MICHAEL WALSH CLASSICAL MUSIC CORRESPONDENT: She was internationally famous for her song Non, je ne regrette rien (No Regrets). When she sang it, accompanied only by a pianist, Edith’s body language and expression screamed the opposite. Edith Piaf, otherwise known as the Little Sparrow, was constantly embittered by […]
Nana Mouskouri is an international nightingale who has sold 300 million records and recorded over 1,500 songs in fifteen different languages on 450 albums. Over a career spanning five decades, she has been awarded more than 230 gold and platinum albums, which surely makes her the top female […]
The Moscow Synodal Choir was founded in 1721 and is now the oldest professional choir in Russia. In fact, its origins can be traced further back to 1589, when the first professional church choir was formed, then known as the Patriarchal for it was the choir, which used to sing at the church services officiated by the Patriarch. Patriarch was the top position in the Church hierarchy in Russia well up to 1700, when the Russian reformist Tzar Peter the Great reformed the church administrative system.
How often we relax to the quintessential melodies of Spain’s Isaac Albéniz (1860 – 1909). His Rapsodia Espanola, Sevilla and Granada, based on Catalan folk songs, are perhaps the better-known of his compositions. These exquisite heartrending melodies evoke the Spanish dream more than could any Goya painting but what of the man behind the music?
In a letter dated October 1866, French composer Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875) went straight to the point of opera: ‘As a musician, I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note.’
Happy Birthday to You is said to be the most popular song in the English language. Being translated into at least 18 languages, it has been promoted all over the world and is sung for the birthday boy or girl by the guests celebrating the occasion. The melody used in this song dates back to the late 19th century, and it was used for the song Good Morning to All.
Whispering Hope is one of Western civilisation’s most engaging and enduring ballads. I was told by my Liverpool-Irish mother that at the onset of World War II, the suicide rate went through the roof, such was the anti-war sentiment.
In a letter dated October 1866, French composer Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875) went straight to the point of opera: ‘As a musician, I tell you that if you were to suppress adultery, fanaticism, crime, evil, the supernatural, there would no longer be the means for writing one note.’
Herbert von Karajan (5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the German renaissance, the National Socialist era (1933-1945), he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, with the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
How often do we relax to the quintessential melodies of Spain’s Isaac Albéniz (1860 – 1909). His Rapsodia Espanola, Sevilla and Granada, based on Catalan folk songs, are perhaps the better known of his compositions. These exquisite mind-bending melodies evoke the Spanish dream more than could any Goya painting; but what of the man behind the music?
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