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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On This Day
9 October: Giuseppe Verdi Was Born October 9th, 2021We do know that Giuseppe Verdi was born in the small village of Roncole, near Busseto in the Duchy of Parma. What is not clear, however, is the exact date of his birth. The baptismal register of 11 October records -
Folk Instruments Blossom in the Concert Hall October 8th, 2021 Creativity never ends! Our predecessors contributed a lot of fantastic musical compositions using what have become known as “standard” orchestral instruments. Our contemporary composers continue to build on this tradition. However, “folk” and “classical” music has become more blended in -
From Lucretius to Goethe to Strauss: Metamorphosen October 7th, 2021 In the last days of WWII, German composer Richard Strauss saw the world he knew in tatters around him. Germany was occupied by foreign powers, the great monuments of German culture had been destroyed – its opera houses and theatres, -
Forgotten Pianists: Vladimir Krainev October 6th, 2021 Little known in the West, Vladimir Krainev (1944 – 2011) was an exceptional yet criminally underrated pianist and pedagogue. Born in Krasnoyarsk, Krainev displayed musical talent at a precocious age and gave his debut performance at 7 with piano concertos -
Music In View: The National Portrait Gallery – London October 5th, 2021 The National Portrait Gallery in London holds images of important and famous British people as drawings, painting, and photographs. We will be ignoring the single portraits of musicians, conductors, composers, and others with a life in music and will examine, -
The Best Performances
“Ombra mai fù” by Handel October 4th, 2021George Frideric Handel premiered his opera Serse on 15 April 1738 at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket in London. The composer had decided on a semi-historical plot involving the hot-blooded Persian tyrant Xerxes. It is a rather complicated plot, typical of -
On This Day
4 October: World Animal Day October 4th, 2021On 4 October, the feast day of Francis of Assisi, we celebrate World Animal Day. Saint Francis was the patron saint of animals, and this international day of action for animal rights and welfare aims “to raise the status of -
More Fugues and Other Musical Charms
From Handel to Bruckner October 3rd, 2021In his seminal study on counterpoint and fugue, Alfred Mann writes, “There is probably no branch of musical composition in which theory is more widely, one might almost say hopelessly, at variance with practice than fugue.” Basically, Mann is telling