Tchaikovsky, Master of Invention

Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (1892), Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest with Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting:

Sergei “Golubchik” Taneyev, “the most cultured musician of his time”

Tchaikovsky called him “Golubchik” (“Little Pigeon”); Rachmaninoff named him “the most cultured musician of his time.”

Colors of the Day & Music of the Night

I’ve been down in New York City the past few days. As marathoners on Fifth Avenue faced frigid winds, the maidens in the Central Park Conservatory Garden danced blithely amid chrysanthemums in bloom.

My Year In Music 2013

This year, I’m even more relieved than last year that I’m not a professional critic assigned to assemble a “top ten” music list for 2013. Instead, here is a year-end offering of highlights from my personal musical journey throughout the year.

I also want to recognize the composer and musicians who participated in This Life in Music profiles during 2013: Maxwell J McKee, Sabrina Tabby, Dávid Adam Nagy, Lucy Dhegrae, and Amy Garapic, as well as composer Dylan Mattingly, for his guest post on his new work, The Bakkhai (a report on the premiere of The Bakkhai is included in this post). It was a pleasure and privilege to present each of them on Prufrock’s Dilemma. Thanks to all!

My Sleeping Beauty

I dislike the free-wheeling use of the term “old chestnut” to describe a piece of music that’s been played more often than some would like. At the same time, while I wouldn’t call it a chestnut (“classic” would be more fitting), there came a point when I’d heard Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto so often I doubted I’d ever want to hear it again.