by Kenneth Woods | Jan 24, 2012 | Nuts and bolts
In the comments for my previous blog post on the Real Top 20 C Major Symphonies of All Time”, I assembled a list of the greatest “C minor symphonies that end in C major.” The first four pieces I thought of were Beethoven 5 Brahms 1 Bruckner 8 and...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 2, 2011 | A view from the podium, Bobby and Hans, Explore the Score, Nuts and bolts
(First time using “Explore the score?” Just click on the hyperlinks within the text to hear the musical excerpts.) “Up to the present, however, Brahms has maintained his place as the “last classical composer,” for no one has yet come to replace him.” Hans Gál-...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 22, 2011 | A view from the podium, Nuts and bolts
The metronome mark problem. If you’ve been reading the classical music press over the last month or so, you would swear up and down that the great Riccardo Chailly had personally discovered the metronome markings in the Beethoven symphonies. Not so! It turns...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 22, 2011 | Nuts and bolts
Apologies to Vftp fans who have been virtuously checking their Google Reader for new posts, only be to repeatedly disappointed. It has been a very busy few weeks, to say the least. Of course, during busy periods like this there always ends up being a tragic imbalance...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 28, 2011 | Nuts and bolts
I’m in the midst of doing the bowings for a performance I’m conducting of Beethoven 9 in November. It’s been just over ten years since I last conducted the work- during that time I’ve conducted all of his other symphonies several times, and it feels long overdue for...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 19, 2011 | Music and Media, Nuts and bolts, Performing Life
Reformist musicologists with a politically-correct worldview might find themselves raising an eyebrow at this week’s Surrey Mozart Players concert, where, with blatant disregard for all the latest scholarship, the orchestra and I will be playing Johannes Brahms’...
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