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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Writing From the Heart: An Interview With Adrienne Albert June 29th, 2021 After an outstanding career in New York as a singer, working with and performing the music of Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, Gunther Schuller, and Igor Stravinsky, soprano Adrienne Albert (b. 1941) returned to California and started on a new but -
Czech Folktales: Dvořák’s The Golden Spinning Wheel June 29th, 2021 When Antonín Dvořák returned from the US in 1896, he took poetic ballads from the Czech poet Karel Jaromír Erben as the basis for a set of symphonic poems, including The Water Goblin, The Noonday Witch, The Wild Dove, and -
Discover Influential Latin American Composers of the 20th Century II June 28th, 2021 In the last article, I mentioned several composers from different Latin American countries. This article will introduce two important Mexican composers, Manuel Ponce and Carlos Chávez. They were both significant figures in Mexican music history. While Ponce was influential to -
What’s With Mozart June 28th, 2021 The music of Mozart fascinates. Often, his name is synonymous with musical genius, and he is perhaps the most popular classical composer ever. His musical output and extraordinary life, including musical precocity, have been the subject of many studies, books, -
The Music of Poetry
Friedrich Hebbel: “Genoveva” June 27th, 2021Robert Schumann (1810-1856) devoted his formative years primarily to literature. Already at the age of 13, he had published articles, written large anthologies of poetry, a five-act tragedy, and translated many Latin works into German. He even tried his hands -
The Audience Is Not Your Enemy June 27th, 2021 Glenn Gould claimed to “detest” audiences, regarding them as “mob rule” and “a force for evil” (he retired from performing in public at 31), but most performers take a far more positive and generous attitude towards audiences. Audiences – real -
Four on the Floor: A Classical Music Video Adventure June 26th, 2021 I met the American composer Libby Larsen when we were both just beginning our careers. I had joined the Minnesota Orchestra and with three other colleagues formed The Minneapolis Artists Ensemble, whose mandate was to play a variety of chamber -
Musicians and Artists: Éric Montalbetti and Henri Matisse June 25th, 2021 Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was known for his fluid style and his use of colour and it’s those two attributes that French composer Éric Montalbetti (b. 1968) chose as the inspiration for the three vocalises for voice and clarinet he created