tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:29:20 +0000http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/classical-music.htmnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)Blogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-831378465363541681Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:29:00 +00002010-04-13T10:29:11.709+01:00 This blog is now located at http://classical-music.euroresidentes.com/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://classical-music.euroresidentes.com/feeds/posts/default. http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2010/04/this-blog-has-moved.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Colaboradores Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-4264673150672267018Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:27:00 +00002010-03-30T09:42:08.723+01:00I have been listening again to a CD of music by Joaquin Turin(1882-1949) who I wrote about early in these postings (13.07.2005). He and Manuel de Falla represent a generation of Spanish composers in the earlier part of the last century, each of them distinctly themselves but both influenced by their friends Debussy and Ravel whom they met in their Parisian years. Turin composed many works for http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2010/03/andalusian-inspiration.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-1041745700964579732Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:49:00 +00002010-03-29T09:52:15.222+01:00During this long tedious winter I have been privileged to attend three excellent concerts, two in nearby Bristol and one in Liverpool. I am no music critic and therefore can’t make an informed comparison of the performances, but derived much pleasure from each of them. The Philharmonia Orchestra makes an appearance in Bristol most seasons. This concert was conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy, its http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2010/03/three-orchestras.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2806187344524432704Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:28:00 +00002010-03-21T19:10:35.953ZA long time since this journey through the 32 piano sonatas began, but then I have been otherwise engaged as well! My reservations about this monarch of all composers has been seriously challenged, as I expected it to be. A virtuoso of the key board in his own day until deafness intervened, one can imagine him sitting at the piano and experimenting with all sorts of possibilities before http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2010/03/beethoven-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3555865683236326650Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:29:00 +00002010-01-26T10:48:27.664ZMusical enthusiasms can change over the years. Beethoven has always been at the centre of my appreciation of classical music; his personal story of struggle and victory over temperamental angst and deafness, all part of the impression his music makes on me. But as I have got older, whilst still appreciating his genius, I now find an aggression implicit in his work that makes it difficult for me http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2010/01/beethoven-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-8920165726942444446Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:19:00 +00002009-12-04T10:49:42.562ZTwo orchestral concerts on consecutive days this week – an unusual but welcome luxury. My favourite orchestra – City of Birmingham Symphony on Wednesday, with their brilliant if over publicised director of music, Andris Nelsons (nine photos of him in the programme is a bit much!). The highlight for me was Rachmaninov’s 3rd. Piano Concerto: Nikolai Lugansky the soloist. I have his excellent Warnerhttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/12/birmingham-and-bournemouthluganski-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-7095008627193782951Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:01:00 +00002009-11-20T12:05:53.616ZI have been aware of the veteran American conductor, Lorin Maazel, for years, and to my great delight last night saw him in action. He collects orchestras as well as the plaudits of the critics. He is or has been musical director of the New York Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Clevedon Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic (a new one to me),the Bavarianhttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/11/living-legend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3498837614779812523Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:31:00 +00002009-10-31T08:05:54.771ZFollowing on my last posting, I was at the Colston Hall in Bristol last night to hear the first programme there of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under their new principal conductor, the young Ukranian, Kirill Karabits. As he appeared on the platform the audience welcomed him warmly, but he is the antithesis of a showy extrovert, and having briefly acknowledged the applause, he turned to facehttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/10/kirill-karabits-and-bso.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2281690625267913567Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:02:00 +00002009-10-17T13:44:47.414+01:00There have been quite a few changes on the orchestral scene recently and I have picked up references to three conductors who have mounted the podium for the first time as musical directors of orchestras. The most sensational of them is of course the 28 year old Venezuelan, Gustavo Dudamel, who has featured in these blogs before (and in many other places!). He opened his tenure as director of the http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/10/charismatic-conductors.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2480016845698735107Sun, 30 Aug 2009 10:54:00 +00002009-10-14T17:07:02.987+01:00I am missing my annual visit to the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in London’s Royal Albert Hall. My first visit was in 1947 and in the following year I had a season ticket, and have tried most years to go to one or two concerts since. But thanks to B.B.C. TV I have watched several of this year’s programmes, and it has been almost as good as actually being there. I think the programming has been ahttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/08/pianist-pyrotechnics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-415008310593716362Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:10:00 +00002009-08-23T16:13:38.944+01:00This has been a remarkable weekend at the London Promenade Cocerts. Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has performed in three programmes, the first and third of which were televised. The orchestra itself is an event. Conceived by Barenboim and his friend the Palestinian born critic Edward Said, who died in 2003, it comes together each summer and consists of young musicians from http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/08/music-and-message.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2256002587629988380Wed, 27 May 2009 08:07:00 +00002009-05-27T09:10:28.260+01:00May into June : time again for the Bath Music Fest which opened this weekend with a brilliant firework display. We are going to several concerts and on Monday I was part of an enthusiastic audience at the Assembly Rooms hearing a popular programme played by Freddy Kemp, a virtuoso of the key board, but a person of quiet and modest manner. Before the concert there was an interview with Kemp by http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/05/bath-music-fest-2009.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-8007657032961500994Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:46:00 +00002009-04-27T10:50:57.417+01:00The prospectus for the 2009 Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in London is now on sale and you can check on the programmes by looking them up on bbc.co.uk/proms. Each year the style of music is expanded to embrace many genres and performed in a variety of venues, more this year than before. But the classical repertoire is the mainstay of the concerts, and most of them – 76 in total - will be held in http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/04/another-prom-season.