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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Hamish Milne Remembered March 3rd, 2020 The British pianist Hamish Milne passed away on February 12 at the age of 80. Milne perhaps isn’t a household name for a pianist. His recording legacy was also far from prolific. Yet he shall always be remembered as the -
Ludwig van B.
A Universe of Dedications III March 3rd, 2020Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein (1762-1823) was Beethoven’s first great patron in Bonn. Originally he hailed from Vienna, and after receiving the knighthood of the Order by its Grand Master Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria, he was sent on -
Bach to Choir: Bringing Bach Into a New Century March 2nd, 2020 Cellist Sophie Webber had a long-standing idea that Bach’s Cello Suites could be made more accessible. In many ways, they stand as these beautiful and isolated jewels, created through a relationship of a player and her cello and the music -
A Heavyweight Musical Boxing Match
Franz Liszt vs. Felix Mendelssohn March 2nd, 2020It might not be a complete surprise, but Franz Liszt and Felix Mendelssohn really didn’t like each other! Mendelssohn first heard a Liszt performance at a concert in Paris in 1825. In his opinion “Liszt had many fingers but few -
Víkingur Ólafsson March 1st, 2020 I talk to Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson about Beethoven, personal growth and problems facing young pianists ahead of his debut appearance in Hong Kong in March. Hot off the heels of the French Premiere of John Adams’ Piano Concerto in -
Cyril Scott: the English Debussy March 1st, 2020 For many pianists, our first encounter with the music of Cyril Scott is through his exotic, languorous piece Lotus Land. This was also Georgian pianist Nino Gvetadze’s first introduction to Scott’s piano music, through one of her teachers at Tbilisi -
Women Conductors Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling
Tania León February 29th, 2020Cuban conductor, pianist, composer, and educator, Tania León, is another woman who deserves the honorific ‘Grande Dame’ for her outstanding talents and remarkable career. You may not know she became the New York Philharmonic’s new-music advisor in the 1990s. This -
The Psychology in Film Music I February 28th, 2020 After finishing my three-part series on the philosophy in music, the inquiry into the psychology in music was something I thought that needed to be further fleshed out, also as a three-part series. What I’ve always known is that if