The love story between Robert and Clara Schumann is often regarded as one of the most romantic in classical music history. Happily for historians, many of their love letters survive. They document their inner thoughts and emotions, as well as
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Frankfurt Does the Foxtrot
Seiber, Hindemith, Schulhoff and Tansman December 3rd, 2021The composer, conductor and educator Bernhard Sekles (1872-1934) caused a minor scandal in 1928. Sekles was director of the Hoch Conservatory of Music in Frankfurt am Main, and he decided to put Jazz on the curriculum. The courses in the -
Edward Elgar: The Crown of India December 2nd, 2021 George V, alongside Queen Mary, was crowned King of the United Kingdom, the British Dominions, and Emperor of India at Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911. It had already been announced that the royal couple would travel to India to -
On My Music Desk……
Richard Pantcheff – Nocturnus V December 2nd, 2021This atmospheric piece for solo piano, whose Afrikaans subtitle ‘Wind oor die Branders’ translates as Wind over the Waves, is by Richard Pantcheff, a British composer, born in 1959. It comes from ‘Nocturnus’, a suite of six pieces written for -
The Hermes Experiment December 1st, 2021 A Unique Musical Journey I should probably begin this Artist of the Month article with a little disclaimer: this month’s offering is something slightly different, as, erm, I’m in the group being featured. Nevertheless, I will aim to keep my -
Busoni’s Chinese Fable: Turandot Suite December 1st, 2021 Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) famously claimed that Schiller’s translation of Carlo Gozzi’s dramatic fairy-tale Turandot in conjunction with Carl Maria von Weber’s incidental music “ruined a masterpiece of Italian literature.” With the centennial of Gozzi’s death on the horizon in 1906, -
Music in View: Detroit Institute of Arts – (DIA) November 30th, 2021 The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) was founded in 1885 and benefitted from the Detroit philanthropists such as the Dodges, the Firestones, and the Fords, i.e., the leaders of the American automotive industry, known collectively as the Auto Barons. Charles -
On This Day
30 November: Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme Was Premiered November 30th, 2021On 30 November 1877, the German cellist and professor at the Moscow Conservatory Wilhelm Fitzenhagen performed the premier of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme under the baton of Nikolay Rubinstein. Nadezhda von Meck wrote to Tchaikovsky, “today is the -
Exploring Partitas
Johann Sebastian Bach November 29th, 2021In the course of your instrumental studies or attending concert performances you might have come across works title “Partita.” It is a slippery term, and throughout history it has designated a number of different concepts. At times it was used