The Classical Music Minute

Send us Fan Mail Description Rather than just disappearing for a few weeks—I thought I'd let you know that I am taking a rest until mid-September.  Enjoy the rest of the summer! Fun Fact When Steven isn't recording podcast episodes, he is auditioning for tv commercials and series/film or feeding his cats milk. 🐱 __________________________________________________________________ About St...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Barber of Seville is an opera by Rossini and ‘perhaps the greatest of all comic operas’.  Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Rossini's Barber of Seville is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe". ____________________________________________________...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach certainly got off to a rocky start—with the death of the composer before its premiere and then disaster striking its first Vienna performance. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The Royal Family of Austria arrived at the theatre as the disaster was ending and immediately began collecting relief funds for the victims and...

Send us Fan Mail I am so pleased to announce the winner of our draw to receive a copy of "The Real Mozart: The Original King Of Pop". If you didn't catch my interview with author Judith Grohmann, please check it out HERE . __________________________________________________________________ About Steven, Host Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his mus...

Send us Fan Mail Description Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, originally titled ‘Six concertos for several instruments’, were composed for the Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg—yet were never performed in Brandenburg. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Each concerto was written for a different combination of instruments and demonstrates a musical style that was popular in Bach’s lifetime...

Send us Fan Mail Description Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, known as the Unfinished Symphony, has always been mired in mystery as to why it was never completed by the composer. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Third & fourth movements: The fragment of the scherzo intended as the third movement returns to the tonic B minor, with a G major trio. The first 30 measures are preserved in f...

Send us Fan Mail Description Bruckner’s third symphony did not make the splash that he had hoped. Many factors came into play to cause a complete flop of a premier. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Stunned by this debacle, Bruckner made several revisions of his work, leaving out significant amounts of music including most quotations from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre. Th...

Send us Fan Mail Description Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is one where the composer began to contemplate his own mortality. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Bruno Walter, who conducted the work’s posthumous premiere on June 26, 1912, with the Vienna Philharmonic, had never seen the score of the Ninth during Mahler’s lifetime; he only received it when Mahler’s widow Alma approached him ab...

Send us Fan Mail Recently, I chatted with author Judith Grohmann about her book, "The Real Mozart: The Original King Of Pop" . This biography dives headfirst into the psychological workings of Mozart, as he navigates the explosive times of Viennese society during the enlightenment; his romantic and familial relationships, especially with his father Leopold; as well as, balancing the mund...

Send us Fan Mail Description Daphnis et Chloé by Maurice Ravel is considered by many to be a true masterpiece.  Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Diaghilev had originally intended Daphnis et Chloé to form the centrepiece of the 1910 season, and although the first piano draft was ready by the beginning of May, this was already far too late, leaving the door wide open for Igor Stravinsky to s...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Rite of Spring composed by Igor Stravinsky premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on May 29, 1913—it created quite an uproar with the audience claiming that Stravinsky was no composer but a madman. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Like Stravinsky’s earlier works for the Ballet Russes, The Rite of Spring was inspired by Russian culture, but, un...

Send us Fan Mail Description Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, were composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1909 much to the dismay of British audiences of the time. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Even Arnold Schoenberg admitted in his letters to Richard Strauss: “The greatest difficulty in performing these pieces is that...it is really impossible to read the score. It would be almost imperati...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Planets, Op. 32, by Gustav Holst, was written after a holiday in Spain that sparked an acute interest in astrology. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The first movement of The Planets to be written was Mars in mid-1914, followed by Venus and Jupiter in the latter part of the year, Saturn and Uranus in mid-1915, Neptune later in 1915 and Mercury in early 1916...

Send us Fan Mail Join me as I chat with author Patrick Mackie about his book, “Mozart In Motion: His Work And His World In Pieces”. This biography is a fabulous deep-dive into Mozart—his inner psychology as both performer and composer and how he interacts with external forces such as society and family. To order a copy of the book please visit the publisher . Patrick Mackie is a poet whose work ha...

Send us Fan Mail Description Peter and the Wolf Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", was written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936, as a means of introducing children to the instruments of the orchestra.  Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Typically, prior to a performance of Peter and the Wolf, the instruments are shown to the children in the audience, so that they may become...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnaval des animaux) is a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements by Camille Saint-Saëns. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The first public performance of The Carnival of the Animals was given on 25 February 1922 by the Concerts Colonne, conducted by Gabriel Pierné. It was rapturously received. Le Figaro reported: “We canno...

Send us Fan Mail Description The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, aka The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell, Op. 34, was written by British composer Benjamin Britten. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact In the last portion of the work, Britten combines all the sections of the orchestra in an intricate fugue on a new, dancelike theme...

Send us Fan Mail Description Chopin’s Nocturnes were brief piano works that were inspired by the night. The Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, was written when Chopin was only 20. Take a minute to get the scoop! Listen to: Nocturne, Op. 9: No. 2 in E Major, Andante Transcr. for Violin and Piano by A. Schulz Alessandro Clerici, violin Elena Brunello, piano Fun Fact The Nocturnes, Op. 9 are a s...

Send us Fan Mail Description Samuel Osmond Barber II was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator. He’s also considered one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. One of his best known works is Adagio for Strings. Take a minute to get the scoop! Listen to: The Dover Quartet plays the masterpiece by Samuel Barber in its original form, from the composer&a...

Send us Fan Mail Description Grieg was first approached by the playwright Henrik Ibsen in Italy, 1866. Ibsen asked if Grieg could write incidental music for his drama Peer Gynt. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact Grieg’s music for Peer Gynt is usually heard in the form of two orchestral suites (Op. 46 and Op. 55), each featuring four movements selected from his score. The best-known movement...

Send us Fan Mail Description What was the genesis of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, one of the most frequently performed choral work of the 21st century? Take a minute to get the scoop! Listen to: Carl Orff - Carmina Burana | Cristian Măcelaru | WDR Symphony Orchestra | WDR Radio Choir Fun Fact Of the 315 profane songs contained in the Codex Buranus, Orff chose just 24, organising them into five sect...

Send us Fan Mail Description The trombone has a long history, said to have been created in the middle of the 15th century. Take a minute to get the scoop! Listen to: Giovanni Gabrieli in Venice: 'Beata es virgo' a6 - English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble ℅ YouTube Fun Fact The sackbut was used extensively across Europe, from its appearance in the 15th century to a decline in most places b...

Send us Fan Mail Description On 21 October 1898, Edward Elgar returned to his wife and their home in Malvern after a long day teaching. He finished dinner, lit a cigar and sat down at the piano to doodle.  Hence his Enigma Variations was born. Take a minute to get the scoop! Listen to: Edward Elgar - Enigma Variations, Op.36: IX. (Nimrod) Queensland Symphony Orchestra ℅ YouTube Fun Fact The first...

Send us Fan Mail Description Elgar composed the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in 1901 as part of a series of five marches. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact At its publication the march was dedicated to English conductor A.E. Rodewald and the Liverpool Orchestral Society, who gave the first performance. The piece was an immediate success; at the London premiere later that year the audie...

Send us Fan Mail Description Moonlight Sonata aka Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, was completed in 1801, published the following year, and premiered by the composer himself, whose hearing was still adequate but already deteriorating at the time. Take a minute to get the scoop! Fun Fact The subtitle—“Sonata in the manner of a fantasia”—reminds listeners that the piece, although technically a...