Category Archives: Music
Program Notes: Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th October 2025The program notes for the upcoming Tchaikovsky/Rachmaninoff Concert (Nov 6, 2025) are below. Tickets can be purchased here. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) wrote seven symphonies – the six numbered ones plus the Manfred Symphony. The first of these was written in 1866 when he was 26 years old. Its gestation was…
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Great American Composers – Aaron Copland
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd August 2025Aaron Copland (1900–1990) was born on November 14, 1900, in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five children in a Jewish immigrant family. His first musical experiences came from his older sister Laurine, who gave him basic piano lessons. By age fifteen, he had decided to pursue music seriously. He immersed himself in opera scores…
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Lubbock Chamber Orchestra – Ladder to the Moon
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th August 2025The LCO will present the three works described below at its inaugural concert of the season, scheduled for September 19, 2025, at the Crickets Theater. For tickets go here. Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings – 1st MovementPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was the first Russian composer to achieve fame outside his native land. Despite the success of many…
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Mikhail Alexandrovich
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd August 2025Latvian tenor Mikhail Alexandrovich (1914-2002) was another 20th century cantor who sang more than liturgical music. Some of the others were Yossele Rosenblatt, Joseph Schmidt, and Richard Tucker. Born in Bērzpils, Vitebsk to a very poor family, his extraordinary vocal gifts were recognized when he was six years old. In 1920 he was enrolled in…
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The Mozart Requiem
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th July 2025Mozart’s last composition, his Requiem Mass K 626, was left incomplete when he died on December 5, 1791. It was finished by the composer’s student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr. The extent to which he relied on notes left by Mozart is uncertain. Süssmayr’s other compositions are rarely performed and do not reach the level of his…
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Around the World in 73 Years
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th June 2025Memory is a highly fallible record of the past. This divergence from fact to fancy increases with age and its attendant distance from the recalled event, as well as the fog and confabulation that the accumulation of years inevitably accrues. Despite these difficulties, I started recalling all the cities in which I had heard serious…
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Joint Concert by Israel Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th May 2025Last week on May 8, the Israel Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic performed a concert on the 80th anniversary of “Liberation Day.” In 1945, the day marked the unconditional surrender of Germany and the official end of World War II in Europe. Israel Philharmonic Music Director Lahav Shani led the performance of works by Tzvi Avni…
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A Few Serenades
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th May 2025A serenade, as its name implies (‘la sera’ is Italian for the evening), was originally a song in praise of a loved one sung in the evening. It gradually morphed into orchestral versions still retaining a hint to the original praise and its object as well as a vocal piece. Below are 10 plus 1…
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Finale 44 – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th February 2025Beethoven’s C minor Symphony, built around the universally known four-note phrase, transitions quietly from its third movement to its fourth. The brief journey over the orchestra explodes in a burst of C major, unusual for a symphony that began in a minor key. The four-note figure occurs repeatedly in different guises as it does in…
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Grieg String Quartet Op 27
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th February 2025Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) had three goes at the string quartet. The first try was a student exercise that is lost. The second is the subject of this article. He abandoned the third after completing the first two movements. The Op 27 is confusingly often listed as his String Quartet No 1. The only extant and…
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