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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Fanciful Stories in Music
Dittersdorf: “Ovid Symphonies” II April 27th, 2024Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) was a highly respected violin virtuoso and prolific composer. It might be difficult to imagine today, but his popularity was said to have rivalled Haydn, Gluck, and Mozart. I think that might be a little -
Verdi for Beginners: Nine Pieces to Make You Love Verdi April 27th, 2024 Giuseppe Verdi was born 10 October 1813 in Le Roncole, Italy. Here are a few facts about his life to get you started: Verdi is most famous for his operas. Over the course of his six-decade-long career, he wrote twenty-eight -
Unique Concertos
Works by Glière, Daetwyler, Horovitz, Villa-Lobos, Diemer, and Akiho April 26th, 2024In its simplest form, a concerto is defined as a musical composition in which one or more solo instruments interact with an orchestra or ensemble. The term concerto is ambiguous because it originated from splicing together two Latin words. “Consere” -
Ten of the Shortest Symphonies Ever Written April 24th, 2024 Lots of people say that less is more, and that rule of thumb can certainly apply to symphonies. Today, we’re looking at ten of the shortest symphonies ever written, dating from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. All are -
Music at the Hotel I
The Marlborough-Blenheim in the 1910s and ‘20s April 23rd, 2024One day in an antique shop, I found a small programme booklet for the Marlborough-Blenheim Quartet, Mr. Leo Sachs, director, which performed at the Marlborough-Blenheim hotel in Atlantic City. In looking further through the internet, I found three other programs -
Fifteen of the Best Duets for Violin and Cello April 22nd, 2024 The violin and cello: like vanilla and chocolate, they’re two great tastes that taste great together! However, not everyone is familiar with the wide fantastic repertoire available to violinists and cellists who want to partner up and perform together. So -
Supporting Everything Above: The Tuba April 21st, 2024 At the bottom of the brass section sits the tuba, the largest of the brasswind instruments. Oddly enough, for an instrument that is so fundamentally important, it, like the saxophone, was one of the last additions to the orchestra. It -
Leonard Bernstein
Four Anniversaries (1948) and Five Anniversaries (1949-51) April 21st, 2024Leonard Bernstein contributed a modest but significant group of compositions for solo piano. As a noted pianist suggested, “the Bernstein works for solo pianos are a viable addition to present-day keyboard literature, and should not be underestimated.” Among his works