Articles
Friday Performance Pick – 380
I’m currently spending some time at the Professor Carol remote headquarters in Germany. Most of the concert and theater venues here are dark for the summer months, but organ music continues year round. I attended an organ recital at the Marienkirche in Lübeck where Dieterich … Read more
Discovering Music for Children
We have a new course—a mini-course actually—a version of Discovering Music for children. In fact, it is our latest response to those of you asking us to increase our offerings for younger children. The course is called (drum roll) Discovering Music for Grades 2-5. It … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 379
Myaskovsky, Cello Sonata No. 1 Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881-1950) holds a prominent place in Russian music of the early 20th century, although he is somewhat in the shadow of Shostakovich and Prokofiev. He was born in Novogeorgiyevsk (Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki) near Warsaw, a fortress town on … Read more
Sousa and Cake Pops
It happened again. A group of adults found themselves whipped into a frenzy by the sound of a Sousa march! We could not resist clapping like kids at a birthday party when the final strain of Stars and Stripes Forever hit the air at the … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 378
Chopin, Życzenie A Maiden’s Wish, Op. 74, No. 1 Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) wrote almost exclusively for the piano. It was an unusual choice for a composer at the time when success was achieved primarily by creating large scale works—operas and symphonies. Chopin wrote two piano … Read more
The Galax Fiddle Festival
It was good to get out to a festival. True, last fall we enjoyed Bethania’s Walnut Festival, held in an historical Moravian village next to our neighborhood. Also, we rejoiced in a traditional, low-tech fall carnival up in King, North Carolina, filled with old-fashioned rides, … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 377
Maslanka, Symphony No. 4 Hank wanted to feature David Maslanka (1943-2017) in our Friday Performance Picks and, knowing that I have a particular interest, asked me to write about it. In the 1980s, a new generation of largely American composers started to rise. They did … Read more
So What If Beethoven Was Deaf?
Beethoven was deaf. So what? This video essay, filmed at Highlands Latin School, considers a favorite topic: how to study composers. Lest you think I don’t like composers, remember that we offer a Composer-of-the-Month page, chocked with performances, segments of master classes, and commentary. You … Read more
Friday Performance Pick – 376
Webern, Cinq Pièces Five pieces in under six minutes—it says something about the sparseness of Webern’s music. The Austrian composer Anton Webern (1883-1945) is one of three primary figures in the Second Viennese School. Arnold Schoenberg and his acolytes Webern and Berg pioneered the compositional … Read more