A Minute with Miles
Posted weekdays at 5:30 a.m.
Illuminating 60-second flights through the world of classical music with host and longtime NPR commentator Miles Hoffman. Produced by South Carolina Public Radio.
Latest Episodes
-
Claude Debussy often performed his own works, but he tended to get nervous, and he didn’t enjoy playing in public. And yet by all accounts Debussy was a wonderful pianist, especially noted for his remarkable “touch” at the keyboard.
-
What I somehow hear in Mozart, whether in his operas or his instrumental works, is a kind of fundamental optimism.
-
After Beethoven, all composers were seen and evaluated in Beethoven’s light, or rather in his enormous shadow.
-
In 1838, ten years after the death of Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann traveled to Vienna, and while he was there he paid a visit to the graves of Schubert and Beethoven. On a whim, Schumann decided to call on Schubert’s brother, Ferdinand, who was living in Vienna, and this turned out to be perhaps the most fortuitous social call in the history of music.
-
A scientist I know was talking about great works of literature the other day, and she said that what characterized them was the “density of brilliance.” What a wonderful phrase. And how perfect, too, for great works of music.
-
Claude Debussy was a great composer, but like many other famous composers, he was also a wonderful writer.