The solo violin has long been acknowledged as the perfect instrument to express emotions like love, longing, heartbreak, rapture, and romance. The Romantic era lasted from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and produced numerous works that
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Sir András Schiff at Wigmore Hall September 28th, 2020 4 October 2020: Schumann & Janacek5 October 2020: Beethoven This concert will be live streamed on the Wigmore Hall website in HD, and all concerts in the Autumn Series will be available on demand for 30 days after the date -
New Pieces to Try If You’re Stuck for Repertoire Ideas September 28th, 2020 Pianists are very spoilt for choice. We have a huge repertoire to draw on and a seemingly endless array of music to explore, with new music being added to the repertoire all the time. In addition, in the world of -
Music & Colours
How I Associate Colours to Music Vocabulary September 28th, 2020In a 2018 article entitled Three Shades of Yellow, I explain what synesthesia is — a condition in which one sense, in this case hearing, is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses, such as sight. I -
The Music of Poetry
Alfred de Musset: “La Nuit de Mai” September 27th, 2020The French dramatist, poet and novelist Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) is probably best known for his autobiographical novel La Confession d’un enfant du siècle (The Confession of a Child of the Century). It was inspired by his scandalous real-time affair -
Music – Refresher of Spirits September 27th, 2020 The title page of the first edition of Bach’s Goldberg Variations describes the work as music “for the refreshment of their spirits”. During this time of pandemic, people have turned to music not just to refresh but also to provide -
Composers in the Court Room
Lichnowsky versus Mozart September 26th, 2020A curious entry was found in a Logbook of the Special Court of Aristocrats in Vienna dated 12th November 1791. It states, “Prince Karl Lichnowsky in his case against K.K.Hof Kappelmeister Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, owing to indebtedness of 1,435 Gulden -
Dancing in Character: Bottiroli’s La tribu baila September 25th, 2020 When we think of a waltz, we think of the big waltzes in the Viennese style – sweeping gestures, sweeping gowns, and a multi-part complex composition. Argentine composer José Antonio Bottiroli (1920-1990), however, reduced the waltz to little works of -
The City Morning and Night
Molinelli’s 4 Pictures from New York September 24th, 2020How to you show the various facets of a great and complex city? In his Four Pictures from New York, composer Roberto Molinelli takes a range across a day, with a focus on the inherent music of the city. The