Blogs

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Upset by Einaudi?
What is it about Ludovico Einaudi and his music which provokes such strong reactions from so-called “serious” classical music people? His music is regularly criticized by these people for being “bland”, “unchallenging”, “unsophisticated”, or simply “bad”… Einaudi’s musical language is
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A Cutting-Edge Artist: Hilary Hahn—#100DaysofPractice and Other Ventures
Social media has become a necessary way of reaching audiences. Today’s artists have to make the decision to ‘beat them or join them’ and take on Instagram and Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and blogs, and choose whether to manage them
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Gaspard De La Nuit: Ravel’s Dark Fantasy
“Gaspard has been a devil in coming, but that is only logical since it was he who is the author of the poems.” – Maurice Ravel Considered to be one of the most fearsomely difficult pieces in the pianist’s repertoire
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Is Playing in an Ensemble Your Dream? 12 Pointers for the Novice
Some of the greatest gems of music are written for small ensemble. But in chamber music you don’t have a conductor to tell you what to do, nor are you entirely on your own to make musical decisions. How does
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Schumann’s Final Piece: The ‘Ghost’ Variations
There’s a special poignancy to Schumann’s Geistervariationen (“Ghost Variations”). Dedicated to his beloved wife Clara, they were written just a few weeks before he was committed to a lunatic asylum at Endenich, and were the last piece of music he
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My Two Encounters with Pianist Jörg Demus
It was on a day in April—it was actually the 17th of April—when someone told me that Jörg Demus had passed away. In the Internet era, news spreads like wildfire. But the source of all this commotion came from Wikipedia,
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Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-1969)
“Behind Every Work of Art Lies an Uncommitted Crime”
Some consider him one of the most important philosophers and social critics in Germany after World War II, while others declare him to be “preposterously over-rated.” Whatever the case may be, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-1969) was a leading member of
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Liszt’s Ultimate Masterpiece – the B Minor Piano Sonata
Liszt’s B-minor piano sonata is regarded by many as his ultimate masterpiece and it ranks alongside other “greats” in the pantheon of piano repertoire. This was not always the case, however, and in the nineteenth century it was met with
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