Richard Strauss had reached the ripe old age of 84 when he decided to compose his musical last will and testament. Setting poetry by Joseph von Eichendorff and Hermann Hesse, the Four Last Songs emerged individually. When Strauss died on

What do you get when you mix religiosity with sexual passion? Audiences got the answer on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. It was on that date that Pietro Mascagni’s one-act melodrama Cavalleria Rusticana saw its official

Have you ever thought about writing a full-fledged piano concerto in a little less than 3 week? For most of us, this seems an almost impossible task, but it was not a problem for Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). You see, Anton

In 1920, Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss acquired a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., which they eventually named Dumbarton Oaks. They engaged an architect to renovate and enlarge the house, and designed a series of

The Premiere of Beethoven’s Last Symphony During the final stages of putting the finishing touches on his 9th symphony (which was also Beethoven’s last symphony), Beethoven was adamant that it should be premiered in Berlin. For years, Beethoven had lamented

Francis Poulenc first met Wanda Landowska at a private performance of Falla’s El Retablo de Maese Pedro in June 1923. On that occasion, Landowska requested concertos from both composers, and Falla’s effort premiered on 5 November 1926 in Barcelona. Poulenc,

Empress Maria Theresa of Austria founded the “Burgtheater” in Vienna in 1741. In time, it became one of the most important German language theatres in the world, and it saw the premiere of three Mozart operas! On 1 May 1786,

On 30 April 1855, an ensemble of 950 performers piled into the Church of Saint-Eustache, in Paris. They were getting ready to finally premier a Berlioz work that had been specifically composed for the coronation of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in