by Barry Lenson | May 25, 2020 | Uncategorized
We cannot recall the last time we wrote about a piece of music composed for military band. But when our current search for mood-lifting musical selections led us to rediscover The English Folk Song Suite, a piece that Ralph Vaughan Williams composed in 1923 for...
by Barry Lenson | May 21, 2020 | Uncategorized
In these difficult days, it seems hard to make an argument that you and I are living in “The best of all possible worlds.” Yet that is the message of Candide, an operetta that Leonard Bernstein wrote in 1956 to a libretto by Lillian Hellman. Because Candide is based...
by Barry Lenson | May 15, 2020 | Uncategorized
A Playlist of Works Written by Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Before He Reached Age 18 A lot of the music composed by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy seems happy. But there is something especially joyous about works he composed while he was still a teenager. Youth, high spirits...
by Barry Lenson | Dec 31, 2019 | Uncategorized
I really like the book Year of Wonder, written by a British classical music commentator, author and announcer named Clemency Burton-Hill. In fact, I have spent a lot of time with this book since it was published back in 2018. (Note that Ms. Burton-Hill is now the...
by Barry Lenson | Oct 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
The songs composed by Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) and Clara Schumann (1819-1896) are every bit as good as those composed by Felix Mendelssohn (Fanny’s brother) and Robert Schumann (Clara’s husband). Now, thanks to excellent releases available on Classical Archives,...
by Barry Lenson | Oct 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
Frederica von Stade, a great mezzo-soprano who has been a beloved artist at the Metropolitan Opera and other major opera houses during a career that has endured through five decades, somehow remains a little under-recognized by many lovers of great singing. How can...
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