Klaus Döring's Classical Music/Klaus Döring's Klassische Musik

by   Hermione Lai   Poster of Puccini’s Turandot, 1926 Talk about a strange story. Calaf is one of three suitors for the hand of the prickly Princess  Turandot . Her suitors must solve three riddles, with any single wrong answer resulting in execution. Calaf manages to solve all three riddles but Turandot still refuses to marry him. So Calaf comes up with a bizarre challenge. If the Princess is able to guess his name before dawn the next day, she may execute him. However, if she can’t guess his name correctly, she must marry him. That puts the Princess in bit of a bind, and she declares “Nessun dorma” (None shall sleep) in the entire kingdom until Calaf’s name is discovered. If her minions are not able to come up with the correct name by morning, everybody will be executed. Calaf is rather hopeful that he will win this strange little wager, and begins to sing one of the best-known tenor arias in all of opera.   Franco Corelli Luciano Pavarotti called Franco Core...

  by   Emily E. Hogstad  For many people, the names of   Bach ,   Mozart , and   Wagner   evoke feelings of gratitude and awe for their musical works. But for the children of these composers, their names – and the growing legacies that became associated with them – could become overwhelming to be associated with. Today, we’re looking at the stories of six composer children who, at one point or another, found themselves overshadowed by their famous composer parents. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) Son of: Johann Sebastian Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Over the course of his life, composer Johann Sebastian Bach had twenty children. He outlived all but nine. Of those nine, four were sons who became professional composers. In the eyes of history, none of them measured up to their father. Of the Bach children, the most successful was Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, often remembered as  C.P.E. Bach  today. His father has emerged as a pillar of th...

by   Hermione Lai   Can you imagine a world where jagged geometric shapes dance to the swelling strings of a symphony orchestra? That’s the unlikely yet captivating intersection of  Pablo Picasso  and classical music. Picasso, the Spanish maestro of modern art, revolutionised painting with his Cubist explosions, but his life was equally tuned to the rhythms of Stravinsky, the melodies of Satie, and the operatic arias of his era. Pablo Picasso Far from a mere backdrop, music was Picasso’s muse, collaborator, and even co-conspirator in defying artistic norms. To celebrate his birthday on 25 October, let’s explore how his canvases echoed symphonic structure and what composers inspired his brushstrokes.    Erik Satie:  Parade Cabaret Rhythms and Salon Symphonies Picasso’s relationship with music began in his bohemian youth in late 19th-century Barcelona and Paris. Born on 25 October 1881, he grew up in a Spain where flamenco guitars twanged alongside Wagne...

by   Emily E. Hogstad When composers grieve, they often turn to music to express what words can’t. Some of the most powerful works of classical music ever are connected to the deaths of loved ones: spouses, siblings, friends, and others. From  Johann Sebastian Bach ’s Chaconne, composed after the sudden death of his wife, to John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, a searing response to the AIDS crisis, all of these works demonstrate how grief has inspired composers over generations. Today we’re looking at just a few of these unforgettable classical compositions. Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne (c. 1720) For his wife, Maria Barbara Bach   Given the limited amount of documentation that survives about his life, there is a lot we don’t know about Johann Sebastian Bach. However, we do know that Bach’s monumental Chaconne – the final movement to his Partita No. 2 for solo violin – was written around the time of the death of his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach. A silhouette of Mar...