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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Oliver’s 10 All-Time Favourite Music Pieces February 28th, 2020 There are many pieces of wonderful music that I’ve had the fortune to encounter, and still even more I’ve yet to come across. Making a list of ten of my favourites was nigh-on impossible, not least because the list would -
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
The Virulent Simian February 27th, 2020A common nature drama in the equatorial region of Africa, possibly in what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, unleashed a global pandemic that is still one of the world’s most serious public health challenges. A troop -
Mixing Genres: Tsintsadze’s 24 Preludes for Piano February 27th, 2020 Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze (1925–1991) started his music studies in Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, studying the cello with a private tutor and then continued onto the Tbilisi State Conservatory. He completed his studies in Moscow at the Moscow -
Invisible and Visible: An Interview With Roger Vignoles February 26th, 2020 We spoke with pianist Roger Vignoles, one of today’s leading accompanists, about the dual role of the accompanist in music: invisible in the background and yet a visible and audible part of the music. On an upcoming concert in Hong -
The Range of Song – An Interview With Christoph Prégardien February 26th, 2020 The first question we asked German tenor Christoph Prégardien was how he rehearsed with his accompanist, since Mr. Prégardien lived in Berlin and his accompanist for his upcoming March concert in Hong Kong lived in London and they both had -
My Beethoven by Janet February 25th, 2020 Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69 – I. Allegro ma non tanto (Janet Horvath, cello; Arthur Rowe, piano) I grew up with Beethoven. From my earliest years I remember the scowling white plaster bust on our -
Harlem Quartet / London Music Masters February 24th, 2020 From having performed at the White House to Barack Obama, to appearing on the Today Show, having collaborated with artists including Chick Corea and Itzhak Perlman, Harlem Quartet’s CV is not to be sniffed at. The internationally-renowned ensemble was formed -
Music of Poetry
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Über Allen Gipfeln” February 23rd, 2020Goethe’s Wandrers Nachtlied II (Über allen Gipfeln) is considered by many to be the most perfect lyric in the German language. The poet is supposed to have written the poem on the evening of 6 September 1780 onto the wall