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On This Day
23 September: Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Armide Was Premiered
In 1575, Torquato Tasso wrote his epic poem Gerusalemme liberate (Jerusalem Delivered). Set during the first crusade, the sorceress Armida ensnares the Christian knight Rinaldo and holds him captive on an island. When she raises her dagger to kill him,
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On This Day
22 September: Henryk Szeryng Was Born
For some listeners and critics, Henryk Szeryng’s “steely tenacity and intellectual firepower lurked just behind the gracious surfaces.” However, as pianist Arthur Rubinstein famously stated, “Szeryng’s playing reduce me to tears… Real music lovers want emotion, great moments, which Szeryng’s
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Violence Against Men
The Age of the Castrato II
Castration for musical reasons was never really officially legal. In fact, it was banned under Canon Law and punishable with excommunication. The music historian Charles Burney traveled through Italy in search of places where the operation was carried out. He
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Happy 150th Birthday Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
2024 marks the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst, born in Cheltenham on 21 September 1874. He devoted his life to teaching and composition, crafting nearly 300 works in a variety of genres including orchestral music, chamber music, brass and military
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On This Day
18 September: Jonathan Biss Was Born
American pianist, writer, and teacher Jonathan Biss experienced an extreme panic attack in the middle of playing a recital. He had wrestled with anxiety around performing music for many years, and he felt ashamed of it. As he explained in
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On This Day
17 September: Isang Yun’s Symphony V Was Premiered
Isang Yun’s Symphony V premiered on the composer’s 70th birthday, on 17 September 1987, with Hans Zender conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as the soloist. Using poems by Nelly Sachs, Yun makes an unambiguous statement of his intentions.
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Fixing the Trumpet
The natural trumpet, i.e., one that’s just a length of tubing, get its pitches from the overtone series. However, this is a limited range of pitches and to get ones that are in a particular key requires that the trumpet
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On This Day
16 September: Joseph Haydn’s Le Pescatrici Was Premiered
Joseph Haydn’s first full-length opera Le Pescatrici (The Fisherwomen) to a libretto of Carlo Goldoni premiered at Eszterháza on 16 September 1770 on the occasion of an elaborate marriage celebration in honour of Countess Lamberg, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy’s niece, and
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