On February 27, 1854, Robert Schumann attempted suicide by jumping from a bridge into the river Rhine. Some fishermen soon rescued him, but his sanity was gone. For years he had struggled with mental illness: he heard voices; the note “A” droned on in his head for hours; strange music played in his head; visions … Continued
What would Christmas be without music? For many of us, music is an indelible part of our Christmas memories and traditions. The same has been true for many Christmas-loving classical composers throughout the ages, so it is no surprise that many of them wrote Christmas music of their own. In roughly chronological order from oldest … Continued
The Houston Symphony has received a nomination for the 60th Grammy Awards for the recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck for Best Opera Recording in the classical category. Hailed by Gramophone as “One of the finest Wozzecks on record, orchestrally speaking,” and by Fanfare as a “Terrifically imposing performance” under the direction of an “experienced and confident conductor,” the two-disc album features former Music Director Hans … Continued
When Shostakovich began composing his First Violin Concerto in 1947, he was enjoying a period of relative calm. World War II had distracted Stalin’s government from show trials and purges, leaving artists slightly less harassed than usual. In 1942, Shostakovich unveiled his Leningrad Symphony, which won a Stalin Prize and was played across the allied … Continued
This Thanksgiving, the Houston Symphony presents one of the repertoire’s most popular orchestral works: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. Discover the story behind this masterpiece inspired by The One Thousand and One Nights. On February 27, 1887, the acclaimed Russian composer Alexander Borodin was attending a party when, after dancing a waltz, he dropped dead of a heart … Continued
After graduating from Yale in 1898, the young Charles Ives moved to New York City and took up residence with other recent graduates in a series of apartments, each of which was known affectionately as “Poverty Flat.” During the decade between his graduation and marriage, Ives would pursue two careers simultaneously: one as a church … Continued