Latest article

archive-post-image
Ten Excerpts from Robert Schumann’s Love Letters to Clara
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
Read more

Spotlight

5966 Posts
  • Lucas Debargue: When I Play Scarlatti, I Join Scarlatti’s Time Lucas Debargue: When I Play Scarlatti, I Join Scarlatti’s Time
    Four years have passed since the music world discovered Lucas Debargue at the 15th Tchaikovsky Competition. His peculiar path to music has created a new, different perspective on piano art. The conversation took place at the Riga Jurmala Music Festival,
  • The String Quartet The String Quartet
    The longer I live, and the more music I hear, I become further convinced that the string quartet offers the greatest musical experience. This year, I have been lucky enough to see and hear perhaps the best two string quartets
  • Defining Greatness Defining Greatness
    Classical Music is obsessed with greatness, especially amongst critics, audiences, and pedagogues who constantly seek to define “greatness” in musicians and composers, and there are innumerable lists, rankings and recordings of great composers and artists, concertos, symphonies et al. Schumann:
  • The Kitchen & The Pit The Kitchen & The Pit
    In the path of Ives, Johns and Kaftka, I alternate my life between music and hospitality; prevention being better than cure. I decided a couple of years ago to pick-up a day job and start a parallel career in hospitality—allowing
  • Musicians and Artists: Brahms’ Farewell to Feuerbach Musicians and Artists: Brahms’ Farewell to Feuerbach
    The classicist painter Anselm Feuerbach was one of the artists who formed a close friendship with Brahms, and who was often compared to him. He sought in his art to both follow a stringent aesthetic and a Classical restraint, while
  • Make Friends With the Music Make Friends With the Music
    Too often it seems that we view learning, studying, practising and performing music as a kind of fight. People talk about “doing battle with Beethoven” or “fighting the fear” (of performing) as if one must take up arms against unseen,
  • Morton Gould Goes to China Morton Gould Goes to China
    Morton Gould (1913-1996) was never afraid to mingle popular and classical styles. Equally at home with a symphony orchestra, musical comedy, film music, jazz and popular music, musical eclecticism became a hallmark of his compositional style. He once said, “I