On This Day

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On This Day
16 March: Giovanni Pergolesi Died
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi died from tuberculosis at age twenty-six, on 16 March 1736. He was first buried in a common pit next to the cathedral at Pozzuoli in Naples. His first biographer and friend installed a memorial tablet in the
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On This Day
15 March: Montserrat Figueras Was Born
Catalan soprano Montserrat Figueras, together with partner and husband Jordi Savall, was a leading voice in the early music movement by focusing on the vast vocal repertoire from the Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque periods. Her approach to these immense
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On This Day
14 March: Verdi’s Macbeth Was Premiered
Throughout his career, Giuseppe Verdi considered numerous novels and plays by French, Italian, Spanish, and German writers as possible sources for operatic projects. He did contemplate setting several Shakespearean plays, including Hamlet, Cymbeline, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Romeo and
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12 March: Charles-Marie Widor Died
Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) left behind a substantial number of meticulously crafted compositions for various instrumental and vocal combinations. However, he is primarily remembered for his ten organ symphonies. Inspired by the magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, these works
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9 March: Johann Pachelbel Died
Johann Pachelbel, famed composer of the even more famous canon, died in Nuremberg at the age of fifty-two on 9 March 1706. While his music enjoyed extraordinary popularity in Central Germany immediately after his death, 19th-century historians considered him a
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6 March: Zoltán Kodály Died
Zoltán Kodály died on 6 March 1967 at the age of 84 in Budapest. At the time of his death he was universally recognised as a composer, pioneering ethno-musicologist, ground-breaking educator, and music critic. The “Kodály Method,” created by colleagues,
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5 March: Daniil Trifonov Was Born
Possessing jaw-dropping technique and outer-worldly interpretive skills, pianist Daniil Trifonov has been called the “most astounding pianist of our age.” Martha Argerich famously said, “what he does with his hands is technically incredible. It’s also his touch; he has tenderness
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On This Day
4 March: Bernard Haitink Was Born
Born in Amsterdam on 4 March 1929, conductor Bernard Haitink imparted an uncommon strength of character and conviction to the players. Undemonstrative in performance, his restrained demeanour was the result of his intensive study of the scores even before rehearsal.
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