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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Tomaso Albinoni and Margherita Raimondi
“Seducing Florinda” July 20th, 2021On 7 November 1699 the San Salvatore Theatre in Venice produced the drama per musica “L’amar per virtù” (To love for the sake of virtue), with music attributed to Antonio Draghi. The plot focuses on the establishment of Moorish rule -
Johann Sebastian Bach Top 10 July 19th, 2021 I love all kinds and styles of music, but my true love belongs to classical music. Whether it is Liszt or Mozart, Schubert or Handel, Monteverdi or Mahler, the universe of classical music seems endless. Sometimes my schoolmates want to -
The Music of Poetry
Giovanni Battista Guarini: “Dear Heart, I Prithee, Do Not Waste Away” July 18th, 2021Under the heading “Pietà dolente” (Sorrowful Piety), Giovanni Battista Guarini published his simply poem “Cor mio, deh, non languire” (Dear Heart, I prithee, do not waste away) in Venice in 1598. The poet could not possibly have foreseen that this -
The Musician’s Honesty July 18th, 2021 A great deal is said and written about “integrity” and “honesty” in musical performance. For most people, this means respecting the score by following the composer’s markings and attempting, as far as possible, to interpret the composer’s intentions in the -
Forgotten Cellists: Pál Hermann July 17th, 2021 Let Forbidden Music Sound Again Another cellist and composer whose name we should not forget is Pál Hermann. Born into a middle-class family in Budapest, Hungary in March of 1902, he showed great talent and audacity even as a child. -
Wait Until the End: Haydn’s Joke Quartet July 17th, 2021 As the ‘Father of the String Quartet,’ Haydn did a great deal to standardize the quartet form that we love so well. And yet, while giving him this comfortable title, we always have to recognize his sense of humour in -
Enchanted by Dante Alighieri July 16th, 2021 Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” contains 14, 233 lines of text divided into three main sections, “Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.” As we might well imagine, there isn’t much music in Hell. It reverberates with “sighs, screams and lamentations, and different tongues -
Great Performers: Sir András Schiff July 15th, 2021 A consummate musician, with a ferocious intellect, András Schiff is one of the greatest pianists of our time – indeed of all time – acclaimed in particular for his interpretations of the keyboard music of J.S. Bach and the Viennese