On This Day

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On This Day
24 July: Richard Strauss’ Friedenstag Was Premiered
Premiered on 24 July 1938 at the National Theatre Munich, Friedenstag (Day of Peace) is arguably the least known of Strauss’ opera and in many respects the least characteristic. In fact, this serious, rather earnest treatment of war is certainly
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On This Day
23 July: Domenico Scarlatti Died
Domenico Scarlatti’s final years are “of a contrast between a striking show of vitality, which saw him continue to father children up to the for the period advanced age of 64, and a creative mood of introspection which produced the
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On This Day
21 July: Isaac Stern Was Born
Isaac Stern’s tombstone simply reads, “Isaac Stern, Fiddler.” However, the violinist was much, much more than that. He was an educator who mentored generations of musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, and his activism on behalf of classical music
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On This Day
19 July: Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet Was Premiered
The German town of Donaueschingen is picturesquely located in the Black Forest in the State of Baden-Württemberg. It stands near the two sources of the river Danube, and it started to host a festival for contemporary classical music in 1921.
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On This Day
17 July: Alexei Volodin Was Born
Russian pianist Alexei Volodin, born on 17 July 1977 in St Petersburg, is highly lauded for his sensitive touch and the technical brilliance of his playing. A highly virtuoso and deeply philosophical musician, Volodin has no time for superficial effects.
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On This Day
16 July: Pinchas Zukerman Was Born
To watch Pinchas Zukerman perform, a scholar writes, “Gives the deceptive impression that violin playing is not really all that difficult. There is nothing labored, nothing studied about the way he handles the instrument, though, this inborn ability had to
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On This Day
15 July: Weill’s Down in the Valley Was Premiered
In the summer of 1945, Kurt Weill received a commission for a series of short radio operas. Olin Downes, the music critic of The New York Times, and a businessman named Charles McArthur, envisioned a combination of the old English
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On This Day
13 July: Arnold Schoenberg Died
The great composer Dimitri Mitropoulos said in 1951, “I was profoundly shocked to read of the death of Arnold Schoenberg. He was one of the greatest geniuses of our time. He did for music in the twentieth century what Einstein
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