hank Archive

Although Beethoven was at the time this music was composed already an experienced orchestral composer, the Concerto in B-flat was the first orchestral work he considered fit for publication. But, to avoid criticism, he would …

The Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach are comprised of a theme (the so-called Aria) and 30 variations. The Aria resembles a binary dance movement known as “sarabande,” where the movements are repeated. The Aria …

In late September or early October 1828—two months before his death—Franz Schubert completed his C-major string quintet. He passed the work to his Leipzig publisher Heinrich Albert Probst on 2 October 1828, writing in the …

Franz Schubert’s Third Symphony is notably shorter than his first two symphonies. But it also foreshadows ideas that would expand the scale of the symphony. The rushing scale passage of the first movement’s slow introduction …

Lucia Popp made her stage debut as a singer at age 23 at the Bratislava Opera singing Queen of the Night in Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte”. In 1963 Herbert von Karajan heard her sing and engaged …