Category Musical Passion
Striking Midori
Well the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is still on strike and another casualty, among many, is the concert with superstar violinist Midori Goto and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet that was set for this coming Sunday. Michael and I have had tickets for a long time and have looked forward to the program. This is the second event […]
New Stuff: Ringtone, Shoulder Rest
Jenny Yun is a violinist and Youtube video maker who creates nicely (not overly) produced recordings of the Suzuki repertoire. She dresses well, stages her videos in well-appointed rooms, employs a professional accompanist, and even does some of them in a recording studio. She can also really play the violin. On top of that, I […]
Striking Anne Sophie
Today was supposed to be a great one – we’ve long had tickets for a matinee at Symphony Center to see my favorite violinist, Anne Sophie Mutter, in recital with her longtime collaborative pianist Lambert Orkis and cellist Daniel Muller-Schott. Beethoven’s Ghost Trio was on the program. The Ravel Sonata. Some Mozart. I have been […]
Beethoven Bonanza
The 2019-2020 Chicago Symphony Orchestra season was announced via e-mail on one of our crazy cold Chicago days last week. When I started paging through the PDF guide I could barely contain my glee – the season is a tribute to Beethoven, my favorite, who, in 2020, will turn 250 years old. The CSO has […]
Lovera’s Chaconne
My Mondays off afford me the opportunity to take in free concerts at the Chicago Cultural Center from time to time. I gravitate toward the recitals sponsored by the Musicians Club of Women – they present “award winners in concert” and start at 12:15 (on the dot). Last Monday, November 26, the award winner was […]
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 […]
Program Music and the Human Male
The Archduke Rudolph of Austria was one of Beethoven’s closest friends and patrons. A younger man than the composer, Beethoven began tutoring Rudolph when he was in his thirties and the Archduke was in his mid-teens. Beethoven developed a strong bond with Rudolph – since he had no children himself, it seems likely that his […]
Ryan Libel 