by Kenneth Woods | Apr 19, 2015 | A view from the podium, Lists
At long last- the research has been completed, the results have been tallied. We can now say with absolute, factual certainty who the 15 greatest orchestrators of all time are. Check out the results, then let us know which ones you got wrong…. Er, we mean, let...
by Kenneth Woods | Apr 11, 2015 | A future for music, A view from the podium
“Social media.” It’s a phrase we use so often that it’s easy to forget how uneasily the words “social” and “media” sit together. When I see the word “social,” I think of friends and family, of person-to-person contact. I think of the people with whom I share...
by Kenneth Woods | Apr 8, 2015 | Lists, Nuts and bolts
So you made a mistake on the gig yesterday. I feel your pain. We all make mistakes- I made a real howler twice in the same place on a cello gig recently and it’s been bothering me ever since. Mistakes are a controversial and painful subject for musicians. Nobody likes...
by Kenneth Woods | Apr 6, 2015 | A view from the podium
The news that International Record Review magazine has been forced to stop publishing following the death of Barry Irving is a blow for everyone in the classical recording industry. I met Barry only briefly at a couple of CD launches. He struck me as a very...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 12, 2015 | News and Reviews
Critic Bryce Morrison writes in the Gramophone: Throughout her long and distinguished, if insufficiently acknowledged career, Valerie Tryon has remained true to her own lights. Virtuoso teasers such as Balakirev’sIslamey and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit fell...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 4, 2015 | A view from the podium
From the current issue of International Record Review. A wonderful magazine every music lover should subscribe to. Condolences to everyone there on the death of Barry Irving, the magazine’s founder and publisher, who died last month after a short illness ...
by Kenneth Woods | Mar 3, 2015 | A view from the podium
Congratulations are most certainly in order to both Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony on the occasion of Sir Simon’s appointment as the LSO’s next Principal Conductor. I can scarcely imagine better news for either party or for music lovers across Britain. Given...
by Kenneth Woods | Feb 1, 2015 | News and Reviews
The current issue of Classical Music Magazine includes a nice feature piece from critic and essayist, Rick Jones. On sale now! ...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 27, 2015 | A view from the podium
Sale! PSALM- CONTEMPORARY BRITISH TRUMPET CONCERTOS £12.00 Original price was: £12.00.£9.00Current price is: £9.00. SIMON Desbruslais demonstrates his virtuosity in four fresh, vigorous and varied works by three British composers. In Deborah...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 26, 2015 | News and Reviews
Reviewed in the February 2015 issue of Gramophone Magazine buy Guy Rickards “Four vibrant, attractive concertos…. by three of Britain’s brightest and best, and performed with dazzling virtuosity and musicianship by Simon Desbruslais and the Orchestra...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 22, 2015 | A view from the podium, Explore the Score
Hear it live for the first time in 25 years on the 31st of January here. Idyllikon Four movements for small orchestra, Opus 79, (1958) Serenade, Badinerie, Sarabande, Villanelle Duration: 29” First performance: Vienna Radio, Aug. 1960 (Orchester des...
by Kenneth Woods | Jan 12, 2015 | A view from the podium, Not quite the news, Satire
10- The tuning slide allows a trumpet player to adjust how sharp he or she is to the rest of the orchestra. 9 – Violinists invariably play sharp when they’re under pressure, which is always. This is why they tune their open strings higher than the rest of...
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 | Jan 2, 2015 | A future for music, A view from the podium
2014 was the year in which the real world finally caught up with Classical Music. As the New Year dawns, we find ourselves all deep in the belly of a whale that looks a lot like society-at-large In earlier blog posts this year, we looked at how the classical music...
by Kenneth Woods | Dec 30, 2014 | Repertoire Reports
Well, it’s nearly time to say “so long” to another year, and as we work our way through Christmas leftovers and brace for the struggles and adventures that lay ahead, it’s navel-gazing season at Vftp, when we look back at the musical year just...
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