| Recent Blog Posts in Composers
| |
|
|
by Giacomo Cataldo
After a century of neglect the original version of Bruckner’s Symphony N.3 in D minor has finally been receiving the attention it so richly deserves. Until recently it was difficult to even obtain the score let alone come across performances of it. At present however there are a number of recordings, more than one of which is available in SACD format no less. This recording by the Bamberger Symphoniker under their [continue...]
March 21st, 2008 @ 11:53 pm GMT | No Comments
by Giacomo Cataldo
It was during a performance at the theatre that largely owes its existence to him that I first came to learn of his passing, some time ago now. This is not so much a true 'In memoriam', but rather more of a little tribute, a necessary act of respect to a man who achieved so much and can only inspire admiration because of it. I never had the honour of [continue...]
March 13th, 2008 @ 5:17 pm GMT | No Comments
by Giacomo Cataldo
While Jascha Horenstein’s repertory had a remarkably wide range (it may come as a surprise that, amongst other things, he was a pioneer in period instrument performance), it is hard to deny that the pinnacle of his recorded legacy lies with his performances of the Mahler canon, which he helped popularize at a time when the works were, let us say, less than fashionable.
[continue...]
February 29th, 2008 @ 11:47 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Never has a requiem sounded as delightful as in the latest performance conducted by Stefano Vasselli this past Sunday at the church of St. Paul within the Walls in Rome. [[5010030_stefano.jpg]]
The ability of blending together the warmth of a four-part harmony, with the innovative requiem style proposed by Duruflé and with the overall beautiful performance was genuinely breathtaking. The majestic sound of the pipe [continue...]
November 23rd, 2007 @ 7:30 pm GMT | 1 Comment »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Luciano Pavarotti passed away this morning, at the age of 71, in his villa in Modena due to pancreatic cancer. This news was received with consternation and bewilderment by the global music community.
Although news of his battle against cancer were widespread, this morning’s event came as a surprise since Pavarotti has always stood up again from his previous falls.
[continue...]
September 6th, 2007 @ 5:02 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
The Toy Symphony composed in the late 1770’s is also known as the Cassation in G for Orchestra and Toys. A Cassation is a stylized form of suite, which was created during the 1700’s. These relatively brief music compositions were usually performed outside, and were of a very cheerful nature. Haydn and Mozart usually wrote these suites beginning with [continue...]
April 20th, 2007 @ 9:39 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
Franz Liszt, in his day the king of pianists, a composer whose compositions still glow and burn with the fire he breathed into them; Liszt the diplomat, courtier, man of the world—always a conqueror! How difficult to tell, in a few paragraphs, the story of a life so complex and absorbing!
A storm outside: but [continue...]
April 2nd, 2007 @ 11:36 am GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
With the production at Paris in the spring of 1902 of Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, based on the play of Maeterlinck, the history of music turned a new and surprising page. "It is necessary," declared an acute French critic, M. Jean Marnold, writing shortly after the event, "to go back perhaps to Tristan to find in [continue...]
February 10th, 2007 @ 1:26 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
Giuseppe Verdi who was to produce such streams of beautiful, sparkling music,—needing an Act of Parliament to stop them, as once happened,—was a very quiet, thoughtful little fellow, always good and obedient; sometimes almost sad, and seldom joined in the boisterous games of other children. That serious expression found in all of Verdi's portraits as a man [continue...]
December 12th, 2006 @ 8:05 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
Russian composers and Russian music are eagerly studied by those who would keep abreast of the time. This music is so saturated with strong, vigorous life that it is inspiring to listen to. Its rugged strength, its fascinating rhythms, bring a new message. It is different from the music of other countries and at once attracts by [continue...]
November 21st, 2006 @ 4:08 pm GMT | 1 Comment »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Oh Eternal Bach, omniscient presence in our heart –
Listening to his music is the most celestial experience on Earth.
‘Tis a wondrous feeling of immortality in a sinful world.
It’s the impression that anything can change for better when enchanted by those angelical notes. [continue...]
November 14th, 2006 @ 9:15 pm GMT | 1 Comment »
by Chris A. Mooney
There is hardly a composer concerning whom so many erroneous notions
are current as concerning Chopin, and of all the histories of music I
have seen that of Langhans is the only one which devotes to Chopin an
amount of space approximately proportionate [continue...]
November 13th, 2006 @ 8:37 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
In the classical music community, game music has always been categorized as modern, almost hip-hop music. In this way, this particular music genre was clearly defined as not being part of the “educated” classical music. Despite what one might think, game music is, [continue...]
