For those still filling in their worst-ever classical Christmas track, there's a late surge of support for Robert Alagna's Sleigh Ride Medley on DG's We Wish You A Merry Xmas album. No more egregious assault on English language and cadence has been heard since the late King Lucy slaughtered cod lyrics to Adolphe Adam's Cantique de Noel - dee star (sic) are brytlee shyning, eet ees dee nyte - in duet with Crown Prince Placido on untouchable Sony. There's also a specially written slice of mince on … [Read more...]

My recent book, The Life and Death of Classical Music, contains an analysis of the 20 worst classical records ever made. Colin Larkin (see press release below) has appended the 100 worst pop records to his outstanding and important Encyclopedia of Popular Music, which goes online from next week (see below once more). Among Colin's 100 worst are seven chilling Xmas albums. My list had room only for Kiri at Christmas, although a new compilation from Sony came tantalisingly close. Has there ever … [Read more...]

The discreet charm of Arthur Rubinstein, discussed in my current column, provokes this memory from an audience member at his first international piano competition: Emanuel Ax won and everyone got terribly pompous and aware of The Great Occasion, Rubi stood up and said to Ax something like: As the lucky winner you get a medal with my profile! Just in case he forgets who's number one... … [Read more...]

I was sorry to read (on www.musicalamerica.com) that Harry Kraut had died. In a job designed for doormats, Harry stood up combatively to Leonard Bernstein, whose business affairs he managed from 1972, and did his best to curb his excesses. Discreet as a trappist, he gave no quarter to journalists or biographers and kept publishers, orchestras and festival organisers at an appropriate arm's length. Meryle Secrest, Lenny's most objective biographer, thought he bore a passing resemblance to the … [Read more...]

Hot ticket at next summer's Salzburg Festival is Gounod's Romeo and Juliet with Paris Hilton and Jonny Depp in the title roles - sorry, make that Netrebko and Villazon. Both dumped on Salzburg with last-minute cancellations last summer, so don't book yet. Myself, I'd check the pedigree of the understudies before making smmer plans. Over at the Landestheater a week later, London's National Theatre will be staging David Hare's production of Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking with Vanessa … [Read more...]

Two eminent violinists have been in touch concerning my recent assertion that the Mieczyslaw Karlowicz concerto has 'not been played outside Poland in living memory'. Tasmin Little, who made a lovely recording for Hyperion with the BBC Scottish four years ago, tells me she did her best to secure a public performance in several countries and actually got it into a BBC concert, only for some chicken-heart to change the programme for reasons that were never satisfactorily explained. Tasmin's … [Read more...]

Running my eye down the list of players, as I do when I haven't heard a band in a year or so, I noticed that the principal horn in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a woman (Elspeth Dutch) and the principal harp a man (Robert Johnson). Not much to raise an eyebrow over these days but as little as a decade ago either placement would have been almost inconceivable. In the 20th century, blowing was for guys, plucking for gals. Today, gender equality rules and long may it do so. There are … [Read more...]

I was having morning tea on Friday with Anne-Sofie von Otter and her accompanist Bengt Forsberg across the road from the BBC when Bengt's mobile bleeped with a text and his face lost most of its colour. As soon as Anne-Sofie was out of earshot he said to me, 'what do you do if you're giving a recital in 24 hours and someone has left your music on a plane?' The music was fairly rare - some songs by Erich Wolfgang Korngold - and a call to the original publisher's London shop confirmed that it was … [Read more...]

Why is it that amateur and community orchestras can be so much more adventurous in their programming than the heavily-funded behemoths who occupy Carnegie and other great halls? After writing on Nigel Kennedy's current advocacy for the Mieczyslaw Karlowicz concerto, I heard from two players who had been involved in performances in the past year. Francis Norton of London, a member of the (amateur) Royal Orchestral Society, reported his delight at a concert he played in at St John's, Smith Square, … [Read more...]

I was saddened and suprised to learn of Maggie Carson's death. Saddened because I liked the old girl, and suprised because I thought she'd gone years ago. That's the thing with musical PRs: you don't hear from them for a month or two and you assume they have either died or married a conductor. When I started out at this game, there were two tough ladies in New York who could lunch you to death. One was Dorle Soria who, with her husband Dario, ran Angel Records, and the other was Margaret Carson … [Read more...]