The perfect introduction to Tchaikovsky’s music, featuring recordings by Herbert von Karajan, Martha Argerich, Mstislav Rostropovich, Julia Fischer, Valery Gergiev and many more Continues HERE
Classical
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Alexandre Kantorow talks to Jeremy Nicholas about the least Brahmsian of the piano sonatas Continues HERE
First recordings of flute chamber music by Anton Franz Hoffmeister Continues HERE
There was a bit of a fracas during Lang Lang’s Proms appearance. As he bounced back on stage for an encore, a heckler in the arena hooted derisively. An embarrassed murmur ran through the audience. There was some nervous laughter. But the pianist took it in his stride and began a Chopin Etude, seemingly unruffled. […]
Interview ‘I feel admonished for being myself’: Yseult, the chanson singer riling the French establishment Marta Represa The Parisian singer’s take on traditional variété française includes confrontations with mental health, body image and bondage – and her challenge has struck a nerve MORE
Written by Jay Jay French First off, I hope many of you are listening to my new Podcast called The Jay Jay French Connection: Beyond the Music (available on Spotify, Apple Music and Podcastone.com) Great topics, great guests, and my new book, Twisted Business: Lessons From my Life in Rock n Roll is coming out […]
Levit’s double album of Bach, Brahms and Reger captures the lockdown mood. Plus, Wagner at Wahnfried, a rising-star pianist’s debut, and where Derek Jarman meets Henryk Górecki https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/12/igor-levit-encounter-review-wagner-at-wahnfried-bayreuth-christian-thielemann-daumants-liepins-debut-strange-concord-derek-jarman-prospect-cottage-ben-whishaw
Her mother blackmailed her, her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini stole from her, and shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis was violent and abandoned her for Jackie Kennedy. Soprano Maria Callas was adored by audiences worldwide but she never knew real love offstage, and her life was even more tragic than previously realised, according to research. In writing […]
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/13/brahms-complete-songs-vol-1-opp-32-43-86-and-105-review-masterful-and-revelatory-interpretation
Violinist Kopatchinskaja gives the remarkable Camerata Bern and cellist Gabetta space to impress in this vivid collection https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/14/plaisirs-illumines-works-by-veress-ginastera-coll-etc-review-patricia-kopatchinskaja-camerata-bern
Coming in at number one is Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), one of the best-known of all composers in classical music. Bach was born into one of the great musical families of the day. A natural genius at the keyboard, he mastered the organ and harpsichord and was simply a brilliant composer. Bach brought baroque music […]
Bryce Morrison recalls the flawless combination of Slavic passion and Gallic precision in this charismatic ‘singer’ pianist, who conducted a lifelong love affair with his audiences Please click HERE to access the whole article. Thanks. Neil
More than one piece of headily romantic music was inspired by Richard Dehmel’s 1896 poem Verklärte Nacht, or Transfigured Night. The most familiar remains Schoenberg’s string masterpiece, first conceived as a sextet in 1899, reworked for string orchestra nearly two decades later and rarely very far from its composer’s mind for the rest of his […]
Anyone choosing the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s new recording of Verklärte Nacht (Chandos), conducted by Edward Gardner, will get a subtle and urgent account of Schoenberg’s early work for string sextet, in the composer’s orchestral version. This imaginative album of Austro-German late Romanticism also acts as a showcase for the Australian tenor Stuart Skelton. He is […]
Over the last decade and more, no Lieder recitals have given me more intense pleasure than those by the tenor Christoph Prégardien. Though he is now in his mid 60s, and his voice has inevitably lost some of its former bloom and flexibility with age, this Brahms disc, recorded in 2020, confirms that the sheer […]
Writes Christopher Breunig: After finally being allowed to come to the West in 1960, Richter soon made LPs for CBS, RCA, DG, EMI and Philips. Extraordinary! His UK debut with Kondrashin was at the Albert Hall in July ’61 in Chopin, Dvorak and Liszt; the two Liszt Concertos (which you can find ‘live’, with the […]
Stephen Pritchard writes ….. Oh, not another Mendelssohn violin concerto recording, I hear you cry. Well, yes, but wait: this one is worth exploring. These Dutch musicians treat the piece as a chamber work, the cut-down forces of the Het Gelders Orkest giving light and airy support to Liza Ferschtman’s carefully judged, singing solo line. […]
From the archives: Was Sibelius’s symphony of ‘pure cold water’ intended as a corrective to a musical world of modernist angst? Tom Service looks at the Finnish composer’s self-effacing, but hugely influential, work. Sibelius on his Sixth Symphony: “Whereas most other modern composers are engaged in manufacturing cocktails of every hue and description, I offer […]
Geoffrey Norris: Bosnian-born pianist Ivana Gavrić brings a wide perspective to Grieg’s Norwegian peasant dances and ‘Lyric Pieces’, playing with vitality and haunting atmosphere. If Grieg is particularly well known for his Piano Concerto and for the luminous miniatures he etched as “Lyric Pieces”, the Bosnian-born pianist Ivana Gavrić here offers a much wider perspective […]
Originally published 2012 Christopher Joyce writes: In the world of violins, the names Stradivari and Guarneri are sacred. For three centuries, violin-makers and scientists have studied the instruments made by these Italian craftsmen. So far no one has figured out what makes their sound different. But a new study now suggests maybe they aren’t so […]
The BBC’s list of classical music pieces for teenagers is patronising. Ivan Hewett recommends some alternatives Please click HERE to continue
This new recording grippingly responds to Handel’s theatrical genius, says Geoffrey Norris. A new year. A new CD label. A new recording of Handel’s dramatic 1745 oratorio “Belshazzar”, that monumental three-acter lasting just short of three hours and boasting some of Handel’s most inspired, humane, thrilling music. Les Arts Florissants, the specialist Baroque ensemble, ventures […]
Concerts, live and recorded all over the UK, including Monday’s flagship Wigmore chamber music series and repeats on Saturdays and Sundays. MORE
Geoffrey Norris of The Daily Telegraph “Having chosen Khachaturian for their first Onyx disc last year, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Karabits turn to more substantial music for this follow-up, with Tchaikovsky’s “Little Russian” Symphony, the Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and the original version of Night on the Bare Mountain. […]