Classical

The Pacifica Quartet continue their survey of the complete quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich, this time going back to the first four, dating from 1938 to 1949. As with last year’s Volume 1 (Quartets 5-8 plus one by Nikolai Miaskovsky), Cedille offers us two CDs for the price of one, with a bonus quartet by another […]

This performance of the symphony by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop is one of considerable power, writes Geoffrey Norris. MORE

Brahms’s ubiquity on concert programmes means he’s a composer who needs more rescuing than most from the accreted myths not just of performance practice, but of how we think about the man and his music Continue reading HERE

 Originally published 2011 “A Stradivarius violin has been “recreated” using an X-ray scanner normally used to detect cancers and injuries, according to researchers. The US-based group used a computerised axial tomography (CAT) scanner on the 307-year-old instrument to reveal its secrets. They then used the data recovered to build “nearly exact copies”. MORE

“Delius has featured in the record catalogues since the 1920s and over the years a vast legacy of recorded music has accumulated, including many incomparable – and definitive – performances. Unfortunately the majority of those discs are currently unavailable as nowadays most record companies tend to keep even new issues in their catalogues for a […]

  Robert Schumann’s tragic life has long coloured our view of his music. But as pianist Jonathan Biss concludes a year long series of concerts, he finds a composer betrayed by his biography. MORE

Beethoven may have invented the song-cycle but Schubert raised it to extraordinary heights of expression and beauty Beethoven, with his An die ferne Geliebte, may have invented the concept of the song-cycle (a group of songs linked by a theme, and usually a poet, that are performed as a sequence without a break), but the […]

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Michael White explores the spiritual highs – and occasional lows – of the recording industry’s relationship with religion Dip in and out HERE

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  Leading German concert violinist Arabella Steinbacher has won top international awards for her moving performances. Deutsche Welle spoke with the star ahead of her concert with the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. MORE

Ivan Hewitt writes: British conductor Daniel Harding has recruited the TV physicist Brian Cox and other famous thinkers to revolutionise the concert-going experience Please click HERE to continue

“Vladimir Ashkenazy was interviewed by John Stratford and John Riley in October 1991 while travelling by car to his hotel from Walthamstow Town Hall, where he had spent the day rehearsing the Eighth Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This interview, conducted shortly before the attempted Communist coup which, backfiring, brought Boris Yeltsin to power, […]

Born in Russia, Horowitz emigrated in 1925 and in 1939 made his home in New York. His technical and flair won him a huge following and his concerts sold out within hours. He performed and recorded with Arturo Toscanini (who became his father-in-law). During his career he recorded for RCA, CBS and, late in life, […]

Introduction Beethoven truly felt that he was both sent by God and inspired by God. ‘Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy,’ he is quoted as saying. People approach Beethoven with a feeling of awe and reverence, an appropriate response to one of the supreme creative geniuses of history. Read full biography […]

David Temple introduces the first commercial recording in English since Britten’s in 1971 My first St John Passion was in the Barbican in 2011 with Crouch End Festival Chorus. It was in German, and with modern instruments at A=440. Though I was pleased with the performance, I was struck by the lukewarm response from the […]