Romantic
about 1800 to 1910
Across a century the orchestra grew from about thirty players to well over a hundred, brass and percussion joined the standard complement, and harmony travelled further before consenting to come home. Composers began asking music to be about something in particular: a poem, a landscape, a life. At the same time the piano became a middle-class household instrument, so short character pieces and songs multiplied alongside symphonies that kept getting longer. This century is still the bulk of what concert halls play.
What to listen for
- One theme returning transformed across a whole work, stitching separate movements into a single argument.
- A far wider gap between quietest and loudest than a Classical piece allows: the soft playing asks you to lean in.
- Modulations that arrive with no preparation, purely for the change of colour.
Romantic in Shanghai
All concertsWorks being played
All works- Swan LakeTchaikovsky4 dates
- Réminiscences de Don JuanLiszt3 dates
- Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36Tchaikovsky3 dates
- Fantasie in C major, Op. 17Schumann2 dates
- Kinderszenen, Op. 15Schumann2 dates
- Variations sérieuses in D minor, Op. 54Mendelssohn2 dates
- A Midsummer Night's Dream Suite, Op. 61Mendelssohn2 dates
- Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64Mendelssohn2 dates
- Spring SongMendelssohn2 dates
- String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80Mendelssohn2 dates
- FantasiestückeSchumann2 dates
- Pizzicato PolkaJohann Strauss II2 dates
Composers (68)
ComposersThe dates are a reading aid, not a boundary. Bach died writing counterpoint that Haydn's generation had already given up, and Rachmaninoff was writing romantic concertos while Webern wrote twelve-tone miniatures. Any two neighbouring periods overlap by decades.