If playing music conjures up images of isolation, whether in the practice room or on stage, then the enjoyment of music evokes companionship. Thus, it is hardly surprising that many musicians and composers have developed close relationships. Some composers saw each other on a regular basis. For example, Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart enjoyed a deep and lasting friendship despite their age difference. The flamboyant Franz Liszt and the more reserved Frédéric Chopin met on a number of occasions. Liszt was also a fervent admirer of Richard Wagner (and at some point became his father-in-law) and the two spent many hours together. Their graves even lie side by side.

Sometimes friendship leads to love and marriage, as in the case of Robert and Clara Schumann. Among the composers who moved in the Schumann’s circle were Felix Mendelssohn, godfather to one of Schumann’s children and Johannes Brahms. Brahms in turn helped Antonín Dvořák some years later and they remained loyal friends until Brahms died. Brahms edited the proofs of Dvořák’s New World Symphony when it was being published. (more…)

Greg Sandow shares highlights of a recent lecture he gave to graduating students, in which he asks some hard questions but also gives interesting answers. First challenge for him: take away from our vocabulary as classical musicians the terms “outreach” and “education”. I was of course puzzled, considering that I’ve been teaching for half of my life now.

Why should we refrain? It’s more a question of attitude, he ponders. These concepts “place us above the people we’re trying to reach. We have something they don’t. Something they can’t understand without education. And that without us – without, that is, the arts – no kind of artistic expression can enter their lives. In my view, none of these things are true.” The solution?

“Why don’t we approach other people as our equals? Why don’t we bring them classical music in the same spirit that an entrepreneur would have, bringing the world a new, exciting product? Something she’s convinced will change their lives.”

You can read about this here and listen to the lecture as well.

You might have seen the production with your kids a few years ago or even watched the video (I’ve shared it quite a few times with students of mine, I must admit, and they all seemed to love it). Good news for Montrealers: the production is coming back next weekend at the Centaur Theatre and there are still a few tickets left.

Dean Patrick Fleming is the director and The Gazette has met with him about this new reading of this family classic. Read here…

Most classical music organisations are often complaining that audience is grey or uneducated or just not showing up. Could it be because most people lack some reference points about the standard repertoire and may be too afraid to ask? Wouldn’t it help if the performers did talk to the audience and introduced more “difficult” works for example or put them in context. I’ve seen it done on several occasions and have never considered that I was being talked down to, despite the fact that I’ve had numerous years of training.

Chris Foley shares a somewhat similar point of view on the Music Teachers’ blog. To read…

Inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, the Romanticism hit all artistic domains with the same force. We can see it in painting (Delacroix, Turner, Goya), literature (Lamartine, Stendhal, Keats, Shelley) and, of course, music. Man (through his actions) and society stand at the very heart of that era.

The musical forms of the classic era become more flexible and new forms (nocturnes, impromptus, etudes) appear. Composers still mainly rely on the tonal system, though the return to the tonic becomes less systematic, borrowed harmonies are introduced and cadences are less intrusive. Composers love to lose themselves in the middle section of their works, sometimes “forgetting” the main themes, and the opposition between recitatives and arias tends to disappear in opera (for example, in Wagner). The orchestra, led by a conductor for the first time of its history, becomes bigger and brighter, and each instrument (and its timbre) represents an emotion, an atmosphere. Music’s goal: express anything.

A few milestones

1808        Beethoven’s Fifth
1824        Beethoven’s Ninth
1830        Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique
1833        Chopin’s Etudes opus 10
1865        Wagner’s Tristan et Isolde
1871        Verdi’s Aïda
1875        Bizet’s Carmen