Simon Mayr - 250 Years, 1. Life, sacred, instrumental works and Italian song...
Mayr combined German harmony with Italian melody. His word-painting is exemplary, with woodwind “harmony” adding a full and complementary palette of colours. (1)Until now the influence of Gluck,...
View ArticleSimon Mayr - 250 Years, 2. Operas
Before we turn to his operas, let's read a couple of testimonials about Simon Mayr (1763 - 1845) from people whose judgment cannot easily be dismissed: (1)(2)My oldest son who is in Milan to study...
View ArticleVideo pick - Marisa Galvany in Nabucco
Every once a while my perusing of YouTube videos leads to the discovery of an extra-ordinary performer.Since my interest in music runs the gamut and does not focus on opera per se, I did not know...
View ArticleÉtienne Nicolas Méhul - 250 Years
Gluck was the all in all of his system, the source of his inspiration and the dominant element of his methods of treatment.He clung to dramatic truth with as much tenacity as did the great author of...
View ArticlePeter Ritter - 250 Years
Ritter, born at Mannheim in 1760, must have had higher claims to distinction on account of his musical education than [Carl] Lochner, for he was promoted to the direction of the opera at the theatre of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Charles-Valentin Alkan - 200 Years, 1. Life and the Early Works.
I have an on/off obsession with this composer. Some days I can't stand his music, some days he's the only composer I can listen to.I feel he was a compositional genius on both the large and small...
View ArticleCharles-Valentin Alkan - 200 Years, 2. Return to the concert stage (1844).
Alkan's stylistic fingerprints, which include an intense focus around a single pitch, massive block chord constructions, and "distillation of ideas, direction, rhythmic drive, novel sonorities and an...
View ArticleCharles-Valentin Alkan - 200 Years, 3. 1845-1849
Alkan is now generally recognised to have been exactly that – one of the truest of Beethoven’s heirs in terms of his structural handling of rhythm, the supreme exponent of the French style sévère, and...
View ArticleCharles-Valentin Alkan - 200 Years, 4. 1850s.
[Alkan's music displays] - from the middle period onwards of the massed effect of block chords often texturally altering which produce such 'orchestral' pianistic potency. To this end Alkan shares a...
View ArticleCharles-Valentin Alkan - 200 Years, 5. 1861 - 1872
Little is known about Alkan's reclusive years when he kept only the most tenuous links with the outside world. We do know, however, that during this time Alkan mastered the pédalier, that curious and...
View ArticleChristmas 2013
Wishing you all a peaceful, blessed, and merry holiday season. Here is some music to go along with it. Enjoy!Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, Saviour of the gentiles), an old German advent...
View ArticleAlexander Dargomyzhsky - 200 Years
"If there had been no female singers, it wasn’t worth to become a composer." - Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1)Virtually all of the musical geniuses of the 19th century were of the opinion, and voiced it on...
View ArticleWilliam Henry Fry - 200 Years
Until this Declaration in Art shall be made--until American composers shall discard their foreign liveries and found an American school--and until the American public shall learn to support American...
View ArticleArticle 4
Ernst Haberbier (1813 – 1869) was a German pianist, composer and teacher. He was active in St. Petersburg, toured Europe until 1866, and then settled in Norway.His compositions, all for piano, consist...
View ArticleStephen Heller - 200 Years, 1. Piano Etudes
At once a charming humorist and a learned musician, who has written so many admirable pianoforte works, and whose melancholy spirit and religious zeal for the true divinities of art have always had a...
View ArticleStephen Heller - 200 Years, 2. Other Piano Works
Heller wrote a very large amount of piano music, including a quantity of studies that tended to eclipse his reputation in other genres of piano music. These latter included pieces of all kinds,...
View ArticleSemen Hulak-Artemovsky - 200 Years
It was a time of political upheaval everywhere in Europe, and music--especially opera--was very much part of the movement:- The Belgian Revolution (1830) was sparked by a Night at the Opera. The opera...
View ArticleHappy New Year 2014; Roger Bacon
The science that deals with transient, that is, non-permanent, discrete quantity is the science of music. - Roger Bacon (1)That music was absolutely necessary for the understanding of all of the arts...
View ArticleRobert Fayrfax - 550 Years
The music of Robert Fayrfax and his contemporaries marks the end of a musical tradition which had its roots in the very foundations of Britain's ancient chapels and cathedrals. (1)The esteem in which...
View ArticleJerzy Liban of Legnica - 450 Years
Jerzy Liban was an outstanding composer, skillful in employing homophony, nota contra notam [counterpoint], as well as imitation and polyphony.(1)Jerzy Liban of Legnica (1464 - 1546) was a Polish...
View Article