Music Is The Best Healer
The waltzes of Johann Strauss, Sr. (1804-1849) evoked the air of the Viennese countryside, beer gardens and new white wine (Heurigen). Those of his eldest son, Johann, Jr., at first had the same rhythmic vitality …
Conductors Archive
Beethoven’s Symphony #2
Beethoven composed his symphony #2 during the summer and fall of 1802 and conducted the first performance on April 5, 1803, in Vienna. The score calls for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and …
Schubert’s Symphony #9 (The Great)
Schubert began his Symphony No. 9 in the summer of 1825 and continued to work on it over the next two years. In 1828 Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) agreed to …
Mendelssohn Octet
Felix Mendelssohn composed his remarkable String Octet in October 1825, when he was 16 years old; the first performance took place before the end of that year in one of the Sunday musicales at his …
Carlos Kleiber Conducts Johann Strauss
While he chose to conduct rarely, Carlos Kleiber was one phenomenal conductor, and perhaps the finest during the past 100 years. Carlos was the son of the great German conductor Erich Kleiber, and Carlos – because …