Sondheim’s pass times

Sondheim is a lover of games, and collects antique ones (many were destroyed in a fire that swept through the lower floors of the house in 1995). He has a passion for murder mysteries, puzzles (he once spent 18 months devising cryptic crosswords for New York magazine), word play and anagrams. His own name, he points out, provides two particularly delicious ones, ‘demonish’ and ‘hedonism’.

Brown, Mick. “Still Cutting it at 80: Stephen Sondhiem interview”, Telegraph, 27 September 2010.  Click here to view article.

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

Featured Content

The importance of rejuvenation
"Human beings, by change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden." Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German writer, philosopher and scientist.
Rachmaninoff’s concert routine
Reporters described Sergei Rachmaninoff on a concert tour (c. 1940): His punctuality is a legend.  If a reporter asks for two minutes of his time, two minutes and no more are given.  Consequently he arrives at a concert hall on the dot of 8 and goes on the stage precisely at 8:30.  If the concert […]
My God, My God, Why Have You Abandoned Me? – Psalm 21 (22)
Title: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Text: Psalm 21 (22): 8-9. 17-20. 23-24. R. v. 2 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and organ Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
A little help with a fugue
Rachmaninoff had a little help with a fugue exam at the Moscow Conservatory in 1891: By mistake the examinations of Rachmaninoff in both piano and fugue were scheduled for the same day and hour, so his fugue examination was transferred to the following day, when he was to be examined alone, the rest of the […]
A hundred violins may play softer than one
John Holmes “reiterates that only with a large group can you get a truly soft sound. Sure, a solo fiddle can hold its own against a hundred fiddles: a hundred fiddles are never a hundred times louder than a solo at the same dynamic, since there’s no such animal as “a same dynamic,” or even […]
Composition services
Baroque they are not
Between 1910 and 1938 the Austrian violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler produced some arrangements of works by Boccherini, Martini, Couperin, Vivaldi and Porpora. They were positively achieved by the crticis.  In 1935, Kreisler revealed that there were not arrangements at all, but in fact works which he had written from scratch.  Suddenly critic’s attitudes to the […]
Delius on the role of music
“The chief reason for the degeneration of present-day music lies in the fact that people want to get physical sensations from music more than anything else. Emotion is out of date and intellect a bore. Appreciation of art which has been born of profound thought and intensity of experience necessitates an intellectual effort too exhausting […]
A dog with musical taste
“Anton Bruckner had a chubby, fat pug dog named Mops,” Fritz Kreisler, a former pupil of Bruckner’s once recalled. “He would leave us with Mops munching our sandwiches while he himself hastened off to luncheon. We decided we’d play a joke on our teacher which would flatter him. So while the Meister was away, we’d […]
Love your music
When I was 19 years old I joined Columbia Artists in New York.  It was my first management and a momentous event in my life.  All of a sudden here I was, part of what was perceived to be one of the most prestigious such organizations in the country.  It was a big time and […]