November 5th, 2006 @ 8:51 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
Organic life in the Earth's biosphere requires organisms to relate to other organisms. Human beings are particularly dependent on establishing enduring relationships with other human beings, and thus on their highly developed ability to communicate with them. The ability to communicate also exists [continue...]
November 4th, 2006 @ 11:02 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
To my Father
Listen to that charming tune in your mind.
It’s constantly there, omnipresent Dream.
A gracious melody you want to find
To sing forever a deep music stream. [continue...]
October 29th, 2006 @ 7:52 am GMT | 2 Comments »
by Chris A. Mooney
There are many people asking this question. There are many people feeling a need to teach other people how to do this thing we all do, and to play this instrument we all [continue...]
October 28th, 2006 @ 9:01 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Frederick the Great - King of Prussia - was not only a remarkable military genius, but a great Music Enthusiast as well. He appreciated all Arts and intellectual activities. For several years he [continue...]
October 13th, 2006 @ 9:57 pm GMT | No Comments
by Chris A. Mooney
What is music? Well you’re obviously going to get various answers to this question, but let’s see how far we get…
Technically music is a series of wavelengths one after another, [continue...]
October 12th, 2006 @ 10:40 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
As with many arts, judging music is a highly subjective task. The more a person is involved with music, the more his/her judgements will be concerned with the piece’s actual quality. [continue...]
October 6th, 2006 @ 5:04 pm GMT | 1 Comment »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Styles in Music do not occur in a linear fashion, but happen to be in cycles. This occurs in architecture, fashion and art, where styles alternate between highly decorated and severely [continue...]
September 29th, 2006 @ 3:57 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Since always composers have been commissioned wide ranges of pieces to be performed for certain types of audiences. Composers received sometimes vague, and other times precise indications on how to compose [continue...]
September 12th, 2006 @ 9:39 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
When in 1956, theatres and radios celebrated the famous bicentenary from Mozart’s birth, his music was, as expected, played over and over. However Mozart’s current performances differ greatly from the ones [continue...]
August 1st, 2006 @ 9:28 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
In the past decades, the age of classical music’s average audience has slowly and irreversibly increased. We may distinguish between several groups of classical music audiences: from people who’ve made music [continue...]
July 20th, 2006 @ 9:30 pm GMT | 2 Comments »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
The two major composers of the transition period from the late Baroque to the early classical period are doubtlessly J.S. Bach and G.F. Haendel.
These two artists have [continue...]
July 8th, 2006 @ 10:45 am GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
If you ever heard Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony in B minor Pathetique, you will immediately realize that it’s not a usual one; it’s written with his soul. He [continue...]
June 20th, 2006 @ 6:49 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
All great Arts are somehow connected within each other, but Music is the only one correlated to all of them. We find music’s beauty in paintings, math, science….and poetry. [continue...]
June 2nd, 2006 @ 6:33 pm GMT | 1 Comment »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
As you might recall, this famous Russian pianist passed away on April 2, 1951 on stage while performing the Grieg A minor piano concerto with Eugene Ormandy directing the [continue...]
May 12th, 2006 @ 5:19 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Bach Lovers rejoice!
A new cantata has been discovered! It’s numbered as the BWV 1127, and it’s a one-movement cantata. It’s a worshipping movement with 12 [continue...]
May 5th, 2006 @ 12:11 am GMT | 1 Comment »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Both of these great romantic composers wrote astonishing virtuoso pieces for piano, and impressed many generations with their music. They were born a year apart, shared a [continue...]
April 25th, 2006 @ 9:11 am GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Easter was originally a pagan festival celebrated by the Anglo-Saxons, in honor of Eastre, the Goddess of Spring. Eventually the Catholic missionaries will combine with [continue...]
April 17th, 2006 @ 10:53 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Music, more than any art, communicates right to the heart. There is indeed a strong correlation between Music and Love. Music arouses feelings so passionate, so [continue...]
April 9th, 2006 @ 12:45 pm GMT | No Comments
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Many students drop out of the music program, because they are discouraged from the belief of lacking a "musical talent". Talent in general is the ability to [continue...]
March 26th, 2006 @ 1:18 pm GMT | 1 Comment »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
In the last decades, technology has advanced at a constant and rapid rate. Computers are able to do things that have always been attributed solely to the [continue...]
March 18th, 2006 @ 9:42 pm GMT | 3 Comments »
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750, and was the major exponent of baroque music. He was very famous for his rigorous contrapuntal style. But when he died, [continue...]
March 12th, 2006 @ 3:59 pm GMT | 3 Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
|
