Dr. Bob Prescribes – Rossini: The Barber of Seville
February
26th,
2019
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) Oft’ have I moaned and groaned about the licensing contracts signed by The Teaching Company/Great Courses and various recording companies, contracts that precluded me from identifying the performers heard on the musical excerpts in my courses. Yes indeed, this is entirely counter-intuitive; one would think that the record companies would want me…
Music History Monday: Myra Hess
February
25th,
2019
Myra Hess (1890-1965) On February 25, 1890 – 129 years ago today – the pianist Julia Myra Hess was born in Hampstead in North West London. In a “Dr. Bob Prescribes” post, I rather energetically took the pianist Keith Jarrett to task for behaving like a brat – for haranguing and cursing at his audiences…
Patron Forum: Olly Wilson and Nerdy Arcana
February
21st,
2019
Olly Wilson, 1937-2018 On Saturday, February 16, I was honored to be the first speaker at a Memorial Symposium at the University of California, Berkeley for my friend and teacher, Olly Wilson. Olly – who died on March 12, 2018 - was a distinguished composer, musicologist, and author. His obituary can be read in The…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Don Giovanni
February
19th,
2019
Mozart in 1780, the year he composed Idomeneo at age 26 This Thursday – on September 21st – I will be giving a public lecture at UCLA’s Royce Hall entitled “Will the Real Mozart Please Stand Up?” On Saturday the 23rd, I will lead a two-hour seminar on Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, which for logistical…
Music History Monday: Appassionata
February
18th,
2019
Cover page of the first edition of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 57 On February 18, 1807 – 212 years ago today – Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, nicknamed by the publisher the “Appassionata”, was published in Vienna. The “Appassionata” is one of Beethoven’s most spectacular works, a piano sonata…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Chick Corea and Béla Fleck
February
12th,
2019
Chick Corea My Dr. Bob Prescribes post of December 25, 2018 was dedicated to one of my very favorite jazz pianists, the late, great, Dave McKenna. During the course of that post, I offered up a short list of those jazz pianists who have most powerfully influenced my own playing. (I am a designated Steinway…
Music History Monday: The Right Composer at the Right Time and the Right Place
February
11th,
2019
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) in 1843 On February 11, 1843 – 176 years ago today – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata (The Lombards of the First Crusade) received its first performance at the Teatro La Scala in Milan. It was the 29-year-old Verdi’s fourth opera. His third opera, the monumentally successful Nabucco (as in…
Doctor Bob Prescribes: Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
February
5th,
2019
Bessie Hurwitz in 1916 As I know I’ve mentioned all-too-many-times, my paternal grandmother, Bessie Hurwitz Greenberg, graduated in 1916 with a degree in piano from the New York Institute of Musical Art (renamed the Juilliard School in 1926). For the next fifty-plus years, she tortured generations of piano students from her studio in Queens, New…
Music History Monday: John, Yoko, and Strom
February
4th,
2019
John Lennon in 1972 On February 4, 1972 – 47 years ago today – Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina sent a memo to John Mitchell, the Attorney General of the United States, in which he demanded that John Lennon be deported! Why would the not very nice Mr. Thurmond want to do such a…
Patreon Patron Forum: Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25
January
31st,
2019
Wolfgang Mozart, detail of a painting by his brother-in-law Joseph Lange I have received an extremely thoughtful question from Patreon patron Leigh Harper. On the surface it might appear to be a technical question concerning the function of various sections of music relative to one another, the sort of question that appeals to music nerds…