Updates from the world's leading classical music label
Mozart is reckoned to have posited that silence, paradoxically, is the most powerful element in music. And I once read that, while there’s one particular zone of your brain that is stimulated when an object starts to produce a sound, it’s a different part that reacts when a clock, for example, ceases its tick-tock and Read More …
This week’s blog marks the anniversary of the birth of the Jewish Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff, on 8 June 1894. His artistic abilities soon became apparent, and a musical career was decided on following a recommendation from no less a figure than Antonín Dvořák. Schulhoff studied at the Prague Conservatory from 1904, followed by piano Read More …
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the American composer Lou Harrison, who distinguished himself through his pioneering works in writing for percussion and integrating Western and Eastern idioms. “Everything in the world should be considered a legitimate influence,” he said. In his music, however, the sounds of the largely percussive Javanese Read More …
I recently took a short break on the Indonesian island of Bali, a three-day cocktail not just of swimming, surfing and sunsets; colourful batik, engaging artwork and an ancient temple completed the mix. Ambling around the grounds of that temple, and above the respectful silence of the bevy of tourists, there floated a sound: gently Read More …
Recording features Fetler’s Three Poems by Walt Whitman, Capriccio, and Violin Concerto No. 2 performed by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, led by Arie Lipsky On December 15, Naxos continues its American Classics series with a collection of Paul Fetler’ssymphonic music, the first to be completely devoted to his work. Performed by the Ann Arbor Read More …
For the world to be interesting, you have to be manipulating it all the time. – Brian Eno In 1978, Brian Eno composed his revolutionary ambient masterwork Music for Airports. 20 years later, in what seemed like a perfect marriage of barrier-breaking music and innovative musicians, Bang on a Can released a new interpretation of Read More …