Cui, Cinq Petit Duos, Op. 56 The simple charm of these short works, five little duos by César Cui, has tempted me to add them to our collection of A Child’s Treasure of Music. I confess to knowing little of Cui’s music, but in that … Read more
Rimsky-Korsakov, Capriccio Espagnol You may have thought that only French composers could write Spanish music, but here’s proof that Russians can do it too. Okay, that’s a bit overstated: we could find plenty of superb Spanish composers. But it’s hard not to think of Bizet’s Carmen, … Read more
Balakirev, Islamey In the previous post in this series, I mentioned that Panos Karan had impressed us in two ways. The first, discussed last week, concerned his work taking Western classical music to the remotest points on the globe. The second involved his ambitious programming. … Read more
Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain Some people like to associate the tone poem Night on Bald Mountain with Halloween. I could have featured this work in late October to coincide with that occasion, but I think that would only confuse things. Mussorgsky originally titled the work St. John’s … Read more
