The Beauty and Mystery of the Unaccompanied Violin
“Is it not strange that sheep’s guts could hale souls out of men’s bodies?” —William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing I have been involved for a long…
The Music of Harold Shapero: Tradition and Innovation
When American classical composers are discussed, the names Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and George Gershwin come up much more frequently than Harold Shapero (1920-2013). Yet…
Sibelius, “Finlandia,” and the Cry of Freedom
Jean Sibelius’ tone-poem, Finlandia, wasn’t supposed to be the program headliner that Saturday night at the San Francisco Symphony. The main draw was the Sibelius Violin Concerto, gracefully and sensitively…
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,…
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…
Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas: A Journey Through Life
Years ago cellist Steven Isserlis set out on a quest, a quest to discover how performing all five Beethoven sonatas in sequence would work. He first asked…
Beethoven: The Price of Genius
At the fourteenth exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession, held between April 15 and June 27, 1902, the German sculptor Max Klinger unveiled his…
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…
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…
Tonality Now: Finding a Groove
The ear is a biological phenomenon; but the human ear is also a cultural product. It has a history, a perspective and an interest of its own…
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…
Virgil Thomson on Music and Culture
To pass from reading a contemporary essayist to one of the middle decades of the 20th century is often to enter another world, one of succinct elegance and…
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 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…