Beethoven
Being Beethoven, BBC Four review – from grubby kid to grumpy geniusTuesday, 07 July 2020
Documentaries like this one make me sentimental for a time, until about 25 years ago, when classical music was a more or less weekly presence on terrestrial TV. Now fast disappearing from view altogether, on mainstream media and in school... Read more... |
Alina Ibragimova, Kristian Bezuidenhout/Iestyn Davies, Elizabeth Kenny, Wigmore Hall online/BBC Radio 3 review - two perfect pairingsTuesday, 23 June 2020
Last Tuesday’s offering from the Wigmore Hall’s series of live broadcasts was a fiery recital from Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova partnered by pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Beginning with Schubert’s Violin Sonata "Sonatina" in A minor... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home 13 - piano marathons and string masterclassesFriday, 29 May 2020
In an atmosphere of uncertainty created by a government desperate to boost the economy despite the COVID-19 infection rate not reducing significantly, some UK venues and organisations are moving responsibly towards some kind of new normality. The... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 11 - more phased returns to creative workFriday, 15 May 2020
At last, it seems, one venerable British institution will be emulating what Scandinavian and Czech set-ups have been managing over the past month: live performances from an audience-less venue, though in sound only. In quickly reorganised scheduling... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 10 - for free, or not for free?Friday, 08 May 2020
Time to face the elephant in the room. Five of the six set-ups listed below are free to access; one is not. While big organisations like the Met – despite not paying its artists or staff since lockdown – and the London Symphony Orchestra can use... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Mahler, StraussSaturday, 02 May 2020
Beethoven Symphonies 1-3 – arrangements by Ries & Ebers Compagnia di Punto (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)Just Beethoven’s first three symphonies in this two-disc set, so you wonder whether he’d still be described as a genius had he stopped... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Prokofiev, A Tale of Two ViolasSaturday, 04 April 2020
Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas Fazil Say (Warner Classics)“This is a 605 minute piece containing 32 sonatas.” There's some bewildering verbiage from pianist Fazil Say near the back of Warners’ booklet, Say describing the creation of his ‘... Read more... |
'Most significant is the experience of being confronted by different ideas': Steven Osborne on free piano lessons from quarantineThursday, 02 April 2020
How fast the world can change. What seemed unimaginable just weeks ago, the effective shuttering of our societies, is now a reality in many countries for at least weeks and quite possibly several months to come. I hope for the health and security of... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home: 2 - Boris Giltburg and Igor LevitFriday, 20 March 2020
Maybe it's not so surprising that the musicians one has long thought of as true Menschen of the profession - that applies to both sexes, of course, and maybe it's just more about the artists in question being natural communicators - have been among... Read more... |
Beethoven: 1808 Reconstructed, Aimard, Philharmonia, Salonen, RFH review - a feast in fading lightTuesday, 17 March 2020
Like it or not, we live – as Beethoven did – in interesting times. In place of the revolutions, wars and occupations that convulsed the cities he knew, we now confront a silent, invisible foe that breeds an equal terror. Hence the empty seats in the... Read more... |
BBC Philharmonic, Wellber, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - making music magicMonday, 09 March 2020
Omer Meir Wellber, who once used to do magic with music for children, pulled a whole set of rabbits out of the hat in his reading of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony on Saturday. Others may make the work's rhythms and melodies alluring through the sheer... Read more... |
SCO, Emelyanychev, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - Beethoven at too insistent a lickFriday, 06 March 2020
Fast is fine in Beethoven, so long as you find breathing-spaces, expressive lines and crisp articulation within it. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra's febrile new chief conductor, Maxim Emelyanychev, started the "Pastoral" Symphony last night with a... Read more... |
