Howard Hanson Conducts Bloch
Conductor: Howard Hanson
Orchestra: Eastman-Rochester Orchestra
Performer: Georges Miquelle (Cello)
Years of recordings: 1959, 1960
Label: Mercury Living Presence
SPARS Code: ADD
About the Composer: Born in Switzerland, Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) was a Jewish composer who wrote several orchestral works, many of which derive inspiration from Hebraic literature. After touring extensively [...]
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Rolling thunder from the kettles, Orchestra London opened this year’s Valentine’s concert with Sibelius’ The Swan of Tuonela. Such a quiet piece, its dark edge of restraint holds the attention surprisingly well. Orchestra London’s own Jennifer Short entered the spotlight with her rich English Horn.
Following along the Finnish theme, we next heard Rautavaara’s Concerto for [...]
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Orchestra London performed three Beethoven works this evening, the third installment in their Ovation Series. Under the baton of guest conductor Simon Streatfeild, the headliner and closing piece was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony which certainly drew the standing ovation at the end of the show.
But, it’s all in the journey. So, let’s start at the beginning [...]
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Dvořák: Cello Concerto; Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations
About the Music: After exploring Dvořák’s final three symphonies many moons ago, I read about his renowned Cello Concerto (Op.104), which was written in 1895 while he was residing in the United States. I have been curious about the cello for some time, as it strikes me [...]
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I recently listened through a 6-disc collection of the entire corpus of Erik Satie’s piano works on the Naxos Music Library.
About the Author
Alfred Éric Leslie Satie (1866–1925) is considered one of the premiere avante-guard composers of the late 1800s-early 1900s. His works have been viewed as prophetic of, or at least precursor to, all sorts [...]
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After a group of friends and I discussed Voormeij’s painting, we forwarded our impressions to the artist. He offers a gracious response and expansion on his thoughts about Abstract Art and Classical Music.
Enjoy!
_______________
Hello Vince,
Thank you and your ‘gang’ for taking the effort to discuss my work. When I received your email I was so very [...]
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In “Painting and Music: Peter John Voormeij (Part 1),” we looked at a painting by Voormeij. Now that you’ve had a chance to appreciate his work, navigate to this link and watch the video (top of the page). It’s only about 9 minutes. Feel free to watch it all, or stop at 3 minutes (2m53s, [...]
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I saw this picture on the Elliott Louis Gallery (Vancouver) Web site.
This picture really struck me. I want to share it with you. (I promise we’ll relate this to classical music.)
By itself it seems an abstract representation of a physical object like ice-cubes or glass. But, the title provides meta-data that creates context and suggests [...]
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A friend recently asked me for some classical piano recommendations. He doesn’t particularly care for purely “academic sounding” exercises, meaning he wants something with emotion and melody. Nor is he interested in easy-listening renditions of classical music replete with fake strings and horns.
I hear a lot of music via the Naxos Music Library, much more [...]
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SCHUMANN, R.: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Introduction and Allegro, Op. 92 and Op. 134
About the Composer:
Robert Shumann (1810-1856) lived an emotionally troubled life, struggling with depression and eventually dying at age 46, two years after a mental breakdown.
About the Music:
As with most everything I’ve heard so far of Schumann, I enjoyed this [...]
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