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Daily News Roundup: 27 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 27 July 2016 Chamber Music, Daily News Roundup, Opera, Piano, Romantic

+ Read a review of the Carmel Bach festival by Richard S. Ginell. + Schmopera asks, “What else are singers great at?” “What do singers do well? Sing, obviously. But the career comes with plenty of extra skill-building opportunities. Not everyone is a master chef or a DIY pro, but working singers know that making sound with their throat is the tip of the iceberg.” + Lara St. John plays at the Ottawa Chamberfest tonight. Watch her performs songs from Shiksa on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts as today’s Video of the Day. + This Day in Music July 27, 1877,…

Ernő Dohnányi

This Day in Music – 1877: Ernő Dohnányi Born

By Weiyu Dang on 27 July 2016 Piano, Romantic, This Day in Music

Probably the most famous Hungarian pianist not named Franz, Pozsony’s Ernő Dohnányi would carve out a prolific career full of virtuosic renown and panache. The young Dohnanyi entered the Budapest conservatory at seventeen to study piano and composition with a student of Liszt and a disciple of Brahms before making his debut a year later. His transcendent keyboard skills would quickly garner him renown in the music world with an elderly Brahms organizing the Vienna Premiere of Dohnányi’s Piano Quintet Opus No. 1. After the conservatory Dohnányi would be greeted with rapturous crowds, almost on par with Liszt’s famously riotous…

Marc Andre Hamelin (Photo: Fran Kaufmann)

Daily News Roundup: 26 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 26 July 2016 Daily News Roundup, Opera, Orchestral, Piano, Scena Jazz, Vocal Jazz

+ Sir Roger Norrington is celebrating the unorthodox at the Proms this week. “As a rule, conductors stand on their dignity. They take themselves seriously. They like to be revered. In his own idiosyncratic way, Norrington himself is all three: dignified, serious and revered. But he is also a lot of fun. He wants to connect with his audience. So when his listeners laughed out loud at a musical joke during his performance of a Haydn symphony, he was not offended but delighted.” + Speaking of the Proms, read a review of Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing…

Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt

This Day in Music – 1958: Angela Hewitt is Born

By Weiyu Dang on 26 July 2016 Canadian Music, Piano, This Day in Music

This day in music, we celebrate Angela Hewitt’s birthday. Of a musical family, Angela Hewitt turns fifty-eight today as one of Canada’s and the world’s finest musicians. Hewitt began piano lessons at three before a meteoric rise led to her first full-length recital at nine with the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. Hewitt’s pivotal success was her capture of Toronto’s 1985 International Bach Piano Competition, held in honour of Glenn Gould. The win garnered not only accolades, but more importantly, led to a relationship with recording company, Deutsche Grammophon. With DG, Hewitt’s recording of English Suite No. 6 launched a legacy…

American composer Steve Reich

Daily News Roundup: 25 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 25 July 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Opera, Piano

Today’s Daily News Roundup is celebrating Bösendorfer pianos, welcoming a new contributor, and learning how to dress properly for concerts. + Read a review of three performances from the Lincoln Center Festival that featured maverick-turned-music-hero Steve Reich. + The Guardian’s Juanjo Mena explores the seduction of the Alhambra and Andalucían influences on Alberto Ginastera’s works. + La Scena Musicale’s newest contributor Andrew Burn asks if it is a good time to be a cynic. “When I am given the opportunity to speak in front of a group of musicians, I usually conduct an exercise or two. One of my most though-provoking…

Bösendorfer Imperial 290 Klavier

This Day in Music – 1828: Ignaz Bösendorfer Granted Piano-making License

By Weiyu Dang on 25 July 2016 Piano, This Day in Music

This day in music in 1828, Ignaz Bösendorfer was granted a piano-making license. Son of a carpenter, Ignaz Bösendorfer was an Austrian piano maker in the nineteenth century who founded the iconic Bösendorfer Company. Founded in the historically rich center of Vienna, Bösendorfer has an incomparable place in classical music and piano lore. The ornate and sophisticated aesthetic build combined with its innovative mechanical action make a piano that is still a status symbol. Of Bösendorfer’s advocates and ambassadors, Franz Liszt and his rapturous displays of virtuosity stands at the fore. Before finding Bösendorfer, a young Liszt broke all of the pianos…

Susanna Eastburn

Daily News Roundup: 22 July 2016

By Kiersten van Vliet on 22 July 2016 Contemporary, Daily News Roundup, Musical Theatre, Opera, Piano

Today’s Daily News Roundup responds to the questions “Where have the great composers gone?” Plus presidential operas, Norman Lebrecht’s latest, and more. + Soap opera or operatic tragedy? Schmopera’s Jenna Douglas evaluates the hypothetical operas of the 2016 American Presidential election. + Susanna Eastburn, a chief executive of Sound and Music and a champion of new music, responds to Philip Clark’s editorial “Where have the great composers gone?” “It’s necessary to acknowledge that the world is different from even 10 years ago, let alone the 20th century. We underestimate the disruptive societal impact of digital technology. Most obviously, access to…

Lebrecht Weekly – F. X. Mozart/Clementi: Piano Concertos (Hyperion)

By Norman Lebrecht on 22 July 2016 Classical, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

Mozart had a little boy, born four months before he died. Salieri recommended that the kid, Franx Xaver, should stick with the family trade and become a travelling pianist and composer. Trading on the Mozart name, F. X. made a living in places like Lemberg (Lviv), Salzburg and Karlsbad (Karlo Vivary). He died of stomach cancer in 1844, at the age of 53, never having married or settled down, living in awe of the father he never knew. The music he wrote is so little known that the sight of his name on a record sleeve makes you want to…

Carl Czerny

This Day in Music – 1857: Death of Carl Czerny

By Weiyu Dang on 15 July 2016 Piano, Romantic, This Day in Music

Composer, pedagogue, and Pianist Carl Czerny was known primarily for his immense contributions to the intermediate ranges of piano music. A prodigy, Czerny studied with Beethoven from the age of ten when the young Czerny impressed the old master with renditions of Pathétique and Adelaide. In his own teaching career, Czerny would have as pupil the little-known pianist Franz Liszt who later dedicated his Études d’exécution transcendente. Although his compositions have been considered dry and formulaic by icons as Robert Schumann, his pedagogy is considered the foundation upon which modern piano technique is based. Vladimir Horowitz – “Rode Variations”

Jon Batiste, Photo Betsy Newman

Video of the Day – Jon Batiste Teaches How to Piano

By Weiyu Dang on 14 July 2016 Mainstream Jazz, Piano, Scena Jazz, Video of the day

Everyone wants to impress their friends on an instrument. Thanks to New Orleans jazz pianist Jon Batiste, you can learn the basics of piano in 9 Easy Steps. After following these instructions, you too can play like the award-winning Stay Human bandlander. Topics discussed include: how to care for your your piano, theory basics, and jazz harmony. Jon Batiste Teaches You How to Play Piano

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