Author: bigmikehouston
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Charles Ives Composes the First ‘American Symphony’
One of the things I love most about going to the Houston Symphony Orchestra’s concerts at Jones Hall is their pre-concert talks they generously give before each concert called ‘prelude’. The fetching Mrs. B and I have learned so much from these talks about the great composers and their music. There have been many great […]
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The Second Most Important Person of a Symphony Orchestra
Of course, all of the virtuoso orchestra players are critically important to a good symphony orchestra. Without them there would be no orchestra. But acknowledging that, I think it is recognized that the most important person needed for a good symphony orchestra is the conductor [director] of the orchestra. Also, known as the maestro, a […]
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Two Unique Characteristics of the Brahms Violin Concerto’s Slow Movement
As I have stated many times, I believe the Johannes Brahms violin concerto is right up there with, in my opinion, the four greatest violin concertos ever composed: the Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. I put those in no special order, but would probably lean to the exciting Tchaikovsky concerto as being #1. Johannes Brahms […]
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The Concert Overture
Most of you know that an overture is music that precedes a play or opera or ballet. In the Romantic era of music [which followed the Baroque and Classical eras] concert overtures were developed. These were overtures that were stand alone pieces that were to be played by symphonies in a concert program. No opera […]
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Daniel Silva’s ‘The Cellist’ For Classical Music Lovers
What’s this, you may ask, a book recommendation on this all classical music, all the time web site? Yes, and it may be a surprising book as it is by the New York Times #1 best selling author of the Gabriel Allon, Israeli spy master thriller series, Daniel Silva, called “The Cellist”. I am not […]
Classical Music With Big Mike 