Emily E Hogstad
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song-of-lark.bsky.social
Emily E Hogstad
@song-of-lark.bsky.social
1.7K followers 220 following 2.5K posts
Professional amateur classical music writer - lapsed violinist, violist - MN/WI-based - queer Episcopal girl interested in the history of the girls & gays in classical music - www.songofthelarkblog.com - <3
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song-of-lark.bsky.social
Meme of man tipping over small dominoes that fall into a big domino. Small domino is labeled "Liszt and Marie d'Agoult have a nasty breakup that scars Cosima forever" and big domino is labeled "Wagner becomes Nazi soundtrack"
December 1, 2025 at 6:58 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
"Have I not already requested you to stop reminding me in any way of my theatrical declarations and the women to whom I may have made them? In case you have forgotten I ask you again." 😭 (he was 22)

[Also Parisians were shipping him with George Sand]
She reproached him for his past affairs, in which he had sworn eternal love to Caroline and Euphémie. To make matters worse, she learned from friends that there had also been an affair between Franz and Adèle de La Prunarède, a woman fifteen years older than he, with whom he had spent some months in the Alps! In addition there was talk about a Charlotte, a Maria, and a Hortense! In her wounded pride Marie sent sarcastic letters asking for an explanation of these past episodes. This was a new and bitter experience in her emotional life. She reflected that Liszt might be an unreliable lover and recalled all the rumors which had been repeated in her presence. Liszt's reply to questions about his past was an angry riposte of a type she had never experienced: "Have I not already requested you to stop reminding me in any way of my theatrical declarations and the women to whom I may have made them? In case you have forgotten I ask you again."
December 1, 2025 at 5:51 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
TIL Franz Liszt accidentally sent Marie d'Agoult love letters he'd written to another woman in a box of music lmao

from www.google.com/books/editio...
The following months were filled with the intense and stormy emotions which were to punctuate their future years together. On days when he was full of self-belief, Liszt was buoyant with the joys of love and musical creativity. At other times he expressed feelings of failure and solitude and begged her for more frequent replies to his messages. They had their first quarrel when she found old love letters he had written to Euphémie Didier, a former pupil. The young woman had returned the missives, which he had carelessly left in the bottom of a box in which he had sent Marie some music.
December 1, 2025 at 5:44 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
From 2004: "Trustee salaries comprise about half of the Endowment’s total operating and administrative expenses."

www.sacurrent.com/arts/putting...

Which circles back to your point, that if these kinds of folks are the backbone of your community, idk what positive outcomes we can reasonably expect
While the grants to the Tobin Foundation are mandated by trust documents, trustees' salaries have been questioned here and elsewhere. The Boston Globe ran an article in December asserting that Bugg and Denman's annual compensation, $295,580 each, is excessive. James R. Dublin, a spokesman for Bugg and Denman quoted in the article, argues that fees are based on Frost National Bank's trustee fee schedule, per Tobin's wishes. Frost's fee schedule provides for a fee of .5 percent on an estate with assets over $5 million. Bugg and Denman each take the full .5 percent, effectively charging the estate twice what Frost would for the same service. Bugg has explained that he saves the estate money by handling its investments himself, and both claim to put in a full 40 hours per week in the service of the Endowment. But some local non-profits have pointed out that those 40-hour weeks apparently don't include time to meet with them on pending grant applications. In at least two cases, local theater organizations say they have waited for more than a year to meet with the trustees or receive a response to an application.
November 28, 2025 at 11:20 PM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Somehow found myself on the Simple English Wikipedia entry for Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, and more program notes should be like this tbh
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky) Talk From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tchaikovsky's Piano concerto No. 1 is a piece of music. Tchaikovsky wrote it in 1874 when he was 34 years old. The first musician to play it, Nikolay Rubinstein, did not like it. The second, Hans von Bülow, did like it.
November 27, 2025 at 8:15 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
This is a major passage about it from Nancy B. Reich's 1983 Clara Schumann book. So Clara was doing it around 1837, like you say. And as best I understand it, Franz started doing it around 1839, but only became a sensation in 1841 with Lisztomania taking hold in the public consciousness
In her late forties, as family problems and physical ailments multiplied, she became very anxious about performing and fearful of forgetting the music. Clara Wieck had been one of the first pianists to play from memory. When she played in Berlin in 1837, Bettina von Arnim is reputed to have remarked, "How pretentiously she seats herself at the piano, and without notes, too. How modest, on the other hand, is Doehler, who placed the music in front of him." Under Wieck's thorough tutelage, Clara had learned to memorize as a child, and she never found it a problem. Reviewers commented on this feat when she was... only thirteen, an indication of how exceptional this practice was. But with age and heavy responsibilities she found playing from memory increasingly difficult.11 In 1871 she wrote to Brahms from London: God knows how I can begin to control the anxiety that is attacking me .... Though I am often so nervous from one piece to the next, I cannot make the decision to play from the music; it always seems to me that it is almost as though my wings were clipped-and yet they still retain some buoyancy-more for art than for life, which never ceases to bring me new trials. She played without music as long as possible, despite the anxiety that assailed her as she mounted the platform.
November 25, 2025 at 12:38 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
I found my new favorite quote about Chopin and George Sand last night. From biographer Frederick Niecks:

