Giuseppe Tartini’s devilish inspiration behind his most popular work ”Brought To You By Satan” Episode Transcript In the Spresser Forest outside of Wittenberg, Germany around the year 1516, a man and a few assistants came to a crossroads. It was nighttime, it was eerie, it was desolate. They wanted it that way. The man muttered […]
Brought To You By Satan: Guiseppe Tartini and the Devil’s Trill Sonata Read More »
The composer loved North America, Indigenous Music, Trains, and … Iowa For the sixth episode of Backstage Podcast, join us as we explore the musical and cultural repercussions of Antonin Dvorak and his visit to the United States. Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, the founder of the National Conservatory of Music of America, was determined to bring
Czech, Please: Antonin Dvorak in America Read More »
Around Halloween every year, we indulge ourselves with little bits of mythology. It’s fun. We listen to “Thriller,” we put on Grim Reaper costumes, we watch a Tim Burton movie here and there. Do the legends hold any real meaning to us? Generally, no. We don’t really think of Death as a malicious tyrant who
Dancing Bones & Xylophones: Some Spooky Fun, Classical Music Style Read More »
The story behind one of Japan’s most iconic 20th century works In this episode we dive into one of Japan’s most iconic 20th century works, the Masao Ohki Hiroshima Symphony. The United States ended WWII by dropping the world’s first Atomic Bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August
Ghosts of Hiroshima: Masao Ohki’s Hiroshima Symphony Read More »
Censorship, Shostakovich, and the musical wasteland of Stalin’s Soviet Russia Muddle Instead of Music Episode Transcript A stately gentleman dressed in a military jacket and pressed trousers carefully settled into his chair at the Moscow theater. It was 1936. An attendant collected his overcoat, his fur hat, then asked for his gloves. It was a
Muddle Instead of Music: Shostakovich & Stalin’s Russia Read More »
The Beaumarchais Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro were phenomena in their time. They called for social equality in the years leading up to the French Revolution. They espoused feminism during an age when common women had no rights. They caricatured the aristocracy and championed the intelligence of ordinary citizens. And these plays
Beaumarchais: Barber of Seville, and the Genius Behind Figaro Read More »
