Clearing the summer clutter of CDs off the righthand side of my desk, I was startled to see how few of them were made with any commercial purpose. Gone are the days when multinational record labels flooded reviewers with star properties. Most of the classical records released nowadays are either self-published or cheap snapshots of live concerts. Nothing wrong with that. There is greater diversity of music on record than ever and, for my weekly review, I have discovered an number … [Read more...]
What’s a good doctor like you doing on the opera stage?
August 18, 2009 By
The Lebrecht Interview with tenor Ian Bostridge goes out tonight on BBC Radio 3 and all week on-line. Great-grandson of a professional footballer, born on the 'wrong' side of the river, Bozza was an Oxford academic with a research line in witchcraft when the urge to be a singer overcame an innate shyness. His struggle between the two worlds is all too visible on stage. In an intense conversation, we look into his tensions, his motivations and whether he can ever … [Read more...]
Vladimir Ashkenazy: My Life in the KGB
August 10, 2009 By
He is one of the best-selling classical artists and among the most popular with his colleagues - an open, warm, intelligent and gentle man who has never sought the limelight and is famously reluctant to talk about himself. In the Lebrecht Interview tonight on BBC Radio 3 (and streamed all week), Vladimir Ashkenazy talks about his life in Stalin's Russia, his sympathy for some of his oppressors, and the values that have sustained him. … [Read more...]
Another silenced voice
August 7, 2009 By
Leo Smit, a Dutch-Jewish composer murdered by the Germans in 1943, will have two of his chamber works performed at broadcast tomorrow at the Delft Chambe Music Festival. Dutch Radio will broadcast the concert on-line and it can be accessed pretty much wherever you are. I owe this information to Rolf den Otter, who provides full details below: It starts at 1300 Amsterdam time, and can be heard on one of the (excellent!) radio 4 internet streams: For Itunes, in 192 … [Read more...]
Some forgotten musical victims
August 5, 2009 By
The names and works of the Czech composers who were confined in Terezin and killed in Auschwitz have become widely known - Viktor Ullmann fio his opera Emperor of Atlantis, Pavel Haas for his string quartets, Hans Krasa, Gideon Klein, Ilse Weber (of whom more another time) and others. Because Terezin was a showcase of Nazi 'normality', the works of its prisoners were archived on site and preserved for an unforseen posterity. In the rest of ocupied Europe, composers suffered total … [Read more...]
The Kaiser’s not waltzing
August 4, 2009 By
Coming up tonight on The Lebrecht Interview on BBC Radio 3 is Michael Kaiser, in very sober mood. Known as Mr Fix-it, or the Turnaround King, for his record in hauling back arts orgs from the brink of bankruptcy, Kaiser - presently chief of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC - surveys the post-crash arts landscape and comes up with few new solutions. A lot of companies will go to the wall, he says. Tune in to hear which, and why. And how Michael Kaiser ticks. … [Read more...]
Goodnight to the dodos
August 3, 2009 By
There are few heroes in classical music publishing, a musty world of well-meaning mugwumps and would-be minor villains. Not enough profit, I guess, to attract screen heroes. David Drew, who has died aged 78, was the industry's Humphrey Bogart. In 17 years as head of contemporary music at Boosey & Hawkes (1975-92), he stood for nothing but the truth: the music he believed in. By an unrelenting banging of his head against the wall, he brought a measure of fame and reward to a dozen … [Read more...]
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