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Music And Mayhem: A Diary Of Classical Albums For A Troubled 2020

The dance of death, an ancient image that inspired Thomas Adès to compose his Totentanz. Wikimedia Commons hide caption

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Wikimedia Commons

Music And Mayhem: A Diary Of Classical Albums For A Troubled 2020

December 21, 2020 • NPR Music's classical editor traces the high points of a year spent listening to new albums that offered comfort and confrontation in counterpoint with the relentless world outside the headphones.

Beethoven's Life, Liberty And Pursuit Of Enlightenment

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Beethoven's Life, Liberty And Pursuit Of Enlightenment

December 17, 2020 • Growing up in a progressive city, Ludwig van Beethoven embraced the ideals of the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement that shook Europe and helped shape the composer's music.

Beethoven's Life, Liberty And Pursuit Of Enlightenment

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Celebrate Beethoven's Birthday With A Tiny Desk By Jan Vogler And Alessio Bax

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Celebrate Beethoven's Birthday With A Tiny Desk By Jan Vogler And Alessio Bax

December 16, 2020 • Join cellist Jan Vogler and pianist Alessio Bax at the "doctor's office," where they make the case for Beethoven as the liberator of the cello by playing music from his cello sonatas.

Borromeo String Quartet Celebrate Beethoven's 250th Birthday With A Tiny Desk

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Borromeo String Quartet Celebrate Beethoven's 250th Birthday With A Tiny Desk

December 15, 2020 • Members of the celebrated Borromeo String Quartet – playing it safe with masks – unlock the sillier side of Beethoven in music he wrote late in life.

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Jonathan Biss: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

December 14, 2020 • To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, pianist Jonathan Biss explores the solitary side of the composer in extraordinary music written after Beethoven became deaf.

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Julia Bullock: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

December 1, 2020 • From her home in Germany, the provocative American soprano delivers songs of introspection and freedom from Franz Schubert's mountaintop epiphany to Billy Taylor's wish for equality and justice.

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Copland House: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

November 13, 2020 • A trio of musicians gather at Aaron Copland's longtime home. Watch them play the iconic American composer's music at his own piano and beside his own writing desk.

The Unforgettable Jessye Norman, One Year Later

It's been one year since the death of the great soprano Jessye Norman, photographed here in 2006 in Germany. Sean Gallup/Getty Images hide caption

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The Unforgettable Jessye Norman, One Year Later

September 30, 2020 • The celebrated soprano died suddenly a year ago, leaving her fans, including one NPR producer, in grief, but with many fond memories.

Sarah Kirkland Snider's Mass, Rebooted For The 21st Century

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider's Mass for the Endangered is a prayer for the wildlife on our planet. Anja Schutz/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Sarah Kirkland Snider's Mass, Rebooted For The 21st Century

September 28, 2020 • When young composers explore old musical formulas, exciting things can happen. Mass for the Endangered is a contemporary twist on an ancient tradition.

Sarah Kirkland Snider's Mass, Rebooted For The 21st Century

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The Tiny Desk Guide To Rare And Amazing Instruments

So Percussion performs a Tiny Desk Concert at the NPR Music offices on Jan. 31, 2012. Emily Bogle/NPR hide caption

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The Tiny Desk Guide To Rare And Amazing Instruments

August 21, 2020 • From your garden variety barrel cactus and the single-stringed đàn bầu to the slithering sound of the theremin, watch these singular instruments (and more) make music like you've never heard before.

Víkingur Ólafsson: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

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Víkingur Ólafsson: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

August 12, 2020 • Watch the rising young pianist, in a final performance from his Berlin home, make the case for two seemingly disparate French composers born nearly 200 years apart.

The Met Opera's Live Streaming Series Sticks To Old Trappings

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann, with pianist Helmut Deutsch, in recital at a Baroque abbey in Bavaria. The performance was part of the Metropolitan Opera's new live streaming series. Metropolitan Opera hide caption

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Metropolitan Opera

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Deceptive Cadence

The Met Opera's Live Streaming Series Sticks To Old Trappings

August 4, 2020 • While a valiant endeavor, the Metropolitan Opera's new series of steaming concerts can't seem to shake off opera's fusty, aristocratic traditions.

Leon Fleisher, The Pianist Who Reinvented Himself, Dies At 92

Pianist Leon Fleisher eventually resumed playing with both hands after an injury sidelined him at age 36. Chris Hartlove/Provided by the artist hide caption

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Chris Hartlove/Provided by the artist

Deceptive Cadence

Leon Fleisher, The Pianist Who Reinvented Himself, Dies At 92

August 2, 2020 • The beloved pianist was a young lion of his generation until a hand injury forced him to rethink his relationship to music.

Leon Fleisher, The Pianist Who Reinvented Himself, Dies At 92

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Someone Finally Remembered William Dawson's 'Negro Folk Symphony'

A drawing of composer William Dawson in 1935 by Aaron Douglas. Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, long neglected, has received a new recording. Aaron Douglas/Tuskegee University Archives hide caption

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Aaron Douglas/Tuskegee University Archives

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Deceptive Cadence

Someone Finally Remembered William Dawson's 'Negro Folk Symphony'

June 26, 2020 • Broadcast nationwide in 1934 and praised by listeners and critics alike, a masterful symphony soon fell silent. A new recording hopes to help revive an American treasure.

Someone Finally Remembered William Dawson's 'Negro Folk Symphony'

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Clarinetist Anthony McGill Kneels, Pleads And Plays For Justice

New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Anthony McGill coined the hashtag #TakeTwoKnees as part of a social media effort to protest police violence. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

Clarinetist Anthony McGill Kneels, Pleads And Plays For Justice

June 4, 2020 • With the help of a few "wrong" notes, the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic turned "America the Beautiful" into a solemn protest of police violence.