tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361Sun, 11 May 2008 12:05:45 +0000http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/classical-music.htmnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)Blogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3520623753816389757Sun, 11 May 2008 12:02:00 +00002008-05-11T13:05:45.537+01:00This is the title of Placido Domingo’s new CD. Spanish Coplas are passionate and fiery songs that often tell the story of a woman's life; frequently blighted by the behaviour of an unfaithful man. The songs were hugely popular during the 40s and 50s, and now they are back in fashion, often appearing in the Spanish pop charts. Still in amazingly good voice, Domingo sings these highly emotional http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/05/pasion-espanola.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-6175209327657044868Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:21:00 +00002008-04-05T12:21:51.276+01:00Music critics in Europe and N. America agree that Paul Lewis, is a master pianist of the first order. In a review of one of his concerts, Tim Page of the Washington Post says that he ‘seems incapable of playing anything in a bland or nerveless fashion. His sense of meter is infinitely elastic, and yet the pieces hold together organically. One almost had the sense that Lewis could have stopped in http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/04/paul-lewis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2594305365986863145Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:59:00 +00002008-03-30T11:01:56.257+01:00At last! I have been wanting to go to the this concert hall ever since it opened in April 1991 and on Wednesday of last week I actually got there, with the added advantage of hearing the City of Birmingham Orchestra on its home territory. It’s a huge building; the arsenal of fearsome organ pipes the focus at one end, and a precipitous gallery near to the roof at the other. The honey-coloured pinehttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/03/symphony-hall-birmingham.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-228075054999934238Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:09:00 +00002008-03-06T10:15:41.917ZCharles Mackerras is one of those versatile musicians whose art encompasses many genres. Born in Schenectady, New York, in 1925, he was in fact raised in Australia, where he studied oboe, piano, and composition at the New South Wales Conservatorium in Sydney. In 1945 he joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as principal oboist (later he became their chief conductor), but came to Europe in 1947. I http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/03/sir-charles-mackerras.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3140186741145515668Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:15:00 +00002008-02-16T18:26:05.974ZDaniel Barenboim, whom we have already met in these postings (see 28th.May 2007) comes to the end of a series of sell-out performances of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas in London’s Royal Festival Hall tomorrow evening. He is performing the cycle in several major European cities. When the Argentinian pianist was only an eleven year old, he was described by the great German conductor Wilhelm http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/02/thirty-two-piano-sonatas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-7552840979630732023Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:05:00 +00002008-02-13T09:19:49.746ZBorn in Nottinghamshire but educated at Manchester Grammar School, John Ogden was the greatest English pianist of his generation. He studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music in the illustrious company of the composers Harrison Birtwhistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr and the conductor Elgar Howarth. Together they formed the New Music Manchester group to publicise and perform http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/02/john-ogdon-master-pianist-1937-1989.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-5473115134959746196Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:15:00 +00002008-01-30T15:17:41.152ZUnlike de Falla (whom he influenced), Granados wished to compose essentially as an inheritor of the Spanish tradition. Born in Lleida, Catalonia, and taught in Paris by Felipe Pedrell who shared his nationalist dedication, his first success was at the end of the 1890s, with the zarzuela ‘Maria del Carmen’, which at a time when royal patronage mattered, earned the approval of King Alfonso XIII. http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/01/enrique-granados-1867-1916.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-6497352803348388449Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:02:00 +00002008-02-10T18:56:07.675ZThe Canary Islands are for many people the place to go for sun, sand, sea; and sleepy siestas after long lunches. But the Gran Canaria Island has a special cultural fame through its orchestra, which performs in the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, named after the renowned Spanish tenor, who although of Austrian descent was actually born in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. (Kraus had an exceptional lyrical http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/01/orchestra-filarmonica-de-gran-cararia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-1607447905626626408Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:49:00 +00002008-01-13T13:03:52.523ZFrancisco Javier (better known outside the Spanish world as St.Francis Xavier) was a much travelled man. Accompanied by members of the Jesuits, the order which he co-founded with Ignatius Loyala, his missionary journeys took him to Goa and the Portuguese Indian colonies and then to southern India and Indonesia. In 1547 he met a Japanese nobleman and encouraged by him, eventually two years later http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/01/music-tells-story.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-1237280395979920602Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:36:00 +00002008-01-01T18:38:04.310ZNews of someone’s death is somehow sadder when you hear of it at Christmas time, which was how we felt when we learned that Oscar Peterson had died. He has been one of our jazz heroes ever since we first heard his mercurial pianism in the 1960’s and over the years have seen some of his TV appearances and bought some of his recordings. People who know about such things say he was a disciple of http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2008/01/oscar-peterson-1925-2007.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-6383607798426662098Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:49:00 +00002007-12-13T16:51:10.633ZSinging Christmas carols in the streets is still a tradition in some parts of this country although its has been reduced in significance as young children falteringly sing at your front door ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’’ in the hope that you will part with some money to increase their pre-Christmas funds. ‘How about singing a Christmas carol’ I said to a couple yesterday. ‘We don’t know any’ http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/12/christmas-carols.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-1415264535676550462Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:37:00 +00002007-11-15T20:40:32.757ZOne of the highlights of the Henry Wood Promenade Season in London this year was an anniversary concert celebrating the conductor Kurt Masur’s 80th birthday. He conducted the two orchestra’s he continues to be associated with – the London Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France. Together on the platform they performed Bruckner’s 7th Symphony. Sadly I didn’t hear it on the radio, but thehttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/11/kurt-masur.