Category Musical Passion
Mauro Giuliani: Guitarist, Composer
Mauro Giuliani was a classical era composer and one of the finest guitarists in the world. Prior to yesterday, I don’t think I’d ever heard of him; for whatever reason I have not thought much about the guitar as a classical musical instrument at all. Giuliani began his musical life on the cello, and was […]
Perlman and Stern and Me
I’ve been slowly getting around to all nine of the CDs in the Perlman collection that my parents gave me for my birthday back in May – I’ve been taking them wildly out of order, but this morning I loaded up the first CD from the collection into iTunes. It opens with the Bach Concerto […]
About My Blog
I hadn’t updated my “About My Blog” page since I created the blog, and at the time I wrote the original I was still in “my late thirties.” Since that changed last week, the page needed to as well! So yesterday I wrote a new one. I hope you’ll give it a read. Thank you so […]
Heifetz and the Bridge that Auer Built
Jascha Heifetz was born at the temporal conjunction of Romantic and modern music – his most influential teacher was an aging Leopold Auer, the man to whom Tchaikovsky dedicated one of the most significant pieces that exists in the violin repertoire, and my personal favorite – the Great Concerto. While Auer initially and quite famously […]
Musical Gifts
I totally hit the jackpot on my birthday Tuesday, in every way – including in the loot department. Prior to my lesson, Michael arranged the gifts my parents and his dad had sent along with his own, and I was happy to find a musical bounty. A new music stand! I bought an inexpensive one […]
Musical Shopping, and Life
Michael and I are heading to New York in a week and a half for the wedding of some very close friends – we’re staying a bit longer to make a vacation out of it, and we want to catch a great show. As infrequently as we’re able to make it up there just for […]
Practice Makes a 12 Year Old
Teacher needed to cancel this week’s lesson, which is OK because I didn’t get a lot of practice in over the past week. It’s also OK because I am still able to work on many details from the final piece in Book Three – the Bach Bourree. I worked on the piece in isolation for […]
To Shun the Heaven?
I have listened to Rufus Wainwright’s new album all the way through just once – on Monday as I ran on the lakefront. While not giddy with anticipation, I have been interested to see what the singer/songwriter came up with on this occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death; the album, released a […]
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World
The legendary megastar Prince left us behind yesterday, as he so often did with his groundbreaking, extraordinarily prolific career in music. He was a true revolutionary, one of the musicians who defined Pop, while at the same time infusing our hyper-produced recording scene with a refreshing blend of authentic, innovative, artistic and beautiful music – […]
Bach’s Cello Suite #3
The Bach Cello Suites are some of the most well-known and loved compositions for cello ever written. Though composed prior to 1720 (the provenance is not as great as most of Bach’s work), their popularity is a decidedly 20th century innovation – we owe their existence in the modern cello canon to Pablo Casals. While […]
Ryan Libel 