Author: ethanlitwin

Life-long New Yorker. Graduate of Duke University and Georgetown Law. Solicitor of England and Wales. Recognized by Chambers & Partners, The Legal 500, Global Competition Review, Super Lawyers and others as one of the leading antitrust litigators in the United States. Former Chairman and current Board member of Gingold Theatrical Group. Former Young Patron Board member at the Met Opera.

Beethoven’s Symphonic Masterpiece

The work of a madman. Carl Maria von Weber We’ve already heard Beethoven's Third, Fifth and Sixth. The Ninth is still to come, but today's selection, his Seventh Symphony, is my personal favorite.  I’m not alone.  Berlioz declared it to be Beethoven’s “masterpiece.”  Wagner wrote rhapsodic essays about it.  And it was extremely popular with … Continue reading Beethoven’s Symphonic Masterpiece →

The Friday Symposium: A Cocktail for the End of Time

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire ... and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth .... … Continue reading The Friday Symposium: A Cocktail for the End of Time →

Under Siege: Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto

In 1809, Vienna was under siege by Napoleon and Beethoven, now more or less completely deaf, was hiding in his brother’s basement.  Terrified and feeling, perhaps more than others, the constant percussive effect of war, Beethoven produced one of his best compositions, the Emperor concerto.  It would prove to be his final statement on the … Continue reading Under Siege: Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto →

The Friday Symposium: Collapse the Light Into Earth

At some point in the 1980s or early 1990s, rock musicians began to abandon functional harmony--the idea of building music around a tonic chord or key. Kurt Cobain of the band Nirvana is a good example of this. Drawing on a wide range of inspirations, such as The Pixies and Sonic Youth, Niravana began charting … Continue reading The Friday Symposium: Collapse the Light Into Earth →

A Mass Made Operatic: Fidelio

When I look back across my entire life, I find no event to place beside this in the impression it produced on me. Richard Wagner, on Fidelio In 1950, one of the greatest conductors of all-time, Wilhelm Furtwängler led a production of Beethoven's lone operatic effort, Fidelio, in Mozart's hometown of Salzburg. And what a … Continue reading A Mass Made Operatic: Fidelio →