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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Lucas Debargue: When I Play Scarlatti, I Join Scarlatti’s Time October 19th, 2019 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 October 18th, 2019 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 October 17th, 2019 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: - Joaquín Rodrigo and Victoria Kamhi Arditti
“The Light of my Eyes” October 16th, 2019On 14 March 1928 a concert honoring Manuel de Falla’s admittance to the French Légion d’Honneur took place in Paris. Falla insisted that music by some of his young Spanish colleagues should be heard as well, and Joaquin Rodrigo stole -
The Kitchen & The Pit October 14th, 2019 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 October 13th, 2019 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 October 13th, 2019 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 October 12th, 2019 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
