Music History Monday: Franz Schubert: An Unfinished Symphony; An Unfinished Life
October
30th,
2023
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) in 1824 We mark October 30, 1822 – 201 years ago today – as being the day on which Franz Schubert began what is now known as his Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the “Unfinished Symphony.” Lost just months after Schubert completed the two movements that make up the “Unfinished,” the…
Dr. Bob Prescribes The Jazz Singer
October
24th,
2023
Al Jolson (1886-1950) in The Jazz Singer (1927) The First “Talking Picture”? For as long as I’ve been aware of the movie The Jazz Singer, its title has always been preceded or followed by the phrase, “the first talking picture,” meaning the first major, full-length commercial film to contain spoken dialogue. This is true but…
Music History Monday: Al Jolson and the Painful Legacy of Blackface
October
23rd,
2023
Al Jolson (1886-1950) We mark the death on October 23, 1950 – 73 years ago today - of the Lithuanian-American singer and actor Al Jolson. Born “Asa Yoelson” on May 26, 1886, in the village of Srednik, in what was then the Russian Empire and what is today Lithuania, he died of a massive heart…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912)
October
17th,
2023
The crowning glory of Schoenberg’s “emancipation of dissonance” period is Pierrot Lunaire. In terms of its importance and influence on the literate music of the twentieth century, Pierrot Lunaire stands second only to Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which Stravinsky completed six months after Schoenberg (1874-1951) finished Pierrot. 1912 was, truly, a miraculous year…
Music History Monday: Mathilde Made Him Do It!
October
16th,
2023
A few, necessary words before moving on to today’s post. Our hearts bleed for the events currently playing out in Israel and Gaza. Frankly, there are no words. Today is also the 14th anniversary of my wife Diane’s death; she died at the age of 35 on October 16, 2009. Again, there are no words.…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Camille Saint-Saëns, Symphony No. 3, “Organ Symphony” (1886)
October
10th,
2023
Camille Saint-Saëns and the Organ Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) at the organ Saint-Saëns was almost certainly the greatest organist of his time and among the greatest who has ever lived. From 1857 until 1877 – from the age of 22 to 42 - he held the extremely prestigious position of organist at Paris’ most chic La…
Music History Monday: The Parrot
October
9th,
2023
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) We mark the birth on October 9, 1835 – 188 years ago today – of Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns, in Paris. He died in that magnificent city on Beethoven’s 151st birthday – on December 16, 1921 - at the age of 86. The Nose Physically, the adult Camille Saint-Saëns was – literally - an…
Dr. Bob Prescribes – Mozart, Complete Piano Sonatas
October
3rd,
2023
This is an admittedly odd post. I’m not recommending Gould’s complete Mozart Piano Sonatas as a “principal set”; it’s just too quirky. For principal sets, I would heartily recommend Ronald Brautigam’s, performed on a fortepiano (on BIS); or Mitsuko Uchida’s recorded on a modern Steinway (on Decca). Typical of pretty much any Glenn Gould performance,…
Music History Monday: 710 Ashbury Street, San Francisco, California
October
2nd,
2023
Before we get to the central topic of today’s post – that being a particular address in San Francisco - we would wish a most happy birthday to someone we only know by his nickname. Please: no looking ahead and peeking! Sir G. B. Hunter Memorial Hospital in Wallsend, Northumberland, England Today we wish a…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner: Lohengrin Revisited, Part Two
September
26th,
2023
As we observed in last week’s Dr. Bob Prescribes, Act I of Lohengrin is a “public” spectacle. As such, Act I is about “appearances”: that is, how the characters choose to portray themselves in public. For example, what’s-his-name – the knight in shiny armor (“Waffenschmuck” in German) - would “appear” to be a God-sent hero.…