May, 2023

76 Posts
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On This Day
15 May: Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Was Premiered
In 1917, Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso made an excursion to Naples, with the composer commenting on its “half Spanish character, on the pleasure he found in the aquarium, and in the Neapolitan watercolors.” They also attended a commedia dell’arte
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Paganini Caprice vs Caprese Panini
Credit: Classical Music Humor on Facebook
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Rocking Your Love to Sleep: Brahms’ Lullaby
Johannes Brahms is better known as an instrumental composer than as a song composer, but there are still over 300 songs in his catalogue. In this recording, Karl-Heinz Schütz arranged one of the best known and best beloved of these
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Music for Every Room
Dr. J. Clarence Chambers’ All American
Dr. J. Clarence Chambers (1910–2006), in his studies at Amherst College, became the rehearsal pianist for the music department’s operetta performances. He graduated in 1934 from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and did his internship at Harlem Hospital.
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Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance
“Regal Pageantry”
Like countless people around the world, I recently settled in to watch at least part of the coronation of Charles III and Queen Camilla. This ceremony has great tradition and theatricality, from the arrival of the golden carriage to the
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On This Day
14 May: Otto Klemperer was Born
When famed conductor Otto Klemperer was roughly nine years of age, he encountered “the man who was to be the central inspiration of his entire life as a musician.” He remembers “seeing Mahler on the street when I was quite
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5 Composers Who Died in the Holocaust Who You Need to Know
The impact of the loss of life under the Nazi regime was incalculable. One of the only ways we can begin to comprehend the scale of the destruction is by looking at the impact that the Holocaust had on individual
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Wearing Your Music on Your Gown
The 2023 Met Gala brought out all kinds of dresses, including Karl Lagerfeld’s 40-year-old violin dress, designed in 1983 for Chloé, worn here by Olivia Wilde. But Lagerfeld wasn’t the only designer to find his inspiration in the instruments of
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