Full disclosure: I majored in keyboard percussion as an undergrad, specializing in marimba. So of COURSE I was looking forward to auditioning “American Gifts.” And it didn’t disappoint. Jack Van Geem and Nancy Zeitsman are superb players. I was also impressed by the recorded sound. The marimba has warm, resonant tones in its lower register […]
Classical
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Classical Interviews – Michael Slon
“The experience of making music together and hearing music together contributes invisibly to the health of our culture. And we’re missing that force in current life right now.” So says UVA professor Michael Slon, about the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic for musicians and audiences. Active as a conductor of choral, orchestral, and operatic repertoire, Michael […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalTimeMachine Week 1
For the month of October, the Classics a Day team turned nostalgic. Classical musicians have been making recordings since the 1890s. So we all have over 130 years of documented performance practices. And we can judge first-hand the artistry of legendary performers. The challenge is to post classical recordings made before 1949 (pre-LP era). Here […]
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Hans Gal remembers Vienna in his recorder music
Although “Remembering Vienna” may seem like part of the current Hans Gal recording boom, that’s not quite the case. Recorder player Sabrina Fey and pianist Bernard Parz were friends at university. But her specialty was early music, and his Viennese repertoire. It seemed they would never be able to perform together — until they discovered […]
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Johann Evangelist Brandl Symphony anticipates Beethoven
This release features two works by Johann Evangelist Brandl, a younger contemporary of Mozart. Their lives were hardly parallel, but both had to deal with the business of music — like finding employment. Brandl composed his Symphonie Concertante for just that purpose. He used the work as an audition piece for prospective employers (members of […]
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Julius Rontgen Piano Concertos – originality in traditional forms
In the Netherlands, Julius Röntgen is a cultural hero. But for the rest of the world, not so much. If you’re not familiar with Röntgen, this release is a good starting point. Röntgen was a piano virtuoso, whose playing at age 14 impressed Franz Liszt. Röntgen was friends with Brahms. Although he lived until 1932, […]
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Cavatina Duo refreshes the repertoire
It’s a real challenge to take something very familiar and make it sound new. And not just novelty new, but new that retains the substance of the original. I think the Cavatina Duo successfully met that challenge, not once but twice with this new recording. They present an arrangement of Marin Marais’ “Follies d’Espagne.” The […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalBubble Week 5
This month’s Classics a Day theme follows a trend. In May 2020 we were sheltering in place. The theme was #ClassicalDistancing — music for unusual solo instruments best played at home. In June, social bubbles were allowed, and so the theme #ClassicalBubble called for duos. Again, for unusual instruments best played at home. This month […]
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Emil von Reznicek String Quartets late-Viennese Gems
The title of this release is officially “Five String Quartets.” But it actually has six, as the fourth quartet is essentially a reworking of the second. Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek’s quartets have a complex history. It may hinder musicologists’ work with Reznick’s catalog. But it needn’t detract from enjoying these works. Reznicek continued to write […]