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Intimate and Irresistible
Schubert Piano Favourites
The piano music of Franz Schubert remains deeply beloved for its emotional depth, melodic beauty, and innovative use of harmony. Schubert blended lyricism with harmonic exploration, and his gorgeous and highly expressive melodies are enriched by a harmonic language overflowing
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Life of Chopin: The Controversial Chopin Biography by Liszt
A Mysterious Envelope Arrives. On 14 November 1849, Ludwika Jędrzejewicz opened an envelope. Ludwika Jędrzejewicz was having a bad month. Her marriage was in shambles because she had left Poland to be at her brother Frédéric Chopin’s deathbed. She had
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Conquering Self-Doubt in Music: A Journey Within
“It’s not the mountain we conquer but ourselves” This quote by the renowned mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary speaks to the internal journey one embarks on when pursuing a challenging goal. Arthur Benjamin: Conquest of Everest Suite – III. The Great
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The Ethereal Beauty of Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in A major (K. 208)
Every now and then, the people who enjoy, love, or seek out music undergo a very special kind of occurrence. It could happen at an exciting concert or festival or merely in the fabric of day-to-day life: listening to algorithm-recommended
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What Happened to Antonín Dvořák’s Children?: Their Tragic Stories
When Antonín Dvořák was a young man, he gave piano lessons to make ends meet. One of his students was a young woman named Josefína Čermáková. She was very beautiful and talented and would become one of the best-known theatre
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Fazıl Say Unplugged
A Sonic Journey of Revelation
Turkish pianist Fazıl Say, born on 14 January 1970 in Ankara, has compiled a discography notable not only for its impressive range of classical repertoire but also for his own compositions. His ability to blend traditional Turkish sounds with classical
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Low-Down Music in the Hands of a Serious Composer: Bennett’s Hexapoda
Robert Russell Bennett, a serious composer but better known for his orchestration of over 300 Broadway and West End musicals, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma and South Pacific, rose to a challenge issued by violinist Louis Kaufman. Kaufman thought that
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Six Women In Brahms’s Life
Johannes Brahms had trouble with women. He objectified most of them, thought of them as either Madonnas or whores, and heartily agreed with prevailing social attitudes that they should concentrate on Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church), to quote a
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