Michael Thallium

Let’s be clear! Cristina Gómez Godoy is not a friend of mine. In fact, we have met and spoken just once after a recital at Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Spain, when she played along with cellist Pablo Ferrández and pianist Juan Floristán (see El mago, el cisne y la encantadora del viento) back in [...]

“Awards are wonderful. One loves to get them, but the most important thing is I hope that my legacy will be to have written music that will mean a great deal to people. And also, since I’ve bee a teacher for so long, I’ve been blessed with the most talented students imaginable. I’ve [...]

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Español.

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

1685 is quite a significant year for me. It was the year Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born —it’s somehow funny: presently we tend to say “Johann Sebastian” but in his lifetime, Bach was called “Sebastian” or “Sebi”, not “Johann” at all—. When I was little, I wanted to become [...]

“The sad thing is that I have to leave with so much to say.” – Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

It was the morning of September 26 of 1945. World War II had finished just four months before with a benevolent balance of 50 million people killed. Grape sugar was the only food that [...]

“It is a mystery to me what strange, secret codes enable a man, dead for centuries, to communicate with absolute clarity his most profound life experiences to successive generations. I suppose that therein, ultimately, lies the greatness of Art.” Raúl Mallavibarrena (Oviedo, Spain, 1970)

The Empress Maria of Austria, the eldest daughter [...]

Johann Sebastian Bach

In Western concert music history they usually speak of the Three B’s: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Originally, these famous three b’s were coined by the German composer and writer Peter Cornelius (1824-1874) in 1854, but instead of Brahms, Cornelius had placed the French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) on the list. [...]

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“I cannot express the joy that I feel when I begin to write chamber music -the joy with which I lead the four voices… One feels at home in a quartet, intimate, happy.
Outside it is raining and night is falling, but the four voices pay no attention; they are independent, free -they do [...]