Dr. Bob Prescribes Mahler, Symphony No. 4
April
21st,
2020
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) in 1898, the year before he began his Symphony No. 4 Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was the greatest opera composer never to have composed an opera. Huh? Once again: Gustav Mahler was the greatest opera composer never to have composed an opera. That statement is intended to be neither ironic nor provocative. Nor,…
Music History Monday: The Beloved Son Returns
April
20th,
2020
Cover of Time magazine, May 5, 1986 We mark the solo piano recital on April 20, 1986 – 34 years ago today – that saw Vladimir Horowitz perform at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Horowitz, who was 82 years old at the time, had not visited or performed in his native Russia for…
The Great Courses Facebook Live – Music List
April
17th,
2020
https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatCourses/videos/223077668963526/ As promised on The Great Courses Facebook LIVE - here is my list of music guaranteed to raise our spirits, make us forget our woes, and render us susceptible to boogie fever: Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert; ArchivBach: Goldberg Variations; Glenn Gould 1955 & 1981 recordings; SonyBeethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas;…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Messiah
April
14th,
2020
George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) circa 1726, in a portrait attributed to Balthasar Denner Messiah (never, please, “The” Messiah) received its premiere performance 278 years ago yesterday, at The Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, Ireland. As noted in yesterday’s Music History Monday post, the performing forces at the premiere were quite modest. Handel composed…
Music History Monday: Hallelujah!
April
13th,
2020
We mark the first performance on April 13, 1742 – 278 years ago today – of George Frederick Handel’s Messiah in Dublin, Ireland. George Frederick Handel (born Georg Friedrich Händel, 1685-1759) in 1756, painted by Thomas Hudson; note the score to Messiah on the left Messiah is not just Handel’s most famous work, but one…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Stravinsky – Requiem Canticles
April
7th,
2020
Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973) and Stravinsky in 1935 On December 28, 1945, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and his wife Vera (1889-1982) became American citizens. They were sponsored by the actor Edward G. Robinson with whom Stravinsky had been close friends since the 1930s. The years that followed were among the best of Stravinsky’s life. Despite he…
Music History Monday: Defying the Odds
April
6th,
2020
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971) in 1929, age 47 We mark the death on April 6, 1971 – 49 years ago today – of the composer Igor Stravinsky at the age of 88. To hear him tell it, Stravinsky fully intended to live to be 100 years old. Given the environment in which he grew up,…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
March
31st,
2020
Covid-19 be damned, it’s still Beethoven’s 250th birth year and that celebration stops for nothing and no one, certainly not here on the pages of Dr. Bob Prescribes. Let us then continue to revel in some of Beethoven’s lesser-known works and lesser-known performances. Today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes is the third and final post to be…
Music History Monday: Be Nice to the People You Meet On the Way Up, ‘Cause You’re Going to Meet Them Again on the Way Back Down
March
30th,
2020
March 30 is a good day for birthdays in the world of pop and rock. Let’s acknowledge three of them before moving on to the fourth of our birthday babies, someone whose fascinating life and even more fascinating financial foibles will make up the bulk of today’s post. Eric Clapton (born 1945) We gratefully mark…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Wagner – The Ring of the Nibelung
March
24th,
2020
Nothing is perfect, not even evolution. Speaking for myself, I wish evolution had done a better job with human knees and rotator cuffs, though given that evolution engineered the human body to last only some 35 or 40 years, I suppose the breakdown of my knees and shoulders – which are presently long past their…