Anthony Princiotti
@tonyprinciotti.bsky.social
Conductor, Violinist, Teacher; Longtime Producer of Digital Engagement Materials for @BostonSymphony. Juilliard/Yale grad.
E-mail: [email protected]
Newsletter: http://therefuge.substack.com (editions weekly)
E-mail: [email protected]
Newsletter: http://therefuge.substack.com (editions weekly)
Pinned
This Week: A Final, Abbreviated Edition of "The Refuge":
Including:
A Word on Future Plans
Some Housekeeping
A Clip from an Upcoming Project
The newsletter's archives - which include more than 400 individual pieces - are now free and open to all.
therefuge.substack.com
Including:
A Word on Future Plans
Some Housekeeping
A Clip from an Upcoming Project
The newsletter's archives - which include more than 400 individual pieces - are now free and open to all.
therefuge.substack.com
This Week: A Final, Abbreviated Edition of "The Refuge":
Including:
A Word on Future Plans
Some Housekeeping
A Clip from an Upcoming Project
The newsletter's archives - which include more than 400 individual pieces - are now free and open to all.
therefuge.substack.com
Including:
A Word on Future Plans
Some Housekeeping
A Clip from an Upcoming Project
The newsletter's archives - which include more than 400 individual pieces - are now free and open to all.
therefuge.substack.com
May 31, 2026 at 5:02 PM
This Week: A Final, Abbreviated Edition of "The Refuge":
Including:
A Word on Future Plans
Some Housekeeping
A Clip from an Upcoming Project
The newsletter's archives - which include more than 400 individual pieces - are now free and open to all.
therefuge.substack.com
Including:
A Word on Future Plans
Some Housekeeping
A Clip from an Upcoming Project
The newsletter's archives - which include more than 400 individual pieces - are now free and open to all.
therefuge.substack.com
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
A Memorial Weekend Edition, Featuring:
Elgar's Elegy for a Fading Empire
Puccini Confronts Vienna
An Odd Fit
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A Memorial Weekend Edition, Featuring:
Elgar's Elegy for a Fading Empire
Puccini Confronts Vienna
An Odd Fit
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
May 24, 2026 at 6:18 AM
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
A Memorial Weekend Edition, Featuring:
Elgar's Elegy for a Fading Empire
Puccini Confronts Vienna
An Odd Fit
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A Memorial Weekend Edition, Featuring:
Elgar's Elegy for a Fading Empire
Puccini Confronts Vienna
An Odd Fit
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
A View of an Italian Master in his Prime
A Sad Anniversary
Paganini Soaks the Brits
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A View of an Italian Master in his Prime
A Sad Anniversary
Paganini Soaks the Brits
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
May 17, 2026 at 4:48 AM
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
A View of an Italian Master in his Prime
A Sad Anniversary
Paganini Soaks the Brits
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A View of an Italian Master in his Prime
A Sad Anniversary
Paganini Soaks the Brits
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
Haydn, Unbound
The Many Maladies of Musicians
A Predictable Ending
J.C. Bach, Skeptic
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
Haydn, Unbound
The Many Maladies of Musicians
A Predictable Ending
J.C. Bach, Skeptic
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
May 3, 2026 at 5:39 PM
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
Haydn, Unbound
The Many Maladies of Musicians
A Predictable Ending
J.C. Bach, Skeptic
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
Haydn, Unbound
The Many Maladies of Musicians
A Predictable Ending
J.C. Bach, Skeptic
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
A Handy Analogy
Commentary; On Classical Music and Snobbery
An Unlikely Hoofer
Rare Bird
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A Handy Analogy
Commentary; On Classical Music and Snobbery
An Unlikely Hoofer
Rare Bird
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
April 25, 2026 at 11:20 AM
In This Week's Edition of "The Refuge":
A Handy Analogy
Commentary; On Classical Music and Snobbery
An Unlikely Hoofer
Rare Bird
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A Handy Analogy
Commentary; On Classical Music and Snobbery
An Unlikely Hoofer
Rare Bird
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
In This Week's Banner Edition of "The Refuge":
AN ALL MAHLER EDITION!
A Rare Portrait
Coming of Age
The Plague of Interpretive Profunditis
Beethoven's Revenge
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
AN ALL MAHLER EDITION!
A Rare Portrait
Coming of Age
The Plague of Interpretive Profunditis
Beethoven's Revenge
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
April 11, 2026 at 3:04 AM
In This Week's Banner Edition of "The Refuge":
AN ALL MAHLER EDITION!
A Rare Portrait
Coming of Age
The Plague of Interpretive Profunditis
Beethoven's Revenge
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
AN ALL MAHLER EDITION!
