod und Verklärung: both have the main theme emerge in full only at the end, rather than the beginning.