This week’s edition looks at how composers and librettists have approached ideas of masking, disguise and festive culture across different musical contexts. From Venice’s long-standing carnival traditions to the theatrical role-playing of Mozart’s operas and the structured celebrations of the Rhineland, these works reflect how music and public festivity have…
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This week’s edition follows how composers have listened to and imitated birds — from the notated calls of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony to Respighi’s recorded nightingale, from Sibelius’s mythic swan to Wagner’s remembered forest bird. Each piece marks a different stage in the long conversation between nature and music. The title…
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This week we look at a word with a long history. Melancholy comes from the Greek μελαίνη χολή (melainē cholē), meaning “black body fluid.” In ancient medicine it described one of the four fluids believed to shape human temperament. A melancholic person was calm and serious, often inclined to study…
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Time is an essential element of music. Music is the only art form that depends entirely on time. A painting or sculpture stands still, but a piece of music only exists as it unfolds. Its shape depends on our ability to remember what came before and to connect it with…
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Freedom takes many forms, and like so many aspects of life, it appears in music. The four works in this playlist follow that idea: Beethoven’s Egmont Overture speaks of political struggle, Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 marks independence from the system of patronage as he began composing on his own terms.…
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Autumn – Concerto in F Major: Allegro “Celebra il Vilanel con balli e Canti Del felice raccolto il bel piacere E del liquor de Bacco accesi tanti Finiscono col Sonno il lor godere” “The peasant celebrates with song and dance, rejoicing in the harvest’s bounty. Filled with the liquor of…
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In 1973 and 1974 Herbert von Karajan took on one of the most unusual projects of his career: recording Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern with the Berlin Philharmonic. He said it had taken 15 years with the orchestra to reach the precision needed for this music, which often makes almost impossible…
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“The moon methinks looks with a watery eye; / And when she weeps, weeps every little flower.”— William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Night and dream are closely linked — especially on warm summer nights, when the light fades slowly and the world takes on a different tone. This playlist…
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The third playlist in our Italian opera series turns to Puccini, presented in chronological order. It begins with the youthful lyricism of the Act I duet from La Bohème, moves to the intimate prayer “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca, lingers in the atmospheric stillness of the “Humming Chorus” from Madama Butterfly, and…
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This week’s playlist looks at a new chapter in Italian opera after Verdi.In the late 19th century, composers turned away from kings and legends and began to write about ordinary people. This style was called Verismo – from the Italian word vero, meaning true. With music by Cilea, Mascagni, Giordano…
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Here you can download the full curriculum vitae of Herbert von Karajan!