The Classical Music Minute

Send us Fan Mail Description I would like to dedicate this episode to Seiji Ozawa, who passed away at the age of 88 on February 6th, 2024. Fun Fact After graduating from the Seijo Junior High School in 1950, Ozawa broke two fingers in a rugby game. Hideo Saito, his teacher at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, brought him to a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, ultimately shifting...

Send us Fan Mail Description La bohème in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Giacomo Puccini's opera "La Bohème," premiered in 1896, derives from Henri Murger's novel "Scènes de la vie de bohème." It portrays the lives of struggling young artists in 19th-century Paris. Puccini's emotive score and Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica's libretto...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Marriage of Figaro in 60 Seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact "The Marriage of Figaro," composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premiered in 1786 as a comic opera. Based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais, it explores complex relationships, love, and class struggles. Mozart's masterful music and Lorenzo Da Ponte's libretto create a timel...

Send us Fan Mail Description A Brief History of the Piano. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's love for the piano began in early childhood under the guidance of his father, Leopold Mozart, who recognized his son's prodigious talent. At the age of three, Mozart showed an innate affinity for the instrument, demonstrating remarkable dexterity and an exceptiona...

Send us Fan Mail Description A Brief History of the Concerto. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Renowned for his innovative approach, Vivaldi crafted hundreds of concertos, particularly for the violin. His pioneering use of ritornello structure, a recurring thematic passage shared between soloist and orchestra, became a hallmark of the Baroque concerto. Vivaldi's exploration of virtuos...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Baroque Era in 60 seconds. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Handel, a Baroque maestro, personifies the era's grandeur through his majestic compositions. His music, like the famous "Messiah," showcases elaborate ornamentation, dramatic dynamics, and emotional intensity. Handel's works epitomize Baroque extravagance, employing intricate co...

Send us Fan Mail Description Ever wondered where the Metronome came from? Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Mass manufacturing of clockwork metronomes made the devices increasingly cost effective and accessible, so that the periodical Music declared in 1897 that “A METRONOME SHOULD BE ON EVERY PIANO.” This push for the metronome stood in stark contrast to many composers’ attitude and aesthe...

Send us Fan Mail Description Joseph Haydn's The Creation was inspired by Handel's Messiah and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The first of the oratorio’s three parts begins with “Representation of Chaos,” an orchestral prelude that uses stark chords and shifting harmonies to portray the formlessness and disorder that preceded the Creation. The six days of...

Send us Fan Mail Description Bach’s Christmas Oratorio was a huge hit at the time. But did you know that most of it was cobbled together from previous writings? Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The Christmas Oratorio is in six parts, each of them being intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. The first part - for Christmas Day - describes the Birth o...

Send us Fan Mail Description ‘Tis the season for some great music, including Handel’s Messiah! What were the origins of this fantastic work? Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Handel composed Messiah in just 24 days without getting much sleep and or eating much food. While writing the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus Handel’s servant discovered him with tears in his eyes, and he exclaimed, “I did think I...

Send us Fan Mail Description Have you heard of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, one of the first classical composers of African heritage to attain widespread acclaim in European music? Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact In early 1776, the financially troubled Paris Opéra considered Chevalier de Saint-Georges as its new director. Despite his merit as the creator of the first disciplined French...

Send us Fan Mail Description Did you know that Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, was truly passionate about the harp? Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact When Marie Antoinette arrived in Paris in 1770, the harp was already a relatively widespread instrument in Paris. However, her unwavering passion for the instrument was partially responsible for inspiring a veritable harp craze. __...

Send us Fan Mail Description The musicians of the Titanic all died when the ship sank in 1912. They played music, intending to calm the passengers, for as long as they possibly could. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact There are no indications that the Titanic’s band members ever attempted to save themselves, and all of them died in the sinking. Most people regard them as musical heroes, who...

Send us Fan Mail Description Did you know that Richard Strauss came from a very musical family, his father being both a composer and horn player. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Strauss's first horn concerto was premiered, with the composer playing the horn part, in 1865 and he remained greatly in demand as a soloist. The conductor Hans von Bülow called him "the Joachim of the h...

Send us Fan Mail Description Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky is now one of the most popular ballets of all time. It’s remarkable, then, that when Swan Lake premiered in 1877, the reception was lukewarm at best. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact When most of us think about Tchaikovsky, we think of his ballets — Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the latter as ubiquitous at Christmas...

Send us Fan Mail Description Did you know that Chopin also had a talented older sister who not only composed, but was a professional writer, too? Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Frédéric’s health had never been good, and it deteriorated especially markedly in the late 1840s. For two months, she nursed her beloved brother in his final illness, a task that must have been overwhelmingly diff...

Send us Fan Mail Description Well, it’s nearly Halloween 🎃 and there are many works of music that depict the spookiness, darkness and morbidity of this annual tradition. 😱 But one jumps out at me, Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Like all great music, this work was imitated by many over the years. The re-tuning of the violin for the tri-tone interval...

Send us Fan Mail Description The young virtuoso, Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed Nannerl, was quickly overshadowed by her brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, five years her junior. But she was nonetheless a child prodigy. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact As a trusted friend, family member and intimate music-making partner, Nannerl could have been exactly what Wolfgang needed to make the leap fr...

Send us Fan Mail Description Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major was composed in the summer of 1777, for his colleague the oboist Giuseppe Ferlendis. But shortly after that, went missing. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Composed when Mozart was twenty-one, this oboe concerto is a delightful, untroubled, and relatively straightforward composition, cast in the usual three movements. The...

Send us Fan Mail Description Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1941. She is a pianist [and one of my favourites] known for her recordings and performances of chamber music, particularly works by Messiaen, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff. Take a minute to get the scoop! Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No 1, Martha Argerich Filmed at the La Roque d'Anthéron festival on July 29th, 200...

Send us Fan Mail Description With the passing of Dame Angela Lansbury in 2022, it reminded me of one of my favourite Sondeim musicals, Sweeney Todd. She played the first Mrs Lovett in 1979. Take a minute to get the scoop! Dame Angela Lansbury singing The Worst Pies in London . Fun Fact The original production of Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway March 1, 1979, at the Uris Theatre (now the Gershwin)....

Send us Fan Mail Description Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away on March 28, 2023. He was a Japanese composer, pianist, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Ryuichi Sakamoto was born on January 17, 1952, in Tokyo. His father, Kazuki Sakamoto, was a well-known literary ed...

Send us Fan Mail Description There is little doubt that Mozart was a genius. But what was extraordinary was his abilities from such a young age. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact While Wolfgang was young, his family made several European journeys in which he and his sister Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at the court of Prince-elector Maximilian...

Send us Fan Mail It was my privilege to be joined for this episode by acclaimed Canadian Composer and Pianist, Frank Horvat to discuss his own journey with mental illness; the effects it's had on him personally, as well as professionally; and now his advocacy work reaching out to young musicians to discuss their own struggles. Over the centuries, many of the composers that we know all too wel...

Send us Fan Mail Description Jean Sibelius was thought to be a hero of Finland, as his music reflected the struggle of the people against the Russian Empire. This is most evident in his work, Finlandia.  Take a minute to get the scoop! An incredible performance of Finlandia, op. 26 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan . c/o YouTube Fun Fact Sibelius later reworke...