This Week in Classical Music: October 12, 2026.  Pavarotti and Zemlinsky.  Today is Luciano Pavarotti’s birthday: he was born in Modena in 1935.  His was probably the most recognizable (and beautiful) voice since the era of Giuseppe Di Stefano and Franco Corelli (some would say since Beniamino Gigli).

Alexander von Zemlinsky was born on October 14^th of 1871 in Vienna.  He was born ¼ Jewish, but his whole family converted to Judaism, and he was raised Jewish (the aristocratic “von” in his name was his own invention).  He fell in love with Alma Schindler, whom we know as Alma Mahler; that didn’t work out, but Zemlinsky eventually became a good friend of Gustav’s.  He was a prominent teacher: among his students were Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, and many others.  He was also a respected conductor (among his assistants were Erich Kleiber, Webern, and George Szell).  But we know him as a composer, even if his talent was acknowledged very late. 

Zemlinsky started composing early, and by 1893 his music was publicly performed.  In 1985, he was also conducting (in one of his orchestras, Schoenberg played the cello).  In 1907, Zemlinsky joined Mahler in the Vienna Hofoper, then moved to the German opera of Prague and eventually to Berlin, where he became a conductor at the Kroll Opera.  When the Nazis came to power, he fled to Vienna and, after the Anschluss in 1938, to the US via Prague.  In the US, he remained practically unknown, even while Schoenberg and many of his other colleagues were feted.  He suffered a stroke and died in Larchmont, NY, on March 15^th of 1942.  Here, from 1924, is Zemlinsky’s Third Quartet, performed by the La Salle Quartet.

Two Italians were also born this week, both on October 18^th: Luca Marenzio, in 1553, and Baldassare Galuppi, in 1706.  Marenzio lived during the era of the High Renaissance in music and was famous for his madrigals.  He deserves a separate entry, which we hope to provide.  These days, Galuppi is known mostly for one of his sonatas (no. 5), as performed by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (here), but during his lifetime, he was famous for his operas, both comic and serious. Even Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia, knew of Galuppi and invited him to come to St. Petersburg.  He spent three years there as court composer and conductor, before returning to Venice.  He died in 1785.

This Week in Classical Music: October 5, 2026.  Three pianists.  Several important composers and three pianists, one of whom is our favorite, were born this week.  We’ll get to the pianists in a minute, but first, the composers.  , considered the most important German composer before Bach (he worked during the early Baroque while Bach was at the tail end of the period, when many of his contemporaries were already moving toward the Classical idiom), was born in Köstritz, Thuringia, on October 8^th of 1585.  Here is Part I of his funeral music (the first one to use the text in German), Musikalische Exequien. It’s called “Concerto in the form of a German funeral mass.”

Giuseppe Verdi, one of the greatest opera composers ever (and many would say the greatest), was born on October 9^th (or 10^th) of 1813, in Roncole, near Parma.  We’ve written about Verdi so many times that all we can do now is illustrate his art with an excerpt from one of his operas.  Here, from Act I of La Traviata, starting with E strano!, аrе Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti.  They’re accompanied by the National Philharmonic Orchestra with Richard Bonynge, who just turned 98! 

Camille Saint-Saëns, loved by many, but not as much by us (even if we admit that he was a talented composer and apologize to his admirers), was born in Paris on October 9^th of 1835.  Here’s Saint-Saëns’s Piano Quintet, a piece that isn’t performed often.  It’s recorded by Christina Ortiz and the Fine Arts Quartet. 

And now to the pianists. Our favorite is Evgeny Kissin.  We like him not only because he's a wonderful musician and technically phenomenal; we also very much appreciate his political stance.  He’s adamantly opposed to Putin and an aggressive Russia and is very supportive of Ukraine, the victim of Putin’s aggression.  He also supports Israel in its fight against enemies, whether the homicidal ones, like Hamas, or just the regular antisemites.   

Kissin was born in Moscow on October 10^th of 1971, so he’s about to turn 55.  His first and only teacher, both at the Gnessin School or later at the Gnessin Institute, was Anna Kantor.  Ms Kantor died in June of 2021 at the age of 98; she was living in Prague, where Kissin had been residing since 2016.  Kissin made his orchestral debut, playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20, at the age of 10.  One year later, he gave his first piano recital.  In 1984, he played both of Chopin’s piano concertos at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory; the concert was a revelation.  In 1985 and thereafter, he was allowed to perform abroad; in 1988, he (famously) played Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.  Kissin left Russia in 1991, the year the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  Kissin has a tremendously successful career, performing all over the world.  We may not always agree with his interpretations, but there’s absolutely no doubt that he’s one of the greatest pianists of his generation.  Here’s Evgeny Kissin playing Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no. 3. 

