Robert Greenberg
Historian, Composer, Pianist, Speaker, Author
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Dr. Bob Prescribes: Howard Hanson, Symphony No. 2
March 19th, 2019
Warrant Officer Ripley aboard the Nostromo I invoke Ridley Scott’s 1979 Sci-fi masterwork, the movie Alien. It was the first movie in that storied franchise, with the killer tag line, “in space no one can hear you scream” (40 years later, I still love that line!). I set final scene. Warrant Officer Ellen Louise Ripley (played by the indomitable Sigourney Weaver) is the last surviving member of the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo. In…
Music History Monday: Transfigured Night
March 18th, 2019
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) in 1903 On March 18, 1902 – 117 years ago today – Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht (meaning Transfigured Night) for string sextet received its premiere in his native city of Vienna. Considered today to be Schoenberg’s first “major” work, the music prompted what are euphemistically called “disruptions” (meaning catcalls and hisses) and…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Erroll Garner
March 12th, 2019
Erroll Garner performs Col Porter’s I Get a Kick Out of You, circa 1960: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VHUpGxFJJ8 Erroll Louis Garner (1923-1977) was a 5’2” miracle: a virtuoso jazz pianist whose performances had the nuanced textures of big band charts; whose sheer, overpowering and contagious joy could not help but overwhelm listeners; who created a style of playing…
Music History Monday: The “Revival” Begins
March 11th, 2019
On March 11, 1829 – 190 years ago today – the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn conducted a heavily edited version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred oratorio St. Matthew’s Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin. Located just north of the Unter den Linden and know today as the “Maxim Gorky Theater”, the Singakademie was, for many years,… Robert Greenberg | Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved