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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
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  • Lyricism and Percussionism Lyricism and Percussionism
    We associate John Cage with a number of different sound events – the percussion group that he took on tour around the West Coast in the late 1930s, random radio sounds from his work for 12 radios (Imaginary Landscape No.
  • Ring Bells! Sing Songs!: The Musical VI Ring Bells! Sing Songs!: The Musical VI
    Roaring onto the Broadway stage and changing the musical forever was Disney’s The Lion King, with music by Elton John. No musical had taken a children’s animation as its source and turning the fantasies of a cartoon into a performance
  • Shenyang Shenyang
    ‘A Duty to the Music’ Based in Shanghai, Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang performs in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong Philharmonic this month. Although from a musical family (both his parents were singers too), Shenyang came relatively late to the world
  • A Champagne Toast to 2018! A Champagne Toast to 2018!
    People across the globe celebrate the arrival of the New Year with a variety of delectable customs. In Spain, tradition dictates the eating of 12 grapes—washed down with a glass of Cava—with each stroke of the clock at midnight. In
  • A Musical New Year in Vienna A Musical New Year in Vienna
    The New Year’s concert by the Vienna Philharmonic is commonly regarded as the most important classical concert worldwide. Seen by an estimated audience of 1 billion viewers around the world, the concert always features works by the Viennese Strauss family,
  • The Success in Failure The Success in Failure
    A new museum in Helsingborg, Sweden, celebrates failure. Yes, you read that correctly – it celebrates failure. The museum displays corporate products which flopped but which paved the way for greater innovation and extraordinary commercial success (for example, Apple’s Newton
  • A Single-Malt and Vodka Toast to 2018! A Single-Malt and Vodka Toast to 2018!
    It’s truly a shame that I’ve never heard the live lecture by Daniel Barenboim on how whiskey and classical music resemble one another. In this 2006 talk entitled “Whisky is liquid music,” the pianist and conductor argues that “both experiences