Classical music: FREE choral concert by the “People’s Chorus” on Monday night...
By Jacob Stockinger The Ear’s friends at Edgewood College write: Edgewood College Professor Sergei Pavlov (below) is bringing his talent to a unique stage. He is one of two conductors for the “People’s...
View ArticleTanglewood Final Weekend
Andris Nelsons and Kristine Opolais (Marco Borggreve photo) As the Tanglewood season closed last weekend, Kristine Opolais joined Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for two concerts in...
View ArticleThe Great Divide In Contemporary Opera
David Patrick Stearns: “If music is the universal language it’s often proclaimed to be, why has nothing close to a consensus emerged on the two high-profile opera openings of the summer? … The division...
View ArticleClassical Music Today - August 30, 2015
In 1820 George F. Root was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts. He was a collaborator with Fanny Crosby and Lowell Mason. He wrote, among many other hymns and songs, “The Battle Cry of Freedom” and...
View ArticleKSO's 80th Season Begins: "American Masters"
It’s practically impossible not to sense the optimism and anticipation that precedes the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s 2015-16 season. It seeps into conversations and drifts through the musings of...
View ArticleClassical Music Today - September 11, 2015
On this day in 1711 William Boyce was baptized (his birthdate is unknown) in London. In 1733 François Couperin (“le Grand”) died at age 64 in Paris. In 1786 Friedrich Kuhlau was born in Ülzen (near...
View ArticleClassical Music Today - September 12, 2015
In 1764 Jean Philippe Rameau died at age 80 in Paris, France. He is considered to be one of the most important of the French composers of the Baroque era and the leading French composer for the...
View ArticleBell Plays Barber.
Barber and Sibelius: Violin Concertos. Samuel Barber was born in 1910, and Jean Sibelius in 1865. While a period of 45 years separates these two composers, I find the pairing of these two works to be...
View Article#ClassicalMusic Today - September 16, 2015
Nadia Boulanger In 1887 Nadia Boulanger was born in Paris, France. She taught a number of American composers including as Aaron Copland and Philip Glass. In 1844 Paul Taffanel was born in Bordeaux,...
View Article#ClassicalMusic Today - September 22, 2015
In 1869 Richard Wagner’s opera, “Das Rheingold” was premiered in Munich at the Hoftheater, Franz Wüllner conducting. The opera was performed at the Bavarian emperor Ludwig II’s request, but against the...
View Article#ClassicalMusic Today - September 24, 2015
Andrzej Panufnik In 1914 Andrzej Panufnik was born in Warsaw, Poland. He was one of the leading Polish composers, and as a conductor he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Warsaw...
View ArticleUpcoming Ted Hearne West Coast Premiere at SFS
Ted Hearne's Dispatches is having a West Coast premiere at San Francisco Symphony next week starting Wednesday night as part of the New Voices project which fosters the careers of emerging composers....
View ArticleTwentieth-Century Chamber Works for Winds CD review – vivid and quick-witted
London Winds (Chandos)The centrepiece of London Winds’ vivid, vivacious disc is Nielsen’s great Wind Quintet of 1922, one of three works from the 1920s here, which are juxtaposed with two from the 50s....
View ArticleLearning To Love Classical Music
By James Wallace Harris, Sunday, September 27, 2015 I’ve been a big music love all my life, but I’ve never really liked classical music. I keep trying, thinking classical music must be an acquired...
View Article#ClassicalMusic Today - September 30, 2015
Johann Svendsen In 1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducted the premier of his opera, “Die Zauberflöte” (The Magic Flute) in Vienna at the Freihaustheater auf der Wieden In 1840 Johan Svendsen was born...
View Article#ClassicalMusic Today - October 1, 2015
In 1708 John Blow died at about age in London, England. In 1733 Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera “Hippolyte et Aricie” premiered in Paris at the Palais Royal Opéra. Henry Clay Work In 1832 Henry Clay Work...
View ArticleUT Premieres Ellen Reid/Royce Vavrek, 'Knoxville: Summer of 2015'
Ellen Reid In this week’s Knoxville Mercury, I preview the new work by Ellen Reid and Royce Vavrek, Knoxville: Summer of 2015. On the concert at the Tennessee Theatre on Friday evening, that work...
View ArticleThe Strange Genius of the Adagio for Strings
[First published in WRTI’s Arts Desk 2 Nov 2015] Samuel Barber Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings didn’t start out the way we know it now. In this feature for WRTI, I look at the inescapable...
View ArticleConductors have to try to help the composer
But a masterpiece comes when you must be convinced that’s a masterpiece, and I make sure that’s a masterpiece. If you play a very boring performance of the Glazunov Number Six or Number Seven, people...
View Article#ClassicalMusic Today November 5, 2015
Hans Sachs In 1494 Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg. As a child he attended a singing school that was held in the church of Nuremberg. This helped to awaken in him a taste for poetry and music. His...
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