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

8th February 2014, 00:29 The Winter Olympics opened with a celebration of classical music and ballet, with a performance from star opera singer Anna Netrebko .  Tchaikovsky made an appearance at the very start in a Russian ABC video, detailing key figures and events in Russian history for each of the 33 letters in the Cyrillic alphabet, alongside Nabukov, Chekov, Russian Space travel and the Periodic Table. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake also featured later on in the ceremony. Borodin's Polovtsian dances from his opera Prince Igor opened the games as Liza Temnikova flew through a winter dreamscape, representing the diversity of Russia, accompanied by chanting and choral singing. Music by Russian masters Khachaturian and Stravinsky also featured during the two-hour, £31billion spectacular, with the famous Firebird Suite being played as the Olympic cauldron was lit. The Russian national anthem was perform...

The Russian Alexander Nikolajewitsch Skriabin was born in Moscow on January 10, 1872 and got his education at the Cadets Corps in Moscow. At the Moscow Conversatory, Skriabin studied piano play and composition together with Sergey Tanejeff (1856-1915) and Anton St. Arenski (1861-1906). Skriabin toured whole Europe as dazzling and fascinating virtuoso with nervous brilliancy. In his compositions Skriabin tried to link and united himself with Frederic Chopin and Richard Wagner, while he criticized Peter Tschaikowsk's music as "disagreeable"! Skriabin's composition dreams contented of "selected art", an art with its own regularity; an "art-for-art-standpoint",which has been very unbelievable and unique. A new complete art of work was his first symphony composed within five years from 1895 - 1900. In 1908 follwed "Le Poeme de l'Extase"; in 1911 "Promoetheus". More and more ecstasy and satanic traits became parts i...

The Norwegian Christian Sinding was born in Kongsberg on January 11, 1856. He became a pupil of L.M. Lindeman, the great Norwegian folksong collector. Through him Sinding came in touch while the whole Skandinavian folk art. For continuing studies Sinding moved to Leipzig, where he met Carl Reinicke (1824-1910), one of his very important teachers. Sinding composed a lot of chamber music, some symphonies and concertos. During his really long life (he passed away in Oslo at age 85 on Decdember 3, 1941), Sinding created more than 200 songs and innnumerable piano pieces, like the most well-known "Rustle of Spring" with grandiose and pompous elements. Posted by Klaus Döring at 11:5

By ClassicFM Musicians, musos, music geeks, nerds and aficionados… you've got a lot to answer for. Here's a compendium of the most annoying habits in the classical music world.  1. Constantly saying singers on TV are flat "Ooh, somebody put the crystal champagne flutes away, quick! My delicate musical ears can't handle it!" (via Arcadey.net ) 2. Air-conducting at concerts The orchestra. They can't see you. Stop it. (via Law Street ) 3. Reading along with the score at concerts What are you going to do if the tuba makes a mistake or the triangle misses an entry? Get them to do it again? Would you take your annotated copy of Othello along to The Globe?! Stop this madness now!           4. Harmonising at random   You know when you just can't resist going a third above the melody and seeing how it sounds? It's annoying. It may as well sound like this: 5. Tapping This is a percussionist speci...

Don't get us wrong, we love the Hall of Fame. But we just can't understand why these pieces aren't in there too. Here are 11 amazing works of genius that you won't believe are absent from our top 300 pieces of classical music .  Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 So plenty of Beethoven 's other symphonies make it into the Hall of Fame every year. The biggies like No. 3, No. 5 and No. 6 are stalwarts, so why does this equally barnstorming symphony miss out? That gorgeous tick-tocking second movement, the breathless finale… we can't believe this one isn't on the list. Verdi - Otello Oh don't worry everyone, he's only one of the greatest opera composers of all time completely at the top of his game. No biggie. Otello is easily one of Verdi 's best operas thanks in part to that timeless story, but you just can't ignore the quality of the a...

1. The great Baroque violinist Jean-Marie Leclair was brutally stabbed to death in a dangerous Parisian neighbourhood in 1764. But whodunnit? Was it his ex-wife, intent on financial gain? Or Leclair’s nephew, appropriately named Vial. Or could it have been the work of another musician envious of Leclair's brilliance? We may never find out. 2. Who was Beethoven’s ‘immortal beloved’? Beethoven was a bit of a failure when it came to romance, falling impractically in love with elegant, society women, including one he addressed as ‘immortal beloved’ in a famous love letter of July 1812. The recipient of the letter has been the subject of much speculation. The two candidates most favoured today are Antonie Brentano (pictured) - an Austrian patroness of the arts - and Countess Jozefina Brunszvik de Korompa, who received at least 15 love letters from Beethoven in which he swore his eternal devotion to her. 3. How did Tchaikovsky die?   Tchaikovsky died ...