Scandalous Overtures: Haydn: Haydn Go Seek
December
2nd,
2014
Why would anyone want to hack the head off of Joseph Haydn’s corpse, scoop out its eyes and brain, boil off its hair and skin, bleach the skull, and then mount it on a black velvet pillow? This strikes us as gross and more than a little weird, like preserving and mounting Kim Kardashian’s buttocks…
Scandalous Overtures: Tchaikovsky: Fear And Loathing In St. Petersburg
December
2nd,
2014
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and William Bruce Jenner: really, can we imagine a more unlikely pair? Tchaikovsky was a nineteenth century Russian composer of exquisitely lyric music; a shy and sensitive man, fastidious in his habits and Victorian in his manners and bearing. Bruce Jenner is a dyslexic jock from Westchester County in New York. When…
Coming Out of a Month of Anniversaries
November
18th,
2014
I received an email from a friend yesterday inquiring about my “radio silence” over the last few weeks. Aside from the occasional notice posted on this site, silent I have been: I have not actually blogged in over 6 weeks, since October 4th. Not that I have been missed what with all the other nonsense…
Explorations in Music, KALW, The Alexander String Quartet & Relationships
October
6th,
2014
The old line goes that being a member of a professional string quartet is like being married to three people, except there’s no sex and nobody cooks. The lack of food and sex notwithstanding, professional quartet membership IS a marriage. The members of a quartet live for and with each other; they depend on each…
The Diane Elizabeth Clymer-Greenberg Memorial Concert — Next Week!
September
29th,
2014
A further plug for the Composers, Inc. concert scheduled to take place next week in Berkeley. As a reminder, Composers, Inc. - now in its 31st season - is dedicated to the cause and performance of New American music. The concert will feature works composed within just the last few years, by Cindy Cox, Don…
The Great Courses as a Curriculum
September
15th,
2014
September is “Fine Arts Celebration” month for The Great Courses. To that end, I have been asked to write up a music curriculum that TGC can post on its social media channels. I preview it below: Among the questions I am most frequently asked (along with “what’s that aftershave you’re wearing?”) is a curricular one.…
Composers, Inc. News
September
1st,
2014
I’m about to become even more tiresome than usual in my promotion of the new music performance group “Composers, Inc.” Founded in 1984, Composers, Inc. is dedicated to the creation and performance of new American music. There are no Euro-composers, alive or dead, on its programs; goodness knows, the Euros have enough venues already. Neither…
OraTV: Scandalous Overtures — The Sizzle!
August
27th,
2014
Sizzle for schizzle! So would have spoken the late, great Tupac Shakur, had he the opportunity to share among his friends (and enemas) the following promotional video, created by OraTV to publicize my new show, a promotional video called in the trade a “sizzle”. Regarding the show. I had originally entitled the show “Conspiracies, Peccadilloes,…
Shostakovich — His Life and Music Playlist
August
26th,
2014
Enjoy five excerpts from the “Great Masters: Shostakovich — His Life and Music” course in a new playlist on the Robert Greenberg YouTube Channel. Lecture highlights in the playlist: Shostakovich — His Life and Music: An Introduction Lady Macbeth The Fifth Symphony The Tenth Symphony The Eighth String Quartet http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyKjPnIrFIqhk7gzOITKtIC0_Kr4IoiMB Buy the Course More Great…
Robert Greenberg Recommends: Roger Kellaway
August
20th,
2014
It’s been a while since I blogged about my favorite jazz pianists. A new crush calls me back to the (computer) keyboard. That pianistic crush is the magnificent, in-every-way spectacular Roger Kellaway. Roger who? Roger KELLAWAY (born in Waban, Massachusetts on November 1, 1939), thank you very much. In fact, whether we’re aware of it…