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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Returning to the studio July 15th, 2018 The late great Canadian pianist Glenn Gould made two significant and highly-acclaimed recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the first in 1955 when he was just 22, the second a quarter of a century later in 1981 when he was nearing -
Music and Nature: Trees July 13th, 2018 When we’re young and in dance class, we’re told to imitate trees – swaying in the wind, bowing down in a torrent of rain or just standing tall in the cold winter sun. Composers are equally inspired; they see trees -
Khachaturian: Piano Concerto in d-flat major, Op. 38
Premiered Today in 1937 July 12th, 2018Aram Khachaturian might easily be considered the poster child of Soviet realism in music. Joseph Stalin decreed that a composer in Soviet society had to be “an engineer of the human soul by writing music that communicates directly with the -
The Artist as a Human Being July 11th, 2018 Kilian Chan of Andante Musica looked at the music business and saw something that others had missed: young Asian musicians needed a niche. In addition, he was struck by the fact that for most of Asia, the foreign musician is -
Ditters von Dittersdorf: Doktor und Apotheker (The Pharmacist and the Doctor)
Premiered Today in 1786 July 11th, 2018Premiered at the Vienna Burgtheater on 11 July 1786, Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s comic opera Doktor und Apotheker (The Pharmacist and the Doctor) was a resounding success. The contemporary press declared it “the one work among all new German operas -
George Rochberg
“No artist ever arrives” July 10th, 2018By the late 1950’s George Rochberg was celebrated as America’s first and foremost master of composition in a serial language. One of the great leaders of the American avant-garde, Rochberg’s journey to a newly found language based on the tonal -
Music for the Eyes
Éditions Russes de Musique July 9th, 2018The great conductor and champion of contemporary music Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951) certainly knew the value of a good marriage. Musically talented, he initially studied double bass and eventually joined the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra in 1894. He toured extensively with the -
At the Center of the Musical Universe
Gaetano Donizetti July 8th, 2018One of the most prolific Italian composers in the second quarter of the 19th Century, Gaetano Donizetti’s (1797-1848) reputation invariably stands or falls with his 70 works for the operatic stage. Robert Schumann spitefully called Donizetti “a composer of music