After listening to Andrè Schuen and Daniel Heide's great performance of Die schöne Magelone, I thought it had been a long time since I'd shared a song from this Brahms cycle here. When I checked, I discovered that it was in January 2016, more than seven years ago! It's been a while. So, it's time to listen to one more song from this work, officially called Romanzen aus Ludwig [...]

As you might know, I always select a song with a religious subject for these days. Nine years ago, I shared one by Rachmaninoff, Christ has risen, composed in 1906. To set the song for this week, we have to go a few years forward, until a terrible moment in European history: autumn 1914, a few months after the outbreak of the First World War. The most informed Russian [...]

One of the main themes of the troubadour tradition is courtly love, a love that was elevating and spiritual. The beloved was a noble woman, and the troubadour had a lower rank; their relationship followed the terminology of feudalism: she was his lady, and he was her vassal. Moreover, the lady used to be married, which made her even more inaccessible. Courtly love was necessarily platonic because otherwise, the lady would [...]

When a composer dedicates a work to a recently deceased composer, it's a sign of sorrow, respect and affection. If he dedicates it to the memory of a composer who died seventy years or two centuries ago, it will be a delicacy that speaks above all about admiration and gratitude. But if the composer does not use the most common formulas, “remembering” or [...]

This summer, visiting the Schubertada will feel like visiting Vienna. Maybe you're thinking this happens every year, almost by definition, and you're right (shouldn't Vilabertran and Vienna become sister cities? I can imagine the sign on the roundabout exit), but that's the idea that came to my mind when I went through the programming. Let's see…