With Britten and Bream celebrating anniversaries, there has been a bit of a frenzy on the broadcasting front.
So it was refreshing to listen to the programme “Come Heavy Sleep” on BBC3 which combined both anniversarians with insight, largely owing to the sympathetic interviewer, guitarist Tom McKinney.
with only 2 days left to listen, you might like to know a little about the programme anyway: Continue reading
Category Archives: Music
Hall of Fame honour for Naxos Chairman
Classical Music News: Hall of Fame honour for Naxos Chairman
Klaus Heymann, the founding chairman of Naxos, has been included in the 2013 Gramophone Hall of Fame.
The other four citations were awarded posthumously!
Naxos has done a huge amount for the guitar in their Laureate series and their gradual complete coverage of the repertoire. Klaus Heymann has personally done a lot to promote the guitar (partly because it is advantageous economically!), and I am grateful to have been the first guitarist recorded by Naxos in the early days.
Free mp3 of recently discovered Britten, unheard since 1937
Roman Wall Blues was written to be performed as part of W.H. Auden’s radio play, Hadrian’s Wall, which was aired from Newcastle on 25 November 1937. The original broadcast, like much live radio at the time, does not survive, but the script does: Continue reading
New National Music Curriculum UK – Classical Music
Classroom music from 2014: the new National Curriculum | Classical Music.
It says that “the purpose of studying music is to ‘engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement,’ so that pupils eventually develop ‘a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon’” Continue reading
When Choirs Sing, Many Hearts Beat As One
When Choirs Sing, Many Hearts Beat As One
“it took almost no time at all for the singers’ heart rates to become synchronized. The readout from the pulse monitors starts as a jumble of jagged lines, but quickly becomes a series of uniform peaks. The heart rates fall into a shared rhythm guided by the song’s tempo“
This has been around a while now, but is still interesting. I wonder if anyone has measured heart rates of supporters at a football or tennis match.
Do guitar ensemble players live longer than soloists? (Only if they follow the conductor!)
Continue reading
Goss Triple, Orpheus Sinfonia Grand Finale, July 11th 2013
This is a bit late, but Steve Goss, guitar composer hero has a performance of his Triple Concerto for Sax, Cello, Piano and Orchestra tomorrow at the Cadogan Hall, London SW1x 9DQ.
It is written for the Orpheus Sinfonia, of which he has been composer-in-residence and this concert also features Beethoven’s 9th.
Continue reading
It’s official – Pianist Richard Clayderman introduced classical music to China
In a moment of weakness I once bought a CD entitled “The Ultimate Classical Album”.As well as the usual classics like Rachmaninoff’s Concerto, a smattering of Satie Gymnopédies and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (well, one season actually), I was surprised to find that 3 out of the 4 CDs contained music by Max Steiner, Thomas Newman, John Barry, James Horner and other names not that familiar to classical listeners – in other words film music. Continue reading
Man in the Moon
I was pleased to have met Randall Avers at the recent GFA. He and his duo partner Benoit Albert played a stunning concert – they are known as “Les frères méduses” (the Jellyfish Brothers!).
Alternative performing venues, part 1
The following article made me think about a couple of forthcoming concerts that I will be taking part in.
Classical Music magazine – Southbank granted time to rethink controversial Festival Wing plans
What would you like to ask one of the world’s finest classical guitarists?
When Xufei Yang started the guitar, it was a known as a ‘hooligan instrument’ in China.