The Classical Music Minute

Send us Fan Mail Description The world of trailer music evolved composer Kati Falk-Flores ’ skills beyond her classical training into writing the larger-than-life, cinematic music needed for the promotion of Hollywood’s biggest films. From the heartwarming piece used for advertising Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns to the dark exploration of humanity used for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Kati’s music...

Send us Fan Mail Description Blessed with good looks, but bad teeth, Franz Liszt had a number of vices, including cigars and cognac. All of which he would indulge in to excess. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Liszt was quite the rock star of his time. They called it “Lisztomania” – women would faint and go into a frenzy when he performed, so much so that local doctors thought it was an ep...

Send us Fan Mail Description Anton Bruckner was extremely critical of his own work and often reworked his compositions. One such perplexity was his Symphony No. 0. Or was it? Take a minute to get the scoop! Check out Bruckner's Symphony in D minor ℅ Frankfurt Radio Symphony | Paavo Järvi (YouTube) Fun Fact Unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner showed ext...

Send us Fan Mail Description In defence of Ukraine and its cultural heritage, Keri-Lynn Wilson is leading the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra on its inaugural tour of Europe and America. Composed of leading Ukrainian musicians from both inside and outside of Ukraine, the orchestra was created by Ms. Wilson with support from the governments of Ukraine and Poland and the Metropolitan Opera and the Polis...

Send us Fan Mail Description "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), commonly abbreviated "Der Hölle Rache", is an aria sung by the Queen of the Night, a coloratura soprano part, in the second act of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). But who are some of the sopranos who successfully tackled this feat o...

Send us Fan Mail Description For this bonus interview episode, I chat with Canadian Media Composer, Maria Molinari. Trained as a classical guitarist, Maria Molinari began her composing career writing concert music for soloists, chamber groups, ballet and orchestras until her love of film, storytelling & collaboration drew her to film scoring. Maria recently composed the score for the bold crit...

Send us Fan Mail Description The ‘Queen of the Night’ aria, "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), is a coloratura soprano part, in the second act of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The story is a mixture of fun and high ideals, of Masonic philosophy and high jinx, of...

Send us Fan Mail Description Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547) excelled at languages, literature, theology, sport and, famously, music. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact In 1515, May Day was celebrated at Greenwich with all kinds of music, including, according to this description, a mix of natural and ‘made’ music: ‘In the wood were bowers filled purposely with singing birds which car...

Send us Fan Mail Description For this bonus interview episode, I chatted with world-renowned theremin player Pamelia Stickney (formerly known as Pamelia Kurstin). She has performed and recorded with many artists including David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, David Garland, Seb Rochford, Otto Lechner and Simone Dinnerstein, and was instrumental in the final design of Robert Moog&ap...

Send us Fan Mail Description Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact During the late 1940s, Copland became aware that Stravinsky and other fellow composers had begun to study Arnold Schoenberg's use of twelve-tone (serial) techniques. After he had been exposed to th...

Send us Fan Mail Description The lutenist Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687 – 1750) was one of the most prolific composers of the lute in history and was the virtuoso lutenist of his day. He was a contemporary of J.S. Bach and even competed with him in improvisation. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact In later life, Weiss became a friend of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and met J.S. Bach through him. Ba...

Send us Fan Mail Description The aria Nessun dorma is one of the most famous in all of operatic history and has been sung by an array of fantastic tenors—each adding their own unique technical and expressive prowess. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact "Nessun dorma", "Let no one sleep" is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot and one of the b...

Send us Fan Mail Description I wanted to do a special two-part episode on the famous aria Nessun dorma. First the plot and lead up to the aria itself. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Although "Nessun dorma" had long been a staple of operatic recitals, Luciano Pavarotti popularized the piece beyond the opera world in the 1990s following his performance of it for the 1990 World Cu...

Send us Fan Mail Description Need a quick refresher on the plot of Verdi’s Rigoletto? Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Rigoletto premiered on 11 March 1851 in a sold-out La Fenice as the first part of a double bill with Giacomo Panizza's ballet Faust. The opening night was a complete triumph, especially the scena drammatica and the Duke's cynical aria, "La donna è mobile&quo...

Send us Fan Mail Description Occasionally, I am going to release a bonus interview episode for your listening pleasure. For this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Bekah Simms who is the outgoing General Manager for the Canadian League of Composers . She is also a truly innovative composer in her own right. We chatted all about the League as well as Bekah’s compositional process and what...

Send us Fan Mail Description Medieval Western European music encompassed sacred and secular genres in the Middle Ages, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. It spans centuries and is worth considering as an integral part of our musical development.  Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Hildegard von Bingen was a rare Medieval female composer. Also kn...

Send us Fan Mail Description Music has the power to arouse strong feelings and recall memories and the performer is the conduit to communicate this emotion. But it is actually far more complex than that. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact We’ve all had those ‘Proustian rush’ moments when a piece of music, or a single movement or even a phrase, provokes an involunt...

Send us Fan Mail Description The theremin was the first electronic musical instrument invented purely by accident by a physicist and trained cellist. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The theremin became the go-to noise for an alien encounter, most famously in the classic 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (scored by Bernard Herrmann). Other high-profile cr...

Send us Fan Mail Description After a harrowing pandemic, and shut down of the arts worldwide, the BBC Proms is back this summer. It will showcase repertoire not heard at the festival since 2019, but also lesser-known works in its ‘Cinderella’ instruments series. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The 2022 Proms marks the centenary year of the BBC, celebrating a hi...

Send us Fan Mail Description Franz Schubert in just eleven years (1797-1828) wrote over 600 songs. He set some of the greatest poets of his time to music. Some of them were even contemporary minor poets who were his friends. The greatest poet of Schubert’s age was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. One of the most dramatic of Schubert’s vocal works was the setting of Goethe’s poem, The Erlking, Der Erlkö...

Send us Fan Mail Description It was the passionate and sometimes tempestuous relationship between Tchaikovsky and violinist Yosif Kotek that sparked the miraculous creation of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, a true masterpiece. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Although Yosif Kotek and Tchaikovsky were inseparable at one time, due to Kotek’s “unbelievable womanizi...

Send us Fan Mail Description Teaching was part of Mozart’s lifestyle, and it was not uncommon for him to offer instruction while playing billiards or at the bowling alley. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact During the early stages of his career in Vienna, Mozart would give pupils 3 to 5 one-hour lessons per week but wasn’t particularly flexible about when the less...

Send us Fan Mail Description Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart loved to eat. His favourites included a variety of dishes to fuel his creativity. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact With Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and numerous other composers hanging around, Vienna was clearly a musical center. Concurrently, it was an epicurean center that created and established the Viennese c...

Send us Fan Mail Description Dating back over one thousand years, it is said that Ukrainian choral music embodies a cultural identity and is truly a reflection of the soul of a nation. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact With ever-changing borders and territories, Ukraine became a truly independent state only in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet chor...

Send us Fan Mail Description Sergei Rachmaninoff had an unmistakable connection to writing in minor keys. In fact, his three symphonies, Symphonic Dances, four piano concertos, and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini are all written in minor keys. But why you may ask? Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact By 1900 Rachmaninoff was paralyzed with self-doubt and unable...