December, 2016

41 Posts
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X’Mas with Johann Sebastian Bach
He wrote some of the most beautiful and inspiring Christmas music ever! Yet as a practicing church musician Johann Sebastian Bach had very little time to celebrate the Christmas season. When Bach signed the contract for the post at St.
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X’Mas with Felix Mendelssohn
Everybody in the Mendelssohn Berlin household was interested in arts and humanities. The home served as a center for intellectual socializing, political discussions, but also for making music. Felix’s compositions were routinely performed during the “Sunday Music,” and it soon
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X’Mas with Johannes Brahms
In his later years, Johannes Brahms looked like a veritable Santa Claus! With his flowing full beard and mischievous blue eyes, he’d be the star of any Christmas parade! With Christmas just around the corner, let’s have a look at
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The Heath Quartet
Tchaikovsky: String Quartets No. 1 & No. 3
String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11 (1871) II Andante cantabile From The Heath Quartet Tchaikovsky: String Quartets No. 1 & No. 3 (2016) Released by Harmonia Mundi Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11
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Composers and Their Poets: Wolf I
If Schumann had his song year of 1840, then Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) had his song year of 1888. He had been a song composer long before this, and, as were most song composers in the years between 1855 and 1880,
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V is for Virtuoso
Going beyond the notes …a virtuoso was, originally, a highly accomplished musician, but by the nineteenth century the term had become restricted to performers, both vocal and instrumental, whose technical accomplishments were so pronounced as to dazzle the public. ‘Music
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Unsung Concertos
Robert Schumann: Violin Concerto, WoO 23
One might reasonably assume that anything written by Robert Schumann for the concerto stage would be played the world over. But that simply is not the case, as onstage performances of his Violin Concerto remain a rarity. So, what actually
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The Taras Bulba of the Pampas: Ginastera’s Ollantay
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) was born in Buenos Aires and studied at the conservatory there. One of his best known students is the tango composer Ástor Piazzola, who studied with him in 1941. Ginastera was inspired by the life of Argentina,
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