The Classical Girl

Clara Wieck, the “other” Schumann

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The only reason I chanced upon Clara Schumann’s compositions was a recent YouTube playlist suggestion, which sent my thoughts in two directions. First, I thought, “Shouldn’t I have heard her music live in my twenty-plus years as a San Francisco Symphony subscriber? What’s up with that? Why do her works continue to be unappreciated and … Read more

Fun with poison oak!

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I know what you’re thinking. “It’s winter. It’s the dead of winter. We’re in the grips of the coldest of cold winter this week, and The Classical Girl is talking about … poison oak? She’s in the Northern Hemisphere, right?” Turns out poison oak is a thing, any time of the year. Even in long-dead … Read more

It’s Nutcracker time in San Francisco

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There is this moment In Helgi Tomasson’s Nutcracker where the party host, Dr. Stahlbaum, connects two electrical cords and the Christmas tree in the family’s San Francisco living room lights up. Everyone oohs and aahs because in-house electricity was a new-fangled thing in 1915, the year in which the production is set. The irony is … Read more

Simple Gifts, Simple Gratitude

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  You might notice more white space on this blog. Less words.   That’s on purpose.   Space feels great. It’s a hard commodity to come by as we approach the holidays and the end of the year. Everything gets squeezed in, condensed. More food than usual. More family time than usual (leading, admittedly, to … Read more

Rediscovering Tchaikovsky’s sublime Symphony No. 5

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I was thrown back in time recently, through music, while attending the San Francisco Symphony. The piece in question was a perennial crowd-pleasing warhorse, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Now, if you’re thinking, “been there, done that,” yeah, so was I. I’d chosen the concert not for the Tchaikovsky but for the opening work, Grieg’s Piano … Read more