Past Articles by Tom Huizenga
|
Bang On A Concerto: A New Percussion Piece By Rautavaara The dean of Finnish composers has written a new concerto for ace percussionist Colin Currie. |
|
Hear The Opera That Just Won The Pulitzer Composer Kevin Puts based his winning score on the French film Joyeux Nöel, which tells the true story of a surprise cease-fire among German, French and Scottish soldiers on the battlefields of World War I. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: Wading Into The 20th Century Hear opera reinvent itself in the hands of cutting-edge composers facing an uncertain new century. |
|
Kevin Puts Wins Music Pulitzer For World War I Opera 'Silent Night' The story of a sudden cease-fire on a Belgian battlefield inspired the 40-year-old composer's first opera. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: How Verdi, Wagner and Puccini Got Their Grooves Hear why these three composers are still superstars in opera houses worldwide. |
|
Bach's St. Matthew Passion: Ritualized And Riveting Watch an excerpt of Peter Sellars' semi-staged "ritualization" of Bach's dramatic passion story. |
|
Around The Classical Internet: April 6, 2012 A tempest over tutus, the Met's embattled Ring cycle, $2 tickets and much more: all the news that's fit to link. |
|
Beethoven's String Quartet of Transcendence Gravely ill in spring 1825, Beethoven worked on a groundbreaking new string quartet. It begins ominously with four dark, uncertain notes, then travels paths of pain and suffering, eventually triumphing in sunlight. Hear the Emerson String Quartet make the journey at the Savannah Music Festival. |
|
Chamber Music Intimacy At The 2012 Savannah Music Festival Hear top chamber music players, like the Takacs Quartet and guitarist Milo?, at this year's festival. |
|
Daniel Hope: A Renaissance Man In Savannah Along with his concerts, recordings, books and music videos, British violinist Daniel Hope finds the time to settle down in Georgia each spring as the associate artistic director of the Savannah Music Festival. Hear Hope in a concert of French chamber music. |
|
Milos Karadaglic And The Power Of A Dusty Old Guitar On the day he first held his father's beat-up old guitar, Milos Karadaglic knew he'd picked the right instrument. From the war-torn Montenegro of his youth to London's Royal Academy of Music, the 28-year-old has made a splash in the guitar world. Hear him in recital at the Savannah Music Festival. |
|
Savannah Music Festival's Russian Reminiscence Violinist Daniel Hope and friends play a sun-splashed Tchaikovsky travelogue. |
|
Takacs Quartet At The Savannah Music Festival: Schubert Meets Bartok The revered group plays intricate Bartók and passionate Schubert at the Savannah Music Festival. |
|
Takacs Quartet: A Slice Of Schubert And A Bartok Palindrome The revered group plays intricate Bartók and passionate Schubert at the Savannah Music Festival. |
|
Beethoven's 10th Symphony: For Real? Weekend Edition Sunday takes a look at the mysterious saga of a new Beethoven discovery. |
|
The Brooklyn Philharmonic's Alan Pierson reinvents the orchestra one neighborhood at a time. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: Savoring The Bel Canto Sound The "beautiful singing" of the early 1800s marks an appealing milestone in the story of opera. |
|
Stick Your Head Into A High Performance Harpsichord On the BMW of harpsichords, Andreas Staier takes a drive through Bach's Goldberg Variations. |
|
The Official Goldberg Variations Puzzler Don't let Bach's music lull you into a false sense of self-confidence. Try this interactive quiz. |
|
Lara Downes' New Viewpoints On Old Variations The pianist performs contemporary takes on Bach's Goldberg Variations in the NPR studio |
|
Bach's Enduring Enigma: An Introduction To The 'Goldberg Variations' Professor Christoph Wolff, today's top Bach answer man, helps kick off a week of Goldberg explorations. |
|
Concert Calamities: When Bad Things Happen To Good Musicians When it comes to live performances, you never know what might happen on stage. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: Popping Opera's Bloated Bubble The excesses of the early 18th century take a decisive hit from a reformer named Gluck. |
|
