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

Terry Blain Liszt's disgruntled piano student threatens to kill him In mid-October 1871, a message was cabled from New York City to  Franz Liszt  in Europe. In itself, this was nothing unusual. Nearing 60 years old, the Hungarian composer and pianist had long been a globally famous musician, attracting 2,000 letters a year in correspondence. But this new communication was startlingly different. It was from a former pupil of his, the 26-year-old Olga Janina, and her message was brutal: she was returning by steamship to Europe, and she was going to kill him. Liszt was no stranger to extremes of human behaviour. As a pianist his extraordinary skill and charisma had roused audiences to unprecedented levels of adulation. Women in particular adored him, fainting at his concerts and scrambling to lay hold of his personal possessions in a frenzied hero-worship known as ‘Lisztomania’. But Janina’s ghoulish cable was something else again – an explicit, unmistakable threat of assass...

  by  Emily E. Hogstad    February 5th, 2026 Artists and composers are famous for their wild love lives. Turns out, their love letters are just as fascinating as you’d expect. Today, we’re looking at love letters from ten composers, including Mozart being very saucy on a business trip,  Brahms  pining over  Clara Schumann , and  Haydn  making a shocking confession to his mistress. Joseph Haydn, 1791 Joseph Haydn In these two love letters to his mistress, singer Luigia Polzelli, Haydn writes about her husband’s fatal illness…and longs for “four eyes [to] be closed”, a reference to his hope that his own wife will die, too! London, 14th March 1791 Most esteemed Polzelli, I am very sorry for you in your present circumstances, and I hope that your poor husband will die at any moment; you did well to put him in the hospital, to keep him alive… London, 4th August 1791 Dear Polzelli! …As far as your husband is concerned, I tell you that Providence h...

by G eorg Predota Franz Liszt, 1858 Enjoying the shores of Lake Como with  Marie d’Agoult  in 1837, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) immersed himself in a close reading of Dante’s  Divine Comedy . The idea of composing a symphony to Dante’s Divine Comedy, one that would combine music, poetry and the visual arts, gradually took shape. Initially, Liszt suggested that the performance might be accompanied by the projection of lanternslides, showing scenes painted by Bonaventura Genelli. Apparently, he even considered “the use of an experimental wind machine at the end of the first movement to evoke the winds of Hell.” Dante and His Poem  by Domenico di Michelino In the event, in June 1855, Liszt wrote to his future son-in-law  Richard Wagner . “So you are reading Dante. He’s good company for you, and I for my part want to provide you with a kind of commentary on that reading. I have long been carrying a Dante Symphony around in my head – this year I intend to ...

by  Anson Yeung    Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck © pages.stolaf.edu Marked by its technical bravura,  Widmung  (or  Dedication  in English) has remained one of the most popular encore pieces in piano recital, allowing pianists to display their virtuosity. However,  Widmung  is much more than a mere showpiece – containing probably the most passionate music writing and most heartfelt feelings. Written by Robert Schumann in 1840 (this piece was from a set of Lieder called  Myrthen , Op.25), this piece was later arranged for piano solo by Franz Liszt.  Myrthen  was dedicated to Clara Wieck as a wedding gift, as he finally married Clara in September, despite the opposition from Clara’s father (who was also Robert’s piano teacher). Below is the text of  Widmung , written by Friedrich Rückert, with English translation: Original Text by Friedrich Rückert English Translation (by Richard Stokes, autho...

by  Emily E. Hogstad    Have you ever wondered who the best teachers in classical music history were? Us, too. But of course, there’s no way to objectively measure who “the best” teachers are. (Surely the best teachers in  your  life are the incredible men and women who have taught  you  over the years.) Nevertheless, we wanted to try to put together some kind of list addressing the question, so today we’re looking at eight candidates. If a teacher worked with over half a dozen famous names, they became a candidate for this list. From there, we looked at who had the most impact on the art. After that, we made some subjective choices. It goes without saying, it was a hard job to narrow a list down to the top eight, but here’s our best shot at it, presented in rough reverse order of influence and importance. Let us know if you think we got our ranking wrong (or right!). 8) Maria Curcio Pupils:  Martha Argerich , Myung-whun Chung, Simone Dinnerstein,...