Be Mine

About the Playlist

February 11, 2021

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Princeton University Concerts staff!

For this week’s installment of our Collective Listening Project, our Salut d’Amour is a salute to Valentine’s Day and to the love for music that connects us all. The playlist sprinkles musical expressions of love throughout—the Prelude that Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote for his wife; the dedication that Robert Schumann wrote for Clara on their wedding day and her own Romance in response; the expression of friendship that Germaine Tailleferre wrote for her colleague Henri Sauguet. It includes tributes to the love of others—drawing on characters both fictional (Romeo and Juliet; Spartacus; the Butterfly Lovers) and real (Love Token is from Elena Kats-Chernin’s suite inspired by the Unsent Love Letters of Erik Satie; Leo Janáček’s Intimate Letters is said to be his “manifesto on love”). And scattered in between are works that simply inspire our love and which we hope will bring love to you. Thank you for loving this great music with us—and for being our Valentine.

EDWARD ELGAR Salut d’Amour, Op. 12

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF No. 4 Andante cantabile in D Major from Ten Preludes, Op. 23

SERGEI PROKOFIEV No. 19, Scene du balcon from Romeo et Juliette, Op. 64

J. S. BACH 2. Largo ma non tanto from Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043

FLORENCE PRICE Your Hands in Mine

ROBERT SCHUMANN, arr. FRANZ LISZT Liebeslied (Widmung)

CLARA SCHUMANN 1. Andante molto from Three Romances, Op. 22

GUSTAV MAHLER 5. Liebst du um Schönheit from Rückert-Lieder

WILLIAM GRANT STILL 2. Summerland from Three Visions

SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Romance in G Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 39

SA CHEN and ZHANHAO HE 7. Adagio cantabile from Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto

G. F. HANDEL “Ombra mai fù” from Serse

FRITZ KREISLER Liebesleid

GERMAINE TAILLEFERRE Valse lente from Deux pièces pour piano

LEOŠ JANÁČEK 3. Moderato—Adagio—Allegro from String Quartet No. 2, JW VII/13, “Listy důvěrné” (Intimate Letters)

CÉCILE CHAMINADE Étude mélodique, Op. 118

ARAM KHACHATURIAN Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Spartacus

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN 17. Allegretto in A-flat Major from 24 Préludes, Op. 28

ELENA KATS-CHERNIN Love Token

DUKE ELLINGTON Prelude to a Kiss