This Week in Classical Music: November 24, 2025.  Lully and Music Criticism.  The holidays are approaching, so we’ll try be brief.  One of the composers born this week is Virgil Thomson.  He had a very colorful life, especially during his Paris years (you can read more here, in our earlier post), and, while a relatively minor composer, he was very important as a music writer.  For 15 years, from 1940 to 1954, his criticism had been published in the New York Herald Tribune; he also wrote several books.  Thomson’s writings were influential and widely read; he supported American composers, and his criticism influenced musical programming in New York, resulting in more frequent performances of works by American and contemporary composers.  This anniversary (Thomson was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 25^th of 1896) reminded us of a recent article by Matthew Aucoin in the New York Review of Books.  Aucoin is also a composer, young (thirty-five) and talented, and he has a wonderful way with words.  What prompted him to write was the recent changes at the NY Times, which, for the time being, doesn’t have a music critic.  It’s an interesting reversal of roles when a composer writes about music critics.  Aucoin is not as pessimistic about the status of classical music as we are, but maybe it’s the optimism of the age.  The article is worth reading, here (unfortunately, it’s behind a paywall).  

Several important composers were born this week.  Tarquinio Merula, an Italian composer of the early Baroque, was born in Busseto, near Cremona, on November 24^th of 1595.  Merula spent much of his life in Cremona, by then already a center of violin-making (surprisingly, he didn’t write much music for the violin).  In many ways, Merula followed the lead of two great composers: Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Gabrieli.  He wrote an opera, numerous madrigals and motets, and keyboard pieces.  Here’s Merula’s “Madrigaletto” Mentre In Sogno, performed by the ensemble Suonare E Cantare.  (And here you can read more about Merula). 

Probably the most important composer born this week is Jean-Baptiste Lully, an Italian who became a founder of the French Baroque.  Lully was born on November 28^th (or 29^th) of 1632 in Florence and brought to France as a boy by a French noble, mostly so that his niece could practice her Italian.  We’ve written about Lully many times; here’s a detailed entry. 

Two Russians were born this week, two Sergeis: Taneyev and Lyapunov, the former in Vladimir, on November 25^th of 1856, the latter – four years later, in Yaroslavl, on November 30^th of 1859.  Taneyev was part of Russia’s cultural elite of the late 19^th – early 20^th centuries, an intellectual and cosmopolitan; he was also very close to Tchaikovsky.  Tchaikovsky trusted Taneyev’s taste in and understanding of music more than any other critic’s but also often feared Taneyev’s pronouncement, as Taneyev was blunt and unsparing.  Still, their friendship survived those moments; they were close till Tchaikovsky’s death.  Taneyev wrote several symphonies, ten quartets, and an opera.  His music is often performed in Russia.  

Lyapunov studied with Taneyev in the Moscow Conservatory but turned to more “national” material.  An excellent pianist, Lyapunov wrote many pieces for the piano, some of them exceptionally difficult.  After the 1917 Revolution, Lyapunov emigrated to France and died in Paris in 1924.  One suspects that had Taneyev lived long enough, he would have done the same (he died in 1915). 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

This Week in Classical Music: November 17, 2025.  Catching up on the Pianists.  While we were traveling, we missed a lot of composers’ anniversaries, and last week we caught up with most of them.  In the meantime, the pianists went unattended, among whom were several outstanding masters.  We’ll try to give them their dues this week. 

György Cziffra, one of the greatest virtuosos of the 20^th century, was born into a poor Romani (Gipsy) family in Budapest on November 5^th of 1921.  He learned the piano by watching his sister play; later, as a boy, he earned money in bars by improvising on the tunes customers suggested.  He entered the Franz Liszt Academy at the age of nine, becoming the youngest student in the Academy’s history.  Ernst von (Ernő) Dohnányi was one of his teachers.  Starting in 1937, he played concerts in Hungary and other European countries.  During WWII, Cziffra was conscripted and sent to the Eastern Front.  There, he was captured by the Soviet partisans and held in captivity till 1947.  Upon returning to Hungary, he earned his living playing jazz. 

In 1950, he attempted to escape from Communist Hungary but was captured and imprisoned in a hard labor camp.  The harsh treatment he experienced in the camp damaged his hands; it took him a long time to recover.  Still, he went on to win the 1955 Ferenc Liszt Competition.  In 1956, during the uprising against the Hungarian Stalinist regime, which would eventually be toppled by the invading Soviet army, Cziffra, his wife and son managed to escape to Austria.  He gave a series of very successful concerts in Vienna, and soon after was invited to Paris.  There, he was greeted by fellow musicians, among them the pianist Marguerite Long and composers Marcel Dupré and Arthur Honegger.  Charles de Gaulle invited him to the Élysée Palace. 

