Lebrecht Weekly | War poems (Somm)
I am generally resistant to albums that impose an external theme on unrelated pieces of music from different places and times. In this case, it is eastern Europe, 1814 to 2024.
Browsing: Lebrecht Weekly
Lebrecht Weekly | Liszt: Faust Symphony (Bis)
Franz Liszt has been cancelled by the world’s orchestras, probably for something he said on social media. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a Liszt orchestral work on a concert programme, other than the two piano concertos?
Lebrecht Weekly | Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Complete string quartets (Naxos)
If it’s summer music you’re after, it doesn’t come much sunnier than this. Castelnuovo-Tedesco – it translates as Newcastle German – was a Florentine who traced his lineage to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492.
Lebrecht Weekly | Did Bartok Play Klezmer?
Did Bartok play klezmer? The Hungarian composer enthused over many authentic forms of folk music and spent his summers tracking them down across the Balkans, the Iberian peninsula and north Africa.
Lebrecht Weekly | Klaus Tennstedt: The Radio Broadcasts
Klaus Tennstedt fled East Germany in his mid-40s in 1971 and hung around for half a decade before anyone noticed he was a truly remarkable conductor – ‘last of the old Kapellmeisters,’ as Herbert von Karajan drily put it.
Lebrecht Weekly | A Tale of Two Piano Concertos
In the early days of long-playing records, a man in a suit at EMI realised that the Grieg and Schumann concertos were half an hour long, in the same key of A minor and would fit on either side of a plate of shellac without requiring fillers.
Lebrecht Weekly | Yundi Gives Mozart a Makeover
Unlike elements in Beijing who had him arrested on phony morals charges, I have never wavered in my belief that Yundi Li is the most interesting and original pianist to emerge from China.
Lebrecht Weekly | Is it worth messing with Beethoven? Brett Dean and Jonathan Biss find out
Composers have learned not to mess with Beethoven. Fewer variations have been written on themes by Beethoven than on any other master’s work.
Lebrecht Weekly | Vim and Vigour for Ries and Clement
Ries and Clement were the musicians closest to Beethoven. Ries, who knew Beethoven from Bonn, acted as his secretary before moving to London where he was active in the Philharmonic Society that commissioned Beethoven’s ninth symphony.
Lebrecht Weekly | Janine Jansen and Klaus Mäkelä offer a Masterclass in Sibelius and Prokofiev
When Janine Jansen is on song, no living violinist comes close.
