Tag Archives: Something For Thursday

It’s been a busy week…but not so busy that we can’t take some time for Itzhak Perlman playing Bizet by way of Pablo de Sarasate.

In honor of Roger’s birthday, in which he turned 65, here is Camille Saint-Saens’s Septet for piano, trumpet, and strings. Why this piece? Because it’s Saint-Saens’s Opus 65! Happy birthday, Roger! (It was actually yesterday, but I couldn’t do Something … Continue reading →

Play enough marches in band in high school and college and they get into your blood. I heard this one on the radio yesterday, and while I’ve known it for years via recordings, I never played it that I can … Continue reading →

So if you remember the pop music of the 1980s, you remember a band called a-ha, which had one giant hit in the US called “Take On Me”. They followed that up with a couple of less-successful singles (including the … Continue reading →

Composer Johann Johannsson died the other day. I am not terribly familiar with his music, but I have liked what I’ve heard. He seems to do a lot of atmospheric work that relies on repetition of motifs and long, slow … Continue reading →

One of the touchstone works of my life here: Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for solo violin, viola, and small orchestra. The orchestra here consists of nothing but strings, horns, and oboes — and some of the most magical writing for solo … Continue reading →

Today is the birthday of Robert Burns, the great national poet of Scotland, whose verse flows in the very heart of that fine and noble land. In that honor, here is one of the finest Scottish singers of our day, … Continue reading →

A sad note from earlier in the week was the passing of Dolores O’Riordan, singer for the band The Cranberries. I don’t know their music very well, but you couldn’t be alive in the 1990s and not hear it at … Continue reading →

Wow. Edward Scissorhands is twenty-seven years old. That’s meaningful to me because back in February 1991, there was an oboe player in my college band that I suddenly realized was pretty cute. She let slip in conversation that she wanted … Continue reading →