Month: December 2025

Bells of Florence

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Merry Christmas! Every year at this time we honor the memory of the great German-American musicologist, Karl Haas, host of the nationally syndicated radio program, Adventures in Good Music. Airing between 1970 and 2007, it was radio’s most widely listened-to classical music program. Following the show’s theme music, the second movement of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, Haas would utter his trademark greeting, “Hello everyone.” One of the most popular episodes, The Story of the Bells, aired …

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Arnold Bax’ “I Sing of a Maiden that is Makeless”: The Choir of Westminster Abbey

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Anonymously penned, the 15th century poem, I syng of a mayden, is a mystical meditation on the Annunciation and Nativity of Christ. Elements of Elizabethan polyphony blend with dreamy chromaticism in English composer Arnold Bax’ 1923 five-part a cappella setting of the text. As the five verses unfold, the majestic melody gives way to variation, only to return in the triumphant final moments. This 2017 recording features The Choir of Westminster Abbey, …

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“Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”: Keith Jarrett Trio

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In the notes for his album, After the Fall, American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett describes his “fall” into a bout of chronic fatigue syndrome in the fall of 1996. His return to the concert stage came on November 14, 1998 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, a venue close to his home. The title of the album, a document of the live concert, reflects Jarrett’s recovery after the two-year hiatus. Santa …

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Vivaldi’s “Gloria”: A Celebratory Drama

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Antonio Vivaldi was 24 years old when, in September of 1703, he was first employed as maestro di violino at Venice’s Ospedale della Pietà. Located near the Piazza San Marco, the Ospedale della Pietà was a generously endowed orphanage for girls, the most talented of whom received an exceptional music education. Describing the calibre of the performances, French scholar Charles de Brosses wrote in 1739, “The girls sing like angels, and play …

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John Adams’ “El Niño”: Five Excerpts from the Nativity Oratorio

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Composed in 1999, John Adams’ nativity oratorio, El Niño (“the child”), is a meditation on the nature of miracles. Based on the New Testament gospels, which Adams celebrates as “little more than long sequences of miracles,” the narrative structure is similar to that of Handel’s Messiah. Adams writes, Narrative passages alternate with arias and choruses that meditate or reflect on the principal themes. Among those could be mentioned the mystery of the Conception and …

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Barber’s Overture to “The School for Scandal”: Reflecting a Playful Spirit

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Composed in 1931, the Overture to The School for Scandal, Op. 5 was Samuel Barber’s first orchestral work. Barber was completing studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, and the piece served as a graduation thesis. Two years later on August 30, 1933, it was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Smallens. The eight-minute-long concert overture appeared on programs across the country, helping to establish Barber as one of the …

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Remembering Jubilant Sykes

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American baritone Jubilant Sykes passed away on December 8 at the age of 71. He was the victim of an apparent domestic homicide. A classically trained, Grammy-nominated vocalist, Sykes drew on gospel, jazz and folk influences. He collaborated with a wide array of artists including: Julie Andrews, Renée Fleming, Josh Groban, and Brian Wilson, and appeared on “such diverse stages as the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Arena …

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