Greenberg Recommends — Vince Guaraldi
January
7th,
2014
Back in early autumn, I ran a series of blogs on my favorite jazz pianists. With your indulgence, I would resume with a wonderful – if somewhat under under-appreciated - pianist, whose name I will broach in due time (not that you haven’t just checked the bottom of the post). But first, a necessary screed.…
HAPPY 243RD BIRTHDAY LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN!
December
16th,
2013
In honor of the day I offer up a few Beethoven jokes. Beethoven himself loved a good joke. According to his pals, no one laughed louder at Beethoven’s jokes than Beethoven himself, who would throw his head back and howl with inappropriately loud laughter. (We are told that Beethoven’s friends invariably laughed along, not because…
What Killed Mozart? The Real Story
December
5th,
2013
[caption id="attachment_724" align="alignright" width="259"] The other white meat: pork. Was it just such a rogue cutlet that cut short Mozart’s life?[/caption]Mozart died 222 years ago today at the not-at-all ripe age of 35 years, 10 months, and 8 days. In yesterday’s post I described some of the conspiracy theories that have accumulated around Mozart’s death…
Mozartian Conspiracy Theories
December
4th,
2013
[caption id="attachment_720" align="alignright" width="258"] A portrait of Mozart dating from 1782/83 by his brother-in-law, Joseph Lange. The portrait is incomplete; Lange planned to depict Mozart playing a piano. Incomplete or not, Lange’s portrait was considered by Mozart’s contemporaries to be the most accurate depiction of Mozart ever made.[/caption]Tomorrow, December 5, marks the 222nd anniversary of…
The Premiere of “180 Shift”
November
27th,
2013
I had a premiere in Stockton, California on November 2 and now, with video in hand, I would take the opportunity of sharing it with you. The name of the piece is “180 Shift”; it is scored for violin, ‘cello, and piano. The piece was composed for and dedicated to a wonderful group called Trio…
Advice to Students I Never Gave
November
25th,
2013
I have taken a brief but necessary hiatus from my Facebook blogging, but I’m back now, reinvigorated and prepared now to write about stuff you probably couldn’t care less about: growing up in New Jersey and then moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. However, the video I’ve posted at the butt-end of this post…
Great Courses Professor Web-Chat Recap
November
4th,
2013
[caption id="attachment_711" align="alignright" width="300"] Where I should have been[/caption]Be it ever so humble . . . We returned home late in the day on Tuesday, October 29. Typical of extended trips, we needed a vacation following our vacation. (Admittedly, mine was a “working vacation”, a phrase as oxymoronic as “vacations with children”. In truth, hanging…
Checking in from Italy — Mantua
October
25th,
2013
If it’s Friday, it must be Mantua. The potential downside with a tour the likes of the one I am presently engaged in is that it IS a tour: we climb on a bus and thus cocooned, we journey forth to various locations. We must adhere to the almighty schedule lest people get lost and…
Checking in from Italy — Verdi Opera Tour
October
23rd,
2013
[caption id="attachment_704" align="alignright" width="300"] Artur Rucinski taking his bow after the performance of "The Bandits"[/caption]Hard to believe, it’s already a week since I/we left home in order to lead a Verdi opera tour in Italy. We arrived on Wednesday, October 16 and are staying in a renovated thirteenth-century castle in an ancient village called Tabiano…
Celebrating Verdi’s 200th — Falstaff
October
15th,
2013
I trust we all raised a glass last Thursday on the 10th of October in honor of Giuseppe Verdi’s 200th birthday. Now, I am aware that with the exception of “belated birthday cards” (“I really crapped up, I’m embarrassed to say; but I had better things to do than remember your day”), we generally do…