Lacrimosa from Mozart’s “Requiem”
In 1791 Mozart had the sense that he was about to die. He was visited by a stranger who asked him to compose a Requiem for soloists, choir, and orchestra. There is a section of …
Conductors Archive
Anton Bruckner’s Symphony #4
By the time he reached the period of his Fourth Symphony, composer Anton Bruckner had staked a firm place in Austrian musical life. He had distinguished himself especially as an organist and was an almost …
The Symphony #3 (Eroica) by Beethoven
The Symphony #3 by Beethoven was, in my view, a revolutionary work in the development of Music. The foundational idea of the first movement of Beethoven’s Third Symphony is a narrative of struggle, which is …
Mozart’s Opera “Magic Flute”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed his 2-act comic opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) in 1791, the year he died. It premiered just three months before Mozart’s death, was quickly embraced by audiences of the …
Mozart’s Wonderful Symphony #36
The symphony #36 by Mozart is a grandly inventive work that Mozart created in an amazing hurry. For the first time, he begins a symphony with a slow introduction, declamatory at the outset, then yielding …