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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Shanghai Conservatory of Music November 16th, 2014 The Shanghai Conservatory of Music is one of the most competitive musical education institutions in China. The Conservatory’s Vice President, Zhang Xiangping, and Zhou Xianglin, the director of teaching and study affairs, filled me in on how training at Shanghai -
Paul Klee: Fugue in Red November 15th, 2014 Paul Klee (1879-1940) craved the freedom to explore radical and modernist experimentations in his paintings. In music, however, he could never come to terms with contemporary works of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. In fact, he even disliked the compositions of -
Shostakovich and The (Soviet) Golden Age November 14th, 2014 Joseph Stalin was not a particularly nice man! Once he had consolidated near-absolute power in the 1930’s, he ruthlessly eliminated any opposition. That meant banishing “counter-revolutionary infiltrators” to the Gulag labour camps, deported nonconformists to the furthest regions of the -
Coming at Wagner from a Different Direction November 13th, 2014 We associate Wagner with gloriously large orchestral sounds, with complex stories, and magnificent singing. It’s interesting, however, when we hear Wagner’s operatic writing from the viewpoint of the keyboard and in this recording by French pianist Wilhem Latchoumia, he shapes -
Are We Going to Party?
Groupmuse November 12th, 2014‘In this modern world, we are constantly confronted by this question of how best to spend our free time’, explains Sam Bodkin. ‘Are we going to engage with a challenging work of art?’ he asks. ‘Or are we going to -
Why there’s no Fairy Godmother in La Cenerentola November 11th, 2014 Who doesn’t know the story of Cinderella? The tale of a young girl tormented by stepsisters, who with the help of her fairy godmother, pumpkin carriages and glass slippers, goes to a ball and marries the prince. But is it -
Debussy’s New Vision of an Old Standard November 10th, 2014 When we think of a musical piece called a ‘Prelude,’ we think of the monumental series of Preludes and Fugues by J.S. Bach, or, more adventurously, Chopin’s 1838 series of 24 Preludes, Op. 28. When the French composer Claude Debussy -
Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion November 9th, 2014 Baroque music arguably suffers the most when it comes to its perceived stuffiness. In the world of historical performance practice, many retreat into the dark corners of the library, poring over dusty treatises to debate the authority of the way