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The Ethereal Beauty of Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in A major (K. 208)
Every now and then, the people who enjoy, love, or seek out music undergo a very special kind of occurrence. It could happen at an exciting concert or festival or merely in the fabric of day-to-day life: listening to algorithm-recommended
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Vyacheslav Gryaznov (Born January 15, 1982)
Mastering the Keys with Virtuosity and Passion
The Russian pianist and composer Vyacheslav Gryaznov, born on 15 January 1982 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the former Soviet Union, is renowned for his extraordinary ability for virtuosic technique and expressive performances. Appearing at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the
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What Happened to Antonín Dvořák’s Children?: Their Tragic Stories
When Antonín Dvořák was a young man, he gave piano lessons to make ends meet. One of his students was a young woman named Josefína Čermáková. She was very beautiful and talented and would become one of the best-known theatre
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Opera in Hong Kong, 2024: A Year of Reflection and Fantasy
The actor Ben Elton once remarked that “artists don’t create society, they reflect it.” In Hong Kong’s swiftly burgeoning opera scene, 2024 bore this out, tracing a journey from the restraint of Mozartian precision to something looser, stranger, and more
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Fazıl Say Unplugged
A Sonic Journey of Revelation
Turkish pianist Fazıl Say, born on 14 January 1970 in Ankara, has compiled a discography notable not only for its impressive range of classical repertoire but also for his own compositions. His ability to blend traditional Turkish sounds with classical
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Low-Down Music in the Hands of a Serious Composer: Bennett’s Hexapoda
Robert Russell Bennett, a serious composer but better known for his orchestration of over 300 Broadway and West End musicals, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma and South Pacific, rose to a challenge issued by violinist Louis Kaufman. Kaufman thought that
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Six Women In Brahms’s Life
Johannes Brahms had trouble with women. He objectified most of them, thought of them as either Madonnas or whores, and heartily agreed with prevailing social attitudes that they should concentrate on Kinder, Küche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen, Church), to quote a
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Sergei Prokofiev: Sarcasms Op. 17
I have listened to a lot of music by Sergei Prokofiev, and to my ears, four distinct elements are nearly always present. There seems to be a lyrical, classical, innovative, and a strong motoric or toccata element that shapes his
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