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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Looking at Beethoven: In His Life April 28th, 2020 We’re so familiar with the images of Beethoven in his mature years – the glower, the intense look, the solitary figure – but when we go back in time, we can see just how his contemporaries viewed him. The very -
Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (1789-1856)
First-Rate Harpist and Scoundrel April 27th, 2020He was a forger, bigamist, and womanizer whom Fétis called “as distinguished an artist as he was a miserable man.” His name was Nicolas-Charles Bochsa (1789-1856), and we must count him among the greatest harpists of the 19th century. Born -
The Music of Poetry
Paul Verlaine: La Bonne Chanson April 26th, 2020The twenty-one poems published in La Bonne Chanson by Paul Verlaine are addressed to sixteen-year-old Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville. She came from a respectably bourgeois background, and the family had somehow amassed a fortune. They owned a small hotel and -
Tradition April 26th, 2020 Peer pressure from dead people or following in the footsteps of greatness? Classical music is swathed in tradition and culturally conditioned thinking. The traditions of concert-going, for example, are well-known (don’t applaud between movements, listen in reverential silence), and show -
Women Conductors Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling
Marin Alsop April 25th, 2020Marin Alsop, perhaps one of the best-known women conductors, has broken through the glass ceiling decisively. She was the first woman to be appointed as music director of a major American orchestra in 2007, and has led the Baltimore Symphony -
Meditation on Silence: Suggestions to Combat Isolation April 25th, 2020 As a young cellist, one of the first things I learned was that a page of music waits, quietly. A musical score, says pianist Jeremy Denk, is “at once a book and a book waiting to be written.” The act -
Music Under Quarantine
Bon Voyage From Your Sofa April 24th, 2020Judging from the number of articles floating around these days, if you’d ask people what they miss most during this quarantine, the majority would probably answer “the ability to travel.” We’ve become incredibly mobile in the 21st century, and a -
Eight Outstanding Australian Music Ensembles April 24th, 2020 Australia is blessed with oodles of outstanding music groups that play across styles and genres. Many go hand-in-hand with the fresh and lively music that Australian composers create. These eight ensembles highlight what is best about Australia and its diverse