Falling in love with someone else’s spouse can result in divorce, emotional turmoil, or (in the case of composers) some very Romantic music.
Take the case of Brahms, who for most of his adult life carried a torch for Mrs. Clara Schumann, the wife of his friend and mentor, Robert Schumann....Episode details...
The intimate combination of flute and guitar has proven to be an attractive one for a number of composers -- and if the composer herself plays the flute, so much the better.
This music is from a four-movement suite for flute and guitar, entitled “Canyon Echoes,” written by the American composer...Episode details...
In the year 1900, a German-born conductor named Fritz Scheel conducted two orchestral programs in Philadelphia billed as the “Philippines Concerts.” These were benefits, as contemporary ads put it: “for the relief of families of the nation’s heroes killed in the Philippines.” The previous year...Episode details...
Today is the birthday of a quite remarkable 18th century British composer, Sir William Herschel, who was born in Hannover, Germany, on this date in 1738.
Herschel’s father was a regimental oboist, and young William himself eventually joined papa’s regimental band… also as an oboist. In his early...Episode details...
In the fall of 1995, the American composer Andrew Waggoner received a commission from the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic of the Czech Republic for a new orchestral work to be premiered the following year.
“I had a symphony in my mind for some time,” writes Waggoner, “and decided that this was the...Episode details...
On today’s date in 1940, Disney's animated film Fantasia opened at New York's Broadway Theater.
It proved to be a landmark film on a number of fronts: first, it was a milestone in cultural “cross-over”, in which classical music (in the person of conductor Leopold Stokowski) shook hands...Episode details...
For the ideal performance of “Makrokosmos II: Twelve fantasy pieces after the Zodiac,” by the American composer George Crumb, one should perhaps be outdoors in a remote clearing under a crystalline canopy of stars.
For the record, the premiere performance of Crumb’s suite for amplified piano...Episode details...
On today’s date in 1923, the League of Composers presented its first chamber concert in New York City. Their stated mission was to present music by living composers whose works represented new trends in music.
Actually, the League was founded as a splinter group, seceding from a more radical...Episode details...
On today’s date in 1910, Gustav Mahler conducted the “First Historical Concert” of the New York Philharmonic, an event billed as “the first of a series arranged in chronological sequence, comprising the most famous composers from the period of Bach to the present day.”
Mahler’s program included...Episode details...
