Hank Reynolds
I admit it took me a little while to catch on. There might be a reason for Theater Erfurt‘s staging Carmen with SUVs, police cruisers, and junk cars. But so often operas in Eastern Germany get a modern treatment for no reason at all. I … Read more
Strauss, “Und du wirst mein Gebieter sein” from Arabella Back in college, my conducting professor gave me a small conducting role in the University’s production of Arabella. It was offstage and had something to do with keeping the ensemble together. It lasted about 15 seconds and, … Read more
Fauré, Piano Trio, Op. 120 Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) attended a boarding school for musicians with a conservative focus on church music and turning out good organists and choirmasters. During his time there, Camille Saint-Saëns took over the piano instruction, and opened his students ears to … Read more
Dowland, Now, O Now, I Needs Must Part “Semper Dowland, semper dolens” (always Dowland, always doleful). The motto comes from Dowland himself. Melancholia is what made John Dowland (1563-1626) famous. Songs like “Flow My Tears” and “I Saw My Lady Weep” seem to sum up … Read more
Soloviev-Sedoy, Evening Song – Leningrad The World Cup has been all over the news lately. Here in Germany, the flags came out for the occasion. Germans do not display their national flag routinely as we Americans do. Their 20th-century history leads them to shun displays … Read more
Shaw, Concerto for Clarinet Artie Shaw (1910-2004) was one of most famous and successful “big band” leaders of the 1930s and 1940s, along with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. His proficiency on saxophone and clarinet landed him a job as a studio musician … Read more
Vieuxtemps, Souvenirs d’Amérique I usually turn to something American for the Fourth of July. Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) was a Belgian composer better known in his day as a virtuoso violinist comparable to Niccolò Paganini. And the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, performing in this week’s video, obviously … Read more
Brahms, Hungarian Dance No. 5 My father had an automatic turntable changer that would play a whole stack of 78 rpm records. For those too young to remember, you stacked multiple records on a spindle that held them suspended over the turntable. You could then … Read more
Monteverdi, Moresca from L’Orfeo We have discussed the opera L’Orfeo many times on this site, in particular as the starting point for Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture. It’s also the starting point for opera as a genre. And you can find … Read more
Delibes, Flower Duet (from Lakmé) The opera Lakmé by Leo Delibes (1836-1891) follows many of the trends popular at the time it was written (premiered in 1883). The exoticism of the East had captured the imagination of the Western public a century or two earlier. Chinoiserie, the … Read more