The solo violin has long been acknowledged as the perfect instrument to express emotions like love, longing, heartbreak, rapture, and romance. The Romantic era lasted from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and produced numerous works that
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Let the Sunshine in!
Wagner and Bellini February 12th, 2013By 1834, Richard Wagner was not only honing his musical and dramatic skills, he was also starting to express himself in a series of essays. In his article Die Deutsche Oper (German Opera), published in Laube’s Zeitung für die elegante -
Wedding on the Eiffel Tower February 12th, 2013 Hot on the heels of the shocking notoriety achieved with Parade, Jean Cocteau went to work on a surrealist spectacle entitled The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower. He described it as a sort of secret marriage between Ancient Greek -
Martin Fröst February 11th, 2013 Martin Fröst is one of the world’s most highly-acclaimed clarinettists, well-known for his huge versatility. Concerto appearances, chamber music, conducting: he is highly respected across all these fields, in addition to being a proponent of commissioning new works for the -
Waltzing Mathilde
Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck February 8th, 20135 Gedichte fur eine Frauenstimme, Op. 91, “Wesendonck-Lieder” The beautiful and talented poet and playwright Agnes Mathilde Luckemeyer married the silk merchant Otto Wesendonck in 1848. The couple moved to Zurich and Otto, having done extremely well in his profession, -
“Le Grand Combat”
Witold Lutosławski January 31st, 20133 Poems by Henri Michaux Although Witold Lutosławski experimented with serial and post-serial techniques, he always found the results rather unsatisfactory. This was particularly true of compositions utilizing the human voice. Awkward intervals and highly complex rhythms demanded a high -
Witold Lutosławski January 30th, 2013 Fishing for Souls The premier of Witold Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto in 1970 was greeted as “an epic confrontation between an individual and an oppressive mass, in which the cello’s voice is symbolically squashed by outbursts in the brass and orchestral -
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis – A Most Unfamiliar Masterpiece January 30th, 2013 Mass in D major, Op. 123, “Missa Solemnis” (Philharmonic Symphony, Walter) (1948) ‘Is this the greatest piece ever written?’ Such was the question fired at me by Sir Roger Norrington during our correspondence in preparation for the recent performance of -
Approaching the Music Drama
Wagner, Weber and Marschner January 29th, 2013Richard Wagner consistently downplayed the significance of his musical education. Undoubtedly, he was very keen to cultivate the notion of the untutored genius, just as Ludwig van Beethoven had done. However, as we saw in our last episode, his first