Monthly Archives: December 2020

 Now here’s a very unusual work indeed: a single-movement piece, roughly 25 minutes long, that features orchestra, solo piano, vocal soloists, and a chorus. Why would Beethoven have written such an oddly structured piece? Most likely, I figured, he wrote … Continue reading →

 I was fortunate in my music-making days to get to actually play Beethoven on three different occasions. The first came via my piano teacher in high school, a lovely old woman named Margaret Hooker. She lived alone in a nice-sized … Continue reading →

In a typical classical music concert today, you might hear a short work–an overture, perhaps–followed by a concerto, then an intermission, then a symphony. Or the concerto might be the featured work after the intermission, especially if your soloist is … Continue reading →

 Beethoven wrote five piano concertos, and only one of these is in a minor key. I don’t want to reduce these things to the easily-refuted notion that “major key equals happy music, minor key equals sad music”, but there does … Continue reading →