by Kenneth Woods | Jul 27, 2019 | A view from the podium, Lists
They say “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but that just won’t do for music. Surely there must a scientifically sound way of determining once and for all what the most beautiful openings are in the history of symphonic music? Well, here you go....
by Kenneth Woods | Apr 25, 2019 | Mahler
In all the long history of symphonic music, with the possible exception of Berlioz, there has probably never been a symphonic debut as audacious as that of Gustav Mahler in his First Symphony. Becoming Mahler In the 130 years since it was written, this work has become...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 10, 2015 | A view from the podium, Lists
It’s been hailed as “the saddest of all keys.” Andras Schiff called it “Beethoven’s key of existential struggle.” It was Brahms’s Tragic key- the world of his brooding First Piano Concerto and his Tragic Overture- both quite symphonic works. Yet Brahms never wrote a D...
by Kenneth Woods | Apr 20, 2013 | A view from the podium
When I first encountered the music of Anton Bruckner (the first movement of the 9th Symphony), it was love at first sight. From the moment I dropped the needle a the edge of the LP, Bruckner picked me up with his mind powers and shook me like a dog. I’ve never been...
by Kenneth Woods | Feb 17, 2013 | A view from the podium
I just conducted Bruckner’s Second Symphony for the first time a few days ago- even many of the most pro-Bruckner opinion makers seem to think that only his symphonies from the Fourth onward are worth doing, and the often over-zealous defences of the early symphonies...
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