What is Visualisation? Visualisation techniques have been used by sports people and sports psychologists for some time now to enable the tennis player or athlete, the golfer or cyclist to prepare for a match-winning shot or prize-winning sprint. The technique

Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel (1882-1951) became so famous for his recording of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas that critic Harold C. Schonberg always referred to him as ‘the man who invented Beethoven.’ His performances of both Beethoven and Schubert had

Norman Lebrecht Writer, broadcaster and blogger Norman Lebrecht draws an impressive 1.5 million monthly readers to his blog Slipped Disc, well-known throughout the classical music world for being the first to report on the most recent goings on.

A quick glance at a list of string quartet ensembles active during the 20th century will give you a serious headache! The sheer number and extraordinary quality of a seemingly endless variety of ensembles, repertoires and styles speaks to the

The sheer prospect of my first orchestra rehearsal terrified me. To calm myself down, I asked a violinist friend for advice. I thought she’d share something about how to play. Instead she said: Pretend you know what you’re doing. You’ll

Violin Concerto No. 1, “Concierto español”, Op. A-7 I. Allegretto ben moderato From LALO, É.: Symphonie espagnole / MANÉN, J.: Violin Concerto No. 1 (2016) Released by Naxos Manen: Violin Concerto No. 1, “Concierto español”, Op. A-7 – I. Allegretto

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) set a distinctive poem by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) in 1895, but it didn’t appear in print until 1953, some 16 years after his death. Un grand sommeil noir from Verlaine’s collection Sagesse, is a remarkably morbid poem

Does the name Ikutaro Kakehashi ring a bell? Well, he was a self-made Japanese engineer who survived malnutrition, tuberculosis and the firebombing of Osaka. A digital music pioneer, he created the Midi (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technical standard, which describes