The viola may be the less flashy sibling of the violin, but in the hands of these seven great women composers, the viola truly shines as a solo instrument. From the bold modernism of Marga Richter and Peggy Glanville-Hicks to
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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Jessie Sarah Fleetwood Walmisley
“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” August 15th, 2020On the very last Saturday of 1899, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor married Jessie Sarah Fleetwood Walmisley in a parish church at Selhurst, near Croydon, England. Just a regular wedding ceremony, I hear you say, but in reality it followed some very tense -
Double the Fun?
Auxiliary Instruments and the Strange World of Doubling August 14th, 2020A large aspect of an orchestral wind player’s life can involve playing auxiliary instruments – instruments that you learn alongside your main instrument, for example the bass clarinet, cor anglais, piccolo or contrabassoon. Not everyone specialises on auxiliary instruments: firstly, -
On My Music Desk……
Philip Glass – Wichita Vortex Sutra August 13th, 2020It starts quietly, a haunting nostalgic hymn-like sequence of gentle chords in both hands. A few bars in, the bass accompaniment changes into a gently undulating pattern of broken fourths, anchored by a low F. In this opening section, Glass -
Overtures by Franz von Suppé (1819-1895)
From Popeye to Betty Boop August 12th, 2020You might never have heard of the composer Franz von Suppé (1819-1895), but there is a very good chance that you know some of his music. Suppé composed tantalizing music mainly for the theater, in particular operettas, ballets and comedies. -
My Beethoven by Frank August 11th, 2020 OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelly I met a traveler from an antique land,Who said—-“Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. … Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinked lip, and sneer -
In Memoriam: Leon Fleisher (1928-2020) August 10th, 2020 “The purpose of music is to communicate from the heart to the heart” He has been called “one of the most refined and transcendent musicians the United States has ever produced.” But Leon Fleisher (1928-2020), who died of cancer at -
Top 10 Pianists (?) August 10th, 2020 A reflection on the obsession with rankings I have to apologise that this is a clickbait. This is not going to be a list of top 10 pianists or anything like that. But before you close this tab, I would -
The Music of Poetry
John Keats “Nothing Ever Becomes Real Till It Is Experienced” August 9th, 2020Tuberculosis, or consumption as it was known throughout the 19th century—decisively shaped the social history of Europe. Its impact on the artistic world was extremely powerful, with artists offering their own commentaries on the disease through painting, poetry and opera.