Friday's Top 50 Classical Music News & Stories
Labels:
Breaking News,
ClassicalBrief
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Hearing André Previn's operatic version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" superbly sung in the Merola Opera Program's translucent new production is like encountering a faded Southern belle under a bare lightbulb. There are a small handful of...
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Make no mistake, Karajan was a very great Sibelius conductor. He left four recordings of the Fifth Symphony, and two of the Second, a work that he didn’t particularly care for (and it shows–more on that shortly). When these l...
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Warm reception in St Petersburg for show, based on a 1946 Soviet opera, that attempts to cement Russia's control over region A patriotic opera in Russia's second city of St Petersburg has attempted to cement Moscow's disputed control ove...
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We mourn the death today in Jerusalem, aged 85, of Amnon Shiloach, professor of musicology at the Hebrew University and an unrivalled authority on Jewish traditions in music. I had hoped to include him in my recent series on Music and th...
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Peter Sykes, a professor at Boston University, has announced on his Facebook page that he is joining Juilliard: Today I am very happy to share the news that I will be joining the faculty of the Historical Performance Department of...
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“First recording of complete ballet” this CD tray card proudly proclaims. Sorry guys, that honor goes (at a minimum) to Karl Anton Rickenbacher with the Bamberg Symphony on Koch, released way back in 1995. Statements such as ...
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Dylan Spoering, a young boy living in Uptown Minneapolis, is planning a piano concert tomorrow afternoon in his front yard - and a hand-made sign has earned him publicity he could never have dreamed of.
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Our operavores Elizabeth Frayer & Shawn E Milnes were at the first night of HGO’s production of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s masterpiece. They weren’t overwhelmed (as we were), but this is an opera that takes time to eter ...
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The French contralto Nathalie Stutzmann, who became a conductor under Seiji Ozawa’s mentorship, has a label deal. Warner has also signed a French harpsichordist. You don’t speak French? Find another label. Press releas...
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This 1987 recording may not be the most “authentic” Onegin on the market–there’s not a Russian in the cast (Burchuladze is Georgian)–but it is the most intense, dramatic, and engrossing. Perhaps James Levine’s involveme...
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American Festival of Microtonal Music: Soloists, Johnny Reinhard (director, composer, bassoon), Spectrum, New York City. 12-15.4.2014 (AR) Musicians: Johnny Reinhard, bassoon and festival director Vito Ricci, percussion, “wrench guitar”...
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This 1941 recording actually does come under the category of “they’re not making them like this anymore.” Recorded in Italy by Italian Radio, Turin, with a cast steeped in Italian tradition in addition to featuring remarkable singing and...
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By Heather Broadbent: Freedom - Something that I have been obsessed with you can say... In the states, for 10 years, my vanity plate was libre_1, "Libre" is french for Free - Free One. Too funny because now I'm writing a post about freed...
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The memoir by Aaron Rosand, which we published earlier this week, has opened the floodgates to reminiscences by musicians who claim to have suffered at the hands of the superpower violinist Isaac Stern. Most were fellow violinists, but o...
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A birthday salute to a famed Italian tenor who knew how to guard his vocal resources. Not as loud or imposing as his rivals, Bergonzi sang with elegance and intensity for decades.
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The hosts of the choral equivalent of the Olympics lead the way in singing out about national identity The World Choir Games gets going in earnest this weekend. Now, if youre going to choose a place to host the choral equivalent of the O...
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The heat-seeking violinist is in trouble. Her flamboyant entry into the Winter Olympics appears to have been founded on fixed results. AP reports: Four Slovenian ski officials were suspended Friday for allegedly rigging th...
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Ken Thorne was a genius at setting other men’s music to film. He won the 1966 Oscar for A Funny Thing Happened to me on the Way to the Forum (original Broaday musical: Stephen Sondheim). He also composed the first Beatles film, Hel...
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Facebook announcement: Anna Netrebko and Azerbaijani tenor Yusif Eyvazov (age 37) are pleased to announce their engagement. The couple met and began dating in March of this year when they appeared together in a production of Puccini’s Ma...
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John Kerry, in Beijing, got out his gitter and played a few Spanish riffs for Chinese vice-premier Liu. How do we rate him? A bit slow…
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The Monty Python sketches were stuffed with references to classical music. As the team reunite for farewell shows in London, Philip Clark looks at some of their inspired musical silliness John Philip Sousa, the American composer of patri...
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The Yellow Magic Orchestra founder has cancelled his future tour dates in order to focus on his recovery The philosophy of Ryuichi Sakamoto Musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has been diagnosed with throat cancer. The Yellow Magic Or...
