The Classical Music Minute

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...

Send us Fan Mail Description Vladimir Horowitz is considered one of the greatest pianists of all time. What is less known is that Horowitz was born in Kiev, the capital of modern-day Ukraine and at the time this was part of the Russian Empire. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Horowitz was acclaimed for his recordings of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3, and his performa...

Send us Fan Mail Description Sergei Bortkiewicz, a Ukrainian composer and pianist, was oppressed by the Soviets and the Nazis, a refugee and survivor of two World Wars, yet he composed wonderfully rich, appealing and colourful music. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The outbreak of World War I in 1914 changed Bortkiewicz's life: Being a citizen of the Russian Empire, he...

Send us Fan Mail Description Luciano Pavarotti was one of the most remarkable tenors of all time. Born into a humble working-class family, he attained worldwide fame, and eventually the honorific title of "King of the High Cs". Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Though praised for his voice, Pavarotti was often criticized for his inability to read music well and was...

Send us Fan Mail Description Alexina Louie is one of my favourite Canadian composers of contemporary classical music. I first heard her work “Music For Heaven and Earth” in 1990, which was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony. This is one composer you should definitely get to know. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Alexina Louie settled in Toronto in 1980, and over the subseq...

Send us Fan Mail Description Esprit Orchestra is one of the few full-sized orchestras devoted to performing the work of living composers. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Conductor, Alex Pauk, is married to composer Alexina Louie . Over the years, both have collaborated on several film scores including Don McKellar's Last Night, which received a Genie nomination for Bes...

Send us Fan Mail Description Over the years 1825–1849, Frédéric Chopin wrote at least 59 Mazurkas for piano, based on the traditional Polish dance. But his unique style differed significantly from the original. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact In 1921, Béla Bartók published an essay in which he said that Chopin "had not known authentic Polish folk music." Bartók su...

Send us Fan Mail Description There has been much debate over the years as to how Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died. What had he suffered from that had taken his life at the early age of only thirty-six? Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Most of us have seen the movie Amadeus, and the scene with Salieri pestering Mozart on his deathbed. However, there is little evidence that Salier...

Send us Fan Mail Description There are a myriad of animations around the world that use classical music. Sometimes to support the action and other times to be the focal point. Here are three that I wanted to touch upon. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Another Japanese anime to consider watching is Your Lie In April. It is about Kōsei Arima, a child prodigy who became famous...

Send us Fan Mail Description If you are a Rachmaninoff fan, his Symphonic Dances are worth a listen to gain further insight into the many shades of this dynamic composer. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The Symphonic Dances combine energetic rhythmic sections, reminiscent of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, with some of the composer's lushest harmonies. He also ma...

Send us Fan Mail Description Beethoven was both composer and businessman as he hustled to make a living on a daily basis, balancing writing with the necessity of giving private lessons and negotiating with publishers. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The publishing industry during Beethoven’s time was in its infancy, and as such, it was quite unreliable. People of ill repute...

Send us Fan Mail Description Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony was composed amidst significant upheaval during the “Great Patriotic War” which began in 1941. No composer before Shostakovich had ever written a symphony during a raging war, “and no composer had ever attempted to describe a future victory, in music, with such power and conviction.” Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun F...

Send us Fan Mail Description On New Year’s eve, there are a handful of audience favourites that conductors around the world choose to perform. One such crowd-pleaser is the Die Fledermaus Overture by Johann Strauss II. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The first London performance of Die Fledermaus did not take place until 1895, "Twenty years after its production as a ly...

Send us Fan Mail Description Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is a staple of ballet stages worldwide during the holiday season. But how did it come to be? And was it a hit right off the bat? Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact In the original version of "Nutcracker and Mouse King" a little girl, Marie, worries about a beautiful nutcracker that's been broken. At night...

Send us Fan Mail Description Franz Schubert died at the early age of only thirty-one. For a number of years, he suffered from the crippling effects of syphilis, coupled with the effects of highly toxic mercury treatment. Yet, despite this, he composed three final solo piano sonatas which are said to reflect his psychological journey of isolation and alienation. Join me, as we take a minute to get...

Send us Fan Mail Description Flutes come in all shapes and sizes. But each one was created with a specific purpose in mind and marks a period in musical history. In Western music history, certain well-known composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Stravinsky utilized different flutes in their pieces, thus paving the way for future works. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Ther...

Send us Fan Mail Description Glenn Gould is best remembered for his remarkable interpretations of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. But he is also fondly thought of as having been extraordinarily peculiar—in the most endearing way. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact From an early age, Gould challenged the accepted norms of the “classical music biz.” After winning th...