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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7 November: Hélène Grimaud Was Born November 7th, 2022Music lovers know Hélène Grimaud as a deeply passionate and committed performance and recording artist. Her basic biography is well known. Born on 7 November 1969 in Aix-en-Provence, she discovered the piano at the age of seven. As she explained -
Tracing the Influences: Schubert to García Lorca to Crumb November 6th, 2022 George Crumb: Madrigals, Book II and Songs, Drones and Refrains of Death Franz Schubert’s hair-raising setting of Goethe’s poem about a father with an ailing child in his arms, racing towards help but being thwarted by the illusions of the -
Maurice Ravel and His Circle of Friends November 6th, 2022 How private was Maurice Ravel’s private life? Well, to this day nobody has uncovered conclusive evidence that he ever had a sexual relationship. While his music is passionate and distinctive, Ravel’s personality remains mysterious. His friend and biographer Alexis Roland-Manuel -
Playing Music Has Amazing Benefits for Young and Old November 5th, 2022 Did you know that years of music training can dramatically shape our brains? Those of us who spend many years practicing—repeating passages, mastering scales, and working on studies and repertoire—know that we not only become better musicians as a result. -
Musicians and Artists: Turnage and Bacon November 5th, 2022 Mark-Anthony Turnage: Three screaming popes British artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) was a figurative painter in terms of starting with a figure. Where he took that figure, into often unsettling portraits, made him one of the giants of contemporary British art. -
On This Day
5 November: György Cziffra Was Born November 5th, 2022György Cziffra, born in Budapest on 5 November 1921, must be counted among the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. “Born with outstanding talent in circumstances of dire poverty, he survived war, imprisonment and hard labor as a political prisoners, -
Dance, Dance, Dance: The Waltz November 4th, 2022 After the quadrille had had its day, the waltz took the dance floors of Europe by storm. The title for the dance comes from the German meaning to revolve and that twirling motion was the primary characteristic of the form. -
On This Day
4 November: Gabriel Fauré Died November 4th, 2022Once he had reached the age of 75, Gabriel Fauré retired as head of the Paris Conservatoire in October 1920. He was excited to finally have the time to devote himself entirely to composition, and “produced a series of works