SAVE THE BASSOON! For some reason, this noble instrument which along with the Double Basses, Cellos, and Tubas, makes up the very foundation of an orchestra is in danger of dying out from a lack of players. Perhaps because it is a large instrument, or perhaps it is thought of as being musically less nimble that the other woodwind family members (the latter of which is not the case I assure you), who knows. The Bassoon is a wonderful instrument in every way – a big wooden bazooka you hold like an electric Guitar, it has tons of personality and makes a great sound – what’s not to love! 

The overture to Rossini’s opera, The Thieving Magpie, was written at the eleventh hour on the day of the first performance. The composer locked himself in a room at La Scala while he wrote and stationed four stagehands outside to stop anyone who tried to interrupt him. Rossini would throw pages of the overture out of a window as he completed them, down to a team of copyists below who would create parts for the orchestra to play from. 

Despite its rushed creation, the overture to The Thieving Magpie is the most recognisable part of the opera, and one of Rossini’s most loved works. 

Tchaikovsky, one of the heavyweight symphonic composers of the 19th century, and a member of the Russian musical mafia – a group of composers known simply as ‘the five’, wrote his uncharacteristically upbeat second symphony at his sister’s home in Ukraine. Tchaikovsky attributed the inspiration for this work to the family butler, who would sing Ukrainian folk songs for the composer which were to become the basis of this symphony, in particular the last movement. 

The finale starts with a grandiose statement of just a few notes, which immediately gives way to a playful rendition of ‘the Crane’ – a popular Ukrainian song. We hear several variations on this theme before a galloping final flourish brings the symphony to a close. 

Composers like nothing more than coming up with a musical theme, and then elaborating on it, developing it, tweaking it, chopping and changing it, and rolling it out longer than a play-doh sausage. In the case of Ravel’s Bolero, popularised by the gold medal winning figure skating routine by Torvill and Dean at the 1984 Winter Olympics, the composer doesn’t alter his melody at all. Instead, Ravel takes us on an exploration of orchestration, using different combinations of instruments for each repetition of the tune, which gradually become louder and louder throughout. In this video of Ravel’s Bolero, maestro Daniel Barenboim takes a ‘less is more’ approach to conducting.