Noted and Published
Classical program notes by Jeremy Reynolds
About
Some classical program notes are dusty, academic affairs that give the impression of a professor in a bow tie rattling off dates and definitions.
Enter Jeremy Reynolds, duly appointed classical music critic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and editor of OPERA America Magazine.
I aim to tell the stories of classical music and its composers with journalistic flair, entertaining and educating novices and aficionados alike. I do this by focusing on relatable details about the composer’s life (Bach loved coffee and Mozart was quite superstitious, for example) or through explaining bits of music theory in an approachable, digestible manner (sonata form is pretty easily understood when you compare it to a standard sitcom plot).
I am happy to tailor notes in length and tone for different orchestras, and I also regularly write marketing and brochure copy.
Read a longer interview about Reynolds’ program note style with the Ann Arbor Symphony here.
Sample: Mahler’s Symphony No. 7
Reader feedback: I wanted to reach out on behalf of my family and me to say how much we have loved your writing. For the last year or so, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra has been printing your summaries in their programs for each classical performance they perform. No one in my family is especially musical; none of us play instruments or have a great understanding of music. I just wanted to thank you for making classical music so accessible for those of us who love attending the symphony and classical music performances but don't necessarily have a 4 year degree's worth of knowledge about the music we're listening to…
As performing artists, musicians are no strangers to stage fright. Many a conservatory student has been known to wolf down a banana or antianxiety medication prior to an audition or concert. But what of composers? Gustav Mahler, that larger-than-life Austrian perfectionist, took to his bed physically ill prior to the premiere of his seventh symphony, so nervous was he that the public wouldn’t appreciate or follow its complex imaginings. Mahler’s wife, Alma, recorded the runup to the Prague premiere in her memoir: “I arrived in time for the last rehearsals... I found him in bed; he was nervous and unwell. His room was littered with orchestral parts, for his alterations were incessant in those days.”
As rehearsals progressed, he gained confidence and his health improved, though audiences were indeed tepid in their response to the music.
The symphony is in five movements. Mahler had completed sketches for the second and fourth, both titled “Night Music,” later inserting a shadowy scherzo between them and a pair of expansive march movements to bookend them. The composer’s only interpretive clue was to describe the symphony as “Three night pieces; the finale, bright day. As foundation for the whole, the first movement.”
And what a first movement it is — the idea for the opening came to Mahler while he was being rowed across a lake...
Read the full note and other samples from the Fort Worth Symphony at issue.com.
Sample: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1
Reader feedback: Prior to finding your writing, this was the last time I felt engaged with classical music in such a way that I remembered interesting facts and stories about the music I was listening to. Since reading your summaries, I have become more actively engaged with the music I listen to at the symphony, rather than just enjoying the pretty music.
In 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency banned the Russian Federation from participating in all major international sporting events, including the Olympics, for four years, as the state itself was supplying steroids and other performance enhancers to its athletes. Russian competitors were later allowed to participate under a neutral flag and designation. The competitors, prohibited from using the Russian national anthem, selected Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 as a replacement.
It's easy to hear why. The opening of the piece is one of the most famous in classical music, with pounding chords in the piano accompanying a fervent string melody, all passion and pride, easily interpreted as nationalistic. Although these introductory bars are never repeated, careful study has revealed that the opening bars contain key melodic fragments and harmonic progressions that appear throughout the rest of the piece.
The remainder of the first movement is more freeform. Rather than a strict adherence to the form, three themes alternate and transform, and blend over the course of the first movement. The first is a nervous, skittering tune in the piano with lots of rhythmic snap. (Tchaikovsky allegedly heard this tune from a blind Ukrainian beggar on the street.) Clarinets introduce the more melancholy second theme, and strings take over to build a more optimistic third theme that bridges back to a fierce passage in the piano…
Read the complete note and others from the Ann Arbor Symphony at issue.com.
Sample: Strauss’ Don Juan Suite
Reader feedback: I remember what you write about the composers and even started planning to get to the symphony hall extra early so I can read the entirety of your summaries before the performance starts (so I don't giggle at the funny one-liners and gentle jabs at the composers often found in your writings).
To put it delicately, the German composer Richard Strauss didn’t shy away from composing music for racy scenarios. There's the sultry, slinking “Dance of the Seven Veils” from his biblical opera Salome, where Salome dances to tempt King Herrod. There’s the in-medias res opening of the opera Der Rosenkavalier, with its gasping, whooping cries in the brass. And then there’s Don Juan, his first famous tone poem based on the tale of the famous womanizer.
The music begins with a gallant smirk, with sweeping strings and sharp interjections from the brass and percussion, giving the opening a heroic flair. Before long, this fanfare gives way to a more intimate tune, a beguiling violin solo that heralds a torrid love scene. (It’s depicting exactly what you’d think.) The music soon builds to an emotional climax, and then the tone darkens. Here, Strauss introduces elements of the play Don Juan’s Ende by poet Nikolaus Lenau, including the protagonist’s ultimate resignation to his fate: death by the sword of his lover’s father.
As the Don's life extinguishes, his final, thumping heartbeats can be heard among plucked strings and timpani.
The orchestration of Don Juan is perhaps the earliest example of Strauss’ mature style, with bold, vivid writing that blends numerous instruments into dense layers of sound. His music is quite difficult to perform, with its many moving parts and constant shifts in tempo and dynamics. …
Read the complete note in the South Florida Symphony’s program book here.
Contact
Rates are negotiable — I work with orchestras, opera companies, and chamber ensembles of all sizes.