by Kenneth Woods | Nov 6, 2014 | A future for music
Imagine I suggest we go to the museum together to look at some art. What do you first imagine we’ll be looking at. If you’re like most people, you’ll first assume that we’re going to look at paintings. And maybe a few sculptures? Paintings have been very much on my...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 30, 2014 | A view from the podium
The media have been ablaze this week with news of a new film espousing the completely discredited theory that Anna Magdalena Bach actually composed the Bach Cello Suites and a number of other important works by Bach. BS is the food, water and air of the mass media, so...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 25, 2014 | Explore the Score
Ensemble Epomeo- Penderecki, Kurtág, Schnittke and Weinberg String Trio’s £12.00 Alfred Schnittke’s String Trio, composed in 1985, was commissioned in celebration of Alban Berg’s centenary. Schnittke later arranged the work as a Piano Trio, and his...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 20, 2014 | A view from the podium, News and Reviews
There’s a nice feature piece in the October 18th issue of The Tablet by journalist and critic Rick Jones. Click here to subscribe. You can read his reviews of selected Bobby and Hans CD’s on his blog Robert Schumann Symphony no. 1- KW/OOTS and...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 13, 2014 | A view from the podium
Critic Andrew Achenbach writes in the current issue of Gramophone Magazine about the new Nimbus CD of orchestral music by Philip Sawyers. Buy your copy today, or better yet, subscribe. Buy your copy of the CD in the Downbeat Store. Philip Sawyers- Symphony no. 2,...
by Kenneth Woods | Oct 5, 2014 | A future for music, A view from the podium, Favorite posts
Via the Saint Louis Dispatch “Michael Brown protesters interrupted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Saturday night, causing a brief delay in the performance at Powell Symphony Hall. The orchestra and chorus were preparing to perform Johannes...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 28, 2014 | A view from the podium
This Friday I’m conducting the winds of the English Symphony Orchestra in a program of wind ensemble masterpieces by Hans Gál, Mozart and Dvorák. You should come- it’s going to be fantastic! It’s no secret I’m a cellist, so I have grown up outside the wind...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 9, 2014 | A view from the podium, Explore the Score
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony opus 110a, an arrangement for string orchestra of his String Quartet no. 8 in C minor, opus 110, was the first of five orchestral transcriptions of his string quartets by his friend, the violist and conductor Rudolf...
by Kenneth Woods | Sep 1, 2014 | A view from the podium
I’m sorry- there’s simply no way that Leonard Slatkin is 70 years old. For many, many American conductors and orchestral musicians of my generation, Leonard was the first superstar conductor who seemed of our time and of our culture. Before Leonard, conductors were...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 19, 2014 | Headlines, News and Reviews
A new review from Music and Vision Daily for Philip Sawyers’ Cello Concerto, Second Symphony and Concertante for Violin, Piano and Strings on Nimbus Records. Click here to read the whole thing (subscription required). A short sample follows: Philip Sawyers-...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 17, 2014 | A view from the podium, Explore the Score
Schoenberg- Verklärte Nacht, Brahms Serenade no. 1- Original Chamber Versions £12.00 [Click here to Explore the Score of the companion work on this CD, Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht] The Brahms-Wagner rivalry was largely an affair of the press, whipped up...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 12, 2014 | News and Reviews
A new review from Robert Matthew-Walker at Classical Source. Read the whole thing here Philip Sawyers- Symphony no. 2, Cello Concerto, Concertante for Violin, Piano and Strings £12.00 A short sample follows with regard to Sawyers’s...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 5, 2014 | A future for music, A view from the podium
We’ve been hearing for a few years about the death of blogs. Certainly, blogs are not dead. When I started Vftp I could find no other active conductor blogs- none. A number of wise heads warned me that conductors should keep quiet- the more you go on record with your...
by Kenneth Woods | Aug 3, 2014 | News and Reviews
“Few, though, will have heard this nonet version of the Serenade, reconstructed by Alan Boustead in the 1980s, for strings, flute, two clarinets, bassoon and horn. In this live recording a slightly chubby ugly duckling in its orchestral format suddenly achieves...
by Kenneth Woods | Jul 31, 2014 | A future for music
The music world has seen many well-deserved tributes over the last several weeks for the author, musicologist, composer and critic Malcolm MacDonald, who passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. I never had the good fortune to meet Malcolm (although we...
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