"He is so lady-like, and she is such a perfect gentleman."

from www.google.com/books/editio...
Screenshot: Alfred de Musset's experience had been of a similar nature. George Sand did not particularly please him at first, but a few visits which he paid her sufficed to inflame his heart with a violent passion. The liaisons of the poet and musician with the novelist offer other points of resemblance besides the one just mentioned: both Musset and Chopin were younger than George Sand-the one six, the other five years; and both, notwithstanding the dissimilarity of their characters, occupied the position of a weaker half. In the case of Chopin I am reminded of a saying of Sydney Smith, who, in speaking of his friends the historian Grote and his wife, remarked: "I do like them both so much, for he is so lady-like, and she is such a perfect gentleman." Indeed, Chopin was described to me by his pupil Gutmann as feminine in looks, gestures, and taste; as to George Sand, although many may be unwilling to admit her perfect gentlemanliness, no one can doubt her manliness.
November 19, 2025 at 1:12 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Annnnd they've hired the yappy commentators meant for the casual normies and loaded the broadcast up with fucking pharmaceutical ads. We live in hell
man with his head in his hands
November 15, 2025 at 12:15 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Wikipedia winking and nodding so hard it's going to crack its neck 🌈

From an article on Danish composer Benna Moe en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benna_Moe
Text: Personal life Moe was unmarried and lived most of her adult life with her friend, a language teacher Karla Aagaard. Aagaard supported Moe in her travels. Moe's music has rarely been performed...
November 14, 2025 at 9:58 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Sorry if someone else posted this elsewhere in this conversation but this is just an excuse for me to post this entire paragraph www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/u...
Text: The staff soon learned more about their new major-domo. Mr. Grenell wanted to be addressed as "the ambassador." He fought publicly and often with hecklers in the comment section of the Kennedy Center's Instagram account. ("You sound vaccinated," he replied to one person who compared him to the Nazis from "The Sound of Music.") He hung huge pictures of himself with Mr. Trump in his theater box. He ordered the National Symphony Orchestra to perform the national anthem before every show it played.
November 9, 2025 at 7:28 PM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
This listing says $44 apiece base price for an April 2002 show. Contemporary article says student rushes were "around $10."

A person could keep digging like in the NYT archives but it might be easier just to email the NYP Archive

i.ebayimg.com/images/g/T9g...

