One of the greatest composers ever was clearly missing in my list featured on this blog, so I’m bridging the gap with few notes on Ludwig van Beethoven, quintessentially romantic musician. Born in Bonn, Germany in a family of musicians in 1770 and showing genial musical talent as a pianist from an early age, being taught by his father. After some initial work at the … Continue reading Beethoven’s portrait 🎼🎹🎶
Built on a design by Christopher Wren and consacrated in 1684, St James’s Piccadilly is an Anglican church in central London that features also a vibrant community programme, including a regular high-quality series of concerts. These are normally free at lunchtime and require a ticket in the evenings. Always a very enjoyable experience with performances by young and talented artists and a setting with good … Continue reading St James’s Piccadilly ⛪️🎶🎹
An Anglican church in central London, on the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square, St Martin-in-the-Field is also a point of reference for sacred music in the capital. Given its central location, the church has always played a key role in religious life but also for the performace of sacred music and the provision of charitable activities, epsecially for the area’s homeless people. In recent years … Continue reading St Martin-in-the-Fields, London ⛪️🎶💂🏼♂️
Frédérick Chopin There are many composers I like best, among them Mozart, Vivaldi and Debussy, but Chopin is by far the musician I feel closer to, for musical sensibility and artistic expression. I loved studying and playing his compositions and I enjoy listening to my collection of his creations, interpreted by many great pianists, from Martha Argerich to Arthur Rubinstein, from Maurizio Pollini to Ivo Pogorelich. … Continue reading My favourite composers 🎹🏛🎶
St Paul’s Cathedral is not only a main place of religious cult in London, it is also a place where excellent sacred music can be enjoyed with the glorious acoustics of one of the second largest church in the United Kingdom. Designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren in the 17th century, the current church replaced the Old St Paul’s Cathedral that … Continue reading St Paul’s Cathedral 🏛⛪️🎶
My top 5 music venues As a lover of classical music I do love attending live concerts, as much as I can, whichever city I happen to be in, at my favourite venues, which are always a guarantee of quality performances. London has a marvellous concentration of venues with great acoustics for classical music performances of all kinds. My favourites are the more intimate ones, like … Continue reading Concert Halls 🎹🏛🎶
🇬🇧 Fantastic venue for concerts on a lively square in central Berlin. Originally built as a theatre between 1818 and 1821, heavily damaged during the Second World War, was then rebuilt from 1977 onwards and converted into a concert hall, maintaining its original neo-classical design, both in its external architecture and its sumptuous interiors., . It changed its name to the current one in 1994 … Continue reading Konzerthaus Berlin 🏛🎶🐻
🇬🇧 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer – Born on 7/5/1840 and celebrating today his 179th anniversary, here portrayed by Nikolai Kuznetsov in 1893, the year of his death, when the composer was 53. The link to the Youtube video below is for a very special interpretation of one of my favoutire tunes by Tchakovski from the Nutcracker suite, The Sugar Plum Fairy: The Sugar Plum Fairy interpreted … Continue reading Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 🎼🎹🇷🇺
Almost completely destroyed by a devasting fire in 1991, it took an enormous effort to be reconstructed and restored to its former glory. In 2009 the Teatro Petruzzelli, the cultural gem and largest theatre of Apulia, was re-inaugurated. Since then The Petruzzelli Foundation is managing the venue and its productions that span to opera, ballet, prose, classical and more contemporary music. … Continue reading Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari 🏛🎶🇮🇹
Not only an interesting early Victorian church in the posh neighbourhood of Knightsbridge, St Paul’s is also a regular venue for concert and recordings by BBC Radio 3 and other musical groups. The church is the perfect recording venue for the BBC Singers, who perform there regularly, especially for their sacred music programmes. The church was founded in 1843, under the auspices of the … Continue reading St Paul’s Knightsbridge ⛪️🎼🎶
