Over the years, the question of how to play Chopin “correctly” has become a riddle wrapped within an enigma. The usual charge leveled at pianists who play it “wrong” is that they are playing too sentimentally, wallowing in ritardandos and bending rhythms in...

Carlo Bergonzi, one of the greatest Italian tenors of the last 100 years, just died at age 90. There are a lot of obituaries for him all over the Internet today. If you want to know the story of his extraordinary life, I’d encourage you to read a few of them.On my...

"Afternoon at Cape Cod" by my father Michael Lenson (1903-1971)Note the influence - not dominance- of cubism and abstractionI love artists who are a little behind the times. Perhaps that is because my father Michael Lenson was one of them. He was a fine realist...

A few months ago my wife and I went to hear a lecture given by Prof. Carol J. Oja about her upcoming book, Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War. Because the lecture was sponsored by the New York Philharmonic, I expected one more evening of...

Let me start today’s post with a quick disclaimer about my relationship with Classical Archives. I have subscribed to Classical Archives for about three years. I really like Classical Archives. I have written about it before on this blog. Also, I have been writing...

I took a lot of liberties with music history when I was writing my new novel Distant Voices. All of the characters are fictional, but I created many of them by combining information about the lives of musical figures who actually lived.Just for fun, I have created a...