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Today I’d like to share with you an excerpt (part 2) from the Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, by Robert Schumann. This is one of those pieces that when you hear it for the first time, it captures your heart and soul and you cannot ..
I was driving my four-year-old daughter Mia Sarah a few days ago. We hit traffic, and Mia Sarah said “We are adagio.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “We are going adagio, we are going slow.” I was shocked ..
Today I would like to share with you Má Vlast by Bedrich Smetana (1824–1864). My daughter Hannah and I were listening to this piece a few days ago in the car when she said, “Dad, this sounds just like the national anthem ..
Today I want to share with you an aria from the opera Tosca, composed by Giacomo Puccini. The aria I am sharing, “Te Deum,” is not the most popular one, but it is one of my favorites. In addition to the music of the orchestra ..
Today I am going to share with you Concerto in A Minor by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), also known as CPE Bach, the fifth child and second son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He was very popular during his lifetime and was also ..
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 ..