Despite never fully devoting his attention to music, Borodin’s remarkable output as a life-long amateur composer is rightly held as some of the finest ever written in the history of Russian classical music. It’s quite amazing to think that such recognition could come to somebody that throughout his life was never more than a part-time musician that described himself as a “Sunday composer”. Borodin once wrote of music “For others it is their chief business, the occupation and aim of life. For me it is a relaxation, a pastime which distracts me from my principal business.” The rest of his time he devoted to chemistry, a field in which Borodin was highly respected, particularly known for his work on aldehydes (in fact a certain chemical reaction discovered by him is known in Russia as the “Borodin reaction”). A real Renaissance man, Borodin was also a vocal advocate of women’s rights who founded the School of Medicine for Women in St Petersbu...

Like Borodin, Mussorgsky was one of those rare men in history that was able to achieve greatness in two distinct fields: in his case, music and drinking. Mussorgsky was in fact such a consummate drunk, that even as an established composer he had to hold down a second job as a civil servant to fund his alcoholism. Yet Mussorgsky was also one of the most raw and original composers in history. He wrote from the gut, shunning the idea of receiving any sort of formal training, and his music is undoubtedly some of the most powerful and imaginative ever written. To Mussorgsky, music was first and foremost an expression of the human condition, and in his compositions he sought to create, to use his own words, “an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades.” Following in his family’s military tradition, Mussorgsky initially began his career in the army. It was in Cadet School, a place known for being harsh on new recruits,...

Tchaikovsky is, to my mind, the composer of some of the most memorable moments in all of music. He was a natural genius when it came to writing beautiful melodies, and one of history’s great orchestrators to boot, with a keen sense of how to harness the full power of the orchestra to achieve maximum dramatic effect. He had that rare gift of being able to write music that was both grand and intimate at the same time. It’s no surprise then that Tchaikovsky penned some of the most beloved orchestral themes in the repertoire, from his famous  Romeo & Juliet  and  1812 Overture to his ballet suites,  Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty  and  The Nutcracker . His themes are timeless; they never fail to lift the roof off any concert hall, and never seem to lose their magic no matter how many times you hear them. Romeo & Juliet Overture,  played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev. One of the most famous...

Along with Borodin and Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov was a member of the influential circle of Russian composers known as “The Mighty Five”. Young men at the time of the group’s formation, they were all self-trained amateurs for whom music was, at least to begin with, a secondary profession. Of the five, Rimsky-Korsakov arguably left the greatest mark, with several of his most celebrated works, like the ever popular  Scheherazade  and  Capriccio Espagnol, becoming staples of the orchestral repertoire. Scheherazade, Op. 35 , 1st Movement, played by the Moscow City Symphony, conducted by Dmitri Jurowski Rimsky-Korsakov was born near Tikhvin, in Novgorod Province, a town steeped in Russian folk heritage and rich in cultural traditions. He had an elder brother, Voin, 22 years his senior, and came from an aristocratic family. Both his parents were amateur musicians and spotted Rimsky-Korsakov’s talent quickly, when at the age ...

Though not quite the household name that many of his great contemporaries have come to be, Grieg is a composer well worth taking the time to know. That’s not to say that Grieg’s music is little known; in fact, I’d venture a guess that few have written so many pieces instantly recognizable even to people that have never heard the composer’s name. His music is unpretentious, authentic, and highly evocative; to me at least, conjuring up images of alpine vistas and snowy mountaintops (perhaps I’m hearing Grieg’s musical depictions of the landscapes of his native Norway). One of Grieg’s greatest achievements was to put his home country on the map musically, much like Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Dvořák did for theirs. Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway, and began studying the piano at age 6. He came from a musical family who were supportive of his interest in music, and at age 15 he enrolled at the L...

In all the excitement over the looming battle for supremacy in electric cars between Tesla and Apple, some pretty important comments last week from Elon Musk were largely overlooked. During Tesla’s quarterly earnings call, Musk said his car company is progressing with plans to sell a lithium-ion battery for energy storage in homes and businesses. We’re going to unveil the Tesla home battery, or the sort of consumer battery that will be for use in people’s houses or businesses, fairly soon. We have the design done, and it should start going to production, probably in about six months, or so. We’re trying to figure out a date to have the product unveiling, but it’s probably in the next month or two months. And it’s really great; I’m really excited about it. We’ve known about this for a while, of course. As I wrote last year, Tesla’s batteries could be huge—and possibly a much bigger product than its cars. In theory, a homeowner could capture energy in a solar panel on their roof (ma...

I love photography. In fact, I’ve been taking pictures since I was given my first camera (an Olympus OM 1) in the sixth grade. Yes, that long. Over the years I had a succession of film cameras but made the switch to digital about ten years ago. Since then I’ve pretty much had Nikon DSLRs and, on occassion, Canon point and shoots. I’ve captures thousands of images with those cameras . . . and some of them are even pretty good. Well, a few at least. Then, the iPhone came along. It was a phone, a way to send text messages, a web browsing device and, amazingly enough, a pretty good camera. And over the years the iPhone cameras have gotten better and better. Now, they’re really good. Of course, people still use a DSLR. I do, especially when shooting Max. He moves pretty fast and the quick focus of a DSLR and Nikon lenses (especially the amazing 50mm 1.4) comes in handy. But most of the time, I find myself using the iPhone 6 to take photos. I’m not alone. People are using the iPhon...