November, 2014

36 Posts
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Beethoven – Complete Works for violoncello & piano
Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69: II. Scherzo. Allegro molto From Beethoven – Complete Works for violoncello & piano (2014) Released by Harmonia Mundi Beethoven: Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69: II. Scherzo. Allegro moltoBeethoven’s works
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Shostakovich and The (Soviet) Golden Age
Joseph Stalin was not a particularly nice man! Once he had consolidated near-absolute power in the 1930’s, he ruthlessly eliminated any opposition. That meant banishing “counter-revolutionary infiltrators” to the Gulag labour camps, deported nonconformists to the furthest regions of the
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Coming at Wagner from a Different Direction
We associate Wagner with gloriously large orchestral sounds, with complex stories, and magnificent singing. It’s interesting, however, when we hear Wagner’s operatic writing from the viewpoint of the keyboard and in this recording by French pianist Wilhem Latchoumia, he shapes
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Are We Going to Party?
Groupmuse
‘In this modern world, we are constantly confronted by this question of how best to spend our free time’, explains Sam Bodkin. ‘Are we going to engage with a challenging work of art?’ he asks. ‘Or are we going to
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Why there’s no Fairy Godmother in La Cenerentola
Who doesn’t know the story of Cinderella? The tale of a young girl tormented by stepsisters, who with the help of her fairy godmother, pumpkin carriages and glass slippers, goes to a ball and marries the prince. But is it
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Debussy’s New Vision of an Old Standard
When we think of a musical piece called a ‘Prelude,’ we think of the monumental series of Preludes and Fugues by J.S. Bach, or, more adventurously, Chopin’s 1838 series of 24 Preludes, Op. 28. When the French composer Claude Debussy
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Raphaël Pichon and the Ensemble Pygmalion
Baroque music arguably suffers the most when it comes to its perceived stuffiness. In the world of historical performance practice, many retreat into the dark corners of the library, poring over dusty treatises to debate the authority of the way
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Weaving a Global Tapestry of Sound
The Silk Road Ensemble
‘It’s based around the basic instrumentation.’ ‘What would that be?’ ‘Mainly Western strings, percussion, plucked instruments, like my pipa, sometimes a Middle Eastern oud, or a guitar, and we have the Iranian kamancheh. Oh – and we have Indian tabla,
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