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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The Dark Ensemble: Voice and String Quartet May 24th, 2023 The most familiar accompaniment to the voice is the piano, or in earlier days, the guitar or the lute. Putting the voice with larger ensembles runs the risk of drowning the voice in the volume of the other instruments. One -
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24 May: Pärt’s Berliner Messe Was Premiered May 24th, 2023Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt (1935- ) has managed to strike a sound of devotional archaism into a world of chaotic modernity. Highly experimental during his early musical career, Part’s study of early music inspired a new, and completely unique musical -
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Eleanor Cory and Georgia O’Keeffe May 23rd, 2023Eleanor Cory: O’Keeffe’s Flora Starting in the mid-1920s, American artist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) started her 30-year exploration of flowers. By taking something that might be quite small and painting it multiplied by many times, she found a way to make -
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23 May: Alicia de Larrocha Was Born May 23rd, 2023Alicia de Larrocha, born on 23 May 1923 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, was never too keen on giving interviews in English. That reluctance was based on the unfounded fear of being unable to express her views on music fully and -
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22 May: Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri Was Premiered May 22nd, 2023L’Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) is Gioachino Rossini’s first buffo masterpiece in a fully-fledged two-act form, and it is one of the greatest comic masterpieces ever created. Based on a libretto by Angelo Anelli, and specifically written -
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Transcriptions and Arrangements May 22nd, 2023The process of adapting a piece of music for a scoring other than that of the original dates back for centuries. For one, by fashioning transcriptions and arrangements of orchestral works or operas, the public gained access to the latest -
22 May: “Sherlock Holmes Day” May 22nd, 2023 Sherlock Holmes, the fictional detective of great observational and deductive powers, is probably the best-known sleuth in the world. The invention of British author Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes sprang to life in 1887 and is supposedly modeled on Joseph Bell, -
Musicians and Artists: Haydn, the Duke of Alba, and Goya May 21st, 2023 What was the music held by the Duke in Goya’s “José Álvarez de Toledo”? Around 1795, the Spanish painter Goya painted a picture of his patron, Don José Álvarez de Toledo Osorio y Gonzaga, 11th Marquess of Villafranca, Grandee of