Witold Lutoslawski: Always Searching For A New Sound Over a 50 year career and a string of fascinating orchestral works, the Polish composer continued to uncover new paths of musical expression. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: The Age Of 'Serious Opera' Opera seria, with its prescribed plots and extravagant music, dominated 18th-century opera. |
|
Virtuoso Trumpeter Maurice André Dies At 78   The French musician reignited interest in the trumpet with his clarion top notes and many recordings. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: The Birth Of Opera At the dawn of the 17th century, take a trip through the earliest days of a brand new art form. |
|
Joyce El Khoury And Brian Jagde: Tiny Desk Concert Soprano Joyce El-Khoury and tenor Brian Jagde are young, fresh-faced opera singers at the dawn of promising careers. Here, their deliciously sung Puccini reverberates off the walls of NPR Music. |
|
Why Do People Hate Rap And Opera? When it comes to musical preferences, the two genres act like lightning rods for scorn. |
|
Alisa Weilerstein: Playing Bach With The Fishes Strategically positioned above a tank full of stingrays at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Weilerstein unpacked her cello to serenade the sea creatures (and dozens of pleasantly surprised visitors) with music by Johann Sebastian Bach. |
|
A New Twist On A Leonard Cohen Classic  Pianist Simone Dinnerstein drops by to perform a new set of variations on the iconic song "Suzanne." |
|
From Hyperpianos To Harmonious Handel: New Classical Albums NPR Music's Tom Huizenga and host Guy Raz spin an eclectic mix of new classical releases. |
|
Around The Classical Internet: February 10, 2012 Meryl Streep talks about her operatic past, an opera debuts and a cruise goes nowhere: all the classical music news that's fit to link. |
|
Who Says Classical Music Can't Be Sexy? Just in time for Valentine's Day, classics that depict a lot more than just cuddling. |
|
Henry Purcell, Nick Drake And Leonard Cohen: Songwriters On Equal Footing Odd bedfellows perhaps, but each is adept at creating claustrophobic spaces of melancholy. |
|
Where Are Your Musical Blind Spots?  Ever feel guilty about not appreciating music you know you should? |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: Musical Signposts Opera singers must obey the musical traffic signals, knowing an accelerando from a rallentando. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: Arias, Odds And Ends From recitative to cabaletta, we've got the skinny on what's sung when the singer stands alone. |
|
Musical Dim Sum: Five Chinese Composers In America Celebrate the year of the dragon with music by influential Chinese composers active in the U.S. |
|
Lang Lang's Chinese New Year At WQXR The superstar pianist and a Mongolian children's choir perform traditional songs for the Chinese New Year. |
|
New Video Series Features Songs From Strange Places Gil Shaham takes his fiddle to the Smithsonian and a hardware store hosts post-minimalist percussion. |
|
Jake Schepps' Expedition Quartet: Tiny Desk Concert Banjo master Schepps and friends create an intriguing goulash of Bartók, bluegrass and bebop. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: In the Basement With The Basses With opera's subterranean serenaders, it's important to know a basso buffo from a basso profondo. |
|
Around The Classical Internet: January 13, 2011 Newly discovered Brahms, a baritone's farewell and the iPhone that mauled Mahler: all the news that's fit to link. |
 A trip to Germany uncovers a master of comedy and a very special symphony. |
|
Janá?ek For Voices: The Choral Side Of An Unusual Composer A new album by Cappella Amsterdam uncovers rarely heard music by the quirky Czech master. |
|
Pianist Alexis Weissenberg Dies At 82 The dynamic pianist escaped the Nazis to build a brilliant career. |
|
Ring My Bells: The 2011 Deceptive Cadence Holiday Puzzler How well do you know your bells? Match the jingling music with the composer who wrote it. |
|
O Canada! A New Music Winner From The Kitchener Waterloo Symphony An Ontario orchestra shines in recent music by Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood and Richard Reed Parry. |
|
Talk Like An Opera Geek: Breaking Down Baritones Hear what happens when the natural male speaking voice turns to song in this baritone bonanza. |
