DECEMBER 31 Today in classical music history
1724 FP of J. S. Bach's Sacred Cantata No. 122 Das neugeborne Kindelein on the Sunday after Christmas as part of Bach's second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig 1724-25. 1762 Leopold Mozart and...
View ArticleIn Memoriam: Evelyn Lear (Jan 8 1926 - July 1 2012)
Evelyn Lear (Jan. 8 1926 - July 1 2012) by Joseph So With the passing of American soprano Evelyn Lear, the opera world has lost one of its most esteemed artists. According to a report in the...
View ArticleOne thousand four
My mother asked me once, whilst staring aghast at my CD collection, why I needed so many copies of Don Giovanni. My response was,”Why do you watch the Super Bowl every year? It’s the same game;...
View ArticleSpotlight on La chauve-souris
by Joseph So The quintessential Viennese bon-bon, Die Fledermausis the most popular operetta in the world. Based on statistics maintained by Operabase, it received a total of 285 performances...
View ArticleEternal Recordings of my Classical Music Collection – Part 3
Karl Bohm conducts Beethoven and Schubert Symphonies Two magical interpretations from the great Austrian master. Here is what David Hurwitz says about this recording in his editorial review at...
View ArticleEternal Recordings of my Classical Music Collection - Part 5
Otto Klemperer conducts Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte One of the glories of the gramophone. Neither Klemperer’s conducting nor the extraordinary cast of voices assembled could be possibly faulted. The...
View ArticleMozart: Symphony Number 35, in D Major, "Haffner"
When I think back to my high school days, it is with a sense of wonder. For me, it was a time filled with turbulence: as hormones coursed through my body I had to establish an identity, my place in the...
View ArticleFemale on the beach
Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos started life as a favor to the great theatrical producer Max Reinhardt who had saved the world premiere of Der Rosenkavalier in Dresden in 1911. Reinhardt was now...
View Articlegeorg bohm - claviersuiten - meyerson
georg bohm [1661-1733] die claviersuiten - hamburg & luneberg [ca. 1700] recorded in berlin [siemensvilla], march 2003 mitzi meyerson - harpsichord [keith hill, 1998; meantone temperament] glossa -...
View ArticleHarpsichord Assortment
giovanni maria trabaci - clavicembalo napoletano michele deverite - clavecin arion - arn 68538 bach - and his forerunners [l.couperin, frescobaldi, froberger, gabrielli] colin tilney - harpsichord...
View Article"Onse Mimi", South Africa's Prima Donna.
Mimi Coertse, now in her eighties, still attends a wide variety of musical events in Pretoria, particularly operatic functions. Every time I see her petite frame I wonder where she stored that huge...
View ArticleOpening knight
The 1965 season was a time of big changes at the Vienna State Opera. Herbert von Karajan had stormed off after a series of internal disputes, vowing never to return. Wieland Wagner arrived on the...
View ArticleWolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony Number 40 in G-Minor
What’s not to like? Sorry, I don’t mean to be so cavalier, but Mozart’s music sometimes strikes me that way. It lilts along so effortlessly. You can imagine that that’s what’s playing right now on the...
View ArticleBWW Reviews: Triple-Threat at Carnegie Hall--DiDonato, Levine and the MET...
I remember seeing the great Austrian maestro Karl Bohm conduct the Vienna Philharmonic near the end of his long, illustrious career. via Topix - Opera All the news about classical music and opera in...
View ArticleBarenboim's Complete Wagner Operas
This is a no brainer. In the Teldec packaging, Barenboim’s complete Wagner operas are available at roughly three dollars per disc. No librettos are included, but at this price, one can easily obtain...
View ArticleClassical music: Choral music, wind music and brass music add to the...
By Jacob Stockinger This weekend brings more season-closers. The groups concluding their concert seasons include the First Unitarian Society of Madison ’s FREE Friday Noon Musicales; the Festival Choir...
View ArticleKarajan 25th Anniversary Special- Music of Ravel, Debussy and Bartok
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Herbert von Karajan- one of the most influential, accomplished, controversial and contradictory musicians who ever lived. Not too long ago, I was asked...
View ArticleFlute Sonatas by JCF Bach, Hummel, Beethoven & Schunert
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795) Sonata in D major for Keyboard & Flute (1760) Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) Sonata in G major for Piano & Flute, Op 2a/2 (1792) Ludwig van...
View ArticleThe Greatest Operas, Part I
Okay, here we are. Week 1 of 10. Over the next 10 weeks, I’m gonna have a go at listing out all of my favourite opera composers from the 1640s to the 2010s and the works of theirs I hold in high regard...
View ArticleWhich conductor should you fight?
A brilliant little list/essay was recently published, and I heartily recommend reading it. The subject? ‘Which composer should you fight? ‘ I surely prefer violins to violence, but the topic is...
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