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Latest Listeners’ Club Posts

Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes: Klezmer Conversations July 11, 2025

When the February Revolution of 1917 broke out in Petrograd, Sergei Prokofiev resettled in the United States, stating that his native Russia “had no use for music at the moment.” Soon after arriving in New York, the 28-year-old Prokofiev received a commission from Zimro, a touring Soviet ensemble made up of Russian Jewish immigrants. The ne […]

Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”: Overture-Fantasy After Shakespeare July 9, 2025

Perhaps as a result of his turbulent personal struggles, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was drawn to stories of doomed love. It is a theme which runs through the Pushkin-inspired operas, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, the ballet Swan Lake, the Manfred Symphony, and the hellish Dante-inspired tone poem, Francesca da Rimini. Predating all o […]

Ingram Marshall’s “Wanderer’s Night Song”: Hymnodic Twilight Meditations July 7, 2025

“The all too familiar hymns of my childhood have come back to haunt me,” wrote American composer Ingram Marshall (1942-2022) above the program note for his 1992 work for string quartet, Evensongs. Marshall went on to describe the six sections of Evensongs as “hymnodic meditations” concerning twilight. The concluding section, Fast falls the […]

“The Star-Spangled Banner”: The National Anthem as Arranged by Rachmaninov and Stravinsky July 4, 2025

On September 14, 1814, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key penned the words that would later form the National Anthem. The defining image of the poem was the sight of the U.S. flag, with its fifteen stars and strips, flying defiantly above th […]

“Show Boat”: Excerpts from Kern and Hammerstein’s Groundbreaking Musical July 2, 2025

When Show Boat opened at New York’s Ziegfeld Theatre on December 27, 1927, it marked a revolutionary moment in the American musical theater. Audiences were confronted with a new kind of work which was neither a frothy operetta, nor a loosely constructed Jazz Age musical comedy. The Musical Play was born, with its serious, dramatic themes, a […]

Balakirev’s “Islamey”: A Spirited Dance from the Caucasus Mountains June 30, 2025

It was a trip to the Caucasus Mountains that inspired Russian composer Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) to write Islamey: Oriental Fantasy, one of the most technically challenging works ever conceived for solo piano. In a letter, Balakirev commented on the spirited folk music he heard there, as well as the natural beauty of the region, which lies […]

Jascha Heifetz and Bing Crosby: Berceuse from Godard’s “Jocelyn” June 27, 2025

Jascha Heifetz was the ultimate “crossover artist” before the term existed. During the Second World War, Heifetz joined popular entertainers such as Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in performances for U.S. servicemen. Heifetz’ collaborations with Crosby included this performance, recorded in Los Angeles on July 13, 1946, months after the War’s end […]