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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A Happy and Peaceful 2024 January 1st, 2024 As we welcome 2024, societal friendship and harmony are once again nowhere to be found. Hostilities, violence, intimidation, and wars are overrunning the planet on a virulent wave of entitlement and righteousness. In her poem “The Rock Cries out to -
Arranging One’s Winter’s Journey I: Leaving the Dorfe
Schubert’s Winterreise December 31st, 2023In Schubert’s great 24-song cycle, Winterreise, he sketches the bleakness of the countryside, the coldness of the setting, and the despair of the narrator as he leaves the small village where he was once welcomed and now has to depart -
On This Day
31 December: Jennifer Higdon Was Born December 31st, 2023When Jennifer Higdon received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, written for the young Hilary Hahn, the committee cited the work as “a deeply engaging piece that combined flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity.” Those particular qualities -
Boat Songs
Gabriel Fauré’s Barcarolles December 31st, 2023We know the ‘barcarolle’ most famously from Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, but relatively few other composers picked up on it. In Offenbach’s opera, the barcarolle, ‘Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour’ (Beautiful night, oh night of love) opens Act III where -
David Popper (1843-1913)
The Cello Concertos December 30th, 2023For every aspiring professional cellist, David Popper (1843-1913) is a household name. His High School of Cello Playing Op. 73, a collection of advanced cello etudes, is considered the cream of the crop of cello instruction for its pedagogic value -
What Is the Best Recording of Vivaldi’s Winter? December 30th, 2023 The days are getting shorter, and Christmas and New Year ads are everywhere. We’re clearly coming up in winter. That made me wonder: what’s the best recording of Vivaldi’s Winter from his Four Seasons? Today, I went to find some -
Classical Music and Nature Sounds: Where Music and Mother Earth Meet December 29th, 2023 When nature sounds are combined with human-made classical music, the results can be captivating. From the delightful chirping of birds in a cellist’s English garden to the use of percussion and piano and wind machines to imitate the roar of -
Maurice Ravel’s Trois Chansons December 28th, 2023 At the time of his death on 28 December 1937, Maurice Ravel was the most celebrated composer in France. For a number of scholars, however, the significance of his music and the nature of his artistic legacy remained elusive. And