Yolanda Kondonassis does not play pretty harp music. Her performances are marked with intensity and energy — and her choice of repertoire continually pushes the limits. Jennifer Higdon wrote her a concerto that gives Kondonassis free reign to express herself — and she does. The four-movement Harp Concerto has Kondonassis do just about everything with […]
Samuel Barber
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Charlottesville Symphony – A triumph and a crowd-pleaser
The Charlottesville Symphony brought the audience to its feet twice Saturday evening. The first time was for an artistic triumph, the second time was for a crowd-pleaser. The orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Damon Gupton, opened the program with Rossini’s Overture to “Semiramide.” At first, I was a little concerned. The overture starts […]
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#ClassicsaDay #ClassicalNine Week 3
September is the ninth month of the year. And so the #ClassicsaDay team decided to make the number the theme. For September 2018, the challenge is to post classical works that have to do with the number nine. I chose to alternate between nonets, opus nine compositions and works with a catalog number of nine. […]
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#ClassicsaDay #Bernsteinat100 Week 3
August 2018 is the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. Many classical radio stations, performance groups, and writers marked the occasion. And so did #ClassicsaDay. Bernstein was known as a composer, conductor, performer and an educator. Since #ClassicsaDay is primarily a music feed, I concentrated on the first two of those roles (and occasionally the third). […]
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#ClassicsaDay #PoetryMonth Week 4
What’s the connection between classical music and classic poetry? That was theme some of us decided to explore with #ClassicsaDay. For April 2018 we posted examples of settings of poetry in classical music, works inspired by poetry, and more. Here’s an annotated list of the works I posted for the last week of #PoetryMonth. […]
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#ClassicsaDay #Opus1 Annotated List Week 3
I’m a regular contributor to the #ClassicsaDay Twitter feed. For January 2018, I decided to mark the first month of the new year with firsts. Each post features the first published work of a different composer. Emphasis on the word “published,” In some cases, the Opus 1 is the first mature work of the […]
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Gil Shaham’s Snapshot of a Decade
Tags: 2oth Century Classical Music, Alban Berg, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Britten, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Canary Classics, CD Review, Concerto, David Robinson, Gil Shaham, Igor Stravinsky, Juanjo Mena, Karl Hartmann, New York Philharmonic, Samuel Barber, Sejong Soloists, Staatskapelle DresdenThere’s an advantage to running your own record label — it’s easier to do the projects that you really believe in. In this case, Gil Shaham is the owner/operator of Canary Classics, and the project is a survey of violin concertos of the 1930’s. Just the lineup of composers for this first volume show how […]
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Non-dogmatic American music from do.gma
For their sophomore album, the do.gma chamber orchestra stretches their repertory wings a bit, and come up with an interesting and artistically strong release. American Stringbook features 20th Century chamber orchestra works that, if not quite standard repertoire, certainly should be. It’s one thing for Americans to try to persuade the classical world to pay […]