Pianist Orion Weiss assembled this program around a theme – the composer responding to a specific source of inspiration with a virtuoso composition. It’s an interesting idea, and it yielded an album that virtually spans the Romantic Period. The earliest work is Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” by Frederic Chopin. And the inspiration […]
Frederic Chopin
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#ClassicsaDay #SchumannsCircle Week 2
The Classics a Day team honors Robert Schumann’s birthday (June 8, 1810). The theme for June is Schumann and his circle. During the month, you’re encouraged to share works written by Schumann, his friends, his colleagues, his rivals — and of course, his wife. Here are my #ClassicsaDay selections for the second week of #SchumannsCircle. […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalTimeMachine Week 2
For the month of October, the Classics a Day team turned nostalgic. Classical musicians have been making recordings since the 1890s. So we all have over 130 years of documented performance practices. And we can judge first-hand the artistry of legendary performers. The challenge is to post classical recordings made before 1949 (pre-LP era). Here […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalShorts Week 1
February is the shortest month of the year. That fact inspired #ClassicsaDay team (of which I’m a member) to make short classical pieces the theme for the month. The challenge is to select stand-alone works, not movements of larger pieces. Participants post links to short classical pieces in the social media channel of their choice, […]
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#ClassicsaDay #SchumannsCircle Week 3
Robert Schumann was born on June 8, 1810. Some of us contributing to the #ClassicsaDay feed decided to celebrate that birthday. For the month of June, we encouraged folks to post works by Schumann and his circle. Schumann worked with several major composers of the day. He also reviewed up-and-coming composers in his magazine. Here […]
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#ClassicsaDay #Opus1 Annotated List Week 2
I’m a regular contributor to the #ClassicsaDay Twitter feed. For January 2018, I decided to mark the first month of the new year with firsts. Each post features the first published work of a different composer. Emphasis on the word “published,” In some cases, the Opus 1 is the first mature work of the composer. […]
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Horacio Gutiérrez – Chopin and Schumann
Sometimes liner notes can make a difference. In the booklet for this release, Stephen Wigler suggested that Chopin’s Op. 28 Preludes might be considered a single cycle comprised of very short works, as opposed to a collection of 24 self-contained preludes. While they certainly work as the former, the idea that each prelude was part […]
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Visualizing Chopin with Musanim
If you don’t “get” classical music, read on. Musanim.com can help. One of the challenges classical music presents to many people is that it’s not always immediately clear what’s going on. Composers write on many different levels, and often it’s not just the melody that’s important (which may or may not be on the top), […]