by Kenneth Woods | Jul 11, 2011 | News and Reviews
From the Surrey Advertiser, published on 8 July, 2011 Success of Bold Programme Three Symphonies, Electric Theatre, Guildford, June 18, 2011 THIS was a bold programme. On Saturday, June 18 at Guildford’s Electric Theatre, the Surrey Mozart Players presented us...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 7, 2011 | A view from the podium
Whenever I play or conduct the music of Hans Gal, I get asked a lot of questions about his experiences during World War II. As part of the Bobby and Hans project, we thought it would be good to gather some of the excellent web resources in one place to help readers...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 1, 2011 | A view from the podium
Just this morning we learned that the barbarians and vandals are attacking music education in Scotland, with a 50% funding cut ordered for the wonderful National Youth Orchestras of Scotland. Here is a sample of their work. NYJOS and Strings Collaboration from...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 1, 2011 | News and Reviews, Performing Life
There is a nice interview with recordings editor Phil Sommerich in the current (July 2, 2011) issue of Classical Music Magazine. We talked about Schumann as humorist, a facet of his music often overlooked, and the joys of playing his music with a virtuoso chamber...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 30, 2011 | A view from the podium
Nice news here- Bobby and Hans are among the current hot new classical releases on the French iTunes page. ...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 28, 2011 | A view from the podium, Performing Life
A little over a week ago, I conducted the last concert of my 2010-11 season. In most years, I would now just be charging ahead at full speed into summer festival season, but this year, after a couple of projects fell victim to the economy, I’ve decided to allow myself...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 24, 2011 | Mahler, News and Reviews
A new review of our new Orchestra of the Swan Mahler disc in the Birmingham Post by senior critic Christopher Morley. The Post doesn’t have CD reviews on their website, so the complete review is below. MAHLER: LIEDER EINES FAHRENDEN GESELLEN, DAS LIED...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 21, 2011 | Nuts and bolts
Conductor Christopher Zimmerman is Music Director of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra. In 1993, he and I were both newly arrived on the campus of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music: Chris as the conductor of the Concert Orchestra, me as a new...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 20, 2011 | A view from the podium
Part II of my look at the ins and outs of conducting Brahms 1. Part I is here. You can follow along on a pdf of the score here. There are whole books written about tempo relationships in Brahms. Many conductors drive themselves to drink trying to make the 8th...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 20, 2011 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
Critic, blogger and Mahlerian Gavin Plumley has offered up a thoughtful review of the my new Orchestra of the Swan recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (as arranged by Schoenberg) at his excellent blog, Entartete...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 19, 2011 | Nuts and bolts
Vftp readers will know that Brahms’ First Symphony has been much on my mind the last few weeks. With our final performance behind us, now, I thought it might be fun to just go through the piece on a very simple, nuts and bolts level and explain some of my current...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 18, 2011 | A view from the podium
Conductor Foster Beyers is the newly appointed Director of Orchestras at Concodia College in Minnesota. He is currently completing his Doctorate degree at the University of Minnesota, where his dissertation is on the recorded history of Sibelius’ Symphony no. 7....
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 16, 2011 | Mahler, Nuts and bolts
There are few more contentious subjects amongst Mahlerians than the order of movements in the 6th Symphony. As part of the Performer’s Perspective series last year, I tried to explain what a big and fairly complicated question it is. More recently, as part of my...
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 15, 2011 | News and Reviews
There is a quite substantial interview piece with me by Colin Anderson online at The Classical Review today. We talked about recording Gal and Schumann, why I’ve paired them for this project, as well as talking about about Vftp itself and the Mahler recording....
by Kenneth Woods | Jun 14, 2011 | A view from the podium
Used bookstores may be one of the coolest institutions that the human race has produced. I hope they survive the digital age. A scan of an old book loses so much of what the paper version offers. A case in point: The other day, I found and orded a used copy of my man...
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