A Rare Portrait
Coming of Age
The Plague of Interpretive Profunditis
Beethoven's Revenge
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
In This Week's Chock-Full Edition of "The Refuge": Brahms' Favorite Bar A Commentary on American Culture and Classical Music Bach and the Wonders of 18th Century Medicine A Severe Test of Patience therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
Please Share and Subscribe!
March 30, 2026 at 12:25 AM
In This Week's Chock-Full Edition of "The Refuge": Brahms' Favorite Bar A Commentary on American Culture and Classical Music Bach and the Wonders of 18th Century Medicine A Severe Test of Patience therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
Please Share and Subscribe!
"Music is a science which should have definite rules; these rules should be drawn from an evident principle; and this principle cannot really be known to us without the aid of mathematics."
- Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
- Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
March 22, 2026 at 2:57 AM
"Music is a science which should have definite rules; these rules should be drawn from an evident principle; and this principle cannot really be known to us without the aid of mathematics."
- Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
- Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
George Gershwin, wondering why the hell you're interrupting him while he's trying to orchestrate "Porgy and Bess."
March 22, 2026 at 2:56 AM
George Gershwin, wondering why the hell you're interrupting him while he's trying to orchestrate "Porgy and Bess."
Shostakovich's 1st Symphony was the opening work on the New York Philharmonic program on Sunday, Dec. 7th, 1941, when Japan attacked the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Here's a snippet from the CBS Radio Network Broadcast of the concert:
March 22, 2026 at 2:55 AM
Shostakovich's 1st Symphony was the opening work on the New York Philharmonic program on Sunday, Dec. 7th, 1941, when Japan attacked the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Here's a snippet from the CBS Radio Network Broadcast of the concert:
A feature of American music during the Civil War era was the "monster concert". They were popularized by the virtuoso Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who'd cram 10 or more pianos and a couple of dozen pianists onstage to pound out transcriptions of orchestral classics and popular tunes.
March 22, 2026 at 2:53 AM
A feature of American music during the Civil War era was the "monster concert". They were popularized by the virtuoso Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who'd cram 10 or more pianos and a couple of dozen pianists onstage to pound out transcriptions of orchestral classics and popular tunes.
187 years ago yesterday and more than a decade after the composer's death, Mendelssohn led the premiere of Schubert's 9th Symphony. The work had been in the library of the Vienna Society for the Friends of Music; which had rejected it as too long and difficult to perform.
March 22, 2026 at 2:52 AM
187 years ago yesterday and more than a decade after the composer's death, Mendelssohn led the premiere of Schubert's 9th Symphony. The work had been in the library of the Vienna Society for the Friends of Music; which had rejected it as too long and difficult to perform.
In This Week's Jam-Packed Edition of "The Refuge":
A Portrait of the Father of Russian Classical Music
Bartok's Triumph
Glenn Gould: More than a Provocateur
Somnambulism in Orchestral Leadership
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A Portrait of the Father of Russian Classical Music
Bartok's Triumph
Glenn Gould: More than a Provocateur
Somnambulism in Orchestral Leadership
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
March 22, 2026 at 2:42 AM
In This Week's Jam-Packed Edition of "The Refuge":
A Portrait of the Father of Russian Classical Music
Bartok's Triumph
Glenn Gould: More than a Provocateur
Somnambulism in Orchestral Leadership
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
A Portrait of the Father of Russian Classical Music
Bartok's Triumph
Glenn Gould: More than a Provocateur
Somnambulism in Orchestral Leadership
therefuge.substack.com
Please Share and Subscribe!
"German symphonic development is just like German philosophy and soup; it's all systematized. Germans reason their way to a conclusion. We Russians start with a conclusion and then, perhaps, amuse ourselves with some reasoning."
- Modest Mussorgsky
- Modest Mussorgsky
March 20, 2026 at 3:11 AM
"German symphonic development is just like German philosophy and soup; it's all systematized. Germans reason their way to a conclusion. We Russians start with a conclusion and then, perhaps, amuse ourselves with some reasoning."
- Modest Mussorgsky
- Modest Mussorgsky
Beethoven once tried making dinner for friends. The results:
"The soup recalled leavings given to beggars; the beef was half-done and could only gratify an ostrich; the vegetables floated in water and grease; the roast seemed to have been smoked in the chimney…barely edible.”
"The soup recalled leavings given to beggars; the beef was half-done and could only gratify an ostrich; the vegetables floated in water and grease; the roast seemed to have been smoked in the chimney…barely edible.”
March 20, 2026 at 3:10 AM
Beethoven once tried making dinner for friends. The results:
"The soup recalled leavings given to beggars; the beef was half-done and could only gratify an ostrich; the vegetables floated in water and grease; the roast seemed to have been smoked in the chimney…barely edible.”