The Russian (Jewish) – American pianist Shura Cherkassky was born on October 7^th of 1909, in Odesa (then Odessa).  He was widely considered to be the latest pianist in the great Romantic tradition of the 19^th century.  Here’s Cherkassky playing Chopin’s Nocturne op. 27, no. 2 in D-flat major, with a wonderful freedom in dynamics and tempo (we find his rubatos, something we’re usually concerned about, quite stylish). 

And finally, the Swiss pianist Edwin Fischer, one of the great interpreters of the music of Bach, was born on October 6^th of 1886, in Basel. 

This Week in Classical Music: September 28, 2026.  Florent Schmitt and more.  We’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t a very exciting week.  The French composer Florent Schmitt was born on September 28^th of 1870 in the village of Blâmont, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine.  He’s probably better known for shouting Heil Hitler! at the concert featuring the music of the Jewish, and by then exiled, Kurt Weil, than for any of his own compositions.  One still could find some interesting pieces in his output.  Three years ago, we posted a detailed (and we think rather interesting) entry on Schmitt, here, and illustrated it with two pieces: music to the ballet La tragédie de Salomé (here), and his Piano Quintet (here).  This time, we present two of his 1920 Antoine et Cléopâtre suites, written for André Gide's translation of Shakespeare’s play.  The play was staged at the Paris Opera, with the famous dancer Ida Rubinstein as Cleopatra.  Suite no. 1 is here and no. 2 here.

Another Frenchman, Paul Dukas, was also born this week, on October 1^st of 1865, in Paris, into a wealthy, assimilated Jewish family.  He’s known for just one work, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, even though he also wrote an opera, a symphony, a piano sonata, and several other pieces.

Two Russian pianists were also born on October 1^st: the great Vladimir Horowitz, in 1903, and Vera Gornostayeva, in 1929.  Horowitz is one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20^th century; Gornostayeva, on the other hand, was mostly known in the Soviet Union, both as a wonderful pianist and a great teacher.  Among her students were Alexander Slobodyanik, Pavel Egorov, Eteri Andjaparidze, Ivo Pogorelich, Sergei Babayan, Vassily Primakov, Lukas Geniušas, Vadym Kholodenko, and many others.  Vassily Primakov is instrumental in bringing her art to Western audiences.

And speaking of musicians born in Russia, David Oistrakh’s birthday is September 30^th.  He was born in Odesa (then Odessa) in 1908.  In the Soviet Union, where rankings were of utmost importance, Oistrakh was considered the greatest violinist.  From age five, he studied with Pyotr Stolyarsky, the founder of the Odessa Violin School (among his pupils were Nathan Milstein, Boris Goldstein, Elizabeth Gilels, Mikhail Fikhtengoltz, Valrey Klimov, winner of the First Tchaikovsky Competition, and many others).  In 1935, Oistrakh won the second All-Union Competition of Musical Performers, then took the second prize in the Henryk Wieniawski International Competition (Ginette Neveu took the first prize), and two years later won the Ysaÿe Competition in Brussels, which made him world-famous.  International music competitions were important to Stalin – for him, they were the way to prove that the Soviet Union was an advanced country, and the young winners, Oistrakh among them, were awarded medals and benefits, such as comfortable apartments, on par with the party officials, something not available to regular citizens.  Oistrakh performed widely in the Soviet Union, and after WWII, became one of the few musicians who were allowed to travel internationally.  One way or another, Oistrakh was a phenomenal violinist who made many exceptional recordings.  Here’s one of them, from 1969: David Oistrakh plays Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of George Szell.

