The great Callas, according to biographer Richard Levine: Maria’s impressive willpower and focus enabled her to develop into the artist we think of when we think of Callas, but at the time her fellow students were hardly charmed by her chilly single-mindedness. One of them later said that ‘her earnestness was oppressive.’ Maria knew, however, […]
Creative geniuses as selfish — Maria Callas version Read More »
From Richard Osborne’s biography Herbert von Karajan, on an event in war-torn Vienna as it was struggling back to life after a cold winter in the last stage of World War Two: “Then the Russians arrived. For three weeks in April 1945, Russian soldiery ran amok in and orgy of pillage and rape, before Stalin
Music-loving Soviets in Vienna, 1945 Read More »
(Reprising this post on my favorite biography.) I finished Anthony Holden’s Tchaikovsky (Random House, 1995), an outstandingly well-written account of the great composer’s life. Here is an indication of the young Pyotr’s aptitude for music: “Tchaikovsky’s parents entertained a Polish pianist of their acquaintance, who naturally gave an evening concert for the thin line of
Anthony Holden’s Tchaikovsky Read More »
Reprising this awesome quotation from Romain Rolland on Beethoven’s response to his great obstacles: The hammer is not all: the anvil also is necessary. Had destiny descended only upon some weakling, or on an imitation great man, and bent his back under this burden, there would have been no tragedy in it, only an everyday
Romain Rolland on Beethoven’s response to his deafness and depression Read More »
Reprising this Dmitri Shostakovich story of Alexander Glazunov‘s astounding musical memory. Glazunov was one of Shostakovich’s teachers in St. Petersburg, and by all accounts his ability to retain and recapitulate music was perfect. Here’s the practical joke played upon a visiting composer, Sergei Taneyev: “Taneyev had come to Petersburg from Moscow to show his new
A prodigious practical joke in music Read More »
According to Shostakovich: “Rimsky-Korsakov used to say that he refused to acknowledge any complaints from composers about their hard lot in life. He explained his position thus: Talk to a bookkeeper and he’ll start complaining about life and his work. Work has ruined him, it’s so dull and boring. You see, the bookkeeper had planned
Rimsky-Korsakov on the “hardship” of the composer’s life Read More »
Reprising this post about the early death of Franz Schubert, the great lyrical composer of the early nineteenth century. He died at age 31. While his music is usually too melancholy for my taste, what a sadness. Franz was lucky to get that many years. Biographer Christoper Gibbs reports that Schubert’s parents had fourteen children
Franz Schubert’s early death Read More »
Reprising this charming anecdote about his commitment to music, as reported by cellist Yulian Poplavsky, who knew Tchaikovsky at the time: The event was a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Spanish Capriccio, which was to be conducted by the composer himself in a concert for the Russian Musical Society. The great Tchaikovsky was in attendance for the
Tchaikovsky’s musical magnanimity Read More »