Cziffra had a very successful career in France, but in 1981, his son, György Cziffra Jr., a successful conductor, died in an apartment fire. Cziffra was severely affected by his son’s death; his concerts became infrequent (after the event, he never played with an orchestra) and he stopped recording.   György Cziffra died on January 15^th of 1994, in Paris.  Here, in a live recording from 1959, is Cziffra’s performance of Liszt’s 1863 Concert Etude Gnomenreigen, from the opus S. 145. 

A wonderful French pianist Marguerite Long, whom we mentioned above, was born on November 13^th of 1874 Nîmes, in the south of France.  During her long life, she was friends with many of her contemporary French composers, including Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud and others, who highly valued her interpretations of their music.  For a while, Long worked as Debussy’s assistant.  In 1943, Long and her friend, the violinist Jacques Thibaud, established the Concours Marguerite Long - Jacques Thibaud, which became one of the most important classical music competitions.  Here, Marguerite Long plays Fauré's Nocturne no. 4.  It was recorded in 1937. 

Even though we don’t have the time to write about other pianists, here’s a short list.  Walter Gieseking, the German pianist who had an exceptional affinity for French music, was born in France on November 15^th of 1895.  Ivan Moravec, a great Czech pianist and one of the best interpreters of the music of Chopin, was born in Prague on November 9^th of 1930.  Daniel Barenboim, a pianist, conductor, and overall musical leader, was born in Buenos Aires on November 15^th of 1942.  Jorge Bolet, a Cuban-American pianist who, like Cziffra, was a major virtuoso and an exceptional interpreter of the music of Liszt, was born in Havana on November 15^th of 1914.  Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a Polish pianist, composer, and statesman, was born in a small village of Kurilovka, then part of the Russian Empire, on November 18^th of 1860.  And finally, Yakov Zak was also born in the Russian Empire, in Odessa, now Odesa, Ukraine, on November 20^th of 1913.  He won the 1937 Chopin piano competition. Zak was a professor at the Moscow Conservatory for almost 30 years, becoming the Dean of the Piano Department in 1965. 

This Week in Classical Music: November 10, 2025.  Andalusia and catching up.  So, who and what did we miss while traveling in Andalusia?  It seems that the previous two weeks were rather lean.  Niccolo Paganini, considered the greatest violinist of the 19^th century, was born on October 27^th of 1782, but he wasn’t a great composer (though some of his tunes were wonderful).   Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, born in Vienna on November 2^nd of 1739, composed in the Classical style, was friends with all the greats of the era, Gluck first, then Haydn and Mozart, and was an excellent violinist (he wrote 18 violin concertos and premiered them all).  He also composed several comic operas, Der Apotheker und der Doktor being the most popular.  Even though he wrote 120 symphonies, very few are performed these days: his music is mostly forgotten, and, we think, for a good reason: it’s pretty dull.  You can try one of his recorded symphonies here.  It’s nice, but the best thing about it is the title, Les paysans changés en grenouilles: The peasants turned into frogs (it’s one of Dittersdorf’s so-called Ovid Symphonies).  The Prague Chamber Orchestra is conducted by Bohumil Gregor.

Samuel Scheidt was born on November 3^rd of 1587.  Together with his friends, Heinrich Schütz and Johann Hermann Schein, he was one of the most important German composers of the early 16^th century.  You can read more about him here.  And finally, Vincenzo Bellini; he was born on November 3^rd of 1801.  We mentioned him recently when we wrote about the great soprano Giuditta Pasta.

This week is more substantial, with François Couperin le Grand, Alexander Borodin, Aaron Copland, and Paul Hindemith.  We’d like to present an excerpt from Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis, composed in 1942.  Ludus Tonalis (Tonal game in Latin) is a set of twelve fugues, interspersed by eleven Interludes; the set starts with a Praeludium and ends with a Postludium, which is a retrograde inversion of the Praeludium.  “Retrograde” means playing a set from the end to the beginning, but in “Retrograde inversion,” the original set is “inverted” first, meaning that each interval is turned upside down: the second up becomes the second down, the fifth down becomes the fifth up.  Somehow, in the music of Schoenberg or, in this case, Hindemith, it works.  While clearly, Hindemith had Bach in mind, there are only 12 fugues, not 24: in Hindemith’s approach to atonality, there’s no major or minor.  The excerpt we’ll hear is from the live recording made by Sviatoslav Richter in France, during the Fêtes musicales de Touraine festival in 1985.  The festival takes place every year in a wonderful 13th-century fortified barn called La Grange de Meslay just outside of the city of Tours.  The excerpt starts with the 3rd Interludium followed by Fugue 4, and then another three pairs of Interludium and Fugue, here.