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-8069931612593819206Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:22:00 +00002009-02-13T08:48:28.916ZHaydn wrote a hundred and four symphonies, but Beethoven, Bruckner, Vaughan Williams and Mahler only managed nine (though the latter was on his way to a tenth when he died). The British composer, Derek Bourgeois however has written forty four symphonies, more than any other contemporary composer.* With a sound musical training and positions of responsibility in the world of young people’s http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/02/symphonic-overdrive.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2624694094766376626Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:34:00 +00002009-01-16T11:45:38.736ZDies Irae - Day of Wrath - is the name of the greatest of all medieval Latin hymns, the Gregorian Chant of the Dead, part of the Requiem Mass. It is a powerful description of Judgment Day at the end of the world – a day of divine wrath and a day of mourning - and a prayer to Jesus for mercy. It was probably written by Friar Thomas of Celano (who died circa 1256), a Franciscan who knew St. http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/01/judgement-and-inspiration.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-1280754625577247224Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:13:00 +00002009-01-05T11:17:51.222ZI am an unashamed devotee of Rachmaninoff’s music and have just been playing a 1990 CD, recently re-released, of his Third Symphony, stunningly performed by the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under Pavel Kagan (on the bargain alto label). It’s a favourite work of mine and hearing it on this re-mastered disc has been a revelation. On the same disc is another superb performance of his Symphonic http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2009/01/sergei-rachmaninoff-1873-1943.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3575501118643688481Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:43:00 +00002008-12-05T15:44:59.314ZI was at the Colston Hall, Bristol yesterday for the third of three orchestral concerts, each of which featured a violin concerto. I wrote about the first on November 14th : an intense performance of the Sibelius by Henning Kraggerud, with the Halle Orchestra, which in the days of John Barbirolli, was an early champion of that composer. On the second occasion it was the Brahms concerto, again http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/12/orchestral-excellence.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-8055567159059271347Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:02:00 +00002008-12-09T13:13:44.277ZWe were in Bristol yesterday afternoon to hear this remarkable Ukrainian men’s choir as they come to the end of an intensive month’s tour in this country. They have been making annual visits to Britain since 1992 and although once financed by the U.S.S.R. they are now completely reliant on ticket sales and overnight hospitality from their growing number of supporters. They travel by coach and http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/11/boyan-ensemble-of-kiev.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3531824488093915298Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:54:00 +00002008-11-14T09:59:04.364ZRalph Vaughan-Williams once called John Barbirolli, ‘Glorious John’. In 1943 (see one of our blogs) he had returned from his six years as conductor of the New York Philharmonic to rescue the remains of the broken Halle Orchestra. With barely thirty players he built it up into one of Britain’s finest orchestras, remaining with them for most of the rest of his life. It is our oldest orchestra and http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/11/glorious-halle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3201519905827803736Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:14:00 +00002008-11-10T12:18:02.923ZThis is another of the numerous festivals that are typical of the city where we live, and perhaps - with the exception of the International Music Festival –the most prestigious. Well financed by a charitable trust and other generous donors, it attracts some of Europe’s finest musicians and is supported by enthusiastic devotees, many of whom seem to be as pleased to see each other as to hear fine http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/11/bath-mozart-fest.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-8465466854177174116Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:34:00 +00002008-11-07T15:35:20.196ZTo Birmingham on Wednesday (‘Obama Day’) for another concert by the City’s excellent Symphony Orchestra, in their resplendent Symphony Hall. I had booked the concert some time ago because of my great respect for its conductor, Vernon Handley whose unostentatious manner on the podium revealed his dedication to music rather than to style. I have only seen him conduct once, many years ago, but have http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/11/english-afternoon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-608470815026247514Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:19:00 +00002008-09-28T16:22:37.998+01:00Ina radio programme this afternoon the conductor Mark Elder said of his or any orchestra that it should always be based in the community. That is certainly true of Manchester‘s Halle Orchestra which just now is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its foundation by the German émigré, Charles Halle. It both contributes to and enriches the life of that great city.The same is abundantly true of thehttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/09/cbso.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-4736708724459517628Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:50:00 +00002008-08-14T11:51:12.379+01:00I was amongst the audience at the Promenade Concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall this week when Vaughan-Williams Piano Concerto received one of its rare performances. Unfamiliar with the work I had prepared myself a little by buying a CD of the recording ( Lyrita : Howard Shelley and the R.P.O. conducted by Vernon Handley). Hearing it at home a couple of times I found it difficult to get hold ofhttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/08/ralph-vaughan-williams.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-73345760385621558Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:11:00 +00002008-07-31T12:18:29.411+01:00I have this incurable habit of liking what others might call ‘second rate’ music, music which has never won mass approval, and therefore for many people, waits to be discovered. I carry this hope that composers of undoubted talent but no great popularity might one day be more widely recognised and valued. Several of them belong to the pastoral, or as it has been unfairly characterised the ‘http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/07/music-is-voyage-of-discovery.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3919677936366238445Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:02:00 +00002008-06-02T10:05:54.579+01:00Bath, where we live, seems to have a festival every other week. Currently we are in the middle of the longest and most prestigious of them, the International Music Festival and the streets have been full of wet and bedraggled visitors looking for where their tickets tell them to go, and seeking sanctuary and sustenance in one of the many of the city’s excellent bars, pubs and restaurants.The http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/06/festivals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)0