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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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  • When the Detective goes to a Concert: Elliot Paul and Homer Evans When the Detective goes to a Concert: Elliot Paul and Homer Evans
    The American journalist and author Elliot Paul (1891-1958) was born in Massachusetts, served in France in WWI, and returned home to become a journalist and author. He returned to Paris in 1925 to become a writer and part of the
  • Singing with William Byrd Singing with William Byrd
    William Byrd (1543-1623), in the preface to his Psalmes, Sonnets and Songs of 1588, set out Eight Reasons why everyone should learn to sing.
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    Guido of Arezzo (991-2 to after 1033) was a famous music teacher first at the Benedictine Abbey of Pomposa then in Arezzo, where he moved around 1025. At the time when Guido was teaching music, he came up with some
  • Francesco Piemontesi Francesco Piemontesi
    Telling a personal story The small Italian town of Locarno plays host to the Settimane Musicali di Ascona each summer. At its head is internationally-renowned pianist Francesco Piemontesi, the recently-appointed Artistic Director of his home town’s music festival. ‘I’ve lived
  • Variations on Goldberg II Variations on Goldberg II
    Chamber Music Transcriptions of Bach’s Famous Repertoire — Goldberg Variations A variation set for harpsichord that’s considered the model of a variation set? Lots of other instrumental players looked at Bach’s Goldberg Variations in envy and immediately started making arrangements
  • Nicolai Gedda: Alive, well and thoroughly immortal Nicolai Gedda: Alive, well and thoroughly immortal
    Last weekend, unconfirmed reports hit the internet about the great Swedish tenor’s death. By the following Monday the reports were denied by publicists and friends: Nicolai Gedda (born July 11, 1925) is alive and well.
  • Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt
    1+1=1 Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) has managed to strike a sound of devotional archaism into a world of chaotic modernity. Highly experimental during his early musical career, Pärt’s study of early music inspired a new, and completely unique
  • Music in the Mind Music in the Mind
    Cheryl had lost most of her hearing abilities by her late 60s. Her hearing had deteriorated so much that she could barely hear people on the phone, and her partners playing bridge together would have to repeat their bids extra