The Hallé Orchestra is world class again
Listening to the Hallé Orchestra playing Shostakovich on Radio 3 a few days ago set me thinking about the remarkable turnaround of its fortunes over the past decade. At the end of the 1990s sniffy...
View ArticleEnglish music desperately needs someone to replace the much-missed Richard...
Tonight’s concert at the Barbican by the City of London Sinfonia marked the official launch of the Richard Hickox Foundation. It’s hard to believe it’s nearly a year since the conductor’s sudden death...
View ArticleOnly twelve days to go before Elgar is illegal
I am sure I was not the only person to be delighted when, in 1999, the Bank of England released a twenty pound note with the image of Sir Edward Elgar on the back. I never plucked one of these notes...
View ArticleSo farewell then, Edward Elgar…
So farewell, Edward Elgar. Having graced the nation's cash-flow for so many years, you are no longer legal tender: turned out from the wallet where you made your home (though not so fulsomely as I'd...
View ArticleThe composer most performed at the Proms? Wagner
Well, who'd have thought it? The most frequently performed composer at the Proms over the past 115 seasons isn't Beethoven or Mozart, still less Elgar. Wagner wins hands down – despite the fact that he...
View ArticleElgar was a determined self-promoter. And he would've hated to be bumped off...
Well, who'd have thought it: the Today programme came up with a substantial – and perfectly good – item on Elgar this morning, linked to the John Bridcut film that premieres on BBC4 tonight. Was this...
View ArticleWhy is music so resistant to crossing borders?
I attended an interesting concert last night in Poole, given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Hill. The concept of their "living tradition" series is taken up in three concerts...
View ArticleThe World Cup bid was lost by philistine sassenachs. Now if it had been...
Along with millions of other football fans I watched the farcical proceedings from the FIFA Conference in Zurich unfolding on live TV yesterday. I couldn’t help noticing that prominent in the Russian...
View ArticleThe glories of Nazism and meaning what you sing
Someone asked a while ago on this blog whether it made a difference to a performer if he or she 'believed' the words they were singing. It is a fascinating question and the issues are complex. We can...
View ArticleHis Master's Voice: horn, wax and needle
Gerald Moore wrote in his autobiography 'Am I too loud?' that it was almost impossible to be too loud when recording with a singer in the acoustic days. The pianist had to thump away just to be heard...
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