by Peter Cates Frances Alda Born in New Zealand, soprano Frances Alda (1879-1952) became a big star at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC, recorded a batch of Victor acoustic discs including duets with Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) and was married to Met manager Gatti-Casazza for several years. A two sided , ten inch Victrola (527) features […]
by Peter Cates Years without a first lady Christine Sadler’s delightfully gossipy, but well-researched 1963 book America’s First Ladies tells us the following about the years of Thomas Jefferson’s occupation of the White House: “Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and the country, too, apparently, rocked along quite well without a First Lady for the eight years beginning […]
by Peter Cates Prague Spring Festival Since 1946, the Prague Spring Festival has been a renowned annual gathering of top notch classical artists in the Czech Republic. The Andante label released a nicely packaged set of four CDs and a hardcover book consisting of broadcasts from 1947 to 1968 featuring 11 great conductors with the […]
by Peter Cates First Lady Abigail Smith Adams Former First Lady Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818) fearlessly felt little concern about the opinions of others and was a true Massachusetts Puritan at heart. Her father William Smith (1707-1783) was a Congregationalist minister in the Boston suburb of Weymouth and a man of importance there as was […]
by Peter Cates Peter Falk Peter Falk will always be best-remembered as the cigar burning homicide detective Lt. Columbo and rightfully so. His characterization of a man whose persona was that of a socially awkward bungler who was so easily distracted by the most insipidly trivial, useless pieces of information and yet would fool murderers […]
by Peter Cates Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan’s 114th birthday anniversary is April 5. He may have been arguably the most powerful conductor to emerge in the entire world of classical music after World War II, around 1947, following de-Nazification proceedings (in order to work during the Hitler years, he had to join the […]
by Peter Cates Back during the last century old days of my adolescent youth, I was quite enamored by the Mercury dollar cut out LPs of the Chad Mitchell Trio that I bought at downtown Waterville Center’s Department Store. The group’s brand of folk music making thrilled me- their singing of such classics as You […]
by Peter Cates Lorin Maazel Conductor/violinist Lorin Maazel (1930-2015) was a child prodigy and at 9 years of age guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic at the 1939 World’s Fair at the invitation of Leopold Stokowski. Maazel had a reputation for being a little supercilious prig; when he inquired at a rehearsal, “What are we playing […]
by Peter Cates Something’s Gotta Give Something’s Gotta Give was a mildly pleasant 2003 comedy via which Diane Keaton, Frances McDormand, and Amanda Peet stole the show from the obnoxiously overrated Jack Nicholson and the pallid Keanu Reeves. Credit is also due for the fine acting of Paul Michael Glaser as Keaton’s ex-husband and Rachel […]
by Peter Cates Mahler Symphony The Mahler Symphony I would pick for beginners is the First, composed in 1888 when he was 28 years old. It has melodic appeal, it evokes the sounds of the natural world with coloristic sonorities from the woodwinds and double basses to heighten brooding, spooky tension and finally it utilizes […]