Since all of Antonín Dvořák’s predecessors were butchers or innkeepers, it was automatically assumed that he would inherit the business. However, in addition to the butcher’s trade the Dvořák family also cultivated another talent, namely, a flair for music. However,

The Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, born on 7 September 1965 in the small town of Adjud, certainly isn’t afraid to speak out. “I hate directors who want to express their own fantasies, forgetting about the characters. What they put on

Although Ralph Vaughan Williams was an avowed atheist, he greatly bemoaned the state of church music in England. As he writes, “It ought no longer to be true anywhere that the most exalted moments of a church-goer’s week are associated

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin has been called “a performer of near-superhuman technical prowess.” In a world of pianism populated by countless aspiring virtuosos, Hamelin stands at the head of the class. Critics have described him “as one of the marvels of

During his time in Leipzig, Edvard Grieg suffered from pleurisy, a condition in which the two large, thin layers of tissue that separate the lungs from the chest wall, becomes inflamed. According to medical reports, therapeutic pneumothorax of the left

The combination of two violins, two violas, and two cellos is a lush and almost orchestral sound. Most musicians I know relish the opportunity to play string sextets. Even so, these works are not played as often as other chamber

We saw in the Baroque dance suite that the dances were in pairs: Allemande–Courente and then Sarabande–Gigue. Those dances had tempos of slow/fast and this continues with our next pair, the Pavane and Galliard. The Pavan came from Italy and

Meals and food in operas can be dramatic turning points – let’s look at how they can help us understand the character more deeply or provide the push for the action. At the very end of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the