by Barry Lenson | Sep 30, 2016 | Andres Segovia, Guitar Music, Johann Sebastian Bach, Uncategorized
Sometime around 1964 when I was in high school, my parents made me take off my baseball glove and put away my bike on a Sunday afternoon. They then made me put on a sport jacket and itchy woolen pants and told me, “We are going to hear Segovia.” Sure enough, the great...
by Barry Lenson | Sep 12, 2016 | Camille Saint-Saens, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Uncategorized
Over Labor Day weekend, I decided to write a post for this blog about all the wonderful pieces of classical music that celebrate working. The problem seems to be, there aren’t too many of them. At the same time – and this is funny – there is no shortage of popular...
by Barry Lenson | Sep 1, 2016 | French Music, Maurice Ravel, Orchestral Music, Uncategorized
I am enthralled with one of the new releases that are available for listening here on Classical Archives. It is a two-CD recording on the Urania Arts label of the great Belgian/French maestro Andre Cluytens conducting the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du...
by Barry Lenson | Aug 22, 2016 | Great Pianists, Ignace Pleyel, Muzio Clementi, Piano Music, Uncategorized
Can your piano be a composer? Not really. I have to admit that the title of today’s post is a trick question. But the fact is, at least two important composers – Muzio Clementi and Ignace Pleyel – were also manufacturers of pianos. They put their names on the...
by Barry Lenson | Aug 12, 2016 | Choral Music, Opera, Orchestral Music, Uncategorized
Einojuhani Rautavaara, widely called the finest Finnish composer since Jean Sibelius, passed away on July 17th in Helsinki at the age of 87. If you’re not familiar with his music (and I have to admit that I have only gotten to know it in the weeks since he died), you...
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