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Lamento , music by Rossi, Carissimi, Strozzi, Monteverdi, Provenzale; Romina Basso, Latinitas Nostra; Naive Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 04 2014 Star rating: 4.5 Vividly thrilling exploration of the 17th century Italian lamento Lamen...
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Piano teacher and composer Elena Cobb presents a thoroughly modern approach to learning the piano. She has written a whole collection of educational books which feature in her highly successful Higgledy Piggledy Jazz series; I have alre...
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Walter Widdop If you put on any of Walter Widdop's Wagner recordings made in the late 1920's and early 1930's you hear a vibrant, evenly produced voice with perhaps a degree of tightness at the top. The clarity of production, evenness an...
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The first left-hand only pianist to graduate from the Royal College of Music tells Lucinda Everett why he's glad he was a late bloomer in the world of music
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Wrapping up my discussion of Bowen's Second, Stanford's Seventh and Parry's Fifth Symphonies it is useful to present a current discography of these works. Like all works of art, these three symphonies seem to attract a wide range o...
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Gilbert & Sullivan: The Pirates of Penzance: Gilbert & Sullivan Touring Company, The Plaza Theatre, Stockport, 9.7.2014. (RJW) Cast Major-General Stanley: Richard Gauntlett The Pirate King: John Savournin Samuel: Matthew Kellett...
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Schubert, Brahms, Dvořák,Gossek, A Panufnik, Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Debussy, Bacevicz: BBC New Generation Artists, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, 8-10.7.2014 9 (RJ0) Over the last 15 years or so the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Arti...
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Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II: Show Boat: Soloists, Cape Town Opera Chorus, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Lyric Theatre, The Lowry, Salford, 8.7.2014 (MC) Cast: Magnolia ‘Nolie’ Hawks: Robin Botha Gaylord Ravenal: Blake F...
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It’s not unusual for an opera singer to start out by dabbling in rock music or show tunes. But for the young soprano Cecilia Violetta López, the entrée to singing was Mexican mariachi music. López grew up in central Idaho as the daughte...
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by Christie Connolley Are you tired of paying fees to a […]
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We are pleased to announce an event bringing together the country’s leading dance schools in a collaboration at the Royal […] The post A special event showcasing British dance training appeared first on Royal Ballet School .
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By Michael Fox: In my development as a musician and violinist, I was deeply fortunate to be mentored and encouraged by a number of great teachers who nurtured creativity and encouraged improvisation. I interacted with several amazing tea...
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By Philippa Kiraly SEATTLE – James Ehnes is busy. Artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Summer Festival, the 38-year-old violinist is up to his eyebrows rehearsing, welcoming new musicians and putting out brush fires.
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The celebrated director has arrived in Australia to direct three Mozart operas and, as a visit to a rehearsal reveals, shake up his singers with some hands-on treatment and a few f-bombs Twenty opera singers stand arrayed on a plywood re...
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Questions about choral conducting, answered by classical music agony aunt Alice McVeigh
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Classical "Turangalîla-Symphonie," Olivier Messiaen's massive ten-movement orchestral masterpiece from 1946-48, is a refractory sort of piece, creating stark divisions among listeners. Some (myself included) are endlessly enthralled by t...
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A Canadian video-production company put together a video parody that imagines what life would be like if we took dives in everyday activities the way some soccer players do on the pitch. And the music accompanying the action is by Edvard...
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Shelley/Tasmanian Symphony (Hyperion) Benjamin Godard (1849-1895) is nowadays known solely for the Berceuse from his 1888 opera Jocelyn, regularly performed by classical and popular musicians alike . There was more to him than that, howe...
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Gubisch/Altinoglu (Naíve) The slightly misleading title of Nora Gubisch 's new recital, with her conductor-pianist husband Alain Altinoglu , comes from Luciano Berio's 1964 Folk Songs for mezzo-soprano and seven instruments, which forms ...
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Seefried/Fischer-Dieskau/Swiss Festival Orchestra/Kubelik (Audite) Conducted by Rafael Kubelík , this terrifying performance of Bartók's only opera was taped live at the 1962 Lucerne festival, with which&nbs...
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Mercy, magnanimity, generosity or sympathy, let's do the decent thing and name songs about human nature's warmer side "Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers," declares Vivien Leigh in that distinc...
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Mehta/Concerto Köln/Heras-Casado (DG Archiv) Most discs exploring the work of the castrato Farinelli concentrate, inevitably, on vocal music. Maverick conductor Pablo Heras-Casado , however, focuses not on the singer but on the impresari...
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Soka Performing Arts Center sets classical, jazz series. Orange County Register, July 3, 2014. Pacific Symphony schedules ‘Symphonies in the Cities’. Orange County Register, July 3, 2014.
