In classical music, the Romantic Era lasted from around 1810 to around 1910. That century gave us some of the most famous symphonies in the repertoire. Nineteenth-century composers like Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvořák, Schubert, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and others elevated the symphony
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Music in Exile II
Following the Money March 30th, 2016There are various reasons for composers, musicians and artist to leave their respective homelands. Some are displaced by war or social unrest, while others follow employment opportunities. In the 15th and early 16 centuries, whole generations of composers from the -
Kawai: The Piano at Superbowl 50 (2016) March 29th, 2016 Pianos are highly versatile instruments, equally at home in luxurious concert halls, smokey pubs, middle-class living rooms and sweaty practice cubicles. Kawai instruments prominently feature in all those locations. However, the Kawai hybrid piano has also featured in one of -
Minors of the Majors
Gioacchino Rossini: 3 Choeurs Religieux March 28th, 2016“Minors of the Majors” invites you to discover compositions by the great classical composers that for one reason or another have not reached the musical mainstream. Please enjoy, and keep listening! -
Composers as Kids: Gustav Mahler March 27th, 2016 Gustav Mahler, the grandest symphonist of his age, was born in July 1860 in the village of Kaliště, in the present-day Czech Republic. His background was not particularly artistic. His father Bernhard had grown up labeling bottles in his family’s -
Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C Major, Op. 56 March 27th, 2016 The Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C Major, Op. 56 by Ludwig van Beethoven, more commonly known as the “Triple Concerto,” has not fared well with critics, scholars and audiences alike. Music critic Marion Scott suggested that the -
Animals in Music: Birds and More March 26th, 2016 One of the most important modern composers to take up the ideas of birds and music was the French composer Olivier Messiaen. He had been fascinated with birds for a long time but it was only in 1952, when he -
How You Should Feel in the Key of D minor March 25th, 2016 In our earlier series on C major and minor and G major and minor, we listed Ernst Pauer’s suggestions from 1876 of pieces that fit the particular affect he assigned for a key. For the rest of the major and -
Muses and Musings
The Red Poppy
Reinhold Glière and Yekaterina Geltzer March 24th, 2016Yekaterina Vasilyevna Geltzer was a prima ballerina of the famous Bolshoi Ballet, who danced in the theatre from 1898 to 1935. Her father Vasily was an outstanding mime dance and director at the theater, but he believed that his daughter’s