Recent Blogs Posts

Today’s Tuesday Blog is the second of a three-part series where we consider the four symphonies of Robert Schumann. In this “PTB Classic” playlist, Sergiu Celibidache leads the Munich Philharmonic in a pair of live concert recordings featuring the second symphony and the piano concerto in A Minor.

In the year 1845, Schumann embarked into intensive study of counterpoint with his wife, Clara. He began to compose away from the piano, as he noted in his writing: “Not until the

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We may have skipped the last quarter of 2020, but we are back with a new quarterly Tuesday installment of our ongoing series of podcasts – number 354 and closing in on our 365th later this year.

The common thread between the two works featured today is Lord Byron’s dramatic poem Manfred. The title character is a Faustian noble living in the Bernese Alps. Internally tortured by some mysterious guilt, which has to do with the death of his most beloved, Astarte, he uses his mastery of

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This week's musing, another installment in our "Classic" series leveraging mash-up playlists as we did in the early days of the Tuesday Blog, was intended as an early St-Patrick's day present, featuring a composer of Irish descendance.

As it turns out, I was wrong - and so was the composer for the longest time, apparently.

According to my research, Victor Herbert's mother told him that he had been born in Dublin, and he believed this all his life, listing

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Milhaud
Ballade for Piano and Orchestra
Michael Korstick, piano
SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern
Alun Francis, conductor

As with the Milhaud Etudes, this is more modernist (and less melodic) than I prefer, but I still thought this was OK.

Bach
Orchestral Suite No. 3
The English Concert
Trevor Pinnock

Here's what I though immediately upon listening. The Ouverture was immediately familiar to me, The Air

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Bach
Sonata for Solo Violin, No. 2
Paul Galbraith, guitar (his own transcription)
Sergiu Luca, violin
Nathan Milstein, violin

This time I listened to Galbraith first, in an attempt to be able to listen with more "fresh" ears. And I did like this more than his Sonata No. 1. In particular I really enjoyed his Fuga. The Grave and the Andante were still too slow for my taste (though the Andante was still very pretty).

Between Milstein

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