A classical music website dedicated to Pacific Symphony
Was there a greater transformation in music than the one that took place over the 63 years of Brahms’ lifetime? He was born just after Beethoven’s death into a world dominated by Liszt, Chopin and Schumann; Early Romantics mapping the
Michael Daugherty, GRAMMY® Award winner and longtime composer-in-residence of Pacific Symphony, composed a vivid story that captures the thrill of flight and the daring bravery of the first woman to ever fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Blue Electra was commissioned
“In short, he became so absorbed in his books that he spent his nights from sunset to sunrise, and his days from dawn to dark, poring over them; and what with little sleep and much reading his brains got so
Requiem Masses have long served as a way for nations to mourn their public figures…. The best known of course is Verdi’s Requiem Mass, but which public figure was it meant to honor? Therein lies a tale…
Is it wrong to wish Anton Bruckner had been a little more stubborn? Certainly it would have simplified the work of identifying the definitive performance scores for his symphonies if he’d just said, “Close enough” and moved on….
Richard Wagner began his monumental cycle of operas Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) in 1848, in the wake of the Age of Enlightenment…
If the apocalypse has a soundtrack, it’s “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana…
Sacred music takes as many forms as humanity has images of God. The majestic sovereign of Handel’s “Hallelujah” Chorus, the terrifying and wrathful god in the “Dies irae” of Verdi’s Requiem, the simple beauty of Bach’s “Sheep may safely graze”—all startlingly different from each other, and all capturing some facet of our perception of deity…
When superstar violinist Joshua Bell and operatic soprano Larisa Martínez tied the knot in 2019, they had no idea about the future that awaited them. They barely had time to pause their busy careers…
Resphigi’s fascination with Rome’s fountains and pine trees reflects a love affair with his new home. Upon moving to Rome from his native Bologna in 1913, Respighi said that the city’s “marvellous fountains” and “umbrella-like pines that appear in every part of the horizon [have] spoken to my imagination above all.”