Blogs

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Celebrating the First-Ever Critical Edition of Agathe Backer Grøndahl’s Piano Music
I recently attended a reception and recital hosted by H.E. Tore Hattrem, Ambassador of Norway in the UK, and Mrs Marit Gjelten, together with Faber Music and Kode Art Museums & Composers Homes to celebrate the first ever Urtext edition
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Three Video Games With Beautiful Soundtracks
In recent decades the medium of video games has become a place for astonishing visual art, innovations in storytelling, and a conveyer of every kind of gameplay experience imaginable. For lovers of classical music, particular games stand out for their
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Transcendental Temptations
Three Phases of Liszt’s Passion (Part 3)
The Wiener Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung reports on 7 December 1822, “on 1st December a very talented boy by the name of Liszt, coming here from Pressburg, gave a concert in the town grand concert-hall, and through his playing and his
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Richard Wagner
10 (In)famous Quotes
Richard Wagner was an extremely complex and highly unpleasant human being, yet his artistic creations represent the fullest musical and theatrical expression of German romanticism. Whether we can actually separate the man from his art has been hotly debated, and
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The Distinguished Musical Career of Uncle Ernest
The American conductor who founded New York’s Young People’s Concerts preceded Leonard Bernstein by two generations His funeral was attended by all the greatest musical names of his time, including Toscanini, Barbirolli, Heifetz, Menuhin and Mengelberg. High society was represented
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Portrait of a Complex Artist – Meng-Chieh Liu
Even though I met Meng-Chieh Liu not too long ago, I already felt a great admiration for his virtuosic accomplishments, his sense of humanity, and his resilience in the face of adversity. Recognised as a prodigy growing up, he had
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Transcendental Temptations
Three Phases of Liszt’s Passion (Part 2)
By the time he was fifteen, Franz Liszt had already begun work on what would become one of his most important early compositions; the Etude en douze exercices. This collection, first published in 1826 in both Marseille and Paris, was
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10 Practice Hacks That Will Transform Your Playing in 2025
#PracticeMakesPerfect Like any art form, I think we can agree that music practice is never done. Why would I say that? Mastery of a piece is so much more than technical facility and accuracy. As we develop, learn, and grow,
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