“Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The universe of classical music is jam-packed with musical anecdotes. Frequently these short narratives delineate subtle stories that highlight specific traits of a classical composer or a performer. Often humorous, anecdotes of classical composers don’t simply provoke laughter but can reveal a more general and subtle truth. We find Sophia Corri escaping her inattentive husband in an empty harp case, Beethoven being thrown in jail for vagrancy, and Rossini and Pavarotti both cooking their favorite meals. Napoleon gave free reign to his infatuation with an opera singer, Bach was challenged to a duel, and Frederick the Great had not only a great passion for music but also for a handsome Lieutenant in the Royal Guard. A musical anecdote is part of the process of telling a story, but it means sharing an experience with someone and not simply supplying him or her with information. And don’t worry, embellishment, exaggeration or fictitious invention are all part of the process. Anecdotes of classical composers impart the sense of a lived experience, as they usually involve real people in recognizable places and locations. In fact, musical anecdotes exhibit a special kind of realism and an identifiable historical dimension. Check back with us for more insightful and delightful musical anecdotes.
On a list of the most popular love songs in classical music, Plaisir d’amour (The pleasure of love) would undoubtedly rank supremely high. Originally composed in 1784, Hector Berlioz arranged the tune for orchestra, and various pop-music settings include the
In August 1959, Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh was undergoing a complete refurbishment, and to celebrate the reopening a year later, a new opera was definitely required. Since Benjamin Britten already was the artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival at that
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart scored a resounding triumph with The Abduction from the Seraglio in 1782. Impatient to write for the stage again he made two abortive attempts at opera buffa. Initially, Mozart requested a libretto from the Salzburg court chaplain
After their mountainous trip of over 760 km between Arad, Sighişoara, Braşov, and Sibui, Brahms and Joachim closed the tour in Cluj (now Clug-Napoca). Their final concert, in Cluj, was an outstanding success. Their arrival was attended by a distinguished
In 1589, the French cleric Jehan Tabourot published a manual in the form of a dialogue between himself (in the guise of Thoinot Arbeau, an anagram of his real name) and a lawyer named Capriol. Capriol wanted to learn to
In their September 1879 trip, Johannes Brahms, pianist, and Joseph Joachim, violinist, ventured into what was, to them, the furthest corners of civilization for these two Viennese-based musicians. The first part of their trip, Budapest to Arad to Timişoara covered
The Scarlatti family name—in various spellings—was common in Sicily, with several branches of additional Scarlatti families residing in Rome and northern Italy. Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) was the musical bedrock of the family, and he became the most important opera composer
Tension was high in Philadelphia, USA, on 18 March 1927. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra had invited Sergei Rachmaninoff as the soloist in premiere of the composer’s 4th piano concerto in G minor. Rachmaninoff had come to the United
