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Today I want to share with you Symphony No. 40 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Symphony 40 was composed in the summer of 1788. Stunningly, Mozart composed three symphonies, 39, 40, and 41, in the space of just a few weeks. (Most ..
We went to the Austin Symphony to hear Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade. 2018 is the 100-year celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s birthday, and so before the orchestra performed Beethoven’s ..
Today I’d like to share with you an except from String Concerto No. 2 by Russian composer Alexander Borodin (1833-1887). Borodin was part of the group composers called the Mighty Handful (or “The Five”). All members ..
Today I would like to introduce you to a composer who is very new to me (though he is anything but new): John Field (1782-1837). Arguably the most famous Irish composer, John Field was a talented pianist and that is how he earned ..
Today I want to share with you the second movement of the Piano Concerto in G minor by French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Ravel was considered a French Impressionist – a term he rejected. We usually associate ..
My music note for this week will be short. I don’t feel I did justice to Grieg’s Second Piano Concerto in B minor with the recordings I shared. I found a much better recording. I have been listening to it ..
Edvard Grieg stood only 5 feet tall. When this is your height and your only other talent is that you are a gifted piano player, and you are growing up in Norway – a cold, mountainous country of fjords; long, unkind winters; ..
If the word Bach instantly puts you to sleep; if you relate Baroque music to the word boring, I can relate to your sentiment, as I used to feel the same way. But Bach’s Piano Concerto in D minor was the piece that really ..
Today I am going to share with you a very short piece, “Kojo No Tsuki” (“Moon Over Ruined Castle”) by Japanese composer Rentaro Taki, who lived a tragically short life. Taki graduated music school in Tokyo ..
“You have to listen to Mozart’s Piano Concerto Number 21, part 2.” Those were my father’s words. He just heard it on the radio and could not wait to tell me about it. This was over twenty-five years ago, but I still ..