Blogs

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Forgotten Cellists: Antonio Janigro
If you listen to the distinguished Italian cellist Antonio Janigro, and his pure, resonant sound in the Bach Suites, you’ll encounter a master of depth and perception. Such beautiful playing. One of the great artists of the twentieth century, cellist,
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Turning the Tables
They all die at the end, those poor opera women. Madama Butterfly kills herself, Tosca dies off the parapet of the Castel Sant’Angelo, and Carmen has a face-off with her former soldier lover.
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What do musicians do all day?
“What do you actually do?” and “What is your day job?” are all-too familiar questions to musicians. People are also endlessly fascinated about practising – “so how much practising do you actually do?” – and imagine we spend most of
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Forgotten Cellists: Elsa Hilger
Hilger was born in 1904 in the small town of Trauenau, Austro-Hungarian Empire, the youngest of eighteen children (only four survived.) Elsa and her two sisters, Maria and Greta, were prodigiously gifted young musicians. After the family heard the news
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Unravelling the influential Franco-Belgian violin and organ schools II
The early core of the Paris Conservatoire violin faculty gradually came together between 1795-1802, as a result of spontaneous cooperation between Italian freemasons Giovanni Viotti and Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842), their French pupils, freemasons Pierre Baillot, Jean-François Tiby, and their friend
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The Piano is for Playing
Returning to playing seriously after an absence, whether due to injury or stress, or simply a loss of interest in the instrument, can be tough. Lack of regular practise means fingers and limbs may be less than responsive, sluggish or
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Forgotten Cellists: Leonard Rose
American cellist Leonard Rose, born in 1918, came by his talent honestly. His father was a cellist, as was his cousin Frank Miller, the legendary principal cello of the Chicago Symphony, with whom Rose studied before he attended Curtis Institute
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Remedy, Unity, Salvation
Rudolph Tang’s Top Ten
As the year approaches its end, it’s customary for the press to list their most impressive musical moments of the year. An old cliché as it may seem, a round up nevertheless offers an insightful glimpse into the chaotic and
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