"The soup recalled leavings given to beggars; the beef was half-done and could only gratify an ostrich; the vegetables floated in water and grease; the roast seemed to have been smoked in the chimney…barely edible.”
Wagner - a committed socialist - had a fetish about wearing luxurious clothing; one tailor described receiving an order from him that was "a riot of velvet, silk and satin." This sort of indulgence - which he claimed was essential to his artistic inspiration - also included the use of perfumes.
March 20, 2026 at 3:09 AM
Wagner - a committed socialist - had a fetish about wearing luxurious clothing; one tailor described receiving an order from him that was "a riot of velvet, silk and satin." This sort of indulgence - which he claimed was essential to his artistic inspiration - also included the use of perfumes.
96 years ago today, Bela Bartok's 4th String Quartet No. 4 was premiered in Budapest. Laid out in a 5-movement arch form (A-B-C-B-A) created by shared materials, movement lengths and character, the work's aesthetic rigor is typical of the composer's middle creative period.
March 20, 2026 at 3:01 AM
96 years ago today, Bela Bartok's 4th String Quartet No. 4 was premiered in Budapest. Laid out in a 5-movement arch form (A-B-C-B-A) created by shared materials, movement lengths and character, the work's aesthetic rigor is typical of the composer's middle creative period.
"Finally, a fortissimo!"
- Gustav Mahler, upon seeing Niagara Falls
- Gustav Mahler, upon seeing Niagara Falls
March 19, 2026 at 4:33 AM
"Finally, a fortissimo!"
- Gustav Mahler, upon seeing Niagara Falls
- Gustav Mahler, upon seeing Niagara Falls
The Finale of Dvorak's Cello Concerto is primarily a vigorous Rondo. Yet as it hurtles towards a triumphant conclusion, the vigor suddenly evaporates, and an Elegy commences. Why?
While writing the movement's Coda, he found out that a past love - his wife's SISTER - had died.
While writing the movement's Coda, he found out that a past love - his wife's SISTER - had died.
March 19, 2026 at 4:32 AM
The Finale of Dvorak's Cello Concerto is primarily a vigorous Rondo. Yet as it hurtles towards a triumphant conclusion, the vigor suddenly evaporates, and an Elegy commences. Why?
While writing the movement's Coda, he found out that a past love - his wife's SISTER - had died.
While writing the movement's Coda, he found out that a past love - his wife's SISTER - had died.
On this date in 1894, Dvorak's wonderfully eloquent Cello Concerto was premiered in London. Brahms considered the work a stunning creative achievement, saying "If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!"
March 19, 2026 at 4:30 AM
On this date in 1894, Dvorak's wonderfully eloquent Cello Concerto was premiered in London. Brahms considered the work a stunning creative achievement, saying "If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!"
"Music can have the power to produce a certain healthy effect on the moral character of the soul. And because of this, the young must be directed to music and educated in it.”
- Aristotle, "Politics"
- Aristotle, "Politics"
March 18, 2026 at 3:24 AM
"Music can have the power to produce a certain healthy effect on the moral character of the soul. And because of this, the young must be directed to music and educated in it.”
- Aristotle, "Politics"
- Aristotle, "Politics"
Johannes Brahms, wondering if you're going to be eating that last piece of chicken.
March 18, 2026 at 3:17 AM
Johannes Brahms, wondering if you're going to be eating that last piece of chicken.
The Well Temperament Bach employed in the WTC isn't the same as Equal Temperament (the standard since ca. 1800), in which the octave is divided into 12 equal half-steps. WT is actually a variety of temperaments in which some keys are more in tune than others, but all can be used.
March 18, 2026 at 3:16 AM
The Well Temperament Bach employed in the WTC isn't the same as Equal Temperament (the standard since ca. 1800), in which the octave is divided into 12 equal half-steps. WT is actually a variety of temperaments in which some keys are more in tune than others, but all can be used.
Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" is a collection of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major/minor keys. The term "Tempered" refers to how the keyboard should be tuned; fixed-pitch instruments can't be tuned without some of the note-relationships - intervals - being impure.
March 18, 2026 at 3:15 AM
Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" is a collection of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major/minor keys. The term "Tempered" refers to how the keyboard should be tuned; fixed-pitch instruments can't be tuned without some of the note-relationships - intervals - being impure.
"The Mighty Handful" - Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov - embraced the idea of basing their work on Russian folk materials while rejecting conservatory training as "Europeanizing". It was a view Rimsky eventually spurned as limiting.
March 18, 2026 at 3:14 AM
"The Mighty Handful" - Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov - embraced the idea of basing their work on Russian folk materials while rejecting conservatory training as "Europeanizing". It was a view Rimsky eventually spurned as limiting.