Robert Greenberg
Historian, Composer, Pianist, Speaker, Author
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Music History Monday: Disproportionate Numbers and “The Screaming Skull”
October 21st, 2019
Georg Solti (1912-1997) We mark the birth, on October 21, 1912 – 107 years ago today - of the Hungarian-born pianist and conductor György Stern (better known as Sir Georg Solti) in Budapest, Hungary. Considered one of the greatest conductors to have ever lived, Solti is the Michael Phelps, the Simone Biles of the musical world, having received a record 31(!) GRAMMY® Awards. We contemplate, for a nonce (or even two nonces), “disproportionate numbers”: why…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Emil Gilels
October 15th, 2019
This post continues the celebration of Beethoven’s upcoming semiquincentennial (250th anniversary of his birth) by featuring what is, for me, my out-of-the-ballpark favorite performance of what is, for me, my favorite Beethoven Piano Concerto. We contemplate, for a moment, youth, innocence, and the inevitable loss of both. Lillian Patricia Clymer Greenberg, age 13, heaven help…
Music History Monday: Der Bingle
October 14th, 2019
Harry Lillis “Bing” (Der Bingle) Crosby (1903-1977) We mark the death on October 14, 1977 – 42 years ago today – of the American singer and actor Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby of a so-called “widow maker”: a massive, dead-before-he-hit-the-ground heart attack. We sense that he went out the way he would have chosen to go…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Jessye Norman
October 8th, 2019
Death comes for us all, even the goddesses among us. Pardon me such a lachrymose opening line, but Jessye Norman died on September 30, 2019 at the age of 74 and how can that be. I had planned to write today about Johannes Brahms’ glorious vocal quartets (for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices and… Robert Greenberg | Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved