Mark Schuster

We've previously taken a look at the Piano Quartet No. 1 by the talented Mel Bonis. This week, we look at her Piano Quartet No. 2, Op. 124, a later work from 1927. The second Piano Quartet is dedicated to her classmate at the Paris Conservatoire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQDZFUsGPIA Rudersdal Chamber Players perform Mel Bonis' Piano Quartet No. 2 The first movement opens...

Charles-Marie Widor was a powerhouse writer for the organ, writing many symphonies for organ alone that took advantage of the varied voices to give a full symphonic form. It was in 1880, however, that he was approached by the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom to create a work for Organ & Orchestra. Out of that request came...

Tom Turpin (1871-1922) was a composer, saloon-owner, and powerful man in the black community of St. Louis at the turn of the century - even earning the nickname "Father of St. Louis Ragtime." Famously, his piano had to be raised on cement blocks for him to play as he was exceptionally tall and rotund, making his stomach an obstacle to...

William Yeates Hurlestone (1876-1906) was a student of Charles Villiers Stanford, who considered him his finest student - above such luminaries as Vaughan Williams and Holst, who also studied with Stanford. Hurlestone's talent was seen at an early age - his earliest compositions were published at the age of nine! Unfortunately, he suffered from bronchial asthma, ending his first musical...

Composer Riccardo Drigo (1846-1930) was an Italian composer and conductor who spent much of his career working in the opera and ballet theaters of St. Petersburg, though his career began and ended in Padua, Italy in the Veneto region. It is that region that inspires his beautiful work for viola (or cello) & piano (or organ) Serenatina Veneziana all'Antica. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYjiJamc78s...

Felix Arndt (1889-1918) was an unfortunately short lived American pianist and composer who was most known for his many popular songs and the rag Nola, but also dabbled in some light-hearted variations on classical music. This week we look at his An Operatic Nightmare. Arndt was the child of immigrants, though few immigrants of the time could claim Napolean III...

British composer Maria Hester Park (née Reynolds) was a classical era performer and composer of some renowned, a rarity for the time. Ms. Park performed a number of well received recitals as a pianist before her marriage, at which time she retreated to a life of teaching and composition. We're fortunate to have a number of her works that have...

Thanks to one of our loyal customers, we've discovered the works of Leonhard von Call (also known as Leonhard de Call). A talented guitar and mandolin player, Call became known for his works written for his student ensembles. Today we look at one of those for the unique combination of Flute, Viola, & Guitar, the Sérénade, Op. 66. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k83cB6DGifA Call...

Giselle Galos, a French composer whom we know little of, is someone we've covered works of before on Obscure Music Mondays, but today we look at her La Baie des Anges, a beautiful work for solo piano. Galos, sometimes listed as Galas, was a mysterious figure who little is known about. Her works were generally published as C. Galos, with...

Théodore Akimenko (also known as Feodor, Fedir, and Fyodor) has been featured long ago on Obscure Music Mondays, but we're visiting another work of his, this time the Idylle for Flute & Piano, Op. 14. Akimenko was born in Ukraine, near the currently troubled city of Kharkiv, before studying in St. Petersburg, relocating to Paris, teaching in Prague, and returning...