August, 2015

47 Posts
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Instruments of the Orchestra XIV: Percussion
These might be thought of as the best toy-set in the world: things to bang, things to crash, things to ring, things to thump, and it’s all music! We can divide the percussion section into two parts: tuned and untuned
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Reciprocal Muse
Sergei Rachmaninoff and Marietta Shaginyan
During the first decade of the 20th century, Sergei Rachmaninoff was the undisputed superstar of the piano circuit. Devoted fans camped outside his house to catch a quick glimpse of their idol, and a more diehard core followed him from
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Edita Gruberová
No Short Cuts in a Very Long Career
Gaetano Donizetti‘s rarely performed masterpiece Roberto Devereux screams out for a truly great soprano as the Tudor Queen Elisabeth I. Certainly the most successful Donizetti opera commissioned by the great impresario Domenico Barbaja (in 1837), the work was largely forgotten
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The Great Women Artists Who Shaped Music IX- Marian Anderson
With regal bearing and a voice of rich intrinsic beauty, contralto Marian Anderson was one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century but she had to struggle to overcome racial prejudice that was rampant during the time she
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David Aaron Carpenter
‘We need to get out of our comfort zones’ David Aaron Carpenter is a violist with a mission. As well as championing an instrument which unfortunately spends most of its time as the butt of the orchestra’s jokes, he is
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Music and Art: Botticelli
We know Sandro Botticelli as that 15th-century painter who was able to capture the ineffable in his works, be it the personification of a season, the birth of a goddess, or an important Biblical meeting. The early Renaissance painter Botticelli
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Johannes Brahms 1833-1897 – Sonatas for clarinet and piano op.120 / 6 Klavierstücke op.118
Brahms: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 120: II. Andante un poco adagio From Johannes Brahms 1833-1897 – Sonatas for clarinet and piano op.120 / 6 Klavierstücke op.118 (2015) Released by Harmonia Mundi Brahms: Sonata
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