By Sam Miller | July 1, 2025

Premiered on December 16, 1938, this piece is an underrated gem that I was introduced to through the classical music radio station. Francis Poulenc born into a wealthy family in possession of a successful pharmaceutical business in the heart of 1920s Paris. Poulenc had a taste for luxury and material wealth in his early life, but endured a powerful conversion experience that led him to embrace the Catholic faith he had practiced in his childhood” (May). The organ concerto was commissioned by Princess Edmonds de Polignac, a US-born daughter of a wealthy inventor (her father invented Singer sewing machines) that was a part of Paris’s “circle of fashionable, art-loving aristocrats” (May). The princess was friends with Poulenc, and asked the composer to write her a piece for a small orchestra and an easy solo organ part (if you can call playing anything on the organ easy) that she could play herself. This is how the organ symphony was born. This work was the most ambitious and time consuming piece that the composer had ever attempted (May).

Composed during the summer of 1880, Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture puts more emphasis on the “festival” than the “academic” with its light-hearted elements. A masterful mix of this lightheartedness combined with more serious elements gives the overture a great sense of fun. Brahms himself never went to college, but in 1876, Cambridge University offered him an honorary Doctorate in Music, which required his attendance at the ceremony. Unfortunately, Brahms was deathly afraid of sea travel, and when he heard that the Londoners were hatching lavish plans to celebrate his arrival in England (Brahms also harbored an innate horror of “fuss and lionization”), the composer stayed home and relinquished the honor. However, this was not Brahms’s only brush with academia. In 1879, the University of Breslau gave Brahms a Doctorate in Philosophy. Brahms was honored and sent a postcard to the school to express his gratitude, but a return letter from his friend Bernhard Scholz made it clear that the university expected Brahms to express his gratitude in musical form. Thus, while vacationing at Bad Ischl, Brahms composed this musical “thank you” to the university.

Mozart’s “Queen of the Night” aria is often considered one of the most difficult and impressive pieces in the operatic repertoire. This aria is part of a larger opera called The Magic Flute, but “Der Hölle Rache is the most famous part. Originally, Mozart wrote the aria to be sung by his sister-in-law Josepha Hofer. Mozart was familiar with Hofer’s terrific vocal range and wrote two operas to showcase it. The dying Mozart was apparently impressed with her sister-in-law’s performance as detailed in a letter to his friend. This piece is still prominent today and is highly respected in the opera community. This aria is included in the collection onboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft.

Samuel “Sam” Miller is a 12th grade student at Gonzaga Preparatory school who writes and distributes a weekly classical music blog that shares different classical songs and explores their background with his teachers and peers. He is an avid violinist studying under Mateusz Wolski, and an enthusiastic member of the Spokane Youth Symphony. Samuel started this project to pursue and share his passion for classical music with others. In his free time, Sam enjoys practicing violin, going to symphony concerts, playing tennis, hanging out with friends, video games, and spending time with his family.