Mozart on rubato in adagiosIn 1777, Mozart visited Heir Stein in Ausburg (1). According to Mozart, Stein had stated that no-one has ever played his Piano Forte as well as I have, and, besides, I always keep correct time. They are all wondering about that. They simply can’t believe that you can play a Tempo rubato in an Adagio, […]
Start from scratch every timeBenjamin Appl on working with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: When people ask me about what I learned from Fischer-Dieskau, that’s what I always come back to: of course I could say a hundred things about technique and his reputation, but what I found most inspiring was how he created everything afresh. Whenever he was teaching he’d prepare […]
Rachmaninoff’s concert routineReporters 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 […]
OpportunitiesNo man can tell what the future may bring forth, and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. — Demosthenes, Ad Leptinem, 162 Harbottle, Thomas Benfield (1897) Dictionary of Quotations (Classical). London: S. Sonnenschein & co, p. 51. Digitally archived at https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofquot00harbiala/page/511/mode/2up, accessed 12 September 2021.
Musicians in Dresden in 1720s”There was rivalry among the musicians in Dresden in the 1720s. Daniel Heartz describes some incidents: Silvius Weiss, the famous lutenist, saw his livelihood threatened when he was attacked by a French violinist named Petit, who attempted to bite off the top joint of his right thumb. On 13 August 1722 Veracini jumped to the […]
At the core of Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations, an esoteric and astonishing piano piece lasting some 50 minutes, is one of the intriguing mysteries of music history. Why did Beethoven, during the difficult last decade of his life, when he was deaf, chronically ill and often in financial straits, become nearly obsessed with writing an extensive […]
Rising after we fall“Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Oliver Goldsmith (1762) The citizen of the world: or, letters from a Chinese philosopher, residing in London, to his friends in the east, Dublin: printed for George and Alex. Ewing, 1762, letter 7, p. 30. Digitally archived at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004776950.0001.001/1:9?rgn=div1;view=fulltext, […]
Silence, expression, and musicFrom pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death—all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly significant, can only be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence. After silence that which comes […]
Fill Us With Your Love, O Lord – Psalm 89 (90)Title: Fill us with your love, O Lord Text: Psalm 89 (90): 12-17. R. v.14 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part SAMPLE: .
Encouraging talent“What greater pleasure is there is life than giving young and beautiful talent a little lift in the direction of the stars though they will never reach them.” Sir Clifford Curzon – English pianist Pianist, No. 59, April-May 2011, Warner Group publications, p.10.
