Classical music
Classical CDs Weekly: Bruckner, Holst, PiazzollaSaturday, 16 May 2020
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck (Reference Recordings)I’m midway through exploring a cycle of symphonies by Heinz Winbeck, a German contemporary composer very much in the Bruckner tradition. I’ll report... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 11 - more phased returns to creative workFriday, 15 May 2020
At last, it seems, one venerable British institution will be emulating what Scandinavian and Czech set-ups have been managing over the past month: live performances from an audience-less venue, though in sound only. In quickly reorganised scheduling... Read more... |
Davidsen, Oslo Philharmonic online review - perfect programming, supreme musicality from allMonday, 11 May 2020
Could there be more tender, tactful or soul-nourishing signs of a new musical normal than these two 45-minute gems? We're nowhere near emulating the kind of live distance concerts members of the Bergen, Oslo and Czech Philharmonics have been... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Aisha OrazbayevaSaturday, 09 May 2020
Rachmaninoff in Lucerne – Rhapsody, Op. 43, Symphony No. 3 Behzod Abduraimov (piano), Luzerner Sinfonieorchester/James Gaffigan (Sony)I’m the only person I know who rates Walton’s Symphony No. 2 as highly as his first, and I’m probably also... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 10 - for free, or not for free?Friday, 08 May 2020
Time to face the elephant in the room. Five of the six set-ups listed below are free to access; one is not. While big organisations like the Met – despite not paying its artists or staff since lockdown – and the London Symphony Orchestra can use... Read more... |
In memoriam Dmitri Smirnov (1948-2020) - a personal tribute by Gerard McBurneyThursday, 07 May 2020
November 1979… and a small group of Soviet composers (dubbed the "Khrennikov Seven") unexpectedly found themselves the targets of a boorish public assault by that once infamous General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, in a speech at the... Read more... |
Tectonics Rewind, BBCSSO review - new music festival revisits past gemsTuesday, 05 May 2020
As Covid-19 puts a halt to live events around the world, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has delivered its annual festival of new music, Tectonics, online, with a selection of recordings from past performances. Since everything from the past... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 9 - musicians start cautiously reunitingFriday, 01 May 2020
It seems like a different world when the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle gave a full concert to an empty hall as the world began to go into lockdown. Now, on continental Europe at least, orchestral musician plus the occasional star conductor... Read more... |
Radio 3 In Concert, BBC Sounds - a wonderful week of musicTuesday, 28 April 2020
The absence of live concerts is not just affecting the "in the flesh" audiences, but also having a knock-on effect for the Radio 3 audience, used to hearing a live or as-live concert every night of the week. The BBC have instead gone to the archive... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Zosha Di Castri, Dukas, RousselSaturday, 25 April 2020
Mike Block: Step into the Void (Bright Shiny Things)The packaging and art design are deceptive; two-thirds of this release is actually a classy set of Bach’s Cello Suites (“... attempting to comprehend all of the Cello Suites as a single... Read more... |
First Person: CEO Stephen Maddock on the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's strange centenary yearThursday, 23 April 2020
This year was supposed to be so very different. For the best part of the last decade we have been planning a series of major events to take place in 2020 to mark the centenary of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Having often commented on... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Soundtracks SpecialSaturday, 18 April 2020
Carl Davis: Intolerance Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra/Carl Davis (Carl Davis Collection)You’ve probably heard a Carl Davis film score without realising it, this versatile composer’s prolific career taking in Thames Television’s iconic... Read more... |
