The Music of the Spheres
[In] sound itself, there is a readiness to be ordered by the spirit and this is seen at its most sublime in music. —Max Picard Despite the…
Mere Mortals Eavesdropping: The Greatness of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died 5 December 1791. In 1991, the bicentennial of his death was the occasion for massive Mozart festivals and grand recording projects, as well…
Jean Sibelius’ Music of the Logos
The reputation of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) has waxed and waned over the course of this century. In the early part, he was thought by many…
Antonín Dvorák: Composing Music of Joy in the Kitchen
Fleeing the congestion and mayhem of New York City in the early summer of 1893, Antonin Dvorák, along with his wife and six children, alighted from a…
The “Czech Bach”: Who Was Jan Dismas Zelenka?
Suppose you were Bach, and no one noticed? Welcome to the early eighteenth-century world of Jan Dismas Zelenka, a Catholic composer at the court of Dresden, who…
Haydn’s Music of Gratitude and Goodness
I love Haydn. If I had to be left with only one composer in my life, it would be he — not because he is the greatest,…
Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen
One of the privileges of writing this column is that I occasionally get to meet the composers of the music I review. I had a meeting this…
Finding Faith in the Manger: Berlioz’s “Infancy of Christ”
The poet Wallace Stevens once wrote that “The major poetic idea in the world is and always has been the idea of God.” One might modify that…