Fast, Furious, Fortissimo

Have you ever wondered what the real differences are between modern and historical performance? Why do historical performances sound so different from modern ones? This week, we take a deep dive into ...

20 Apr 202041min

Every great composer has an origin story. Every composer started somewhere. I'm fascinated with a composers first works because they tell us so much about who they are going to become. We can see in s...

16 Apr 202045min

This week I was proud to join the Phoenix Orchestra's livestream at twitch.tv/thephoenixorch for a quarantined conductor's roundtable featuring Matthew Szymanski, Aram Demirjian, and Gemma New. We dis...

13 Apr 202056min

Bartok did not have an easy life in the US, and he was constantly both homesick and horrorstruck by the news from across the ocean. The final three movements of his Concerto for Orchestra display some...

9 Apr 202047min

In 1944, Bartok, dying of Leukemia and weighing only 87 lbs, was commissioned to write a new orchestral piece. He had not written any music for years, and was barely clinging to life. The commission s...

2 Apr 202042min

I've been coming back to this symphony again and again over the past couple of weeks. The story of the composition and Leningrad performance of Shostakovich 7 is one of the most remarkable stories of ...

26 Mars 202040min

Never fear everyone, the podcasts are still coming during this crazy time! This week I'll take you through 7 of Beethoven's greatest overtures, pieces that distill Beethoven's storytelling abilities, ...

19 Mars 202056min

On today's Patreon-sponsored episode, we'll explore the enigmatic masterpiece known as the Schumann Cello Concerto. This is a piece that has been relentlessly criticized ever since it was written, and...

12 Mars 202046min