The solo violin has long been acknowledged as the perfect instrument to express emotions like love, longing, heartbreak, rapture, and romance. The Romantic era lasted from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and produced numerous works that
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Mozart’s Musical Journey
3 July 1778: “Mum is dying” July 3rd, 2019Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart could not have known that his time in Paris in 1778 was about to take a tragic turn. He reports to his father “my dearest mother is very ill.” Suffering from shivering and feverishness, diarrhea and headache, -
Alexander Dreyschock July 2nd, 2019 “The Pianistic God of Thunder” Countless highly talented individuals populate the musical universe, but very few get immortalized in poetry. But that’s exactly what happened to the Czech pianist and composer Alexander Dreyschock (1818-1869). The prolific Danish author Hans Christian -
Alondra de la Parra July 1st, 2019 ‘Variation and Contrast’ Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra has made waves as the first ever Music Director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Born in New York, she has worked with orchestras all over the globe, including the Berlin Radio -
Mozart’s Musical Journey
30 June 1770: “I shall describe my unfortunate accident” June 30th, 2019We all know that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart did a lot of traveling. In fact, it has been calculated that he spent over 10 years, roughly one third of his short life on the road. Mozart visited ten countries and more -
On Being a Pianist June 30th, 2019 What does it mean to be “a pianist”? Pianists do not devote their lives to their instrument simply because they like music….there has to be a genuine love simply of the mechanics and difficulties of playing, a physical need for -
Is Some Music Just Noise? June 28th, 2019 Music has directed me since the age of five. As a composer, if I am not pulled towards music it always finds me. No matter what music I hear, I discover something in it that moves me or makes me -
Poised on the Cusp of Romanticism
Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor K 397 June 27th, 2019Familiar to performers, piano students and audiences alike, Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor is one of his most popular and much-loved works, and it offers intriguing insights not only into his piano music but also his compositional output in general. -
Cyril Scott’s Oriental Fantasies June 26th, 2019 Known as the “English Debussy” Cyril Meir Scott (1879-1970) tellingly remarked, “That I should appeal to Eastern taste is curious because I have never been to the East, nor have I heard much Eastern music. I can, therefore, only account