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2420445057595558606Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:58:00 +00002007-11-06T20:03:15.991ZVirgil Thomson was one of several composers in the U.S.A. who developed a classical form that can be justifiably described as ‘American’ .We have already met four such composers in these postings, namely Aaron Jay Kernis (06/08), Paul Creston(12/08), George Gershwin(24/08) and Charles Ives (28/08), and there will be others. The most notable was Aaron Copland, ‘the dean of American Music’, as he http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/11/virgil-thomson-1896-1989.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-7185339293174203855Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:03:00 +00002007-11-09T09:56:50.159ZSince 1964 when he made his first solo record Paco de Lucia has been if not the foremost flamenco player in Spain, certainly an immensely popular musician of great skill and influence. He has been called the God of the guitar and of the little that I have heard of his music, there is a majestic confidence and miraculous fluidity to his playing. He also looks impressive and is clearly a http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/10/paco-de-lucia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2131357243424578334Sun, 21 Oct 2007 09:36:00 +00002007-11-25T10:29:09.201ZIn the Spanish version of these postings, we quite often get comments from South American readers and just recently I heard from a person who lives in Argentine. She writes enthusiastically about the pianist Nora Alvarez and I have been looking at her website, http://www.nora-alvarez.com.ar/-9k where you can hear some of her music. Her recordings include works by Guastavino, an Argentinean http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/10/carlos-guastavino-1910-2000.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-7584781783810649577Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:31:00 +00002007-10-18T19:34:21.044+01:00One of the phenomenal musical success stories of recent times is Naxos, the brainchild of Klaus Heymann, a Hong Kong-based business man and Music Executive.The cheap label CD has transformed the recording world. Initially employing lesser known soloists and orchestras, playing standard works but also neglected music until then unrecorded, the label now has an enormous repertoire. There are over http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/10/naxos-to-rescue.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-8475988016391738718Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:15:00 +00002007-11-09T10:16:12.994ZThe fiftieth anniversary of the death of the great Finnish composer is being celebrated this year, his seven symphonies played around the U.K. by our major orchestras. So much a nineteenth century composer – he composed very little in the last thirty years of his life – it’s a surprise that he died only fifty years ago. It took him some time to shake off the influence of Tchaikovsky before he http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/09/jean-sibelius-1865-1957.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-4813811634547081558Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:30:00 +00002007-09-06T11:33:28.185+01:00The 2007 season of Promenade Concerts in London is nearly over. It has been an extraordinary season. Claiming to be the greatest Music Festival in the World, there has been plenty of evidence that the boast is well founded. The number of concerts, the variety of music and the state –of- the- art performances has been remarkable. I have been able to go to only three concerts but have seen others http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/09/are-proms-so-wonderful.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-5358607537262959912Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:41:00 +00002007-08-30T08:19:22.704+01:00The cello has an unusual importance in British music. It was John Barbirolli’s instrument which he played in orchestras before he conducted them. Elgar’s cello concerto, the fruit of his later years, is probably played more than any other of his works apart from the Enigma Variations. Jacqueline du Pre and before her Paul Tortelier were notable interpreters of that work. The celebrated cellist http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/08/tim-hugh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-2684008208922146395Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:26:00 +00002007-08-28T15:34:26.079+01:00‘The only consistent characteristic’ of this American composer’s music, says one critic, ‘is liberation from rule’, or as the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas puts it, ‘Ives music is in turns ‘gleeful, goofy, ecstatic, and nostalgic’. Firmly earthed in the old Yankee tradition of home, church and country, his music employing the normal forms of classical music, is utterly and uniquely his own. He http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/08/charles-ives-1874-1954.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-1853061737464334599Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:11:00 +00002007-08-25T09:23:14.289+01:00The concert pianist Jack Gibbons has a love affair with the music of George Gershwin. Meticulously tracing and writing down the notes heard on the performances Gershwin recorded in the 1920’s, he brings to life a nearly forgotten era. Gershwin’s virtuoso improvisations are a testament to his skill as a pianist as well as the composer of songs, Broadway musicals, the opera Porgy and Bess and http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/08/gibbons-and-gershiwn.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-4776932157505013966Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:41:00 +00002007-08-12T18:50:46.424+01:00Born Giuseppe Guttoveggio in New York City in 1906 of Sicilian parents, Paul Creston was still a child when the family visited Sicily, and the peasant songs and dances which he heard there awakened his love of music. When he returned to the States, he persuaded his parents to let him begin music lessons. By the age of 14 he had advanced beyond the abilities of his teacher. Leaving school at 15 tohttp://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/08/paul-creston-1906-1985.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-8142968999659934808Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:59:00 +00002007-08-06T22:02:09.311+01:00I have been listening to a re-play of last Saturday’s Promenade Concert, given by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain conducted by Mark Elder. The massive Lennigrad Symphony of Shostakovich was the main work but the concert opened with the first U.K. performance of ‘New Era Dance’ by Aaron Jay Kernis, an American composer I had not heard of before but who is apparently very highly http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/08/aaron-jay-kernis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-3099942961101629611Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:05:00 +00002007-07-27T13:10:54.693+01:00For some time I have had a Sony CD compilation of music by this American composer and have often enjoyed the lyricism and superb craftsmanship of his music. It was therefore a particular pleasure to be at one of the Promenade Concerts this week and to listen to a delicately poised performance of his Violin Concerto played by the Canadian violinist James Ehnes. It is a really lovely work and the http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/07/samuel-barber-1910-81.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12617361.post-4215443782650974251Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:48:00 +00002007-07-23T11:48:00.986+01:00With some justification, the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts call themselves the greatest musical festival in the World. Developed by the BBC since those early years, when popular concerts for ordinary people were begun by Sir Henry, the breadth of musical styles and the variety of performers make this a quite unique annual experience. Orchestras from the U.S.A. and the Continent as well as from http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/classical_music/2007/07/proms-again-for-113th-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Euroresidentes)