The Library of Congress Chorale: Sharing Winter With You
For more than 40 years, the Library of Congress Chorale, one of the longest-standing employee choruses in the country, has performed for the education, enjoyment, and cultural enrichment of the Library, its members and its audiences. The Chorale includes representatives and retirees from throughout the Library. Songs for this concert include "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (music Felix Mendelssohn, words Charles Wesley, arrangement Pink...
Contributor:
Library of Congress Chorale
Date:2020-12-18
Film, Video
The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era
Frances E. Lee and James M. Curry discuss their 2020 book, "The Limits of Party: Congress and Lawmaking in a Polarized Era," with the Library's John Haskell. Lee and Curry cover some of their most surprising findings, including the idea that Congress is less dysfunctional than typically thought, and that the passage bipartisan legislation is still commonplace. Tracking legislative proposals, they find that divided...
Contributor:
Haskell, John - Curry, James M. - Lee, Frances E.
Date:2020-12-17
Film, Video
Conversation with Christopher Taylor
Pianist Christopher Taylor speaks with the Library's David Plylar about Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies for solo piano.
Contributor:
Plylar, David - Taylor, Christopher
Date:2020-12-17
Film, Video
Christopher Taylor, Piano
It takes extraordinary skill as an orchestrator to condense an entire Beethoven symphony into a version for a solo instrument, but that is just what Franz Liszt accomplished in his piano transcriptions. Hear virtuoso pianist Christoper Taylor perform three of these transcendent symphony transcriptions, works he describes as a "new perspective on something familiar." Program: Beethoven/Liszt: Symphony no. 1 in C major, op. 21...
Contributor:
Taylor, Christopher
Date:2020-12-17
Film, Video
Great American Editors: Nan Talese in Conversation with Margaret Atwood
Nan Talese talks with author Margaret Atwood as part of our "Great American Editors" segment in the "Behind the Book" series. These interviews focus on leading gatekeepers in publishing who bring great works to fruition -- from the germ of an idea to the production of a physical book. Talese is one of the unsung heroes of the publishing world who transform promising but...
Contributor:
Talese, Nan - Atwood, Margaret
Date:2020-12-17
Film, Video
Busy Bees Sing Cascabel
The Library of Congress Little Scholars presents Busy Bess singing "Cascabel" for the Library's 2020 virtual holiday event.
Library of Congress Chorale Performances from Seasons Past
A medley of Library of Congress Chorale performances from past years includes "Shalom Chaverim," "Silent Night," "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Holiday Essays & Poems from the National Library Service for the Blind & Print Disabled
Staff from the Library's National Library Service for the Blind & Print Disabled read holiday poems and essays, including "Christmas" by Washington Irving, "Now Winter Nights Enlarge" by Thomas Campion, "Spellbound" by Emily Bronte, "Helas!" by Oscar Wilde, "Winter Branches" by Margaret Widdemer, "Winter Fields" by John Clare, "Sonnet to Winter" by Emily Chubbuck Judson, "Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind" from "As You Like...
Contributor:
Russotto, Michael - Dalusung, Ryan - Schraf, Kimberly - Ursula-Rachal, Dawn - Hemmingsen, Brian - Herring, Brit - Lawson, Celeste - Kenninger, Karen - Giannarelli, Laura - Young, Chuck - Kramer, Michael
Date:2020-12-16
Film, Video
Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee, Pianos
Relive a treasured 19th-century concert experience when this award-winning duo performs Liszt's storied transcription of Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 in D Minor, op. 125 for two pianos. About the Liszt transcriptions, musicologist Donald Tovey declared "they prove conclusively that Liszt was by far the most wonderful interpreter of orchestral scores on the pianoforte the world is ever likely to see." Also included is a...
Contributor:
Dank, Ran - Lee, Soyeon Kate
Date:2020-12-12
Film, Video
Beethoven's Instruments at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn
Julia Ronge, custodian of the collections at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, speaks with Carol Lynn Ward Bamford, instrument curator in the Library of Congress Music Division, about the instruments Beethoven owned and used that are held at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. Other topics include portraits of Beethoven, manuscripts and other treasures housed at the Beethoven-Haus and the Library of Congress.
Contributor:
Ward Bamford, Carol Lynn - Ronge, Julia - Plylar, David - Beutin, Ricklef
Date:2020-12-11
Film, Video
Conversation with Adam Golka
Pianist Adam Golka speaks with the Library's David Plylar about Beethoven and his op. 106 "Hammerklavier" sonata.
