Studio Recital: December 17, 2013

Classic Recording: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A Minor, The Eastman Trio January 22, 2020
Why have you not written a single trio? I regret this every day because every day they play me a trio, and I always sigh because you have not composed a single one. This rueful complaint was addressed to Tchaikovsky in a letter written in the autumn of 1880 by Nadezhda von Meck, the Russian business woman who was one of his most dedicated a […]
Remembering Barry Tuckwell January 20, 2020
Barry Tuckwell, the renowned Australian horn player, passed away last week. He was 88. Born into a musical family, Tuckwell began playing the horn at age 13. By 15 he was playing professionally as third horn of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. A year later, he joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Eugene Goossens. He soon moved on to […]
Duke Ellington’s “Three Black Kings”: A Symphonic Eulogy January 20, 2020
Three Black Kings (Les Trois Rois Noirs) was Duke Ellington’s last composition. The orchestral triptych was left unfinished at the time of Ellington’s death in 1974. True to the spontaneous spirit of jazz and guided by superstition, the American composer, pianist, and band leader frequently left pieces incomplete until the day of the first […]
Mozart and the Glass Armonica January 17, 2020
Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman, diplomat, politician, writer, printer, political philosopher, scientist, inventor, and all-around Enlightenment Renaissance man, was born on this date in 1706. Among Franklin’s inventions is the glass armonica (now better known as the glass harmonica). While visiting Cambridge, England in 1761, he […]
Three Great Songs from Rush’s “Moving Pictures” Album January 15, 2020
Neil Peart, the legendary drummer and lyricist of the Canadian rock trio, Rush, passed away last week after a battle with cancer. He was 67. Rolling Stone rated Peart among the top five greatest rock drummers of all time. His playing exhibited a powerful virtuosity which frequently drew upon complex, shifting meters. Variety‘s recent tribut […]
Five Excerpts from Barber’s “Vanessa” January 15, 2020
Samuel Barber’s Vanessa premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on this date in 1958. Originally set in four acts, the opera’s dark story and libretto were created by Gian Carlo Menotti. Its atmosphere may have been inspired by Seven Gothic Tales, a collection of short stories by the Danish author Karen Blixen (who wrote under the pen name, Isa […]
Anthony McGill Plays Copland January 13, 2020
This past weekend’s Richmond Symphony program included Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, performed by Anthony McGill. It was a thrill and an honor to share the stage with such a sublime musician. One of my colleagues in the orchestra remarked aptly that McGill’s playing is so natural that it seems as if the instrument is an extension of his body. […]