September, 2018

51 Posts
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Mozart: La clemenza di Tito
Premiered Today in 1791
The majority of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (1756-1791) serious operas were composed for occasions connected to the Austrian ruling house of Habsburg. At the tender age of fourteen, Mozart composed Mitridate, re di Ponto for Milan, a city governed by the
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Carmen La Cubana
Entire academic careers have been built on situating the fictional character of Carmen—the heroine in Bizet’s opera—within a feminist context. The battlefield in this war between the sexes is Carmen’s body, and it is fought over by male roles attempting
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Filming Rachmaninov’s Études-Tableaux All Night
Boris Giltburg spent all night playing Rachmaninov for a very special film, revealed here! It’s the dead of night, probably around 3am. Outside, on the main street, cars are still whooshing by. Inside, it’s mostly dark, apart from two spotlights
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François Couperin
“I esteem what deserves esteem” In 2018 we celebrate the 350th birthday of François Couperin (1668-1733), a composer described as “the epitome of French music” by both Debussy and Ravel. Couperin was undoubtedly the most famous member of a family
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Meet Violinist Augustin Hadelich
Violinist Augustin Hadelich recently performed a gorgeous rendition of the Beethoven Violin Concerto here in Minneapolis, with the Minnesota Orchestra. I was fortunate that he was able to spare the time to speak with me.
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Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra
Premiered Today in 1912
There is considerable debate across the entire scholarly and social spectrum as to what composer was most influential in the field of Western Classical music. It may, or may not surprise you to learn that Glenn Gould considered Arnold Schoenberg
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In Touch With Greatness @ Verbier
Picture this :- Eighteen days and nights of glorious music offered by a parade of world-class artists, talented Academy musicians and three Verbier Festival orchestras under the direction of renowned conductors; multiple masterclasses from 9:30am every day, held all day
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When you don’t feel like practising……
Practising is a habit. If we are serious about our music, our progress with our repertoire and our technical and artistic development, we need to establish good and regular practising habits, as regular as cleaning one’s teeth. No one, not
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