Updates from the world's leading classical music label
After a hard day’s work, there’s nothing like going into flop mode, a glass of something in one hand, the other gently rifling through ranks of CDs or scrolling through a digital cache of music, finding the escape hatch from office stress into down time. Pity, then, the poor composer who has been struggling all Read More …
The account of the birth of Christianity as depicted through the life of Jesus some 2,000 years ago has been celebrated for centuries through masterpieces of the Western European classical music tradition. Formats include the Passion, the Stabat Mater and the Requiem Mass. Music-lovers will have their own favourites and, no doubt, the CDs to Read More …
While there’s no magic formula for clinching success when two people tie the knot, the old adage of ‘opposites attract’ has proven a winner for many a couple, allowing them to mix and enrich contrasting personas. But, for many musicians, both partners being in the same game has also proved a winning recipe. There have Read More …
A few weeks ago we looked at the capability of instruments to make a variety of changes to their usual timbre. We examined the history of pizzicato and col legno, just a couple of tools in the string department’s box of tricks. String instruments have arguably the greatest range of alternative voices, but they are Read More …
Today marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, which is a moveable feast, unlike its western counterpart that always falls on 1 January. It also differs in adopting a particular zodiac animal, repeating the association after every 12-year cycle. Today, therefore, marks the Chinese New Year of the Horse, succeeding the Year of the Read More …
Garibaldi’s Red Shirts are marching triumphantly en route to the successful Risorgimento, the establishment in 1861 of a united Italy—though the actual ramifications were complex and true uniting took longer. Lustily they sing, and the song on their lips is none other than Va pensiero, the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco (8.571000), Read More …
Whatever the instrument, mastery of performance technique is a daunting challenge. But spare a thought for string players who probably suffer at the hands of exploitation more than others. Not content with demanding accuracy and fluency over a range of some four octaves, composers frequently dip into the strings’ cosmetic box, giving them makeovers that Read More …
Western concert flutes today may look entirely different from the perforated bones played by our distant ancestors, but the technical principles are exactly the same. No matter how sophisticated the instrument has become over the years, we are still all basically blowing over a hole in a hollow tube to make a sound. Any composition Read More …
Although the sacred message of Christmas remains steadfast, the season’s secular makeovers tend to morph more readily. Who would have thought, for example, that the uplifting tale of Santa’s iconic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (8.990013) would already have hit a second-generation upgrade? Yet now we have the song of Pablo the Reindeer who, if you Read More …
This week’s posting appears on December 6, which happens to be my birthday, so a few observations about music loosely associated with that thought might be in order. December 6 also carries the significance of being St Nicholas’ Day. St Nicholas, the patron saint of choristers, was the devout Christian Bishop of Myra who, so Read More …