by Kenneth Woods | Dec 4, 2016 | A view from the podium
Poulenc’s frothy, frivolous and rather sexy ballet Les biches does not seem, at first glance, to be the sort of piece to make a hardened muso well up with emotion, but it had just that effect on me about a week ago as I listened to it for the first time in ages....
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 2, 2016 | News and Reviews
For the second year in a row, the English Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director Kenneth Woods have received the Classical Music Magazine Premiere of the Year nod for the Midlands. Following on the 2015 selection of the premiere of Donald Fraser’s orchestration of...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 2, 2016 | Bobby and Hans, News and Reviews
We’re all very, very pleased and proud to see Sarah Beth Briggs’ wonderful AVIE Records recording of piano concerti by Mozart and Hans Gál get a Gramophone Magazine Critic’s Choice of 2016 from Guy Rickards in the year-end issue of the magazine....
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 28, 2016 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
Joubert’s Jane Eyre is hauntingly intimate – review April Fredrick sang the title role in John Joubert’s Jane Eyre John Allison 27 OCTOBER 2016 • 1:43PM Christmas is coming, and choirs are getting ready to sing such perennially popular carols...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 3, 2016 | Not quite the news, Satire
Philip Sawyers – Violin Concerto, Trumpet Concerto, Valley of Vision, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Simon Desbruslais, ESO (Nimbus) Members of the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra reacted with public expressions of glee upon learning that their colleague, principal...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 13, 2016 | A view from the podium
The relationship between artists and arts funders seems ever more complicated. It seems to me that most funders (trusts, public sector funders, private sponsors) lack the energy, time or knowledge to vet funding applications in the arts on the basis of merit or...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 2, 2016 | A view from the podium, Explore the Score
For me, it was musical love at first sight. The first time I heard the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto was on a cassette tape. I loved it so much, I kept rewinding and replaying bits of the first movement (most often the big tutti at the end of the exposition- even then...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 29, 2016 | A view from the podium, Headlines, News and Reviews
MahlerFest Debut In May, Ken made his debut as the new Artistic Director of Colorado MahlerFest , one of only two organisations in the USA (the other being the New York Philharmonic) to be awarded the Gold Medal of the International Gustav Mahler Society....
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 10, 2016 | News and Reviews
Robert Matthew-Walker in the July-September 2016 issue of Musical Opinion “The performances are exceptionally good, with Mikhail Korzhev proving a terrific virtuoso and highly sensitive musician. Indeed, at that level, it is hard to imagine these works ever...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 12, 2016 | A view from the podium, Lists
Ever wonder what sort of concertos exist for the violin beyond the marvelous mainstays from Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Brahms and Sibelius? Well- there’s a lot out there. There are a number of tremendous 20th. C concerti that are now pretty well...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 7, 2016 | Explore the Score
The rediscovery and reevaluation of the music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg is surely one of the more positive stories in classical music in recent years. If this blog post piques your interest in Weinberg, do check out the podcast version of BBC Radio 3’s recent...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 6, 2016 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
A fantastic review from Eric Levi for the recent Avie Records recording of Gál and Mozart Piano Concertos with Sarah Beth Briggs and the Royal Northern Sinfonia in the August, 2016 issue of BBC Music Magazine. “It’s something of a mystery as to why this...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 28, 2016 | A view from the podium
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections. — The History of Freedom in Antiquity, 1877 In spite of my deep disappointment and...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 18, 2016 | A view from the podium, Not quite the news, Satire
The nearly-washed-up conductor Robert von Bohyarti, former Decca recording artist and long-time conductor of the Minneapolis Philharmonia, is considering launching a solo violin career, it has been learned. Bohyarti, whose instrument is the piano, is reported to feel...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 17, 2016 | News and Reviews
Critic Andrew Achenbach writes in the July 2016 issue of Gramophone Magazine. “To my ears, Fraser’s richly upholstered orchestration works a treat yet also manages to be astutely appreciative of the simmering passion and sense of loss that permeate this...
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