StarkConductor Blog

The StarkConductor blog has been around since August 2020, and since then a number of articles have come together. To make browsing as convenient as possible, this page is divided into three sections: At the top you can use the search function to find articles. After that, you will always find the 3 most recent articles. Finally, you will find all articles sorted by category.

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Have fun reading!

Jonathan Stark

The 3 most recent articles

Here you will always find the 3 most recently published articles.

Gustav Holst’s Career: A Roller Coaster Ride (Spring 2023 Mini-Experience Part 3/3)

Gustav Holst’s career was like a roller coaster ride: major failures alternated with minor successes.

“He should have tested us!” – How Anton Bruckner went on and on and on (Spring 2023 Mini-Experience Part 2/3)

In this article you will learn why Anton Bruckner was one of the “Prussian tin soldiers” among composers: he just went on and on.

Composer Careers: Whiz Kid, Tin Soldier, or Roller Coaster Rider? (Spring 2023 Mini-Experience Part 1/3)

Some composers had great success early in their lives – they were whiz kids. But there were also composers with very different career paths…

Mini-Experiences

The Mini-Experiences are anecdotes from classical music in story format. Four of them are published per year.

Composer Careers: Whiz Kid, Tin Soldier, or Roller Coaster Rider? (Spring 2023 Mini-Experience Part 1/3)

Some composers had great success early in their lives – they were whiz kids. But there were also composers with very different career paths…

What collaboration can trigger… (Winter 2023 Mini-Experience Part 1/3)

A Russian painter, a Russian composer and a little French boy…. Together they help a long unnoticed piece to break through.

The Groundbreaking Article (Autumn 2022 Mini-Experience Part 1/4)

In 1872, a 23-year-old musicologist published an article that astonished experts. In it, a whole new way of perceiving music was outlined.
The article was signed “Hugibert Ries”.
Everyone in the professional music world wondered: Who is this man?

The Change (Summer 2022 Mini-Experience Part 1/4)

It was around the year 1800 that a centuries-old tradition began to falter. Read the StarkConductor Summer 2022 Mini-Experience Part 1/4.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Founding Story_featured

The Founding Story of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Part I

The founding story of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra does not begin in Chicago. Nor does it begin in New York, nor even in America. It begins in a tiny town in northern Germany, where 10-year-old Theodor plays his violin.

Composers

These articles are about everything to do with Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and many other composers.

Tamino, Who Are You?

Tamino must pass difficult tests to win Pamina in Mozart’s Magic Flute. In this blogpost you will learn more about Tamino and his role in perhaps Mozart’s most famous opera.

3 Facts about Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) is considered one of the most important British composers. With his consistently pacifist stance as well as his conservative compositional style, he stood out from many fellow composers in the 20th century. Read 3 facts about Benjamin Britten here.

A Day in the Life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart’s days were filled with an absurdly heavy workload. Combined with far too little rest and sleep time, it is hardly surprising that Mozart was in such poor physical shape throughout his life. Find out what a typical day in the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was like in this article.

Bizet’s Operas (List)

Georges Bizet is best known for Carmen – one of the most performed operas to date. But Bizet created other operas that are less well known. Many were not even performed during the composer’s lifetime. In this list you will find all the operas by Georges Bizet, including the year and place of the premiere.

Sarastro, Who Are You?

Sarastro is the counterpart to the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute. In this blogpost you will learn more about Sarastro and his role in perhaps Mozart’s most famous opera.

Humperdinck’s Operas (List)

In this list you will find all of Engelbert Humperdinck’s operas, including year and place of premiere.

Orchestras and concert halls

This is where classical music resounds! Interesting facts about orchestras and concert halls from all over the world.

Boston Symphony Hall: how a 32-year-old physicist built the world’s best concert hall

Boston Symphony Hall is very popular among concertgoers, orchestra musicians and conductors because of its excellent acoustics. When Boston Symphony Hall was built in 1900, a very young physicist was responsible for this: Wallace Clement Sabine.

How a shoebox took classical music to a new level in Dallas

Dallas, 1980: The Dallas Symphony Orchestra plays day after day and week after week in the Music Hall at Fair Park. The problem: you can’t hear a thing.

Germany’s Cultural Construction Sites

In today’s blog post I present three cultural construction sites in Germany. These are “construction sites” in the truest sense of the word – the opera houses in Bayreuth and Stuttgart are being renovated, and a new concert hall is being built in Munich.

Slovenska Filharmonija Ljubljana im Sonnenuntergang

Slovenska Filharmonija – High Culture Meets Tradition

With the Slovenska Filharmonija, Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, has a valuable cultural asset. Not only does this orchestra look back on a very long history, but it is also characterized by a special sound culture and high responsiveness. In the following I will go into the history of the Slovenska Filharmonija as well as my personal connection to this orchestra.

Where circus, politics and music meet: the Bucharest Athenaeum

Bucharest, 1865: A building for the benefit of society is to be constructed. What should it be? A circus, a parliament building or a concert hall? The Bucharest Athenaeum was all of that.

Opera and opera houses

Would you like a little more singing? Then this is the right category for you.

Bizet’s Operas (List)

Sarastro, Who Are You?

Sarastro is the counterpart to the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute. In this blogpost you will learn more about Sarastro and his role in perhaps Mozart’s most famous opera.

Humperdinck’s Operas (List)

In this list you will find all of Engelbert Humperdinck’s operas, including year and place of premiere.

Pamina, Who Are You?

Pamina is the daughter of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute. In this blogpost you will learn more about Pamina and her role in perhaps Mozart’s most famous opera.

Bellini’s Operas (List)

He is still one of the most important opera composers today, although he only lived to the age of 33: Vincenzo Bellini. His most famous operas are probably Norma and I Puritani. In this list you will find all the operas by Vincenzo Bellini, including the year and place of the premiere.

Richard Wagner’s Operas (List)

Wagner was known as a slow worker. That is why it is interesting to take a look at the following table of all Wagner operas and the periods in which they were written: Wagner worked on the “Götterdämmerung” (with numerous interruptions) for 26 years!

Music theory light

Musical background knowledge, presented in an understandable way.

24 ways to say “softer” in music

Softer – but how? In music, there are many ways to do this: lessing, yielding, extinguishing, decreasing to nothing. Discover here 24 different ways to say “softer” in music – in four languages.

12 ways to say “louder” in music

Louder – but how? In music, there are many ways to do this: increasing, compressing, unfolding, wakening. Discover here 12 different ways to say “louder” in music – in four languages.

Parlando: what is that?

Parlando is the rap of classical music. It is a vocal technique that stands between singing and speaking and is not so easy to do. This style is especially popular in opera. Read here what parlando is and how you can recognize it.

30 ways to say “slower” in music

Slow down – but how? In music, there are many ways to do this: calming, delaying, dying, stretching. Discover here 30 different ways to say “slower” in music – in four languages.

27 ways to say “faster” in music

Faster means faster – or not? Not so fast. In music, there are usually many possibilities for one word. Discover 27 different ways to say “faster” in music here – in four languages.

Doctrine of Affects: what is that?

The doctrine of affects was used in the Baroque and Classical periods to trigger emotions in the listeners. This was achieved thanks to precise musical tools. What exactly the doctrine of affects was, which affects were triggered with music and which clever people wrote about it, you can read below.