Tempo Rubato

The evolution of notation in Western music

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symphonyno2ineminor:

Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Gould, and Igor Stravinsky

Der Mahler conducts

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Gustav Mahler, born 7th July 1860

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Statue above Chopin’s grave in Père-Lachaise.

I don’t think that either self-deprecation or self-aggrandizement is among the defining qualities of an artist…Beethoven could have been forgiven if his symphonies had gone to his head. Gretchaninoff could also be forgiven if his Dobrinya Nikititch went to his head. But neither one could be forgiven for writing a piece that was amoral, servile, the work of a flunky.

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Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), essentially a dandy version of another famous Giuseppe.

Chamberlain, Mussolini, Lord Halifax, and Count Ciano attend a peformance in the Rome Opera House in 1939, the same year and venue as Gigli’s haunting, portentous Verdi Requiem recording. Music is rarely far from politics; still, it isn’t often this close. The opera house’s 1926 refurbishing infamously put Mussolini’s name above center stage.