Contributor:
Golka, Adam - Plylar, David
Date:2020-12-11
Film, Video
Conversation with the Verona Quartet
Members of the Verona Quartet speak with the Library's Anne McLean and David Plylar about their experience preparing and performing Plylar's transcription of Beethoven's op. 106 "Hammerklavier" piano sonata for string quartet.
Contributor:
Ong, Jonathan - Rojansky, Abigail - McLean, Anne - Ro, Dorothy - Plylar, David
Date:2020-12-11
Film, Video
32@32: "Hammerklavier"
Adam Golka introduces the "Hammerklavier" episode of his 32@32 series on performing each of the Beethoven sonatas. Pianist Richard Goode is his special guest for the presentation.
Contributor:
Golka, Adam - Goode, Richard
Date:2020-12-11
Film, Video
Manuscript Sketches of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier Sonata"
The Library's Paul Allen Somerfield speaks about Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, op. 106, and what the manuscript sketches held in the collections of the Libraryof Congress reveal about its creation.
Contributor:
Sommerfeld, Paul Allen
Date:2020-12-11
Film, Video
Conversation with Ran Dank & Soyeon Kate Lee
Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee speak with the Library's Kazem Abdullah about their collaboration, the art of four-hand piano playing and their program juxtaposing two Liszt transcriptions.
Contributor:
Dank, Ran - Lee, Soyeon Kate - Abdullah, Kazem
Date:2020-12-11
Film, Video
Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata: Two Visions
Pianist Adam Golka and the Verona Quartet present an intensive focus on Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" sonata: two visions of the work in back-to-back performances, with David Plylar's transcription for string quartet followed by the composer's original version for piano. Reviewing Franz Liszt's 1836 likely premiere of the sonata nearly a decade after Beethoven's death, Hector Berlioz called it "a sublime poem that until this day...
Contributor:
Ong, Jonathan - Rojansky, Abigail - Ro, Dorothy - Jacobs-Perkins, Annie - Golka, Adam
ZOFO Concert
Zofo's name is shorthand for "20-Finger Orchestra" and they truly make use of the piano to emulate a brilliantly full orchestral sound. One of only a handful of duos worldwide devoted exclusively to piano duets, Zofo is blazing a bold new path for four-hands groups by focusing on contemporary repertoire and commissioning new works. Hear them perform two symphonic transcriptions, Beethoven's symphonies no. 4...
2020 Bobbitt Prize: Terrance Hayes & Natasha Trethewey
The biennial Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry was given in 2020 to Terrance Hayes for his poetry collection "American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin" and to former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey for lifetime achievement. The winners read from their work, and Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden conferred the prize.
Conversation with the vision string quartet
The vision string quartet speaks with Anke Popper from the German Embassy and the Library's Kazem Abdullah about their collaboration, compositions and recording activities.
Contributor:
Abdullah, Kazem - Encke, Jakob - Disselhorst, Leonard - Stoll, Daniel - Stuart, Sander - Popper, Anke
Date:2020-12-09
Film, Video
vision string quartet
The Berlin-based vision string quartet presents a concert featuring Schumann's beguiling third string quartet and their own dynamic compositions inspired by jazz, funk, and bluegrass including: The Shoemaker, Samba, and Copenhagen and several others that have no titles. Founded in 2012, and the winners of several international music competitions, this ensemble offers a program that shows their unique versatility, extraordinary musicianship, and incredible charisma....
Contributor:
Stoll, Daniel - Disselhorst, Leonard - Stuart, Sander - Encke, Jakob
Date:2020-12-09
Film, Video
Op. 130 & the Grosse Fugue: Expressive Markings in Beethoven's Manuscript
Violinist Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo String Quartet offers an in-depth discussion of Beethoven's op. 130 string quartet and the Grosse Fugue, referencing many other works of Beethoven along the way. Kitchen pays special attention to the graduated range of Beethoven's expressive markings, learned from intensive study of Beethoven's manuscripts and the practice of performing the music from the manuscripts. He uses primary sources...
Contributor:
Kitchen, Nicholas
Date:2020-12-05
Film, Video
Presto from Beethoven's Op. 130 String Quartet
The Library's Stephanie Akau speaks about the manuscript of the presto movement for Beethoven's op. 130 string quartet held within the Music Division at the Library of Congress.
