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Classical Music

Early geniuses Mozart, Elgar, Mendelssohn show iup in San Diego

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My five favorite sings

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Best orchestras in the world without name recognition

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Sheet music as tool of colonialism

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Classical Music

Early geniuses Mozart, Elgar, Mendelssohn show iup in San Diego

The San Diego Symphony continued their run of string serenade live streams on Friday, April 29. In February the symphony string section performed Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. In March is ...

Classical Music

My five favorite sings

I want to talk a little bit about choir. I’ve been singing in choirs since the seventh grade. I was in a choir every year from junior high through college. ...

Classical Music

Best orchestras in the world without name recognition

There are famous orchestras around the world. We’ve all heard of Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics. We know about the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw. The United States used ...

Classical Music

Sheet music as tool of colonialism

The internet was astir regarding an article in The Telegraph. The headline reads, “Musical notation branded 'colonialist' by Oxford professors hoping to 'decolonise' the curriculum.” Musical pundits picked up on ...

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Classical Music

Rafael Payare teaches me a thing or two

In its most recent online streaming concert, the San Diego Symphony showed off the string section in a concert entitled A Shimmer of Strings. This is the way I will now refer to all gatherings ...

April 9, 2021

Classical Music

Best movie music: Shostakovich, Ralph Vaughn Williams

Since the 2021 Academy Awards come up later this month on April 25, let’s take a moment to consider some of the greatest movie music ever written. The acid test for great movie music is ...

April 2, 2021

Classical Music

March 26, 2021

No one wrote a better melody than Puccini

If there is one thing I’ve bemoaned about modern music, all modern music, it’s the lack of melody. From the concert hall to the opera stage to popular music, melody is on the decline. Within ...

Classical Music

March 19, 2021

Second-best operas of all time

A few weeks ago we did the best second-best symphonies. This week we’re going to do the best second-best operas. For the sake of argument, a composer’s second-best opera is any opera that isn’t his ...

Classical Music

March 12, 2021

Art and music do not change the world

I cast a jaundiced eye at music composed based on current events. We’ve had several compositions along such lines performed in San Diego. We’ve had compositions about climate change, receding glaciers. immigration, police shootings, and ...

Classical Music

March 5, 2021

San Diego Symphony 2nd concert: Carlos Simon, Mozart, Tchaikovsky

The San Diego Symphony streamed its second concert of the year on Friday, February 26. The concert presented three contrasting pieces of music. The first piece, by Carlos Simon, was entitled Elegy, A Cry from ...

Classical Music

February 26, 2021

Best music for spring – Grieg, Glazunov, Debussy, Schumann, Strauss

The last few days of unabated San Diego sunshine have me feeling particularly spring-ish even though we are technically in the dead of winter with spring still a month or so away. However, it did ...

Classical Music

February 18, 2021

Best classical music orgies

Lent came quickly this year. With no buildup to Carnival and Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, because of you know what, Ash Wednesday suddenly appeared. I thought we’d explore a few musical carnivals since the season didn’t ...

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Second best symphony of all time?

I’ve had dozens of conversations that discussed the greatest symphonies of all time. I’ve read dozens of articles on the same topic. The usual suspects are all there, Beethoven’s Ninth, Mahler’s Ninth, Bruckner’s Eighth, Brahms' ...

February 12, 2021

Classical Music

Need to see more with SD Symphony livestreaming

I wrote a little preview of the San Diego Symphony livestream entitled Wagner meets Mozart and mentioned that I didn’t quite understand how the concert hung together. After watching the livestream, I still don’t get ...

February 5, 2021

Classical Music

January 29, 2021

The gaps in my Vaughan Williams

Recently I realized I had some holes in my listening habits for one of my favorite composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams. I have listened to some of Vaughan Williams’s most popular pieces to death. These would ...

Classical Music

January 22, 2021

San Diego Symphony tries something completely different

San Diego Symphony and Music Director Rafael Payare have announced a special 2021 digital season that strives to inspire and connect with its audience while in-person performances cannot occur due to Covid. From January to ...

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Classical Music

Early geniuses Mozart, Elgar, Mendelssohn show iup in San Diego

My five favorite sings

Best orchestras in the world without name recognition

Sheet music as tool of colonialism

Classical Music

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