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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György Ligeti May 28th, 2023 “I am in a prison: One wall is the avant-garde, the other is the past, and I want to escape” 100 years ago, on 28 May 1923, the Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006) was born in the little Transylvanian town -
Another Kind of Picture
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for Piano and Percussion May 28th, 2023Modest Mussorgsky’s walk about a picture show, Pictures at an Exhibition, started life as a piano suite in 10 parts with a recurring Promenade part as the viewer moved from picture to picture. Written in 1874, it is based on -
Les Femmes “Compositeurs”
Chamber Music by French Romantic Women Composers May 27th, 2023Recently, the “Centre de musique romantique française” at the Venetian Palazzetto Bru Zane has released an impressive anthology of 165 compositions by French Romantic women composers. In essence, they have resurrected the memory of nineteenth-century French women composers that had -
On This Day
27 May: Niccolò Paganini Died May 27th, 2023Niccolò Paganini had never been a picture of perfect health. His physical appearance—tall and thin with long arms, legs, fingers, and toes, and exceptional flexibility of his joints—recently gave rise to suggestions that he suffered from “Marfan Syndrome.” Although no -
What Happened to Bach’s Twenty Children? May 27th, 2023 Johann Sebastian Bach is, of course, one of the most beloved composers of all time. He’s also famous for having fathered twenty children. A few became famous composers in their own right…but many of them died tragically young, too. Today -
26 May: World Dracula Day May 26th, 2023 I am sure I have told you that I am an absolute fan of gothic and horror novels and films. From “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” to “Alien” to “Prey for the Devil” and “M3GAN,” I just love them all. -
An Obsession with Bach and the Requiem
Ysaÿe’s Second Violin Sonata May 26th, 2023Belgian violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931) wrote his six violin sonatas, Op. 27, after hearing a performance of J.S. Bach’s six violin sonatas. One writer noted ‘these sketches, almost improvisations, emerged as six intimate portraits in music of his friends -
On This Day
26 May: Samuil Feinberg Was Born May 26th, 2023For a good many commentators, the Ukrainian city of Odessa is the “cradle of Russian pianism.” The unique blend of Russian, Yiddish, and Ukrainian cultures has given birth to pianists like Benno Moiseiwitsch, Vladimir de Pachmann, Shura Cherkassky, Emil Gilels,