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Richard Strauss straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and was a towering figure in late romantic and early modern music. I enjoy his tone poems so I was especially glad to discover these two orchestral suites from Strauss operas, performed by Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The Rosenkavalier suite was created by Artur […]
Musical instruments from the Baroque era were often quite different than modern counterparts. I don’t know why the trombone’s ancestor is called a sackbut, but I don’t know why the modern instrument is called a trombone. They’re both funny names. But, the viola da gamba is not a funny name! The family has 7 different […]
You might recall my praise for Martin Helmchen’s recording of Piano Concertos by Dvorak and Schumann a few weeks back. On this recently released double set, Helmchen is joined by his wife, cellist Marie-Elisabeth Heckler in an album of cello sonatas entitled From Eastern Europe. And what a program it is! Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, […]
Here’s a delightful discovery from Dmitry Liss and the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra. Ravel’s La Valse starts as a tribute to the Viennese waltz, but by the last few minutes, you know you have fallen into a bad dream. Liss and his players do a superb job of capturing this feeling. It’s said that Ravel wanted […]
Here’s a discovery from just a few weeks ago that I really wanted to share with you– Denis Kozhukhin’s Somnia. The Russian pianist is absolutely marvelous in this exploration of the theme of childhood. These works are charming, yet truthful. They are involving, yet soothing. Most importantly, this is music that captures your attention […]
Only 15 years separated Prokofiev and Shostakovich by age. Both were born in the Russian Empire. Prokofiev left at the time of the Revolution, but Shostakovich never left. Prokofiev lived in Paris from the early 1920s until 1936. His exposure to the exciting music scene there gave a western foundation to much of his music. It was in […]
I was re-watching “About Time,” one of my favorite little British films, a few days ago, and was charmed all over again by the way it made me laugh, as well as the way it made me think about family and love. It’s one of those rare films that blends humor, heartache, and a touch of […]
This is an excellent example of why I do these “discoveries.” This set has been around for a while, but it sounds as fresh as anything released last week! Pianist Martin Helmchen, and Mark Albrecht conducting the Orchestre Philharmique de Strasbourg, have captured my heart in these two works. The Piano Concerto in A […]
Improvising at the piano… I used to do it a lot when I was a teenager. I think Improvisation is connected to memories– usually happy ones. Gabor Varga, whose various jazz albums have done very well on native, opens up his heart with Gold Rings of the Wounded Stone. It’s made up of 27 improvisations— no […]
Tragic? Who wants to listen to tragic! I mean really! Sure, Mahler has the occasional funeral march in his symphonies. Some say you can hear Mahler’s last breath in his Ninth. Some say you can even what sounds like the end of the world in the Second. And let’s face it, nobody writes symphonies about bunny rabbits and […]
Here are two Norwegian musicians, Amalie Stalheim (cello) and Christian Ihle Hadland (piano), and composers from Russia and France. So what’s the result? A remarkably French recital– in the most positive sense. There’s a playfulness, and a lightness to the music that sends me back to Paris 100 years ago. Stravinsky lived in France at the […]
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, The Year 1905, is deeply rooted in Russian history. It was premiered in 1957 and commemorates the 1905 Russian Revolution, particularly the tragic events of Bloody Sunday. On January 22, 1905, thousands of peaceful demonstrators marched to the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II. […]