This Week in Classical Music: September 21, 2026.  Bruno Walter at 150, Part 2.  When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30^th of 1933, Bruno Walter was in New York.  With concerts scheduled in Leipzig (he was then principal conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra), he sailed to Germany.  Hitler hated Jewish conductors, Walter in particular, but none of the “official” anti-Jewish laws had yet been passed.  Nonetheless, the latent German antisemitism was spreading all over the country, as if magically released, and flaring up locally.  Leipzig, in the state of Saxony, hadn’t yet been as Nazified as, for example, Prussia; the “coordination laws” that rendered the states powerless hadn’t been passed.  And still, the Chief of Police of the city decided that he wouldn’t permit a Jewish conductor to perform in his city.  The orchestra board tried to resist, timidly, but to no avail: in the end, the concerts were cancelled.  The same thing happened in Berlin, where Walter was about to lead the Berlin Philharmonic.  Walter resigned his posts and left Germany for Austria. 

He stayed in Austria for the next five years, till the Anschluss in March of 1938.  There, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic, staged operas and actively participated in the Salzburg Festival.  In 1936, he became the Artistic Director of the Vienna State Opera, a position held by his beloved teacher and friend, Gustav Mahler (he even occupied the same office).  He also traveled widely, conducting in New York and Amsterdam, where he was made the Permanent Guest Conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra.  He was in Amsterdam when Nazi Germany occupied Austria.  In November of 1939, Walter moved to the US. 

He settled in Beverly Hills, where a remarkably talented group of German émigrés, many of them Jewish, had found refuge. Thomas Mann, Arnold Schoenberg, Erich Korngold, Hanns Eisler, Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger, Theodor Adorno, and Ernst Lubitsch were just some of the writers, composers, philosophers, performers, and filmmakers who formed this creative community; their arrival greatly enriched the cultural life of the entire country. Over the next 20 years, Walter worked with many leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Citing his age, he declined to accept a position as music director, but he continued to perform and record widely. Walter became a U.S. citizen in 1946 and maintained his home in California, while also traveling to Europe as World War II ended. In 1950, he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, 17 years after his concert there had been cancelled by the Nazis. 

Bruno Walter died on February 17^th of 1962, in his home in Beverly Hills.  He was 85.  During his long life, he made many wonderful recordings.  Last week, we presented two that he made in the 1930s.  This week, it’s one of Walter’s latest recordings: Brahms Symphony no. 2, with the New York Philharmonic, made in 1960 (here).  A note: Walter was 21 when Brahms died in 1897; there’s a good chance he had heard this symphony being performed during Brahms’s lifetime. 

This Week in Classical Music: September 14, 2026.  Bruno Walter at 150.  One of the most important conductors and musical figures of the 20^th century, Bruno Walter was born in Berlin 150 years ago tomorrow, on September 15^th of 1876.  His birth name was Bruno Schlesinger, a son of a middle-class Jewish family.  When, at the age of 20 and an aspiring conductor, he came to Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), the director of the local opera, where Bruno was to work, asked him to change his name: Breslau was the capital of Silesia, Schlesien in German, and Schlesinger meant “Silesian,” a common name there.  Bruno suggested several names, and the director, Theodor Löwe, picked Walter. We suspect that there was another reason for the name change: Schlesinger sounded too Jewish.

Walter started as a pianist, but after hearing a concert directed by Hans von Bülow (we mentioned him recently as the first husband of Cosima Liszt, who left von Bülow for Wagner), he switched to conducting.  In 1894, the 18-year-old Walter became an assistant to the then 34-year-old chief conductor of the Hamburg opera, Gustav Mahler.  Despite the difference in age and stature, they became close friends.  Walter was devoted both to Mahler as a person and to his music, and Mahler helped further Walter’s career on several occasions.  Walter was at Mahler’s deathbed on May 18^th of 1911, and conducted the posthumous premieres of Das Lied von der Erde and Symphony no. 9.

In 1901, after working with several provincial opera houses, Walter accepted Mahler’s invitation to join him in Vienna as the assistant conductor of the Hofoper.  In this role, Walter led many performances independently.  Soon he developed a significant reputation and was invited to conduct in several European cities.  Walter stayed in Vienna till 1913 (he became an Austrian citizen in 1911), and then moved to Munich, where he was appointed Royal Bavarian Generalmusikdirektor.  Back then, Munich had three opera houses, the State Opera being the main one, and Walter conducted in all three.  He also led the Music Academy, now the Bavarian State Orchestra (the Music Academy in Munich was, like the Vienna Philharmonic, practically the same orchestra as the one that played in the opera house, except that it performed the symphonic repertoire).  During the Great War, while the Bayreuth Festival was closed, Munich became the center for performances of Wagner’s operas.  Walter also conducted several important premieres, such as Pfitzner’s Palestina and Korngold’s operas.

