I am currently reading Lipatti by Dragos Tanasescu and Grigore Bargauanu. It is the only English biography based on the life of Romanian pianist and composer Dinu Lipatti and it has long been out of print. I managed to find a used library copy for sale at Amazon. Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950) died at the tragically early age of 33 from […]
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These past three weeks on hiatus, I have also been reading Diaghilev (a life) by Sjeng Scheijen. Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) is the historically famous impresario of the Ballets Russes. He was flamboyant and openly gay at a time when this was not generally accepted even in Paris in the 1920’s. Under his commission, the greatest of 20th century composers wrote
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At week three of my hiatus in the sun I have come up with a short guitar piece that I think is quite nice. The working title is “Poor Hidalgo.” I have been thinking about the Don Quixote character a lot and it led to this tune which utilizes as a unifying them the Spanish dance pattern called “Quajira” which
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Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was an Argentinian composer and bandoneon player. He was the father of “Nuevo Tango” or new tango. To say I love his music is understatement. There is a great sense of drama in his many compositions. Though tango is basically “music of the street,” Piazzolla took tango to new heights and hardcore tango enthusiasts didn’t (and some
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I have come back to listening to Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) recently. He was a Russian composer who thought he was a mystic and wrote a ton of piano music. He was a sort of Russian Chopin. Harmonically he was ahead of his time. His music can be spooky, exhilarating and intense and, as I have read, is also pretty good
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I’ve been listening to a variety of music again these days. Here are a few I thought you might be interested in and some history about them. Fritz Kreisler – Though he passed away more than 50 years ago and his prime recordings were done before 1940 I have to say that I am, none the less, a true believer.
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