This week we’re announcing a new course as part of our Circle of Scholars. It’s very much your course, because the idea for it came from you—the people I meet when traveling and speaking. Here’s the situation so many of you have described. A body … 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
If that don’t beat all! We used to say that a lot. But these days, with so many extreme things surrounding us, I’m not sure how useful the phrase still is. Except . . . for last Friday. I went to a dentist in Weimar, … 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
Lately I’ve had some lovely opportunities to sit by history. At least that’s what I like to call it. While nothing tops walking into famous sites, there’s something magical about sitting next to them, particularly if circumstances allow one’s imagination to travel back in time. … 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
Perhaps you know the joy of running unexpectedly into a friend while in a far-away place. I’ll never forget the gasps of surprise from such an encounter in a little café in Prague. Two of my Smithsonian guests looked up from their coffee to see … 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
Our ship’s in a lock. I’m watching from my cabin window as we rise slowly from a scary concrete vault into a bright horizon and then sail gently forward into the leafy verdure of the Germany countryside. Thoughts swirl in my mind—particularly one. Actually this … 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