Even before he resigned from his Munich posts in 1922, Walter regularly conducted the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1923, he toured the US to great acclaim.  In Germany and Austria, his career flourished: he became the Music director of the Salzburg Festival, conducted the Berlin State Opera, made recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic, and led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.  It all ended abruptly in 1933, when the Nazis came to power: Walter's conversion to Christianity didn’t matter to them.

The first, tremendously successful part of Walter’s life was over in a catastrophe, personal and national.  The second, different but equally creative, was about to begin.  We’ll write about it next week.  We have a couple of his recordings made in the 1930s: first, an excerpt from Die Walküre, recorded in 1935.  Great singers, Lauritz Melchior and Lotte Lehmann; Bruno Walter conducts the Vienna Philharmonic (here).  And here, recorded three years later with the same orchestra and conductor, is the live performance of Mahler’s Symphony no. 9, first movement Andante Comodo (the first commercial recording of this symphony).

This Week in Classical Music: September 7, 2026.  From Cabezon to Pärt: Four Centuries of Music.  This is an interesting week: composers with birthday anniversaries that cover much of the historical span of Western classical music and are spread geographically across Europe. 

On our list, Hernando de Cabezón is the oldest; he was born in Madrid on September 7^th of 1541.  Hernando was the son of a more famous Antonio de Cabezón.  Only a few of his pieces are extant; this Dulce memoriae is one of them (and we think it’s very nice).  Rosemary Thomas is at the harpsichord (here).

Hernando de Cabezón never traveled to Italy, which is somewhat surprising: Italy was the place where European music was happening, and Spaniards often went to Rome to study.  Our next composer, Girolamo Frescobaldi, was not only born in Italy – he was born in Ferrara, which was then the most important musical center outside of Rome.  His birthday is in September of 1583, but the exact date is disputed; it’s either the 9^th or the 13^th.  From the late 15^th to the end of the 16^th centuries, the d’Este court of Ferrara attracted the most important composers of Europe, from Josquin des Prez to Claudio Monteverdi.  Luca Marenzio, Claudio Merulo, John Dowland from England, Giaches de Wert, Carlo Gesualdo – all visited Ferrara during that period.  Luzzasco Luzzaschi was the resident court composer, organist, manager of the famous Concerto delle Donne, and Frescobaldi’s teacher.  The young Frescobaldi became known as a virtuoso harpsichord player while still living in Ferrara (later he moved to Rome, as the popes took over the city and the court moved to Modena).  The harpsichord and organ were Frescobaldi’s favorite instruments.  Here’s Frescobaldi’s Toccata duodecima, from the Primo Libro collection.

The great English composer Henry Purcell was born on September 10^th of 1659, in London.  If Cabezón could be firmly placed in the Renaissance and Frescobaldi somewhere between the Renaissance and Baroque, Purcell’s music is very much of the Baroque era.  Purcell lived only 36 years but, being very prolific, left us a large body of work: an opera, a large amount of music for the theater (called semi-operas), some instrumental music, anthems and songs.  Here’s Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary.

We’re skipping three composers (we think of them as minor stars): William Boyce, another Englishman, baptized on September 11^th of 1711 (he went deaf later in his life but, like Beethoven, continued composing); a Danish composer, Friedrich Kuhlau, born on the same day in 1786 (Kuhlau is remembered for his pieces for the flute and piano sonatinas, still a staple at music schools); and Clara Schumann, born on September 13^th of 1819.  Clara was Robert’s wife, Brahms’s friend, a virtuoso pianist, a major cultural figure, and a composer.   

That brings us into the 19^th century and two very different composers, Dvořák and Schoenberg.  Antonin Dvořák (born on September 8^th of 1841) was a Romantic nationalist, as were several East European composers of the time.  He was Brahms’s student and, in much of his music, a follower.  Several of his symphonies and the cello concerto remain very popular.  Arnold Schoenberg (born on September 13^th of 1874) couldn’t be more different.  The creator of the atonal and later twelve-tone systems, he was one of the most influential composers of the 20^th century.  Some years ago we had a series of posts about him, here, here, here, and here.

And this leaves us with the last and only living composer in our 400-year-long journey, Arvo Pärt, who was born on September 11^th of 1935.  A minimalist, in a way, he’s closer to Cabezón than any other composer on our list.  But to look back – what a wonderful, tremendously creative ark!