News Lower Rhenish Music Festival

Frédérich Chopin 'Nocturne Op. 15 No. 3': Experimenting with the Night 

Dearest readers, it has been a couple of weeks since my last post, but my Masters degree has had to take priority. Not long until I can blog much more regularly! Today’s blog is based on a wonderful Nocturne by Polish composer, Frédérich Chopin. This piece was chosen by my very good friend, Dominik, as it was recently his birthday, so I hope you enjoy this blog! Frédérich Chopin (initially born Fryderyk) was born 1st March 1810 in Zelazowa Wola (west of Warsaw), Poland. Chopin’s father, Nicolas was a Frenchamn who emigrated to Poland in 1787 and in 1806 married Justyna Krzyzanowska. In 1810, only six months after Chopin was born, the family moved to Warsaw where Nicolas gained a job teaching French at the Warsaw Lyceum. This meant the family were housed in the Saxon Palace, and it was here that Chopin began receiving informal music lessons. Both his […]

Frédéric Chopin 'Nocturne Op. 15 No. 3': Experimenting with the Night 

Dearest readers, it has been a couple of weeks since my last post, but my Masters degree has had to take priority. Not long until I can blog much more regularly! Today’s blog is based on a wonderful Nocturne by Polish composer, Frédérich Chopin. This piece was chosen by my very good friend, Dominik, as it was recently his birthday, so I hope you enjoy this blog! Frédéric Chopin (initially born Fryderyk) was born 1st March 1810 in Zelazowa Wola (west of Warsaw), Poland. Chopin’s father, Nicolas was a Frenchamn who emigrated to Poland in 1787 and in 1806 married Justyna Krzyzanowska. In 1810, only six months after Chopin was born, the family moved to Warsaw where Nicolas gained a job teaching French at the Warsaw Lyceum. This meant the family were housed in the Saxon Palace, and it was here that Chopin began receiving informal music lessons. Both his […]

Classical Music Almanac from the Classical Stream 

Thursday, February 18, 2016 You can listen to the Classical Music Almanac Podcast Daily here. Birthdays George Henschel by John Singer Sargent 1889. In 1850 George Henschel was born in Breslau, in Silesia, now part of Poland, then part of Germany, of Polish-Jewish parentage, and educated as a pianist, making his first public appearance in Berlin in 1862. He subsequently took up singing, initially and briefly as a basso profundo but developing a fine baritone voice. In 1868, he sang the part of Hans Sachs in a concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Munich. With one minor and unplanned exception, he never sang on stage, confining himself to concert appearances. He was a close freind of Johannes Brahms, whom he met in May 1874 at the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Cologne, where Henschel sang the role of Harapha in Handel’s oratorio Samson. The friendship lasted […]