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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Conductors 2/3: The Technical Stuff January 15th, 2022 The job of a conductor has evolved greatly over the years. From a simple timekeeper, to rehearsal director, to full-blown interpreter, the conductor’s role has no doubt grown in prominence. But how do they do what they do? What’s all -
Piano Practice
From Czerny to Chopin January 15th, 2022Glenn Gould is my favourite pianist. There, I said it. The reason I like him is because he is unconventional; unconventional in his approach to the stuffy world of classical music, unconventional in his interpretations, and unconventional in his mannerisms. -
On This Day
15 January: Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Was Premiered January 15th, 2022On 25 May 1888, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St. Petersburg, approached Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). “I am planning to write a libretto on “La Belle au Bois Dormant” after Perrault’s fairy tale,” he writes. “I -
The Devil in the Guitar
Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Capriccio diabolico January 14th, 2022Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) is best known to us as the consummate virtuoso violinist. He was the most famous violinist of his day and his name still resonates when speaking of intricately difficult music. In addition to the violin, he was -
On This Day
14 January: Puccini’s Tosca Was Premiered January 14th, 2022Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) saw Victorien Sardou’s play La Tosca in Florence in 1895 with Sarah Bernhardt in the leading role. He immediately envisioned an opera without excessive proportions or a decorative spectacle, nor one that called for a superabundance of -
John Adams January 13th, 2022 “I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky” Celebrating his 75th birthday in 2022, American composer John Adams is considered one of the most frequently performed living composers of concert music. Primarily known for his operatic -
On This Day
3 January: Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust Was Premiered January 13th, 2022Robert Schumann (1810-1856) always envisioned a national German opera that presented a complete union of text and music with a plot based upon a supernatural and mythical German legend. As he confessed to a friend in 1842, “Do you know -
Sergey Vasilenko: Chinese Suite January 12th, 2022 The Russian composer Sergey Vasilenko (1872-1956) might not be a household name today, but he was considered a master orchestrator during his days as professor at the Moscow Conservatory. He originally studied music theory with Grechaninov, and while studying law