themorningnews.org/new-york-stu...
October 25, 2025 at 12:17 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Youtube comment: "Chopin's kid would be named Grocery"
October 20, 2025 at 10:56 PM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
watching the Chopin Competition result livestream mainly for the chat
comment from a Youtube livestream: "I'll never tire of Chopin's music but I am getting tired of pianists"
October 20, 2025 at 10:54 PM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
dead-eyed man staring at the camera
October 14, 2025 at 6:28 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Another wild thing about the Ernestine situation is that once he found out she wasn't going to inherit a lot of money, like he'd assumed, he went meh on her. He kissed Clara before breaking up with Ernestine! And E really struggled afterward. He was messy AF
In February 1838, he tried explaining the situation to Clara: It was in the winter of 1834 ... When ... I began to think about how it could end, when I found out about her poverty and, no matter how hard-working I was, I only achieved a little of myself, it began to weigh on me like shackles - I saw no goal, no help - I also heard about the unfortunate family complications in which Ernestine found herself, and I resented her for keeping it secret from me for so long. All this taken together - damn me - I must confess, I grew colder; my artistic career seemed crazy to me; the image to which I clung for salvation now haunted me in my dreams like a ghost; I should now work like a craftsman for my daily bread; Ernestine couldn't earn anything; I talked to my mother about it, and we agreed.
October 14, 2025 at 6:28 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Not sure what she all composed but this is from the Walker Chopin biography
"family-went to live in Dresden. As early as 1834 the Wodzińskis issued an invitation for Chopin to visit them in Switzerland, but he was unable to accept. He did, however, send Maria a copy of his newly published Waltz in E-flat major, op. 18, inscribed with the words: "Hommage à Mlle M. W. de la part de son ancien professeur F. F. Chopin. 18 jui. 1834."2 Maria had meanwhile sent Chopin a set of variations of her own, evidence not only of her growing ability as a musician, but also of the regard in which she held her former teacher, who was now famous in the wider world of music."
October 8, 2025 at 3:27 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
“A troubled time, suspended over the unplumbed depths of democracy and of war. Luckily the smile of good old Bach, the tears of obstinate Beethoven, the sighs and cries of some others form a solid base onto which we hang on the dark ladder of circumstances.” - composer Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
B&W 1930s photograph of a bespectacled man's profile from the side. His young daughter is sitting on his lap with her arm around his neck. We can't see what they're looking at.
September 23, 2025 at 5:27 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Remembering prewar Chicago
Photo from street level on Michigan Avenue looking up at the Wrigley Building clock tower while Trump Tower Chicago looms in the background
September 6, 2025 at 10:30 PM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Full gift link context for all who want it here - www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/a...
The executive committee of the Met's board unanimously supported the agreement with Saudi Arabia, Mr. Gelb said. The board recently extended the contract of Mr. Gelb, whose tenure began in 2006, through 2030.
September 4, 2025 at 3:05 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Faith without Works Is Dead 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
August 28, 2025 at 6:35 PM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
from www.jstor.org/stable/1214014
Screenshot of interview: What led up to all of this-your becoming a jazz musician and forming your own orchestra? Well, I started out by playing classical music, and I fell in love with it. When I finally began to realize that because of discrimination I could not continue in it, that is what really put the fight in me, to fight for an organization like the Symphony of the New World. I should like for the children of today to have a choice. If they want classical, there's a place for them to go. If they want jazz, they can go into jazz. I must emphasize, however, that I enjoy jazz music as well as classical. You know, there have been many obstacles all along the way. Until about five years ago, I was aware of only two strikes against me-the fact that I was female and black. Only recently did I come to realize a third strike-I played a man's instrument, the bass fiddle.
August 23, 2025 at 1:12 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Is there discourse about bass player / arts administrator Lucille Dixon Robertson and her Symphony of the New World that I've missed over the years?

Seems like she should be much better known than she is

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille...

archives.nypl.org/scm/21161
B&W photograph of a woman's face and shoulders; her face is facing toward the camera but her eyes are looking to her left; her hair is dark and curly; she is wearing a dark blouse or sweater
August 23, 2025 at 1:09 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
The famous "hats off, gentlemen, a genius" Schumann quote about Chopin was written when they were both 21 lmao
"Hats off, gentlemen, a genius" [ edit ] Robert Schumann (who was born only 3 months after Chopin) first heard the Variations by the then-unknown Polish composer at a performance by Julius Knorr at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 27 October 1831. This famously caused him to declare, through the voice of his alter ego Eusebius, "Hats off, gentlemen, a genius", in the 7 December 1831 edition of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.[3][6 [a] He also practised the work himself for months "in a literally obsessive manner".[8] There is no record that Chopin thanked Schumann for his support at this important early stage of his career [9]
August 21, 2025 at 5:03 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
despairing man with his head in his hands
August 19, 2025 at 3:16 AM
song-of-lark.bsky.social
Truth Social currently running a pop-up ad advertising "Reclining Nude, Germany 1943" with a link to an art website that purports to sell works formerly owned by H*tler

germanartgallery.eu/artworks-pre...
Pop-up ad of a painting of a reclining nude woman with the headline Reclining Nude, Germany 1943. It's described at the bottom as "Featured Ad."
August 18, 2025 at 8:48 PM