Max Bruch: The Romantic Composer You’ve Never Heard (Enough) Of
Max Bruch, German composer of the Romantic Era, wrote more than 200 works. Ask any violinist and he’ll nod, maybe even roll his eyes, saying “of course,…
Waking to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending”
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending” falls into that delicious category for me, of classical pieces I discover upon awakening. On weekdays I set my iPad alarm…
Schumann’s Enigmatic Violin Concerto
The program at the San Francisco Symphony was billed as “Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor, with guest conductor Roberto Abbado.” Great, enjoyable stuff. But one glance at my…
The Day Mozart Stole Music From the Vatican
The fourteen-year-old Mozart didn’t see himself as being a music pirate, mind you. He was just doing the thing he so excelled at, with his musical genius and…
The Exoticism & Euphoria of Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun”
When I listen to Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” often referred to as simply “Afternoon of a Faun,” I’m reminded of the vertiginous feeling of…
Is Rachmaninoff’s Music Too Schmaltzy?
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op 18 is the kind of music that grips you by the collar and draws you into its world instantly, with…
Elgar, Enigma, and Easter
While my first choice for classical music on Easter will always be Handel’s Messiah, there are a few other wondrous, utterly memorable pieces that conjure up the same rush of…
Gustav Mahler and the Curse of the Ninth Symphony
Back in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, a superstition developed in the classical music world that prophesied the Ninth would be a composer’s last symphony. Arnold Schoenberg…
Holiday Therapy: César Franck’s “Panis Angelicus”
I first heard César Franck’s “Panis Angelicus” in December when my husband and I were living in London. While holiday shopping, I picked up a compilation CD…