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Your guide to classical music online
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Your guide to classical music online
The Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn is not one of Germany’s […]
Those who hold the opinion that Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony is the composer’s worst need look no further for supporting evidence than this drab performance by
Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937), in common with some other ex-Soviet composers, is polystylistic. As a means of commentary, he may use older, less radical
There’s a fascinating issue in the aesthetics of the romantic period: the degree to which composers “choke” when dealing with first-movement form in their concertos.
Recordings like this are useful since they justify the use of a 1-10 rating system. What would we do without them? All of the releases
The most striking thing about this set of Beethoven piano concertos is the use of “improvised” cadenzas by Galina Vracheva. Whether these were created in
Listening to Roman Kofman’s gentlemanly Shostakovich Seventh, it’s hard to imagine it being a “wartime” symphony, much less one that supposedly rallied the Russian people.
This is a frequent coupling, and Roman Kofman and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn earn the distinction of turning in what easily are the dullest performances
Unfortunately, these perfectly decent performances are competing in a catalog rich with fine renditions of all three works, so the weaknesses stand out more boldly
