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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Rehearsals vs Concerts – Playing to an Empty Room June 18th, 2021 Ill-timed coughs, un-silenced cellphones, rustling sweet wrappers… the frustration felt by some musicians towards their audiences at concerts is unfortunately all too well documented. You’d almost think some musicians prefer performing to an empty room. But, come to think of -
Five Famous Themes & Variations for Piano June 17th, 2021 From J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations to Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated, the theme and variations remains a popular musical genre and one which composers have used to create some of the greatest works in the piano -
Talking With the Giants: An Interview With Claudio Bohórquez June 16th, 2021 Cellist Claudio Bohórquez wants to talk about mentorship – how do we learn from our teachers and those who have guided us on our way? To do this, he’s started a series on the streaming channel IDAGIO: On the Shoulders -
A Danced Poem: Dukas’ La Péri June 16th, 2021 Commissioned in 1911 by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes, the ballet by Paul Dukas, La Péri, had a difficult birth. Dukas came up with the scenario and then wrote the music; choreography, design and stage decoration followed. Originally intended -
The “Leschetizky Method” June 15th, 2021 What made Theodor Leschetizky one of the most impressive piano pedagogues of all time? Supposedly, his success was based on the so-called “Leschetizky Method,” a method of instruction that relied on several distinct influences. As part of an unbroken chain -
Impressionism, a Three-Part Series: In Our Modern World June 14th, 2021 The following article is the third and last of a three-part series on impressionism around the world; in France, in Europe and in our Modern World. In these articles, I explore the genre of impressionism. Born in France, it is -
The Music of Poetry
Friedrich Hebbel: “Nachtlied” June 13th, 2021Robert Schumann had a face-to-face encounter with Friedrich Hebbel in 1847. Hebbel had called on Schumann in Dresden while passing through. Hebbel found Schumann “not only persistently, but also uncomfortably mute.” Schumann, as he noted in his diary, however, felt -
Narrow Repertoire Can Hold Us Back, Musically and Culturally June 13th, 2021 When I was having piano lessons as a child and teenager from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s I never played any piano music by women composers, except perhaps some very rudimentary pieces by the late Fanny Waterman (though I