Concertgebouw freebies….

For those music lovers who’ve not found quite the motherload of new CDs in the post-Christmas sale, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (recently declared the best band on the planet by the Gramophone) are offering the world a nice little holiday present. It’s part of...

A new blog…

I do hope you all had a happy Christmas holiday and managed to eat a lot of turkey, drink some lovely wine and listen to a bunch of Bach and Messiaen. I’m shaking off my own turkey coma and will be back up to full blogging speed soon. Meanwhile, I’m happy to point you...

How many pieces do YOU know?

Daniel Wolf at Renewable Music takes the discussion of current repertoire in an interesting direction, towards the question of “how much music do you, or can you, know well….” Back in my training days as an ethnomusicologist, we were taught some of the basic questions...

WSO- Rach 1

Well, I’m finding myself a bit surprised that I can finally say that the first half of my 2008-9 concert year is over, and that my musical 2008 (barring any last-minute calls) is done. I’ll miss doing the Messiah this year, but I’m glad to be finished. It’s been a...