Monthly Archives: October 2018
Bach, for Reals
As the pieces In the Suzuki Repertoire get longer and more complex, they take longer to work through. My most recent piece, Karl Bohm’s Perpetual Motion from Little Suite No. 6, was an exception. All the pieces that preceded it in Book Four took longer. Still, I began the Perpetual Motion at the beginning of […]
Aimard and Stefanovich’s Contemporary Playlist for Two Pianos
The season at the CSO includes a series of 10 piano recitals on Sunday afternoons – clearly I’m not the only one who enjoys the format. Yesterday’s matinee performance packed two pianists and two concert grand Steinways onto the stage – Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, both veteran interpreters of The 20th century and contemporary […]
Musical Me: Five Years of Practice
This month marks the five-year anniversary of Musical Me. I conceived of beginning to play the violin and of chronicling my musical pursuit via this blog whole-cloth on a dreary Monday afternoon in October 2013 as I mourned a dead cat and too much wasted time in my life. The writing and my playing were […]
Stradivarius News
The latest chapter in the story of the Ames/Totenberg Stradivarius has just begun. The Totenberg family sold the instrument after it was recovered from the wife of the man who stole it in 1980 when she had it appraised upon his death in 2015. The instrument was returned to the Totenberg family, who then sold […]
An Opera, A Poem, and Florence
Richard Strauss’s opera Capriccio opens with a sextet for strings – The Jerusalem Quartet opened with the piece as well in the first chamber music performance of the 2018-2019 season yesterday at Chicago’s Symphony Center. The renowned Israeli ensemble is on tour with the legendary Pinchas Zuckerman on viola and cellist Amanda Forsyth, who round […]
Ryan Libel 