Mozart on Tempo
“The most necessary and the hardest and most important thing in music is the tempo.” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote this in 1777 in a letter to his father. Is it still true today?
The 2019/20 Opera Repertoire: 35 Works Form the Lion’s Share
How many operas do you know? And how many operas do you estimate there are? In fact, there are thousands – and most of them live a shadowy existence. I have graphically illustrated this phenomenon in today’s blog article.
Tempo: Music Between Tradition and Technocracy
You will see two score examples. Both are four bars long. Answer without thinking too much about it: Which one is shorter?
Great Moments of Operetta: the Vienna Johann Strauss Theater
123 years ago today, the operetta Die Faschingsfee by Emmerich Kálmán was premiered at the Johann Strauss Theater in Vienna. This house, which unfortunately no longer exists today, was one of the top addresses at the beginning of the 20th century when it came to operetta.
Conductor’s Tools 1: the Baton
For many concert-goers it is a mystery: What does the conductor need a baton for? Indeed, the baton is an extremely useful tool for us conductors. In the following I will explain why.
Corona in Concert – Three Approaches
Munich, Bielefeld, Weimar – three cities, three different approaches to dealing with corona requirements. At least one of them is really curious.