by Kenneth Woods | Jan 2, 2016 | A future for music
Longstanding Vftp readers will have noticed a couple of relatively major shifts of emphasis here at the blog in recent years. As my administrative responsibilities have increased (much to my dismay), my time and mental space for blogging have been in much scarcer...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 30, 2015 | A view from the podium
2015 was quite a year for me- a year of very, very hard work, a year of ups and downs with some incredible highlights and some moments of rather intense frustration. I started the year talking- giving a long chat on the Gál symphonies at a gala launch event...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 27, 2015 | Repertoire Reports
It’s that magical time of year again, when we take a statistical look back at the musical year that was with our highly anticipated (!) annual repertoire report. 2015 was a very intense and busy year, as can be seen from a substantial increase in total number of...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 20, 2015 | Explore the Score
Antonin Dvorak- Stabat Mater, op. 58 Dvorak began and completed his great setting of Jacopone da Todi’s 13th century poem Stabat Mater under a cloud of great personal tragedy. In 1875 his oldest daughter Josefa died only days after her birth. The grieving Dvorak...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 19, 2015 | A view from the podium
The public debate has begun in earnest over the future of a new concert hall in London for the LSO and Simon Rattle. I have pretty high hopes for the hall itself, but I don’t expect too much from the debate surrounding it. Where big money meets the arts and...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 18, 2015 | A view from the podium, Not quite the news, Satire
The Commons Cultural Welfare Select Committee has issued a report calling for a new levy being described by both advocates and critics as a “bullshit tax.” “Government has long recognized the need for special taxation on items whose use brings certain inevitable costs...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 11, 2015 | A view from the podium
The current issue (January-March 2016) of Musical Opinion Magazineleads off its concert coverage with Christopher Morley’s rave review of the ESO’s October 10 premiere of Donald Fraser’s orchestration of the Elgar Piano Quintet. The ESO’s recording of this “worthy...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 10, 2015 | A view from the podium
I was saddened this week to learn of the sudden retirement of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the age of 86. (For more detail see The Strad and the New York Times news items, and this tribute from the Berlin Philharmonic) Harnoncourt has long been a bit of a Marmite...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 10, 2015 | News and Reviews
From the December-February issue of Classical Music Magazine, Christopher Morley picks the ESO’s performance of Donald Fraser’s orchestration of the Elgar Piano Quintet as his Premiere of the Year. Congrats to all the wonderful composers and ensembles mentioned in...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 8, 2015 | A future for music, A view from the podium, Music and Media
It’s not often that something from the New York Times Op-ed pages gets you thinking about music for children, but a blog post by Paul Krugman this week reawakened a line of thought that had been simmering away in my subconscious since the premiere last week of the new...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 2, 2015 | A view from the podium
It was the sort of revelation that will probably be denied to musicians of the post YouTube generation, because when you grow up in a world where a permanent visual record of just about everyone and everything is available instantaneously online, the shock of seeing...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 20, 2015 | A view from the podium
REVIEW by Spencer Allman The English String Orchestra at Hereford Cathedral THE English String Orchestra is contributing to a pilgrimage in honour of Edward Elgar. The musical journey through the West Midlands started on October 7 in Hereford...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 17, 2015 | A view from the podium
An extraordinary rave review from senior critic Christopher Morley for Donald Fraser’s orchestration of the Elgar Piano Quintet as heard in the final concert of the 2015 Elgar Pilgrimage “Two of the most exciting events I have experienced during a reviewing...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 10, 2015 | A view from the podium
For Immediate Release PERFORMANCES IN MALVERN, HEREFORD AND BIRMINGHAM COLLABORATION WITH ACADEMIA MUSICA CHOIR AND SINGERS FROM THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL CHORUS WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCES OF NEWLY-ARRANGED ELGAR WORKS As the English Symphony...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 9, 2015 | Nuts and bolts
Earlier this week I gave a talk on “how to rehearse” for a regional consortium of music educators. The following list formed the basis of our discussions. It’s by no means a complete or exclusive list, but we publish it here without further comment...
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