After the sublime Sanctus, the final Agnus Dei movement is bold and extraordinary, but not entirely successful. Many find the ending particularly abrupt and disappointing. But what glories there are in Beethoven’s fugal nod to Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and his military trumpets and timpani nodding to Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, not to forget the moving hymn that surfaces through all of these contrasts!

In a sense, the three preceding movements are all a setup to this sacred moment of the Sanctus and the miracle of the Eucharist. Considered one of Beethoven’s finest slow movements, the Sanctus features one of the most expressive violin solos in the repertoire. If you can hear it!...

After such an epic Gloria, we might expect a respite, a shorter and quieter movement. Instead, Beethoven’s Credo movement is even more complex, more massive than even the Gloria, with an even greater emotional arc.

The Gloria from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is an intoxicating feast of exultation and transcendence!

Dr. Raymond Borun passed away this February at age 107 and a half. He and his wife Ruth were the original and continuing donors to the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra and Ray was my close personal friend. He was a truly remarkable man and I would like to share a little about him…

Of course, all six Brandenburg Concertos are “favorites,” but as a teenager, for some reason, I particularly loved Brandenburg 4. It might not have the virtuoso trumpet of Brandenburg 2 or the incredible harpsichord cadenza of Brandenburg 5, but it has the most delicate and delightful combination of 2 flutes (or recorders) and solo violin…

Even during Beethoven’s own time, the Pathétique was all the rage. Piano students demanded to learn it, even as their teachers scoffed at for its modern dissonance. What did I love about it? That it was dramatic, fierce, brilliant, and super expressive. Along with the Moonlight Sonata, the Pathétique experimented with dramatic sonic possibilities for the piano that set young Beethoven apart from his contemporaries.

Part 2 of my discussion of The Planets by Gustav Holst. I explore the magical colors in Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age, Uranus the Magician, and Neptune the Mystic.

I continue this series with a third favorite piece—The Planets by Gustav Holst. I had so many favorite moments, that I need to do this in two separate blogs! Here’s the first one…

Continuing my odyssey of music I adored as a teenager, Sheherazade was one of the first pieces that really hooked. me. it opened my imagination to the sonic possibilities of the orchestra and the potential of a journey through music, more powerful than words or images.

I recently have started sharing with my youth orchestra the music that set me on fire when I was their age. Perhaps it might open new worlds for others as well…

Watch a short video and see pictures from the Russell Steinberg Catalog Release Party and Concert June 14, 2025

Welcome to the public release of my new website—a comprehensive music catalog of nearly 100 original works.

My list of fine classical music films is short. This recent short documentary on NY Philharmonic bassist Oren O’Brien definitely earns a place on it.

Contrasting two very different musical depictions of nature–Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Why we need more of Beethoven’s!

In our classical music world, the movie Tár has generated powerful conversations. I watched it and was struck by similarities with Whiplash, another controversial film about musical genius run amok. I welcome your comments to this blog. I realize the topics I discuss are sensitive. Whether you agree or disagree with my ideas, I’m very interested to get your take on these two films!

Three fun facts and a piano sonata comparison of virtuoso Johann Nepomuk Hummel, who was a famous contemporary of Beethoven’s.

The tragic prelude to Act III instantly plunges us into the dark realm towards obvlivion. The Tristan Progression is now funereal, an F minor plagal progression sounding impossibly deep in the strings. T This is what Richard Strauss imitated in Death and Transfiguration. This opening of deep gloom is the place Tchaikovsky went to for his Symphony Pathetique. Mahler as well hearkened to this Act III Tristan opening in his own sublime masterpiece, The Farewell, from Das Lied von der Erde. It is also music Wagner himself composed earlier in his song Im Treibhaus (In the Greenhouse) from his Wesendock Lieder, a song that imagines the drooping tall plants in sorrow of mortality.

The music of Act II in Tristan und Isolde is an achievement without parallel. The continuous love duets themselves comprise nearly 200 pages of score! In a single night, we witness an entire life-love relationship unfold as it works out deep emotional conflicts, contemplates the quest for transcendence beyond the contradictions of our existence, and arrives at a supreme state of bliss.