On This Day

archive-post-image
On This Day
6 April: Igor Stravinsky Died
At the age of 88, Igor Stravinsky died on 6 April 1971 at his apartment in New York City. The composer had been in frail health for years but returned much refreshed from a two and a half month holiday
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
5 April: Louis Spohr Was Born
Louis Spohr (1784-1859), actually born Ludewig Spohr in Braunschweig on 5 April 1784, was the greatest violinist of his generation and a prolific composer. He wrote roughly 300 much admired compositions in a variety of genres, but is probably most
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
4 April: Bedřich Smetana’s Vltava (The Moldau) Was Premiered
The conductor Adolf Čech (1841-1903) premiered a number of significant works by Antonín Dvořák, Zdeněk Fibich, and Bedřich Smetana. Such was the case on 4 April 1875, when he took the podium with the Orchestra of the Prague Provisional Theatre
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
3 April: Johannes Brahms Died
Johannes Brahms was certainly open to life’s pleasures, and he would never decline a good meal. He once told a friend, “I live in Vienna as if I were in the country,” and he ate his lunch at the same
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
1 April: Sergei Rachmaninoff Was Born
Throughout the history of music, a good many composers had been able to claim aristocratic lineage. Such is certainly the case with Sergei Rachmaninoff, born on 1 April 1873. His father Vassili Rachmaninoff, son of the landowner Arkadi Rachmaninoff and
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
31 March: Joseph Haydn Was Born
The village of Rohrau steadily grew from a Roman road and river crossing to support a castle built in the Middle Ages. When the village was attacked in the early 18th century by “a peasant army of the anti-Habsburg Hungarian
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
30 March: Sabine Meyer Was Born
Critics have written, “Few clarinetists today show such technical perfection as Sabine Meyer.” In fact, she has quietly achieved superstardom “through a combination of effortless but unmistakable accomplishment, well-honed technical skills, a varied palette of sound and an irresistible musicality.
Read more
archive-post-image
On This Day
27 March: Mstislav Rostropovich Was Born
Mstislav Rostropovich has been called the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of all time. Armed with impeccable technique, his playing produced a unique richness of tone as he famously exploited
Read more