Meet Michael Haydn and his string quartets
If you haven’t yet come across Michael Haydn (1727-1805), then now is the chance to meet his most civilised of composers. Think J. C. Bach, the “London” Bach. Michael Haydn was trained musically at St […]
Jobs of the week: Orchestral players wanted for movie
Orchestral players wanted for miming work on-screen. Need to be based in Scotland, for work in the first half of September. Instruments required: Violin Viola Cello Double Bass Cor Anglais Flute Clarinet We pay above […]
Dear Alma, My best friend is shagging half the orchestra
From our agony aunt: Dear Alma, I won my place in this orchestra together with my best friend from college. She’s outgoing, I’m so not. Two seasons in, I think she’s slept with five musicians, […]
New light on Prokofiev’s Spanish wife?
Carolina Codina married Sergei Prokofiev in 1923, returned with him to Moscow in 1936, was dumped by her husband four years later and would up in one of Stalin’s gulags. Now, a Polish play in […]
Bayreuth shrinks its chorus, again
The festival is making stringent economies. Before it began, Katharina Wagner said that, after cuts, the chorus would be maintained at 134 singers. Today, the festival website listed 118. Tobias Könemann of the Union of […]
War Horse composer, teminally ill, releases violin concerto
‘How long have I got to live?’ says Adrian Sutton, composer of the theatre hit War Horse, who has terminal cancer. ‘No idea.. but in my situation, I can’t waste time thinking about things I […]
A US concertmaster is charged with child rape
Ohio Police have arrested a former concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra in connection with the alleged rape of a child between the years 2008 and 2019, starting when she was six years old. He […]
Ruth Leon recommends… Channelling Edward Moore – Met Musum
Channelling Edward Moore – Met Museum Obsessions are fascinating. Here’s a splendid film about one woman’s job. Eileen Travell is a photographer at the Met. It is her voice telling us about the objects made […]
Mozart and Poulenc from the Nagano tribe
What a great coupling! Two Mozart Concertos for multiple keyboards, plus the Poulenc. A match made in heaven. The same could be said fo the performers, a true family team (Kent Nagano, his wife, and […]
Death of a major New York piano teacher, 92
The pianist Nina Svetlanova, beloved by generations of students at the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music, passed away today at her home in New York. She was 92. She retired […]