Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
June: classical music's best birth month?
A search inspired by St. John's Eve
Igor Stravinsky
Today, June 20, 2025, is the summer solstice. From here on out, the days will become shorter. To my mind, that makes it the start of Christmas.
Actually, this week does have some nativity activity: the nativity of John the Baptist, which culminates on June 24. Slavic culture observes a number of exciting traditions on June 23rd, St. John’s Eve. Bonfires would be lit, and then young people would jump over the fires. Witches were also hunted on June 23. Modest Mussorgsky evoked some of these moments with his Night on the Bald Mountain.
The mingling of a June birthday with a classical classic inspired me go a-googling for classical music composers born in June. The results did not disappoint.
Igor Stravinsky and his Rite of Spring changed the musical landscape forever. Stravinsky is one of the truly pivotal composers in the history of classical music. The history of classical music can be divided into pre and post-Rite of Spring.
Video:
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
Richard Strauss has been etched into the modern public’s mind ever since Stanley Kubrick used his Also Sprach Zarathustra for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Strauss’s other major contributions were his operas, of which Der Rosenkavalier is the most famous.
Video:
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier final trio
Robert Schumann was a major player in the 19th Century’s “War of the Romantics” that pitted himself, his wife Clara, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms against Franz Lizst, Richard Wagner, and Anton Bruckner. If you’ve read this column for any length of time, you know the side I’m on, and it isn’t the birthday boy’s.
Edvard Grieg is Norway’s greatest composer. His “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt are evergreen compositions that still carry some pop in popular culture.
Video:
Grief: Morning Mood from Peer Gynt
Edward Elgar is one of my personal favorites. Coincidentally, his most famous composition is played nonstop during his birthday month. I’m talking about Pomp and Circumstance, and its ubiquitous presence at June commencements
Video:
Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance
Jacques Offenbach composed Gaîté Parisienne, the quintessential Parisian tune. Of course, his major contributions came in the form of operas such as The Tales of Hoffman and Les Huguenots.
Video:
Offenbach: Gaîté Parisienne
Charles Gounod also composed operas. There was a time when his Faust was the most popular opera in the world.
Video:
Gounod: Trio from Faust
That lineup might make June the champion of classical music birthday months.
I checked out July. Weak. Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gustav Mahler, Stephen Foster. How about August? Equally weak. Claude Debussy, Leonard Bernstein, George Enescu Perhaps we’ll see if any of the autumn months can exceed June’s bounty.
Here's something you might be interested in.
June: classical music's best birth month?
A search inspired by St. John's Eve
June: classical music's best birth month?
A search inspired by St. John's Eve
Igor Stravinsky
Today, June 20, 2025, is the summer solstice. From here on out, the days will become shorter. To my mind, that makes it the start of Christmas.
Actually, this week does have some nativity activity: the nativity of John the Baptist, which culminates on June 24. Slavic culture observes a number of exciting traditions on June 23rd, St. John’s Eve. Bonfires would be lit, and then young people would jump over the fires. Witches were also hunted on June 23. Modest Mussorgsky evoked some of these moments with his Night on the Bald Mountain.
The mingling of a June birthday with a classical classic inspired me go a-googling for classical music composers born in June. The results did not disappoint.
Igor Stravinsky and his Rite of Spring changed the musical landscape forever. Stravinsky is one of the truly pivotal composers in the history of classical music. The history of classical music can be divided into pre and post-Rite of Spring.
Video:
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
Richard Strauss has been etched into the modern public’s mind ever since Stanley Kubrick used his Also Sprach Zarathustra for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Strauss’s other major contributions were his operas, of which Der Rosenkavalier is the most famous.
Video:
Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier final trio
Robert Schumann was a major player in the 19th Century’s “War of the Romantics” that pitted himself, his wife Clara, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms against Franz Lizst, Richard Wagner, and Anton Bruckner. If you’ve read this column for any length of time, you know the side I’m on, and it isn’t the birthday boy’s.
Edvard Grieg is Norway’s greatest composer. His “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt are evergreen compositions that still carry some pop in popular culture.
Video:
Grief: Morning Mood from Peer Gynt
Edward Elgar is one of my personal favorites. Coincidentally, his most famous composition is played nonstop during his birthday month. I’m talking about Pomp and Circumstance, and its ubiquitous presence at June commencements
Video:
Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance
Jacques Offenbach composed Gaîté Parisienne, the quintessential Parisian tune. Of course, his major contributions came in the form of operas such as The Tales of Hoffman and Les Huguenots.
Video:
Offenbach: Gaîté Parisienne
Charles Gounod also composed operas. There was a time when his Faust was the most popular opera in the world.
Video:
Gounod: Trio from Faust
That lineup might make June the champion of classical music birthday months.
I checked out July. Weak. Christoph Willibald Gluck, Gustav Mahler, Stephen Foster. How about August? Equally weak. Claude Debussy, Leonard Bernstein, George Enescu Perhaps we’ll see if any of the autumn months can exceed June’s bounty.