Animals, Orchestras & Abraham Lincoln
Every composer finds himself doing hack work once in a while; it’s called paying the bills. Tchaikovsky was loathe to write “Dance of...
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- Jan 21
- 2 min
Frank Sinatra and the String Quartet
When Frank Sinatra wanted to listen to music---sit down and really listen--he listened to string quartets. This was a side of Sinatra...
- Jan 21
- 2 min
Music to rival the Himalayas
Is Classical Music being written today? Yes. Sort of. What is being composed today--and for most of the 20th Century--are less...
- Dec 31, 2022
- 3 min
Hallelujah! The Nisley's 2022 Christmas Letter
He was a world-renowned composer living in London, whose career was on the ropes, and who could no longer find work. As a result, he had...
- Dec 24, 2022
- 3 min
The last Romantic--the symphonies of Gustav Mahler
Orchestral music was in a state of transition when Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) took up his pen and began composing symphonies, the likes of...
- Oct 10, 2022
- 2 min
As Contemporary as the Cell Phone
Johann Sebastien Bach was fooling around on the great organ in the Leipzig Cathedral when he composed the most hair-raising sounds ever...
- Oct 10, 2022
- 2 min
The Well-Tempered Mind of J.S. Bach
Thomas Jefferson played violin and was familiar with the music of Vivaldi, Handel and Mozart, but it’s unlikely he ever heard of Johann...
- Sep 24, 2022
- 2 min
George Frederick Handel - Superstar
George Frederick Handel was German--and a contemporary of Johann Sebastion Bach--who lived most of his adult life in London. Unlike...
- Aug 25, 2022
- 2 min
World-class Ego
Of all the great composers, none had a bigger ego than Richard Wagner (pronounced Ree-card Vawg-ner). Wagner (1813-1883) was famously...
- Aug 22, 2022
- 2 min
Master of the small statement
At the age of eight he was playing piano and composing music that your high-school music teacher could only dream of doing. It was only a...
- Aug 22, 2022
- 2 min
And Tell Tchaikovsky The News
“Roll over Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news,” sang Chuck Berry in one of Rock’s classics. It seems Pyotr (that's Peter to you)...
- Aug 18, 2022
- 1 min
Too Good For This World
Robert Schumann achieved fame in the mid-nineteenth century--after Beethoven, and before Brahms and Wagner were recognized as musical...
- Aug 17, 2022
- 2 min
The short, unfinished life of Franz Schubert
Not all composers possess gigantic egos. Franz Schubert is a case in point. Shy, quiet, bespectacled, known but to a small cadre of...
- Aug 17, 2022
- 1 min
Living in Beethoven’s Shadow
Orchestral music had moved from the parlors of the nobility and into the public forums by the time Johannes Brahms made his mark in the...
- Aug 17, 2022
- 2 min
The luminous genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
If you were in Vienna in, say, 1780, and looking for the world-famous composer Wolfgang Mozart, chances are you’d find him at the local...
- Aug 12, 2022
- 2 min
Papa Haydn
It was the ultimate gig. A 30-piece orchestra at your beck and call. The run of the palace, and servants to meet your every whim. ...
- Aug 9, 2022
- 3 min
Beethoven, a man of no small emotion
He’s the one who alienates half the dinner guests at your party, gets roaring drunk, makes a pass at your wife, breaks your $1,000 vase,...
- Mar 9, 2022
- 3 min
One of the Wonders of Symphonic Music–Beethoven's Third Symphony
Ludvig von Beethoven was a revolutionary. This was never more evident than in 1806, when his Third Symphony premiered in Vienna. What it...
- Mar 9, 2022
- 3 min
The Great American Symphony
Years ago, before I knew a thing about classical music, word was that new symphonies were no longer being composed. That, of course, was...
- Mar 9, 2022
- 2 min
Million Dollar Trio
It started as a rumor. It seemed hard to believe that three such musical giants as Arthur Rubinstein (piano), Jascha Heifetz (violin) and...
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