But what about classical music in Andalusia?  Unfortunately, we cannot report anything exciting; there’s a dearth of it. Seville is the capital and the largest city of Andalusia, and that’s where you can hear some classical music in concert.  Teatro de la Maestranza is where it takes place; the theater also presents opera, ballet, musicals, and even old movies, such as Ernst Lubitsch’s Carmen with Pola Negri in the title role, with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla playing the recorded soundtrack.  The orchestra, resident at the theater, was founded in 1990.  Some events are interesting, such as the staging of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen by Les Arts Florissants or Cecilia Bartoli in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.  Martha Argerich may come…

What we did like a lot, and found gripping and fascinating, was Flamenco, but that’s a different story.

This Week in Classical Music: November 3, 2025.  Andalusia, part II.  Classical Connect is still in Andalusia.  In Spain, classical music seems to be concentrated in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.  Alicia de Larrocha, Spain’s most famous pianist, was born and lived all her life there.  Pablo Casals, one of the greatest cellists of the 20^th century, was also born in Catalonia, and, while still in Spain (he left the country after the Spanish Civil War), lived in Barcelona.  He moved to France and then to Puerto Rico, where he died at the age of 96.  Montserrat Caballé, La Superba, was a Barcelonesa, and so was another great soprano, Victoria de Los Ángeles.  And yes, José Carreras was also born in Barcelona.  Only Plácido Domingo was born in Madrid.

When we return, we’ll report on the classical music events (or the lack thereof) in Andalusia.

This Week in Classical Music: October 27, 2025.  Andalusia.  Classical Connect is in Andalusia!  This part of Spain is famous for flamenco, but it was ruled by the Muslims for many centuries (all of Moorish Spain was called al-Andalus), and it developed a unique form called Andalusi classical music.  Many Jews lived in the Muslim-ruled part of Spain, and they also developed their own musical tradition, Sephardic music.  We’ll explore it upon our return.

This Week in Classical Music: October 20, 2025.  Giuditta Pasta.  This week has many significant anniversaries: Franz Liszt, Charles Ives, Georges Bizet, and Domenico Scarlatti were all born this week.  So were three composers of the 20^th century, Luciano Berio, Malcolm Arnold, and Ned Rorem.  Georg Solti, a renowned conductor, was born this week, and so was Giuditta Pasta, a celebrated Italian soprano.  We’ve written about many of these composers and Solti, but never about Pasta.  Sometimes, listening to the incredibly difficult bel canto roles in the operas of Rossini, Donizetti, or Bellini, we puzzle, who did they write these roles for, who were these amazing singers capable of pulling it off?  Giuditta Pasta was one of them.   

Pasta was born Giuditta Negri on October 26^th of 1797, into a Jewish family.  The Negri lived in Saronno, near Milan, and she studied in the city.  In 1816, she married Giuseppe Pasta, a fellow singer, and took his name.  By 1818, she had sung in all the main Italian opera houses; in 1821, she triumphed in Paris, singing the role of Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello.  She then sang the main roles in the Paris premiere of Rossini’s Tancredi, a mezzo role, and Elisabetta in his Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, a soprano role.  That made Pasta Rossini’s favorite singer, and in the following decade, she became acknowledged as the greatest soprano of the time.  She sang in London, in Paris, Milan, and Naples’s San Carlo, creating leading roles in the operas of Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Paisiello.  In 1830, she sang the first Bellini role, that of Imogene in Il Pirata.  One year later, Bellini wrote La sonnambula with Giuditta Pasta in mind.  She sang Amina, a soprano sfogato role, with the diapason stretching from the mezzo to coloratura soprano registers.  There were few soprano sfogato singers in the 19^th century (the great Maria Malibran was one), and not many more in the 20^th century, the best – and best known – being Maria Callas.  Also in 1831, in La Scala, Pasta premiered what is possibly the ultimate bel canto role, Norma. 

The third bel canto composer, Gaetano Donizetti, also created a role for Pasta in Anna Bolena.  Past sang the role of Anna at the premiere in Milan in 1830, apparently to overwhelming success.  Two years later, Donizetti wrote another opera for Pasta, Ugo, conte di Parigi. 

Giuditta Pasta retired in 1835, just 38 years of age.  She taught singing later in her life and died at the age of 67.  Obviously, we don’t have the aural record of her singing, but we do have the recordings made by the “Giuditta Pasta of the 20^th century,” Maria Callas.  Here are the final moments of La sonnambula, the arias Ah, non credea mirarti and Ah! non giunge.  In this 1957 recording, Callas is accompanied by the orchestra and chorus of La Scala, Antonio Votto conducting.  If Giuditta Pasta was really as good, then we’d understand all the accolades she received from her admirers, from the regular operagoers to the French writer Stendhal, a friend and admirer, who saw her dozens of times and heaped praise in many of his writings.