‘Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony’, wrote Bernard Shaw following a performance at the Crystal Palace in 1893, ‘is very nearly up to the level of a Rossini overture, and would make excellent promenade music at the summer fêtes out in the grounds.’ In advancing this view, Shaw turned on its head an essential quality of Dvořák’s music […]
For thirty years, from 1960 to 1990, Nicolai Ghiaurov was an indispensable figure on the international operatic scene. His voluminous base, incisive delivery and imposing presence meant that he was in demand in every centre of opera. His range of roles stretched from Mozart and Rossini through to Verdi and Puccini and many parts in […]
On 11th June 1944, Karl Böhm conducted ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ at the Vienna State Opera. It was, in his own words, ‘despite the dark shadows cast by the war which was already long since lost, a feast for musical Vienna’. The occasion was the 80th birthday of Richard Strauss which would have undoubtedly been celebrated […]
Except among record collectors and an ever dwindling number of music lovers who were lucky enough to have heard him conduct in public prior to his death in 1955, Van Kempen remains little more than a name in a book. The reasons for his relative obscurity are not that difficult to understand. Outside The Netherlands […]
‘Wales is rich in folk songs and the art of singing these songs is very much alive today,’ writes Osian Ellis in the original note (reprinted in the CD booklet) accompanying this L’Oiseau-Lyre LP. Renowned for his harpistry and to many through his recordings of music by Benjamin Britten (with whom he worked closely), this […]
Ion Voicu was a legend in his own country, Romania and in the profession at large and appeared in most major musical centres. Yet he was not as well known in the English-speaking countries as he should have been. The long cold war and the dictatorial regime in his native land were mainly to blame […]
The bass voice (basso, encompassing both baritone and bass in our modern terminology) occupies a special place in Bach’s sacred vocal music. As the two great Passion settings testify, it was the solo bass that represented the vox Christi or ‘voice of Christ’, following an established tradition in church music. Matthias Goerne is here at […]
Completed in 1719 and first performed in 1733, Handel’s opera seria Orlando is widely recognised as one of the eighteenth century’s greatest operas. One of the work’s most acclaimed recordings is that of Christopher Hogwood, with a stellar line-up of Baroque vocal specialists, including James Bowman, in the title role and Emma Kirkby and David Thomas. […]
Issued following several requests Sir David Willcocks’s complete 1966 LP of Howells’ choral music, originally issued on Argo, makes its first appearance on CD. Howells contributes his own notes (reprinted from the original LP) in which he outlines the relationship between each of the settings and the building for which it was intended. It includes […]
Indian-born, of Jewish-Viennese parents and raised in Paris, virtuoso pianist, Jean-Rodolphe Kars, converted to Catholicism in 1976 and was baptised in 1977. Mysteriously, in 1981, he put an end to his career as a pianist, entering the priesthood in 1986. During the late-1960s and early 70s, Kars made a few recordings for Decca, all of […]
Between January and December 1951 Dutch conductor Paul van Kempen recorded a series of major Tchaikovsky works with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The performances are at once fiery and incandescent – a kind of meaningful sound and fury – and have long been out of the catalogue. But even when they were issued they divided critical […]
An undiscovered treasure! Recorded in 1966 but never released, are nearly 100 minutes of Messiaen performed by Gillian Weir shortly after she won the St. Alban’s Competition. At the centre of this recital is Les Corps Glorieux and the other pieces display Dame Gillian’s immense command over and total empathy with this music. The 7000+-word notes […]
