Classical – in a word
There was some discussion in the comments on a recent post about what we call 'classical' music. We all know what it means … or do we? As Pragmatist pointed out there is a distinction between the...
View ArticleSo who can do The Rite of Spring with spunk?
I've been taken to task for being less than enthusiastic about the way the ENO orchestra plays Rite of Spring in the current Coliseum double-bill, and people are asking me: if Edward Gardiner doesn't...
View ArticleAlfred Cortot: the poet speaks and plays
The Poet Speaks (from Kinderszenen by Robert Schumann played by Alfred Cortot) What makes this clip so extraordinary? To start with, the playing of course – Schumann's phrases caressed as if...
View Article'I played the same chord 59 times': is this the most important moment in 20th...
There are few moments of "big bang" impact in any of the arts. Like with a great tree, branches grow, bear fruit, shed leaves - taking sap from the trunk of previous generations down to the very roots...
View ArticleNosing around V – smelling of vetiver and dancing with Stravinsky
Vetiver has always been one of my favourite aromas. There is something of the enchanted forest about the smell of this grass – not a forest of visible growth through which we walk, but of vegetation...
View ArticleWhite heat: RIP Weissenberg
I was sad to read today that Alexis Weissenberg, the Bulgarian pianist, had died at the weekend aged 82. I met him twice, once in 1988 when we were both playing in a gala concert at Carnegie Hall in...
View ArticleIf you think all modern music sounds the same, you need to hear Micachu and...
Vindication for readers of this blog who believe music went downhill after Jethro Tull’s debut. Apparently modern pop all sounds the same. Last week a group of academics claimed they had found proof...
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