David Hurwitz | |
---|---|
Born | August 29, 1961 |
Occupations |
|
YouTube information | |
Channel | |
Subscribers | 44,500 [1] |
Total views | 24,170,197 [1] |
Last updated: 28 September 2024 | |
Website | classicstoday |
David Hurwitz (born 29 August 1961) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Based in New York, Hurwitz is the founder and executive editor of ClassicsToday.com and frequently reviews recordings there. He was the chairman of the Cannes Classical Awards, while they existed, from 1994 to 2010.
Hurwitz has published numerous books, primarily guides on specific composers for the Amadeus Press "Unlocking the Masters" series, namely Mahler, Mozart, Dvořák, Haydn, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Bernstein, Strauss, C. P. E. Bach, and Handel. Other publications include an introduction to classical music, two articles on the 19th-century use of vibrato as well as surveys on the symphonies of Beethoven (the 5th and 7th) and Brahms (all four).
David Hurwitz was born on 29 August 1961, in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. [2] Raised in Connecticut, Hurwitz attended Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University, receiving graduate degrees in Modern European History from both. [3] He has, at various times, studied piano, clarinet, viola, and percussion. [3] He was an orchestral percussionist, with performing credits that include "all of [Mahler's] symphonies except for the Eighth". [2] He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. [2]
Hurwitz is the founder and executive editor of ClassicsToday.com, a daily review site for classical music recordings. [4] In addition to a written review, the site gives each recording two rankings from 1–10 in "Artistic Quality" and "Sound Quality; a 1 is defined as "unacceptable, no redeeming qualities", while a 10 represents "superior, qualities of unusual merit". [5] Apart from frequent contributions on ClassicsToday.com, Hurwitz has published articles in CD Review , Classical Pulse!, High Fidelity , In Tune Monthly , Musical America , Opus , Stereo Review , The New York Observer , among other magazines. [6] He was the chairman and founder of the Cannes Classical Awards (CCA), awarded at the Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale by a multinational jury of critics from around the world. The CCA existed from 1994 to 2010, until it was replaced by the Midem Classical Awards and presently, the International Classical Music Awards; Hurwitz left after 2010. [7] [8]
In 2020 Hurwitz launched a YouTube channel on which he regularly posts video reviews and discographical surveys. [9]
Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein's honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981.
Vienna Philharmonic is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world.
The Symphony No. 7 by Gustav Mahler is a symphony in five movements composed in 1904–05, sometimes referred to by the title Song of the Night, which was not the composer's own designation. Although the symphony is often described as being in the key of E minor, its tonal scheme is more complicated. The symphony's first movement moves from B minor (introduction) to E minor, and the work ends with a rondo finale in C major. Thus, as Dika Newlin has pointed out, "in this symphony Mahler returns to the ideal of 'progressive tonality' which he had abandoned in the Sixth". The complexity of the work's tonal scheme was analysed in terms of "interlocking structures" by Graham George.
The Symphony No. 6 in A minor by Gustav Mahler is a symphony in four movements, composed in 1903 and 1904, with revisions from 1906. It is sometimes nicknamed the Tragic ("Tragische"), though the origin of the name is unclear.
Jascha Heifetz was a Jewish-Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin style in St. Petersburg. Accompanying his parents to escape the violence of the Russian Revolution, he moved to the United States as a teenager, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said after hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."
Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters.
Leonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor, author and composer.
Hartmut Haenchen is a German conductor, known as a specialist for the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and for conducting operas in the leading opera houses of the world.
Efrem Zimbalist was a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music.
Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107, is one of the composer's best-known symphonies. It was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised in 1885. It is dedicated to Ludwig II of Bavaria. The premiere, given under Arthur Nikisch and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the opera house at Leipzig on 30 December 1884, brought Bruckner the greatest success he had known in his life. The symphony is sometimes referred to as the "Lyric", though the appellation is not the composer's own, and is seldom used.
Metamorphosen, study for 23 solo strings is a composition by Richard Strauss for ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three double basses, typically lasting 25 to 30 minutes. It was composed during the closing months of the Second World War, from August 1944 to March 1945. The piece was commissioned by Paul Sacher, the founder and director of the Basler Kammerorchester and Collegium Musicum Zürich, to whom Strauss dedicated it. It was first performed on 25 January 1946 by Sacher and the Collegium Musicum Zürich, with Strauss conducting the final rehearsal.
The Bamberg Symphony is a renowned German orchestra top-class orchestra that has been residing in Bamberg since its foundation in 1946 and travels the world as a touring orchestra.
John Ardoin was an American music critic. The music critic of The Dallas Morning News for thirty-two years, he was particularly known for his friendship with the opera soprano Maria Callas, about whom Ardoin wrote four books. His influence stretched much further than Dallas, and he was well acquainted with many classical musicians of the postwar era.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC is a Canadian conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), the Metropolitan Opera, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018.
A Hero's Song, Op. 111, B. 199, also called Heroic Song for Orchestra, is a symphonic poem for orchestra composed by Antonín Dvořák between August 4 and October 25, 1897. It was premiered in Vienna in on December 4, 1898, with Gustav Mahler conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, and was later published in Berlin in 1899. Unlike Dvořák's other symphonic poems, this work is not based upon a specific text, and it may have been intended to be autobiographical. The piece is mostly energetic and triumphant, but it includes a slower section containing a funeral march. A typical performance lasts approximately 22 minutes.
The Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra was a German chamber orchestra, founded in 1969 in Berlin, dedicated to the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and his contemporaries.
A pocket symphony is a song with extended form. The term was popularized by English journalist Derek Taylor, who used it to describe the Beach Boys' 1966 single "Good Vibrations".
Richard Strauss composed his Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, whilst living in Vienna in 1942. The work was premiered in 1943 at the Salzburg Festival and was recorded in 1944, both with solo horn Gottfried von Freiberg. The score was published by Boosey & Hawkes of London in 1950. It was taken up and popularised by the British horn player Dennis Brain. It has since become the most performed and recorded horn concerto of the 20th century.
The Duet-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon, TrV 293, with string orchestra and harp in F major, was written by Richard Strauss in 1946/47 and premiered in 1948. It is the last purely instrumental work he wrote.