the set of the noteworthy arts documents
He is perhaps best known for composing the fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of 20th Century Fox’s productions. Newman was highly regarded as a conductor, and arranged and conducted many scores by other composers, including George Gershwin, Charles Chaplin, and Irving Berlin.
No one, including Maurice Ravel himself, could have predicted that this orchestral piece would be so popular. Ravel referred to his creation as follows: «This is not music at all». For Ravel «Bolero» became the peculiar work – and perhaps in this «not-music» we will find a solution to the life and fate of the…
as soon as I had resigned my post of “teacher” a prestigious international publisher (Edition Universal Wien) came knocking at my door and signed me for all the works that I would write from 1924 to 1930 […]. To be associated with a publisher who was both able and attentive and held the keys of international music meant not to rot and not having to succumb to our [Italian] musical environment. In fact, between 1924 and 1932 I lived intensely in the world of Music without ever concerning myself with these “machinations” that destroy the serenity and corrupt the musician”.
As a director, Pasolini presented a depressing reality through picaresque neorealism. A large number of people objected to such representations in works of art intended for general consumption. The 1962 film Mamma Roma, which starred Anna Magnani and told the tale of a prostitute and her kid, was offensive to the prevailing moral standards of…
Certain historical figures and their facial features have been ingrained in our common memory.One of those recognisable people is Bach, although, unlike the others, he is perceived by the general public as an elderly person. The 1746 Elias Gottlob Haussmann portrait, now in the Altes Rathaus in Leipzig, has been described by more than one commentator as…
In the world of academic music, gender inequality has historically existed. Despite persistent public calls to abandon age-old prejudices, women are largely ignored there, but there are many examples of their success.
“History of culture” has made a short list of names in academic conducting that have made or will soon make the whole world talk about them.
On Antoine Riboud’s private jet, they landed at Tempelhof Airport. Rostropovich played Bach’s Suites while sitting close to the former “Checkpoint Charlie” after managing to find a chair anywhere. Exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, Mstislav Rostropovich after he sheltered Alexander Solzhenitsyn at his house, watched the fall of the wall on TV in…
In 1946, Christa Ludwig made her debut in public. Thanks to a number of audio, DVD, and video recordings—some of which were in private hands and later released—it is thankfully possible to hear the extent to which she molded not just the German classical music scene as a sought-after mezzo-soprano. This primarily relates to her operatic singing career, which spanned from the late 1950s to her final performance as Klytemnestra in Strauss’ Elektra at the Vienna State Opera at the end of 1994. During that time, she was an indispensable principal artist for nearly forty years, covering more than forty singing roles (out of her total of seventy) in nearly eight hundred performances.
The Third symphony was created by Arthur Honegger during 1945-1946. At this time, he, a Swiss citizen, who had spent years of war there in a neutral country, returned to Paris. From Lausanne he helped the French with his work: musical radio broadcasts, performances of works supporting the belief in himself, in the coming victory….
Dinner of Arthur Rubinstein, Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya in French Deauville. The action begins before the dessert with whipped cream. You’ll see how Rubinstein teaches Vishnevskaya to make smoke out of cigars – they talk in Russian. The verses of Mephistopheles, which sing a glorious trinity, where each – primus inter pares, first among…