scrabble

What’s in a name?

It’s sometimes wise not to blink when looking up composers in an index. Bach, J. S. can easily get transposed into Bach, J.C., not to mention the rest of the alphabet casserole his sons generate with their forenames. Mendelssohn F(elix) … Read More →

The-Laughing-Audienceb

From Florence to Bayreuth

While it’s relatively easy to raise a smile with music that accompanies an amusing song or a comic dance, pieces that have no visual or literary add-ons rarely succeed in getting the giggles going. The finale of Haydn’s Joke string … Read More →

shostakovich-leningrad

Troubles, brewing

  • 3 May, 2013
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This month sees the much awaited release of the next installment in the cycle of Shostakovich symphonies recorded by Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Naxos 8.573057). The historical baggage carried by the Seventh Symphony, Leningrad, is well … Read More →

montage-copyright

Heard it all before?

April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day, a good moment to reflect on the issue of people pinching musical ideas from other composers. Whilst imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, plagiarism isn’t. On the whole, however, classical musicians … Read More →

sergei-rachmaninov

A six-and-a-half foot scowl

Sergei Rachmaninov died in Beverly Hills in the US state of California in 1943. Maybe because of the city’s glitzy association with Hollywood and the composer’s often silver-screen romantic sounds, he carries a more modernistic persona than his actual life … Read More →