“Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The universe of classical music is jam-packed with musical anecdotes. Frequently these short narratives delineate subtle stories that highlight specific traits of a classical composer or a performer. Often humorous, anecdotes of classical composers don’t simply provoke laughter but can reveal a more general and subtle truth. We find Sophia Corri escaping her inattentive husband in an empty harp case, Beethoven being thrown in jail for vagrancy, and Rossini and Pavarotti both cooking their favorite meals. Napoleon gave free reign to his infatuation with an opera singer, Bach was challenged to a duel, and Frederick the Great had not only a great passion for music but also for a handsome Lieutenant in the Royal Guard. A musical anecdote is part of the process of telling a story, but it means sharing an experience with someone and not simply supplying him or her with information. And don’t worry, embellishment, exaggeration or fictitious invention are all part of the process. Anecdotes of classical composers impart the sense of a lived experience, as they usually involve real people in recognizable places and locations. In fact, musical anecdotes exhibit a special kind of realism and an identifiable historical dimension. Check back with us for more insightful and delightful musical anecdotes.
In the 1940s, Hollywood became the magnet for expatriate actors, writers, intellectuals and musicians. And it brought together two Russian composers who really didn’t like each other at all. Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky had no interest in each other’s compositions, but
As the director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts, Felix Mendelssohn was approached by the local Theatrical Pension Fund to provide them, free of charge, with some incidental music for a performance of Victor Hugo’s 1838 drama Ruy Blas. Specifically, they
According to early biographers, George Frideric Handel was “in his person a large and portly man. His gait which was ever sauntering, was rather ungraceful as it had in it somewhat of that rocking motion which distinguishes those whose legs
Edward Elgar (1857–1934) was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society for a work and in 1901 he created Cockaigne, subtitled, ‘In London Town’. The concept of Cockaigne comes from medieval myth, where it is the land of good food, comfort,
When Giacomo Puccini asked his librettist Luigi Illica around to his home, he issued the following invitation. “…In my house there are soft beds, chickens, geese, ducks, lambs, fleas, tables, chairs, guns, paintings, statues, shoes, velocipedes, pianos, sewing machines, clocks,
Sergey Diaghilev (1872-1929) was a perceptive amateur of the arts with a flair for organization and publicity. His family had amassed a fortune from a vodka distillery business, but his musical ambitions came to an unceremonious halt. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, his
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the London Symphony Orchestra, a very special premiere took place on 13 June 1954. Philip Catelinet, the orchestra’s principal tuba player, featured as the soloist in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto,
American composer William Bolcom (b. 1938) brought popular music of the 19th century back into the spotlight, first with his many recordings with Joan Morris, mezzo-soprano, of music from the Golden Era at the turn of the 20th century. Show