Blogs

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Father and Son in Concert
Jean-Jacques and Alexandre Kantorow interpret Brahms
First aired on 24 May 2024, the Arte Concert “Jean-Jacques and Alexandre Kantorow interpret Brahms,” performed with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, showcases a remarkable father-son collaboration. The father sets the tone conducting Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 2, and
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Social Media Day
Hashtags, Hype, and Zero Chill
It’s Social Media Day on June 30, so everybody gets ready to pop the digital champagne! In its short life, social media has redefined how people interact, communicate, and share with family, friends, and the world. This is the day
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The Piano Sonatas by Robert Schumann
Passionate Complexity in Romantic Form
Robert Schumann’s solo piano music is primarily remembered and celebrated for its shorter character pieces. Carnaval and Kreisleriana beautifully encapsulate his gift for miniature forms and programmatic imagery. While revered by musicologists and pianists for their emotional depth and innovative
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Six Composers With Paralysing Stage Fright – And How They Dealt With It
Stage fright: it’s the bane of most every performing musicians’ existence. And when we say most every, we really do mean most every. In fact, many of the greatest figures in classical music history struggled with stage fright in one
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A Song to Remember: The 1945 Chopin Film That Made George Sand a Villain
The 1945 film A Song to Remember offers a romanticised (some would say bastardised) portrayal of the life of Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin, and, as of early 2025, it’s available for free on YouTube. A Song To Remember
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The Greatest Musician Portraits by John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent is famous for his psychologically probing portraits of wealthy and socially prominent people from the turn of the century. However, Sargent was also fascinated with music, and he painted many portraits of some of the most talented
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The Sounds of Summer
Summer is here! School’s out, weekends never seem long enough if you’ve been at work all week, and the outdoors becomes the place to be. We’ll look at summer through sound, and a few pieces of music, and see how
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What Happened to Sibelius’s Six Daughters?
Celebrated Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and his wife Aino were married for sixty-five years, from 1892 to 1957. It was one of the longest marriages in classical music history. Between 1903 and 1904, the couple famously built a rustic house
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