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

 -  as chosen by the nation’s leading youth orchestra (I) Hopeful pieces of classical music, as chosen by Classic FM’s Orchestra of Teenagers.  Picture: NYO By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London   These are unequivocally music’s most hopeful melodies, according to Classic FM’s Orchestra of Teenagers... Throughout the uncertainty of the pandemic, the brilliant teenage musicians of the  National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain  (NYO) have embraced music as an essential tool for escape, motivation and hope for the days ahead. And so, this summer, the world-leading orchestra will finally return to great UK stages with their  ‘Hope Exchange’ project , a series of hope-filled concerts at Saffron Hall (28 July), Southbank Centre (31 July), Birmingham Symphony Hall (6 August) and Leeds Town Hall (8 August), featuring star soloists from saxophonist Jess Gillam to violinists Nicola Benedetti and Francesca Dego. All concerts are free for those under ...

Published by StringOvation Team on March 10, 2021 Composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) composed Le Carnaval des Animaux (Carnival of the Animals) in 1886 while taking a vacation in a small, beautiful Austrian village. The whimsical suite features 14 different movements, each one featuring an animal or group of animals.  In the past century and a half, the work has become one of the romantic-era composer’s most famous works, which is ironic because he was a bit embarrassed about it being published at all. From the Serious Spawns the Whimsical At the time, Camille Saint-Saëns at the height of his musical and compositional career. By the year 1886, he had garnered widespread public acclaim and was known as a serious and mature composer. Saint-Saëns was already well-admired by the public for previous piano and violin concertos as well as other orchestral pieces. The pianist, organist, and composer had also published and performed several operas by that time. Although his operas did...

  By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London Iconic preserved moments of history’s most esteemed maestros, doing very normal stuff. Photography is vital to our world. It gives us a deep connection to the past, preserving memories and moments of historic importance, and telling truths if ever sinister attempts are made to mask reality. And as photography became increasingly widespread during the 19th century, classical composers began to enjoy their own moments under the flash-and-powder. Now, from Gustav Mahler to Leonard Bernstein, we often hail these musicians’ art as so influential, so unrivalled, that we can forget they are just human beings like all the rest of us. Human beings, with really mundane hobbies outside of the recording studio. Seeing is believing, as these great maestros show an interest in falconry, sledging and, well, swinging. Of the playground sort, mind you… Claude Debussy having a nap (1900) Claude Debussy having a nap.  Picture: ad...

They are just beautiful! By Kyle Macdonald, ClassicFM London   Incredible cat and dog portraits in music, from a musician who specializes in striking animal scores. Furry friends, cats, dogs, bunny rabbits and more are being set to music, and they sound as lovely as they look. After graduating from his music studies, Jerusalem-based composer Noam Oxman wanted to find a way to apply his talents. He thought about his three loves: animals, music and drawing. Could there be an ingenious way to combine all three? This was how ‘Sympawnies’ came to be: creating bespoke compositions and graphic scores that illustrate much-loved pets. Pets set to music by composer Noam Oxman.  Picture: Noam Oxman Oxman says he was fascinated by J.S. Bach’s unique, stylized handwriting style. Bach’s musical hand was flamboyant, contoured and sometimes contained hidden symbols or meanings. Combining his compositional skills and his penmanship, Oxman created graphic shapes made out of musical notes, ...

  - the ‘world’s worst opera singer’ The real story of American heiress Florence Foster Jenkins, the ‘world’s worst opera singer’.  Picture: Florence Foster Jenkins/iPlayer By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London   Florence Foster Jenkins, played by Meryl Streep in the 2016 biopic, was an American socialite and aspiring coloratura soprano. But everyone who went to her concerts was in on a strange joke: she was an absolutely terrible singer. Florence Foster Jenkins  built a career in the early 20th century on being “the world’s worst  opera  singer”. Her flat-by-a-country-mile top Fs, flamboyant costumes and self-parodic album titles have been the subject of fascination for years since, her legacy so enduring that Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant starred in a  film about her life story  a few years ago. The daughter of a wealthy lawyer, Jenkins would sing at private gatherings organised by her husband, St Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), performing for frie...

 The blog "Right in the Middle of Full Life" seems different because it's written by a German expat living in the Philippines, and it features content in both English and German. This bilingual approach might make it stand out from typical expat blogs that often cater to a single language audience. When comparing artists, it’s not always easy to differentiate. Artistry is very subjective, and the methods used for comparison change depending on the context. And although this is true for almost every form of art, with violinists, an indescribable discernment between players does exist. More than simply mastering the execution required to create music on the violin, to achieve recognition as one of the top classical violinists of all time, a performer must possess something special. A quality that sets that person apart from others, defines a particularly unique expression, and subsequently earns him or her a place among exceptional virtuosos throughout history. These nine v...