by Kile Smith | Nov 2, 2022 | Classical music, Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Podcast
Elgar promoted him, his music sold hundreds of thousands of copies, he was as big as Elton John or Paul McCartney, but he died in poverty. So the music industry changed. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912). Symphonic Variations on an African Air (1905)...
by Kile Smith | Oct 1, 2022 | Classical music, Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Podcast
He was the assistant conductor at the Bavarian State Opera, then assistant at Augsburg Opera, then Kapellmeister, but Hitler came to power, and the purge of Jews began. So he went to Palestine. He was forbidden to work under the terms of his travel visa. So he changed...
by Kile Smith | Sep 2, 2022 | American music, Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Music Composition
She founded a pioneering group for women composers and a successful independent record label. She taught in Tennessee, Hawaii, Jakarta, and Vienna. But what made Nancy Van de Vate happiest was composing—for orchestra. Nancy Van de Vate (b. 1930). Distant Worlds, for...
by Kile Smith | Aug 1, 2022 | Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Podcast
He threw spitballs at Rasputin. He escaped the Soviets. He wrote concertos and symphonies for the biggest names. For a time he was bigger, some said, than Copland. But it didn’t last. Nicolai Berezowsky (1900–1953). Symphony No. 4 (1942) Listen on SoundCloud...
by Kile Smith | Jul 1, 2022 | American music, Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Podcast
Aaron Copland became the leading voice of his generation, led there by Damrosch, Koussevitzky, and a composition teacher who happened to play the organ, Nadia Boulanger. Aaron Copland (1900–1990). Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (1924) Listen on SoundCloud Listen on...
by Kile Smith | Jun 1, 2022 | Classical music, Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Podcast
Bloch would take the path down from his cottage to Agate Beach, and there he would write out the expositions to all 48 fugues in Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, from memory. Gene Gutchë (1907–2000). Epimetheus USA (1968) Ernest Bloch (1880–1959). Suite modale (1956)...
