Ten Odd Facts about Handel’s “Messiah”
While Handel’s Messiah is, for many, an annual Advent spectacle—certainly orchestras and choirs across the country and abroad are delivering right now—in the Classical Girl household, the 1741…
Beethoven and the Spirit of Christmas
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770, probably on December 16, as he was baptized on the 17th, and it was customary at the time in…
Ten Spooky Classical Music Favorites for Halloween
It’s Halloween, and you’re looking for that perfect, spooky Halloween music that’s a little more sophisticated than “The Monster Mash” and “Thriller” and “Werewolves of London.” Look…
The Music of the Spheres
[In] sound itself, there is a readiness to be ordered by the spirit and this is seen at its most sublime in music. —Max Picard Despite…
Beethoven’s Mass in C
Beethoven’s Mass in C major, Op. 86, is much less well known than his late sacred masterpiece the Missa Solemnis, and a common attitude sees it as…
Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas: A Journey Through Life
Years ago cellist Steven Isserlis set out on a quest, a quest to discover how performing all five Beethoven sonatas in sequence would work. He first asked…
Beethoven: The Price of Genius
At the fourteenth exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession, held between April 15 and June 27, 1902, the German sculptor Max Klinger unveiled his…
Virgil Thomson on Music and Culture
To pass from reading a contemporary essayist to one of the middle decades of the 20th century is often to enter another world, one of succinct elegance and…
The Day Mozart Stole Music From the Vatican
The fourteen-year-old Mozart didn’t see himself as being a music pirate, mind you. He was just doing the thing he so excelled at, with his musical genius and…
Mere Mortals Eavesdropping: The Greatness of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died 225 years ago. In 1991, the bicentennial of his death was the occasion for massive Mozart festivals and grand recording projects, as well…
Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen
One of the privileges of writing this column is that I occasionally get to meet the composers of the music I review. I had a meeting this…
The “Czech Bach”: Who Was Jan Dismas Zelenka?
Suppose you were Bach, and no one noticed? Welcome to the early eighteenth-century world of Jan Dismas Zelenka, a Catholic composer at the court of Dresden, who…
Antonín Dvorák: Composing Music of Joy in the Kitchen
Fleeing the congestion and mayhem of New York City in the early summer of 1893, Antonin Dvorák, along with his wife and six children, alighted from a…
Haydn’s Music of Gratitude and Goodness
I love Haydn. If I had to be left with only one composer in my life, it would be he — not because he is the greatest,…
Jean Sibelius’ Music of the Logos
The reputation of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) has waxed and waned over the course of this century. In the early part, he was thought by many…