November, 2019

40 Posts
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Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996)
“My Moral Duty Is to Write About the Horrors That Befell Mankind in Our Century” Mieczysław Weinberg, variously spelled Wajnberg, Vaynberg or Vainberg, encountered almost unbearable obstacles and suffering during his life. As a result he composed music with profound
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Musical Meditations
The power of music extends to the capability of opening the wise musician to reflective states and philosophical meditations. In the following ones, I reflect on the virtues that the musician applies to his own life. He is in constant
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The Poetic Universe of Hafez II
William Jones first translated Hafez into English in 1771. It quickly fired the imagination of writers and poets such as Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who referred to him as “a poet’s poet.” Friedrich Engels, who together with Karl Marx
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“The Instrument Is a Piece of Furniture Without the Pianist”
J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould) Piano a large keyboard musical instrument with a wooden case enclosing a soundboard and metal strings, which are struck by hammers when the keys are depressed The pianist Ivo Pogorelich is right: the piano
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Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
“Music Tells Us That the Human Race Is Greater Than We Realize”
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was passionate about music. Like his contemporaries, he attended the opera whenever possible, and it is reported that he saw 163 different operas and watched 319 performances in total. Napoleon had received some rudimentary musical instructions in
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The Modern Recorder – Sierra’s Prelude, Habanera and Perpetual Motion
Recorder performer Michala Petri lifted the recorder out of the hands of the Baroque performers and has placed it firmly in the modern age. Despite those who sought to get her to play a “real” instrument, she saw the possibilities
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10 Things You May Not Know About Sergei Prokofiev
You know that Prokofiev wrote some of the greatest music ever. You know that his ballet scores have become some of the most performed dance music ever; on and off stage. You know that he was a child prodigy. You
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Great Performers: Martha Argerich
Argentine-born Pianist Martha Argerich Liszt: Funerailles I’ve been fortunate to hear Argentine-born pianist Martha Argerich live in concert in London twice in recent years, first in Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto and then in Schumann’s Piano Concerto. On both occasions I
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