In classical music, the Romantic Era lasted from around 1810 to around 1910. That century gave us some of the most famous symphonies in the repertoire. Nineteenth-century composers like Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvořák, Schubert, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and others elevated the symphony
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Robert and Clara Schumann’s Children: What Happened to Them? April 2nd, 2023 The love story of Robert and Clara Schumann is one of the most famous in classical music history. Over the course of their marriage, Clara carried eight pregnancies to term. Today we’re looking at the remarkable stories of those children, -
On This Day
2 April: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 Was Premiered April 2nd, 2023During his teenage years in Bonn, Ludwig van Beethoven sketched an incomplete draft for a passionate symphonic movement in C minor. Dating from between 1790 and 1792, the draft was never brought to fruition, and it took Beethoven almost another -
Who’s the Maddest of them All?
Lucia di Lammermoor April 2nd, 2023Opera is a unique mixture of music and theatre; singing and acting each plays an important role in the success of a production. One of the most testing roles is that of the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor. In -
On This Day
1 April: Dinu Lipatti was Born April 1st, 2023Amongst 20th-century pianists, Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950) has achieved almost mythical status. Conductor Herbert von Karajan repeatedly said, “It was no longer piano playing, it was music, released from all earthly weight, music in its purest form, in a harmony that -
The Self-Teaching Musician April 1st, 2023 I admit it, I’m a fervent auto-didact, a “self-teacher” whose answer to “how do I do that?” is to either reach for a book or more likely these days, look it up on Google or YouTube. For me, self-teaching goes -
Margherita Torretta April 1st, 2023 Finding the Heart of Early Music Based in London, Italian pianist Margherita Torretta has given concerts from Asia to the USA, Australia, and all over Europe. Her renown as an interpreter of Baroque and Classical keyboard works, in particular, Scarlatti, -
Sergei Rachmaninoff: One of the Greatest Composers for the Piano April 1st, 2023 Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers for the piano in history, and his music is beloved and widely performed to this day. So what makes Rachmaninoff’s piano music so special? It probably helped that -
On This Day
31 March: Henryk Wieniawski Died March 31st, 2023The Polish virtuoso violinist, composer, and pedagogue Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) was one of the greatest violinists of the 19th Century. As a performer, he dazzled audiences with his impeccable technique, expressive phrasing, and wonderfully warm and rich tone. As a