Quartet in D-major, D. 94 by Franz Schubert Quartet in F-major, Op. 22 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky It would be hard to imagine two more dissimilar works than these within the realm of classical music’s period of common practice.  The Schubert is simple, perhaps somewhat naïve, while the Tchaikovsky is emotionally wrought.  It’s the difference, I suppose,…

I went on an errand this afternoon.  I needed to get my endpin sharpened. An endpin (called a spike in England) is the rod that protrudes from the bottom of a cello to stick in the floor so the cello doesn’t slide.  It’s a fairly recent innovation; prior to the 20th century, cellists generally didn’t use…

We had a wonderful tour of China in December.  Here are a few memorable moments, musical and cultural. Our second concert, after Shanghai, was in Xuzhou, NOT to be confused with Suzhou, pronounced “SU-joux”) famous for its rock gardens.  We had played THERE on our last trip.  Xuzhou,  (pronounced “SHoo-zo”) a city of perhaps seven million…

String Quartet in C Major  (1920) by Engelbert Humperdinck  (1854-1921) Italian Serenade (1887) by Hugo Wolf  (1860-1903) Il Tramonto (1914) by Ottorino Respighi  (1879-1936) with  Krista River, mezzo soprano   Crisantemi (1890) by  Giacomo Puccini  (1856-1924) Quartet in E Minor (1873) by Giuseppe Verdi  (1813-1901) November 12, 2011, at Duke Notes by Jonathan Bagg: It would be hard to find musical genres…