Robert Starer News
Austrian-born American composer and pianist
Commemorations 2024 (Birth: Robert Starer)
- piano
- opera
- United States of America
- composer, musicologist, pianist, music teacher
Last update
2024-03-28
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2017-04-06 03:13:48
Some people have what’s called synesthesia, where they actually see colors while listening to music, but what if it was the other way around? Have you ever wondered what colors would sound like?? Robert Starer has! In 1985 he published a collection of 7 very short piano pieces where each piece has a different color (or set of colors) for its title: “Purple,” “Shades of Blue,” “Black and White,” “Bright Orange,” “Grey,” “Pink,” and “Crimson.” I remember playing these pieces when I was younger and absolutely loved them! Frankly, I still do. There’s something about them that really does capture the color, at least for me, and it’s such a cool concept!! My favorite is probably “Purple” (but I could be biased because purple is my favorite color…) …but honestly I love every single one of them. For any music nerds out there, some of the pieces are based on […]
2015-10-15 15:04:03
[…] Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitzky conducting. In 1946 the first concert performance of Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell)” was given in Liverpool. This music was written for an education film entitled “The Instruments of the Orchestra,” which was first shown on November 29, 1946. In 1955 Iannis Xenakis’ “Metastasis” for 61 instruments was premiered in Donaueschingen, Germany. In 1981 Robert Starer’s Violin Concerto was premiered by the Boston Symphony, with Seiji Ozawa conducting and Itzhak Perlman as soloist. In 1985 Christopher Rouse’s “Lares Hercii” for violin and harpsichord was premiered by Charles Castleman (violin) and Arthur Haas (harpsichord) in Rochester, NY. In 1988 Conlon Nancarrow ‘s String Quartet No. 3 was premiered by the Arditti Quartet in Cologne, Germany. In 1997 Peter Maxwell Davies conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2015-08-24 15:14:07
Lucky 13 at Maverick
[…] inside the piano. But this music has been in my ears since I bought Cowell’s recording of it when I was in my teens, and Gosling didn’t reproduce Cowell’s wide dynamic range, not merely spooky but sometimes frightening. Aaron Copland preferred his original version of Appalachian Spring for 13 instruments to the later version for full orchestra. So do I. It’s crisper and tastier, the imaginative scoring more effective. It was a great success. Robert Starer was buried in Woodstock 2001. Yet during Maverick’s 100th anniversary season, the festival presented but one work to honor him. But Song of Solitude, a substantial 13 minute work for solo cello, full of variety and imagination, was entirely characteristic of the composer’s style. I don’t think this was one of the composer’s works which premiered at Maverick but it certainly belonged there. Cellist Emmanuel Feldman, who learned the music for this occasion, performed […]
2015-03-03 02:20:58
Simon Rattle – The Making of a Conductor – by Nicholas Kenyon Simon Rattle – The Making of a Conductor by Nicholas Kenyon I wish I could say I had a master plan in the order of the books I’ve been reading, but I haven’t, and yet, there seems to be a distinct pattern forward. This book ends at 1987 and while some of the books I’ve read have gone beyond the timing, there is still a movement forward – a way forward. As I’ve read time and time again, in this series of books, the classical music industry is struggling and it has big competition – sports, TV, Film, Gaming, Internet, etc. Who wants to go to an art form, which quite frankly, just seems to constantly stare at its own belly button. So what has this to do with this book, well, I feel, Simon […]
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