by Kenneth Woods | Nov 28, 2011 | A view from the podium
Has Classical Music anything to teach us about the current economic crisis? Why are people so disillusioned with contemporary living and its cultural norms? What can help us improve our quality of life? Peter Davison, Artistic Consultant to Manchester’s Bridgewater...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 26, 2011 | Bobby and Hans, Explore the Score, Haydn
(First time using “Explore the score?” Just click on the hyperlinks within the text to hear the musical excerpts.) “Here is something truly symphonic, a gesture worthy to introduce a great work…” Hans Gál, Schumann Orchestral Music “I sketched it at a time...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 25, 2011 | Bobby and Hans
As I’m busy preparing to record the second volume in our Orchestra of the Swan series of CDs pairing the Schumann and Gál symphonies, I thought it was high time I addressed some of the nuts and bolts reasons behind the pairing. I’ve talked quite a bit in interviews...
by Kenneth Woods | Nov 23, 2011 | Bobby and Hans
There’s a review of Bobby and Hans vol. 1 in the September-October issue of American Record Guide. No discussion of the Schumann, but lots of discussion of Gal and the Third Symphony in particular. Available at the ARG website for subscribers. A sample follows:...
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 | Oct 24, 2011 | A view from the podium
“A unique personality whose fatal flaw lay in his uncompromising belief that music and art must be kept apart from politics, a conviction that transformed him into a tragic figure.” Publisher’s blurb for The Devil’s Music Master: The Controversial Life and...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 19, 2011 | A view from the podium
VFTP is ad free, and we don’t even ask for coffee money here. If you’ve enjoyed reading over the years, and would like to show you care, perhaps you would like to invest in the very exciting new Orchestra of the Swan CD project, Spring Sounds. Visit...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 19, 2011 | A view from the podium
It’s been an exceptionally busy time here at Vftp International Headquarters, and, as usual, there is a lot more going on than just the current concerts. On Monday night, while looking after sick toddlers and recovering from an exhausting weekend of concerts and...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 13, 2011 | A view from the podium
UPDATE The program is now available online via the PT website here. Click on Hour 2. Very exciting news from American Public Media! Performance Today to broadcast lost symphony by Hans Gál Public Radio’s flagship live classical music program,...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 13, 2011 | A view from the podium
The Pro Arte String Quartet was the first string quartet I ever heard as a young musician growing up in Madison, Wisconsin. The ensemble, in its many incarnations has been based there at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music since it took up the...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 12, 2011 | News and Reviews
Critic Rob Barnett at MusicWeb is a little suspicious about coupling Bobby and Hans: “I don’t hold with the practice of coupling the classical familiar with the 20th century unfamiliar. I wonder if it does sell more discs… For me it is dilution not...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 29, 2011 | A view from the podium
This is the second in my series looking at recent releases of historic performances from great conductors of the past. For an introduction and a bit of explanation about why I’m writing about DVDs, please see my review of Klaus Tennstedt’s recording of...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 29, 2011 | Mahler, News and Reviews
In the October 2011 issue of Gramophone Magazine, one can now find the first review to directly compare the Orchestra of the Swan recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the new recording by Manchester Camerata and Douglas...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 28, 2011 | Mahler, News and Reviews
There is a review from critic David Patmore in the current issue of Classical Recordings Quarterly of the new Orchestra of the Swan recording of Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Das Lied von der Erde on Somm Recordings. The complete review is...
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