Jeanette Fang is a pianist and Co-Artistic Director at the Garth Newel Music Center. She talks about some of her favorite pieces, what she’s learned from focusing on Chamber Music and working with Garth Newel’s student fellows in the summer. For more on the Garth Newel Music Center, visit: garthnewel.org These interviews air as part […]
Classical
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#ClassicsaDay #NAFTAclassics 2021 Week 2
The Classics a Day team once again made NAFTA Classics the theme for July. Two of the three countries in North America have significant holidays in the month — Canada Day (July 1), and Independence Day (July 4). As always with this theme, I simply alternated between Canadian, American, and Mexican composers. And the process […]
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Peteris Vasks – Music for Strings deeply spiritual
In recommending music, I often say that if you enjoy Arvo Part, you should listen to Pēteris Vasks. Both composers come from the Baltic States, and both infuse their music with deep spirituality. Vasks’ music, like that of Part’s, ignores the “isms” of the 20th Century. What matters is the emotion the composer’s articulating. And […]
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Anton Arensky – Egyptian Nights suitably exotic
This recording of Anton Arensky’s ballet suite was originally released on Marco Polo in 1996. I’m glad to see it back in print. Arensky may not be a great composer (Rimsky-Korsakov didn’t think so), but he’s a very good one. And there’s a lot to like in this work. The ballet, which premiered in 1900, […]
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Władysław Żeleński Chamber Music – True Polish Treasures
Władysław Żeleński is one of those composers who are musical giants within their own country but are barely known outside it. In 1887 Żeleński founded the Conservatory of Music in Cracow. As its director, he helped shape the face of Polish classical music in the early 20th Century. As a composer, he was a craftsman […]
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Theodor von Schacht Symphonies continue to entertain
Theodor von Schacht was appointed director of court music in Regensburg in 1773. It was a big deal. Regensburg was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire and the home of the Perpetual Diet. In 1663 the Diet convened. Fearing that the Emperor wouldn’t hold another, the body simply never adjourned, continually in session from […]
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#ClassicsaDay #NAFTAclassics 2021 Week 1
The Classics a Day team once again made NAFTA Classics the theme for July. Two of the three countries in North America have significant holidays in the month — Canada Day (July 1), and Independence Day (July 4). As always with this theme, I simply alternated between Canadian, American, and Mexican composers. And the process […]
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Rediscovered British Clarinet Concertos Deserve a Listen
This is a wonderful collection of music. And, I think, it makes a point. The classical repertoire is so rich that no matter how tightly focused the program, there are plenty of gems to chose from. In this case, the focus is clarinet concertos by British composers from the first half of the 20th Century […]
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Piano Protagonists – a triumph for Orion Weiss
Pianist Orion Weiss assembled this program around a theme – the composer responding to a specific source of inspiration with a virtuoso composition. It’s an interesting idea, and it yielded an album that virtually spans the Romantic Period. The earliest work is Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” by Frederic Chopin. And the inspiration […]