The Emporer is dead, long live the Emporer. In 1790 a nineteen-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven was commissioned to write two cantatas. The first was an elegy for Emperor Joseph II. The second for Leopold II, who inherited the throne. Maestro Leif Segerstam presents both works. It continues Naxos’s series of Beethoven choral works. Apparently, the […]
Classical music
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Charlottesville Symphony warms to British Riches
The Charlottesville Symphony directed by Benjamin Rous performed “British Riches” February 15-16, 2020. The program included a variety of 20th Century UK composers. The relative rarity of the works (at least on this side of the Atlantic) made this a refreshing and engaging concert. George Butterworth’s “A Shropshire Lad” opened the program. This symphonic rhapsody […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalFilmScore Week 2
For February 2020, the #ClassicsaDay team chose film music as its theme. What exactly is the intersection of classical and film music? Share your answers with a post on Twitter or Facebook, with a link to musical examples. Some film composers began in the classical world. And some film composers have transitioned to classical music. For […]
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Peteris Vasks – Works for Piano Trio work for me
What I admire most about Peteris Vasks is his deep spirituality. It permeates all of his music, even his early avant-garde compositions. This release features three of his works for piano trio. All three are quintessentially Vasks. They radiate an aura of serenity, even during the fastest and loudest passages. The music seems far removed […]
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Guitar Double Concertos Showcase Spanish Composers
I was a little surprised when this album crossed my desk. I thought it was an album of concertos for two guitars. Not quite. It’s an album of concertos for two instruments, one of which is always a guitar. Each concerto pairs the guitar with a different instrument. Each is written by a different composer, […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalFilmScore Week 1
For February 2020, the #ClassicsaDay team chose film music as its theme. What exactly is the intersection of classical and film music? Share your answers with a post on Twitter or Facebook, with a link to musical examples. Some film composers began in the classical world. And some film composers have transitioned to classical music. […]
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Pivotal Symphonies by Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist
Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist has a musical career that almost makes him an outsider artist. He was a jazz pianist and bandleader. He began formal studies but dropped out because he felt the curriculum too confining. Instead, he took lessons from several musicians, each teaching a different aspect of music. One of them was Dag Wiren […]
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Composer Alfonso Romero Asenjo Transcends Trends
In the liner notes Spanish composer Alfonso Romero Asenjo is described as “trans-avant-garde.” I think that’s a fair description. The music in this release struck me as a unique blend of pre- and post-atonal elements. The most recent work on the album, the String Symphony, is only six years old. Asenjo’s compositional materials are deceptively […]
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Hummel Piano Concertos on original instruments. Hmmm
Brilliant Records continues their traversal of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s piano concertos. It’s a worthy project. Hummel was a major figure in the early 19th Century Vienna. He was friends of both Beethoven and Schubert. He was regarded as near-equal to the former, and more successful than the latter. Hummel was a virtuous pianist (at age […]