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Rough Ideas–Reflections On Music And More; Stephen Hough (Farar, Straus and Giroux; 2020) The Little Bach Book; David Gordon (Lucky Valley Press; 2017) However one manages life in a pandemic, I suggest that the disruption of former routines and the disorienting effects of ongoing uncertainty can be at least partially ameliorated by the transporting power […]
Halfway through what in some circles is called the Holy Nights, in others the Twelve Days of Christmas (ending on Twelfth Night, the eve of Epiphany, January 6), I couldn’t resist squeezing in a few more favorite–and in my book essential–Christmas recordings, each with its own programmatic perspective. All are still available in various formats, […]
They may be from the distant past, but these three Christmas recordings hold up as well or better than most anything in the catalog. The first one, a disc from Naxos featuring Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s A Carol Symphony and works by four other composers, is one I recommend every year–because it’s just so well done, the […]
In the first couple of decades following the advent of the CD in the mid-1980s, new recordings of Christmas music would flood the market each autumn, from every label, large and small—dozens and dozens of releases, from early music programs to collections of carols from all over the world, Christmas programs from British cathedrals, to […]
Before we focus attention on some of the newer Christmas releases–beginning later this week–we thought it would be useful to look back at a stocking-full of highly recommended earlier recordings that you may have missed, recordings particularly notable for their unique approaches to a body of repertoire at once familiar but either respectfully, often surprisingly […]
When we’re not listening to or writing about recordings–or, actually, sometimes when we are–Dave Hurwitz and I can usually be found in the kitchen, cooking, cutting, baking, frying, curing, proofing, stewing, or, well, you get the picture. For the past 15 years we’ve used our own kitchens as virtual test kitchens, trying all sorts of […]
Over the past 20-plus years I have accumulated hundreds of Christmas CDs–featuring choirs, orchestras, brass ensembles, guitar, harp, string quartet, piano, organ, etc., etc.–and I appreciate most of them for various reasons; but no matter how many newcomers join the collection, there are a few “oldies” that have more than stood the test of time. […]
Since publishing last year’s “Six Christmas CDs That Always Make the List”, a few more titles either newly released or left out of the original group made their case for inclusion so strongly that I had to add a “Part 2”. So, here are another six Christmas CDs that together with the first set add […]
May 2, 2013—A significant new recording by the New York Philharmonic and its Music Director Alan Gilbert will be released by the Danish recording label Dacapo Records this month, featuring works by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg, who was the New York Philharmonic’s Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence from 2009-2012. In Europe, the release is set to […]
Music lovers all over the world will join in sadness at the news of the death of conductor Colin Davis. Sir Colin passed away on Sunday evening, 14th April, at the age of 85, after an illness. He will be remembered for his long association with the London Symphony Orchestra, which began in 1959, and […]
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