- The opening four notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 are the most iconic in all of music. There’s an apocryphal story that Beethoven called those four notes “fate knocking at the door.” But the very first audience to hear this symphony in 1808 didn’t walk away so impressed.
- Kids are headed back to school, and it seems like they’re either up at the crack of dawn or nothing short of a fire alarm will wake their sleepy heads. CPR Classical has you covered for easier, happier mornings. We’ve created two playlists to accompany your school day mornings.
- Violinist Midori is making her only Denver appearance this Sunday with the National Repertory Orchestra at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. The National Repertory Orchestra is based in Breckenridge, but making their second Denver appearance in two years.
- She was heralded as the girl who “conquered Tanglewood with 3 violins.” 14-year-old Midori stunned the audience at Tanglewood in 1986 by performing Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade” (after Plato’s Symposium) with Bernstein conducting. During the piece, her E-string broke and immediately borrowed the concertmaster’s Stradivarius. That E-string broke as well.
- Join CPR Classical on-air hosts at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder on Friday, July 7 at 6:30 p.m. to hear what is often referred to as the “Mt. Everest” of piano concertos – the Piano Concerto #3 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
- CPR Classical Presents: The Rach 3! Rachmaninoff’s formidable Piano Concerto #3 is center stage when Russian pianist Nicolai Lugansky and the Colorado Music Festival with Music Director Peter Oundjian conducting perform the concerto in an all-Rachmaninoff program on Friday, July 7th at 6:30 p.m. at Chautauqua Auditorium.
- April 1st is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 150th birth anniversary and his legacy is still up for discussion in some circles.
- Mozart died just shy of his 36th birthday in 1791. But in his short life, he wrote a remarkable amount of music that changed the course of music history. Music wasn’t the only thing that was changing in the second half of the 18th century.
- What was is like to walk the streets of Salzburg when Mozart was growing up there? In the old part of the city, it’s remarkably similar. Many of the same buildings remain. You can easily visit many of the places Mozart lived or performed.
- Where did Mozart get his musical talent? History has long pointed to his father, Leopold. Leopold was a violinist and authored an authoritative textbook on violin playing. However, pianist Katie Mahan argues that quite a bit of that prodigious talent likely came from Mozart’s mother, Anna Maria Pertl.
- You probably know all the words to “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” but have you ever wondered why the same lyrics that “wish you a Merry Christmas” also demand “some figgy pudding”? Or why riding in a “one-horse open sleigh” has anything to do with Christmas? (Hint: it doesn’t).
- Anyone with children living at home can relate to wanting more space as the family grows. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his sister were born in a modest, five-room home in Salzburg where the family lived for a number of years. It had only one bedroom for all of them.
- Today you can travel from Salzburg to Vienna in under three hours. When the Mozart family undertook that trip, it took three weeks! It may seem like a long trip, but Vienna was one of the closest destinations for young Wolfgang.
- The young Ludwig van Beethoven had every intention of studying with Mozart. In 1787, when Beethoven was 16, he traveled to Vienna to meet and study with Mozart. But then his mother fell ill shortly after his arrival and Beethoven had to return to Bonn, Germany.
- “Tár” is the new psychological thriller from writer-producer-director Todd Field. It stars Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, the groundbreaking fictional conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Tár is a powerful, pop icon at the height of her career, wielding power over those around her.
- Mozart is a billion-dollar industry in Salzburg, Austria, the composer’s hometown. Tourists line up to see Mozart’s birthplace, to buy Mozart Kugeln chocolate and to attend Mozart dinner balls.
