Classical Interviews
theartsdesk Q&A: Gianandrea Noseda on conducting Mahler and the Pan-Caucasian Youth OrchestraWednesday, 16 October 2019
There's something about the very opening of a Mahler symphony which gives you an idea of how the rest of the performance will go. In the case of the Second, the inescapable "Resurrection", it's the ferocity behind the upper string tremolo and the wildness of the uprush from cellos and basses. Read more... |
'A laboratory for everything': Jasper Parrott on the future of his classical music agencySaturday, 05 October 2019
Fiftieth anniversary? It seems incredible but also so exhilarating not least because these times we live in now seem to me to be a golden age for music of all kinds and in particular for what we label so inadequately classical music. Read more... |
10 Questions for Cellist Raphael WallfischMonday, 13 May 2019
Cellist Raphael Wallfisch thinks outside of the box. His concert repertoire spans the popular concerto choices – the Elgar, the Dvořák – but he doesn’t stop there, and makes a point of seeking out the lesser-known and the little-heard. Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Will GregorySaturday, 04 May 2019
Will Gregory (b.1959) is best known as one half of the alt-pop duo Goldfrapp but has a long career in music that dips into many areas. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s he was a working musician who toured with multiple bands, notably, Tears for Fears, as well as playing on sessions for albums by artists ranging from The Cure to Portishead. Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: concert pianist Lucy ParhamThursday, 03 January 2019
"The opportunities in standard concert formats are fewer than they were. You have to be versatile and look at different ways to bring this rich canvas of music to your audience," says pianist Lucy Parham. Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: guitarist Sean ShibeTuesday, 02 October 2018
First it was the soft acoustic guitar playing, which on three occasions to three very different audiences won a silence so intense it was almost deafening. Read more... |
Ryuichi Sakamoto: 'Ideally I'm recording all the time, 24 hours a day' - interviewSaturday, 26 May 2018
Ryuichi Sakamoto has conquered underground and mainstream with seeming ease over four decades, never dropping off in the quality of his releases. Read more... |
Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing: 'in the moments when magic happens, you think, that's why we do this'Saturday, 28 April 2018
In a classical recording industry seemingly obsessed with marketing beautiful young female violinists, but very often presenting them in repertoire to which most of them seem to have little individual to add, how do you make your mark? Read more... |
Robin Ticciati on conducting Brahms: 'trying to understand the man through his music'Monday, 09 April 2018
Edinburgh, October 2015. Robin Ticciati is still flying high from a remarkable performance of Brahms's First Symphony, the start of an intended cycle with his Scottish Chamber Orchestra in his seventh season as principal conductor. Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Composer, chansonnier and conductor HK Gruber at 75Thursday, 04 January 2018
You haven't lived until you've witnessed Viennese maverick H(einz) K(arl) Gruber – 75 today (3 January, publication day) – speech-singing, conducting and kazooing his way through his self-styled "pandemonium" Frankenstein!!. Read more... |
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