Music History Monday: That Infernal Beast!
November
26th,
2018
St. Stephen’s Cathedral We mark today the 258th anniversary of the marriage of Joseph Haydn to Maria Anna Aloysia Apollonia Keller in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the great city of Vienna. The groom was 28 years old and his blushing bride 31. We contemplate the institution of marriage. Marriage is like swinging a golf club:…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Vocal Sampling
November
20th,
2018
You're going to thank me for this Dr. Bob's Neighborhood It was Wednesday, September 18, 2002 (I didn’t remember that date; I looked it up). I was stuck in the car, driving somewhere. (Generally but accurately speaking, when you’re driving anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, you are very like stuck in the car,…
Music History Monday: Schubert’s Death
November
19th,
2018
The building in which Schubert died at Kettenbrückengasse 6 in Vienna November 19 is a sad day for us all. On November 19, 1828 - 190 years ago today – Franz Schubert died in Vienna at his brother Ferdinand’s third floor flat at Kettenbrückengasse 6 (in Schubert’s day, the address was Firmiansgasse 694). The building…
Dr. Bob Prescribes (sort of): Beethoven, Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7, as “retouched” by Gustav Mahler
November
13th,
2018
Gustav Mahler In November 1899 the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) told his friend, the violist Natalie Bauer-Lechner: “Beethoven’s First, Second, and Fourth Symphonies can still be performed by modern orchestras and conductors. All the rest, however, are quite beyond their powers. Only Richard Wagner and I myself have done these works justice. And…
Music History Monday: A Birthday, Some Critters, and a Fern!
November
12th,
2018
Neil Young On November 12, 1945 – 73 years ago today – the singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, producer, director, screenwriter, humanitarian, entrepreneur, inventor and environmentalist Neil Percival Young was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Upfront: I would tell you that Maestro Neil Young has been part of my life since my coming of age (which…
Dr. Bob Prescribes J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerti nos. 1-6
November
6th,
2018
A couple of weeks ago, my Patreon patron Lorenze Fedel responded to my battlefield conversion in favor of the fortepiano (Dr. Bob Prescribes, October 23) with the following comment, slightly edited for content. Sir Thomas Beecham “These [Brautigam recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas] are now in my growing Amazon wish list. Next stop, Dr. Bob,…
Music History Monday: A Life Well Lived
November
5th,
2018
Elliott Carter We mark the death of the American Composer Elliott Carter, who died six years ago today - on November 5, 2012 - one month shy of his 104th birthday. When Elliott Carter was born on December 11, 1908, Theodore Roosevelt was President; an Indian’s head was on the obverse of a United States…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Johannes Brahms, Horn Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 40 (1865)
October
30th,
2018
Johannes Brahms in 1865, age 32 When the Hamburg born-and-raised Johannes (“Hannes”) Brahms was around four years old, his father Johann Jakob Brahms decided it was high time the kid learned to play the three instruments that he himself played. Papa Brahms wanted his eldest son to follow him into the family trade and be,…
Music History Monday: Don Giovanni
October
29th,
2018
Mozart in 1789 On October 29, 1787 – 221 years ago today – Wolfgang Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni received its world premiere in the Bohemian capital of Prague. That premiere was – and remains - Mozart’s single most triumphant first performance. In 1777, the 21 year-old Mozart wrote his father: “I have only to hear…
Jan Woloniecki: Opera Fanatic of the Decade
October
26th,
2018
Jan Woloniecki We ponder - for a bit – the nature of hobbies: those avocational pursuits that run the gamut from harmless amusement to life-dominating passions. I will confess up front that I am a collector, and so I’ve got a certain insight into this hobby-thing that a non-collector/non-hobbyist will not have. My first wife,…