PROKOFIEV; STRAVINSKY Violin Concertos

  In the last movement of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, Patricia Kopatchinskaja takes the composer’s ben marcato seriously, using heavy accentuation to produce the effect of a pungent danse macabre. Even the contrasting legato melody is presented with a sinister, flautando sound. Janine Jansen’s performance (also with Jurowski and the LPO) is less extreme, with […]

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VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: The piano music new podcast

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s extraordinary output for orchestra and voice is a central part of the repertoire – but not so his music for solo piano or piano duet. As he releases a new disc of the composer’s complete music for solo (or two) piano, Mark Bebbington reflects on a small but significant ….. Please click […]

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SCHUBERT: News

ANDREW CLEMENTS “Seven years have passed since Paul Lewis’s last solo Schubert recording, and this latest collection coincides with his continuing series of Schubert recitals. It groups together the three sonatas of 1825 and 1826 – the earliest of them, in C major D840 just a two-movement torso, the others, in D D850 and G D894, perhaps […]

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RAVI SHANKAR: On Appreciation of Indian Classical Music

  “Indian classical music is principally based on melody and rhythm, not on harmony, counterpoint, chords, modulation and the other basics of Western classical music. The system of Indian music known as Raga Sangeet can be traced back nearly two thousand years to its origin in the Vedic hymns of the Hindu temples, the fundamental […]

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MOZART: What would he have thought of Chopin’s music?

Rodney Chin, former Student of Musicology I’d like to think that Mozart would have enjoyed Chopin’s music; after all, it’s no secret that the latter held the former in the highest esteem, and Chopin was not in the habit of issuing compliments to others (and if he did, only grudgingly). However, he did genuinely enjoy […]

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MAHLER: News

THE GUARDIAN: The Austrian composer’s first symphony meshed the imagination and narrative of the symphonic poem with the architectural cohesion of earlier models. His crazily ambitious project changed the genre for ever. It’s one of the most spellbinding moments of symphonic inspiration in the 19th century: the opening of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony. It’s not […]

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BEETHOVEN: Was he constantly angry or merely intense?

Gustavo Guardiola, Composer, bass player and professor of music composition for more than 22 years. He was certainly angry. On October 6th of 1802 Beethoven wrote a letter to his brothers Carl and Johann. This letter has been known as the Heiligenstadt Testament -or you can call it the testament of Beethoven. In this letter […]

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BEETHOVEN: How does Beethoven’s music sound so good when he was supposedly deaf? Was it simply him figuring out what notes would sound good together?

PHILIP RICE answers: Not “supposedly deaf”. DEAF! Here’s the thing. When you know enough music theory and have been around the block, and are one of the most talented musicians in history…. You look, or write notes on a page and know EXACTLY what it “sounds like”. This is called hearing a score in silence […]

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CLASSICAL MUSIC: Difficult, dangerous, disturbing. Young people stay away!

Stephen Hough ….. Recently a study was published revealing that an increasing number of children were choosing electric guitars and keyboards over violins and recorders. I must say I was surprised when I read this, not because of the shift itself but because I’d imagined this had happened long ago. The study suggested that wanting […]

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