Music History Monday: Elaine Stritch: An Appreciation
July
17th,
2023
Elaine Stritch (1925-2014) circa 2012: a self-professed “tough old dame” We mark the death on July 17, 2014 – 9 years ago today - of the Broadway and television actress Elaine Stritch, in Birmingham, Michigan, at the age of 89. I personally have a soft spot in my heart for Ms. Stritch the size of…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Pavel Haas, String Quartet No. 3
July
11th,
2023
Pavel Haas (1899-1944) circa 1937 The subject of today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post is doubly appropriate. Yesterday’s Music History Monday dealt with Carl Orff (1895-1982), a composer who thrived under the Nazi regime only to later claim (as did so many others in the post-war period) to have been a “victim” of the Nazis. Well,…
Music History Monday: When You Dance with the Devil
July
10th,
2023
We mark the birth on July 10, 1895 – 128 years ago today – of the German composer and educator Carl Heinrich Maria Orff. Born in Munich, he died in that city on March 29, 1982, at the age of 86. Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (1895-1982) circa 1955 Bild: Brille, ernst The Good News Orff…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Leoš Janáček, String Quartets
July
4th,
2023
I am well aware that today is July 4 and that, perhaps, the patriotic thing for me to do today would be to celebrate the national anthem of the United States – The Star-Spangled Banner – and, perhaps, a famous arrangement of that very anthem. Sadly, no-can-do, because it has already-been-done: just last year, in…
Music History Monday: Leoš Janáček: Composer, Patriot, and Patriot Composer!
July
3rd,
2023
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) circa 1925, at the age of 71 We mark the birth on July 3, 1854 – 169 years ago today - of the Moravian (meaning Czech) composer, music theorist, folklorist, and teacher Leoš Janáček. Born in the village of Hukvaldy in what today is the Czech Republic, he died on August 12,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Wolfgang Mozart, Piano Quartets K. 478 (1785) and K. 493 (1786)
June
27th,
2023
Yesterday’s Music History Monday post dealt with the incredulity we should all feel when faced with the astounding magnitude of Wolfgang Mozart’s talent and the beauty and quality of his music. It is appropriate, then, that today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post should celebrate at least some of Mozart’s astonishing music, and I have chosen his…
Music History Monday: You’ve Got to be Kidding
June
26th,
2023
‘Fessing Up THE SCENE from the John Carpenter movie The Thing (1983) Okay: you’re going to have to bear with me for one of my idiotic tangents, one that nevertheless explains precisely how I feel about Mozart and his music at a gut level. What follows is a deep confession, something I’ve never shared before. …
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor (1944)
June
20th,
2023
In my Dr. Bob Prescribes post of June 6, 2023, on Martha Argerich, I recommended an album containing two piano trios: Pyotr Tchaikovsky one-and-only piano trio of 1882, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s second piano trio, in E minor of 1944, as performed by Martha Argerich, piano; Gidon Kremer, violin; and Mischa Maisky, cello. In that post,…
Music History Monday: Our Kind of Musician
June
19th,
2023
Ferdinand David (1810-1873) We mark the birth on June 19, 1810 – 213 years ago today – of the German virtuoso violinist and composer, Ferdinand David. Born in the exact same house in Hamburg that saw Felix Mendelssohn’s birth 16½ months before, David died while on vacation in Switzerland on July 18, 1873, at the…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Chick Corea, pianist and composer
June
13th,
2023
Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea (1941-2021), circa 1975 Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the birth of the American pianist and composer Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea (1941-2021), in Chelsea, Massachusetts. A good bit of that post was spent discussing Corea’s stunning versatility as a pianist and composer: he could play the piano and compose for the…