When 18-year-old pianist Yunchan Lim stunned the world at the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition, audiences saw a once-in-a-generation talent whose playing combined a rare poetry with ferocious technique. But Lim’s artistry didn’t come from nowhere. This is a musician who,
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Live From London – A Choral Festival Borne Out of the Pandemic August 1st, 2020 Following the success of their ‘Live From Home’ online performances and workshops, the VOCES8 foundation are launching a new online festival in response to the coronavirus pandemic: Live From London. The festival, featuring weekly concerts from 1 August to 3 -
Stanislas de Barbeyrac August 1st, 2020 French tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac has performed in opera houses all over Europe, including Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House, the Opéra National de Paris, Staatsoper Berlin and the Teatro Real in Madrid. He talks to me from his home in -
Roman Parties
Respighi: Feste Romane July 31st, 2020The last of Ottorino Respighi’s celebrations of Rome looked at its festivals. Feste romane was completed in 1928 and received its premiere under the baton of Toscanini in February 1929. Roman Festivals starts with the ancient history of the Romans -
My Favourite Piano Sonata July 30th, 2020 Of all the piano sonatas to choose, from the wit of Haydn, the elegance and chiaroscuro of Mozart, the poignancy of Schubert, Chopin’s restless romanticism, Rachmaninoff’s Russian heart, the biting narrative of Prokofiev’s War Sonatas, and many, many more which -
Composers in the Court Room
Beethoven versus Beethoven July 28th, 2020On occasion, it’s rather difficult trying to get along with your siblings in law. Just ask Ludwig van Beethoven, who was involved in a bitter custody battle with his brother Carl’s widow, Johanna. It all kicked off in 1815, and -
Nikolai Kapustin – “Classical Jazz” July 27th, 2020 The passing of Nikolai Kapustin is undoubtedly a great loss to the classical music world. He had remained largely obscure until the recent decades, thanks to Steven Osborne and Marc-André Hamelin’s recordings on Hyperion in the early 2000s. Since then, -
The Music of Poetry
Charles Baudelaire in “foreign” tongues July 26th, 2020In 1936, Edna St. Vincent Millay and George Dillon published a translation of Baudelaire’s “The Flowers of Evil.” Trying to infuse the publication with a sense of authority, they asked the French poet, essayist, and philosopher Paul Valéry for an -
Playing Badly Alone July 26th, 2020 I love to be able to play badly alone – pianist Mitsuko Uchida (from an interview with journalist Joshua Barone) Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 21 in B-Flat Major, D. 960 – IV. Allegro ma non troppo (Mitsuko Uchida, piano) Confined