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Finest Pieces of Plastic
Writing early in 1810, diplomat and scholar Georg Griesinger gave the most detailed surviving account...
Song of Thanksgiving
On the cover of Nicholas Chong’s new book, The Catholic Beethoven, the skies are blue. That in itself deserves comment. Images of Beethoven, from his own lifetime and ever since, tend to show...
Modernist Enchantment
Olivier Messiaen:A Critical Biographyby robert shollreaktion, 208 pages, $35 In May 1988, just under four years before his death, France’s greatest living composer made his only visit to Australia....
Mozart’s God
In a glass case at Mozart’s birthplace in Salzburg is a small wax doll. Its eyes look demurely downward, it wears a crown several times the size of its...
A “Somewhere” Composer
It’s about a quarter to ten at night on August 17, 2019, and I’m standing outside the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, smiling. It’s one of those Edinburgh Festival nights...
