Stravinsky: Petrouchka
If you listened to my show last week about Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, you know that Stravinsky's life was never the same after the premiere of the ballet in 1910. Sergei Diaghilev, the founder ...
27 Jan 20231h 3min
Stravinsky: The Firebird
In 1906, the impresario Sergei Diaghilev created a sensation in Paris with an exhibition of Russian Art. This was the first time a major showing of Russian art had appeared in Paris, and from this poi...
19 Jan 202345min
Pavel Haas, Symphony
This February, I have the great honor of joining the Indianapolis Symphony for the North American premiere of Pavel Haas' remarkable unfinished symphony. Pavel Haas, a Czech Jewish composer, wrote the...
12 Jan 202357min
Vivaldi, The Four Seasons
Ask a non-classical music fan to name a piece of classical music. If they don't say Beethoven 5, or the Ode to Joy, they probably will say The Four Seasons. They might not know that it was written by ...
22 Dec 20221h 5min
Chopin Etudes (and Godowsky!)
You might be thinking, "Why on earth would anyone want to devote an entire podcast to etudes?" For most instrumentalists, etudes are the bane of our existence. They are studies, meant to develop techn...
15 Dec 202258min
Schubert Cello Quintet
In the late summer or early autumn of 1828, Schubert completed an extraordinary work, his String Quintet in C Major. 6 weeks later, he was dead. Nowadays this piece is considered to be one of the most...
8 Dec 202258min
The Music of Film Composers
Film music began as a solution to a problem. Early film projectors were really loud, therefore something was needed to cover up all the noise. In addition, silent movies apparently seemed a bit awkwa...
1 Dec 202244min
Janacek Sinfonietta
Along with Antonin Dvorak and Bedrich Smetana, Leos Janacek is known as one of the three great Czech composers. He was born in Moravia, part of the Austrian Empire at the time, and became passionately...
25 Nov 202250min
