Music

Max Bruch: The Romantic Composer You’ve Never Heard (Enough) Of

The problem with poor Max Bruch was that he was born too late. What he produced is art that seems to give off an invisible radiance, one you can feel on your flushed cheeks, deep within your heart as you listen. This is art that got overlooked...

Building Communities With Music

Classical music must find its place in love—love of home, of community, of neighbor, and of the culture that binds all these things together. In all but the most exceptional cases, our orchestras won’t survive if they don’t get this part right...

Elgar, Enigma, and Easter

Easter likely hadn’t been on Edward Elgar’s mind when he wrote his Enigma Variations, yet this wondrous, utterly memorable piece conjures up a rush of powerful spirituality, a sense of Easter Sunday grandeur. It is most decidedly “death has been conquered; arise and go forth” music...

The Exoticism & Euphoria of Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun”

Claude Debussy's "Afternoon of a Faun" delivers volumes of sensation. Languor, sensuality, euphoria, curiosity, an awareness of the exotic. You are flung back to your own childhood, your adolescence, all awash in new experiences, colors, sensations. For ten fleeting minutes, you let the music cradle you, transport...

“Irish” Symphony

Editor's Note:  Arthur Sullivan began writing what would be his only symphony when he was twenty-one years old, on a trip to Ireland, the native land of his father.  "The other night as I was jolting home," he wrote to his mother from Belfast, "through the wind...

Haunted by Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony”

Camille Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 has so many distinct and wonderful flavors, it just amazes me. And the first movement is so vibrant, unexpected, cinematic. The second movement utterly transports me... Being haunted by music sounds like...

The Decline of Western Civilization in 10 Pictures

Without any ado, here are ten pictures that convey how far Western Civilization has fallen over the last centuries. 1. Mozart conducting one of his own settings of the Mass, circa 1780; modern church service with rock band   2. Crowd watching baseball game, early...

Copying Mozart: Did Beethoven Steal Melodies for His Own Music?

Did Beethoven steal tunes from his older contemporary for the "Eroica" Symphony, the Ninth Symphony, and for his most popular and beautiful song?... It is one of the most popular tunes in all of classical music, nay, in all...

Is Rachmaninoff’s Music Too Schmaltzy?

Many classical music purists today consider Sergei Rachmaninoff’s music to be excessively sentimental, admittedly lush but too similar-sounding once you’ve heard one concerto. But is this a fair assessment?... Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op 18...

“Roman Carnival”

Editor's Note: Hector Berlioz composed Le carnaval romain, ouverture pour orchestre (Roman Carnival Overture), Op. 9, in in 1844. Intended to be performed as an independent piece, it employs themes from Berlioz' opera Benvenuto Cellini: The beautiful melody on cor anglais in the slow introduction comes from the Act I...

10 Tips for the Fledgling Classical Music Lover

Are you dipping your toe into the classical music waters, not sure if you’re up for the full swim, but willing to wade around a bit? Hop in—the temperature is just right! Here are 10 tips for you...

“The Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple”

Editor's Note: "The Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple" is one of the movements of Baroque composer Heinrich Barber's famous "Mystery Sonatas" (also called the "Rosary Sonatas"), a set of fifteen short sonatas for violin and continuo. According to the program notes* for a performance of these works: The Mystery Sonatas survive in only a...

Franz Schubert’s Music of Paradise Lost

In terms of his achievement there is only one other composer to whom Franz Schubert can be compared: Mozart. Perhaps not as precocious as Mozart, Schubert was nonetheless already an accomplished composer as a teenager. In his brief...

The “Wild and Terrible” Mozart

"Too wild and terrible" is what Ludwig van Beethoven is reported to have said about Mozart's famous Requiem. And despite the popularity of this great, unfinished work, the "wild and terrible" side of Mozart has generally been obscured...