‘The Music is Filled With Colors’
By the time Hans Krása was 22, his composing career was already off to an auspicious start. In 1921, his “String Quartet” premiered in Paris to rave reviews that compared him with Schoenberg and Bartok. The Prague native had made his professional debut the year before, with “4 Orchesterlieder – Op. 1.” After that, Austrian conductor Alexander Zemlinsky took Krása under his artistic wing. It was a vibrant time to be a young and talented composer in Europe, and Krása’s star was on the rise.
Ghosts of Prinsengracht
There are some places so inherent in their power that they’re no longer places; they are living lessons.
Visiting Israel Without Getting ‘Left Behind’
Plenty of Bible-thumping, Armageddon-watching Christians visit Israel. I, however, was raised Presbyterian, that calm inner-sanctum of Christianity where the zealotry is mercifully tempered.Still, I dreamed my entire life of seeing the Holy Land, but I wasn’t interested in any fanatical “Left Behind” tours, where a humorless guide with a
