Essays, articles and reviews from The Musical Heritage Review.

From 40 years of our monthly column "Exploring Music" to essays on a wide range of topics, The Musical Heritage Review took the original concept of an "expanded and improved liner notes" idea and became a magazine that was published 18 times a year for 40 years. From wild esoterica to thoughts about the weather, these essays are all about the joy of exploring music.

  • Exploring Music

    Written for over a decade almost exclusively by editor David M. Greene, "Exploring Music" essays accompanied Musical Heritage Society's Featured Selections. Usually between 5 and 7 essays were written for each edition of The Review, and David occasionally veered WAY off topic and added his own opinions about just about everything.

  • Essays

    Professors and musicians from the East Coast music schools wrote often for The Musical Heritage Review. The new fields of early music on historically informed instrument practice was a favorite topic of discussion (yay and nay), as was the doings of the Metropolitan Opera and...oh yes, record labels, like The Musical Heritage Society.

  • Reviews

    Each edition of The Musical Heritage Review contained hundreds of reviews. We've included many of these reviews on the product pages of the recordings we sell here at the site, but we will also feature many reviews here as well.

EXPLORING MUSIC

Review: The Birth of Rhapsody in Blue

Review: The Birth of Rhapsody in Blue

Karen Monson, Ovation Magazine

That's not to say that Yes, We Have No Bananas is quite on the order of Pomp and Circumstance. But here they coexist happily, side by side. Which raises the...

Review: The Birth of Rhapsody in Blue

Karen Monson, Ovation Magazine

That's not to say that Yes, We Have No Bananas is quite on the order of Pomp and Circumstance. But here they coexist happily, side by side. Which raises the...

Read More
Paul Whiteman's Historic Aeolian Hall Concert of 1924

Paul Whiteman's Historic Aeolian Hall Concert o...

Maurice Peress

One would be hard pressed to think of a musical event about which more has been written than Paul Whiteman's launching of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Paul Whiteman's Historic Aeolian Hall Concert o...

Maurice Peress

One would be hard pressed to think of a musical event about which more has been written than Paul Whiteman's launching of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

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Beethoven's Violin and Piano Sonatas

Beethoven's Violin and Piano Sonatas

David M. Greene

 Never mind that his title pages read Sonatas for Piano with the Accompaniment of a Violin. These works cannot be played without the fiddle, the way many an 18th-century "violin...

Beethoven's Violin and Piano Sonatas

David M. Greene

 Never mind that his title pages read Sonatas for Piano with the Accompaniment of a Violin. These works cannot be played without the fiddle, the way many an 18th-century "violin...

Read More
REVIEW: Music of the Romantic Pianist-Composer

REVIEW: Music of the Romantic Pianist-Composer

John Gruen, Keynote Magazine

In full command of the poetry and ecstasy of these difficult works, Dubal creates a world that is at once sensual as well as visionary...In all, Music of the Romantic...

REVIEW: Music of the Romantic Pianist-Composer

John Gruen, Keynote Magazine

In full command of the poetry and ecstasy of these difficult works, Dubal creates a world that is at once sensual as well as visionary...In all, Music of the Romantic...

Read More
ESSAY - Psychedelic Scriabin

ESSAY - Psychedelic Scriabin

Fedor Kabalin

He was a giant: measuring 5'1" he could still have looked down on the even shorter Wagner - had they been able to meet. He was also a Christmas baby...

ESSAY - Psychedelic Scriabin

Fedor Kabalin

He was a giant: measuring 5'1" he could still have looked down on the even shorter Wagner - had they been able to meet. He was also a Christmas baby...

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ESSAY: Scriabin - Full of Harmonic Richness

ESSAY: Scriabin - Full of Harmonic Richness

Rachel Lulov Segall

Alexander Scriabin held a dream which has surfaced in many forms in different cultures. He dreamed of creating a synthesis of the arts: it would be a masterpiece which would...

ESSAY: Scriabin - Full of Harmonic Richness

Rachel Lulov Segall

Alexander Scriabin held a dream which has surfaced in many forms in different cultures. He dreamed of creating a synthesis of the arts: it would be a masterpiece which would...

Read More