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[Past 1000 astro-ph.HE]
[Past 1000 astro-ph.CO]

Music

I play the cello. I am privileged to have climbed some of the more majestic pillars of the Western classical canon, mostly with Sylvia Biscoveanu, William Wang, Katherine Young, and other (current and former) members of the MIT Chamber Music Society.

Todo/wish list:

  1. Beethoven - String Quartet #15
  2. Schubert - Cello Quintet
  3. Schubert - String Quartet #15
  4. Mendelssohn - Piano Trio #1
  5. Shostakovich - String Quartet #8
  6. Elgar - Piano Quintet
  7. Brahms - String Sextet #2
  8. Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence
  9. Dvorak - String Quartet #12

Pieces I'm Familiar With:

I've read a few times and would continue doing so, but I have yet to work on these in detail.
  1. Brahms - Cello Sonata #2 (looking for a pianist!)
  2. Schubert - String Quartet #13,14
  3. Mendelssohn - String Quartet #2
  4. Borodin - String Quartet #2
  5. Smetana - Piano Trio #1
  6. Debussy - Cello Sonata

Completed

I've worked through these in some detail and would recommend them.
  1. Schubert - Arpeggione Sonata (some giga-brain fingerings were required to make this playable for me)
  2. Brahms - String Sextet #1 (what a flattering cello solo!)
  3. Rachmaninoff - Sonata for Cello and Piano (what an epic journey -- thanks to William Wang for learning this!)
  4. Smetana - String Quartet #1 (the second movement is such a treat)
  5. Kodaly - Duo for Violin and Cello (this grew on me the more I played it)
  6. Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio #1 (quite a marathon, and maybe my favorite chamber piece of all time)
  7. Brahms - Piano Quartet #1 (of particular note is Schoenberg's colorful orchestral arrangement)
  8. Mendelssohn - Octet #1 (played this on the MBTA with six other people once)
  9. Schumann - Piano Quintet #1 (fugue in the fourth movement)
  10. Schubert - Piano Trio #2 (note the famous theme in the second movement, which is based on a haunting Finnish folk song)
  11. Shostakovich - Piano Trio #2 (opening cello solo)
  12. Schumann - Piano Quartet #1 (second movement is the best)
  13. Beethoven - Piano Trio (Archduke) #7 (third movement is the best)
  14. Brahms - Piano Quintet #1 (The piano/cello/violin mini-trio in the second movement is sublime)
  15. Mendelssohn - Piano Trio #2 (Buy a new C string for movement 4)
  16. Martinu - Piano Trio #1 (weirdly catchy but anxiety inducing)