On Tuesday 26 March, cellist Guy Johnston will feature on a new release of works by E. J. Moeran with Ulster Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta. The album, to be released on record label Naxos, will include Moeran’s Cello Concerto, arguably one of the Anglo-Irishman’s most important works inspired by the landscapes of the Norfolk coast. The CD will also feature Lonely Waters with lyrics sung by soprano Rebekah Coffey, Serenade in G and Whythorne’s Shadow. Moeran’s works are renowned for being influenced by his Irish heritage, often containing fragments of well-known Irish folk tunes.

Following this, on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 March Guy Johnston will guest-lead the ‘cello section of the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev. The orchestra will perform Brahms’ German Requiem and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, and will be joined by the London Symphony Chorus and singers Sally Matthews, Ekaterina Gubanova and Gerald Finley.

(Written on March 19, 2013 )

Gramophone

Deutsches-Symphonie Orchester performs Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible with new narration

Live concert recording, conducted by Tugan Sokhiev, will be released on the Audite label

The Guardian

Final Fantasy given classical twist

Palais des Congrès de Paris the venue for musical event where orchestra plays selection of scores from video game series

John Pearson, supported by Time Out backer, understood to have been close to a deal but baulked at asking price

BBC News

King Kong musical is ‘a puzzle’ says Elbow’s Guy Garvey

Elbow’s Guy Garvey says writing for a new King Kong musical was “like doing a very difficult word search”.

‘Music industry wants High Street shops’

The music industry does not want to lose its high street presence according to music business news service Complete Music Update.

The New Scientist

Why musical genius comes easier to early starters

Good news for pushy parents. If you want your child to excel musically, you now have better justification for starting their lessons early.

NPR

Naxos: The Little Record Label That Could (And Did)

This past year was a good one for Naxos Records.

Classical Source

BBC Proms Launches Its 2013 Search For Young Composers Aged 12 To 18

Returning for its fifteenth year, Inspire offers free creative workshops for young musicians, music teachers and school groups

The Strad

UK violinist Peter Mountain dies

BBC News

(Written on January 16, 2013 )

Klara Min

(Written on December 21, 2012 )

This evening, Cadogan Hall will play host to Ignatz Waghalter: The Lost Romantic. Due to the extraodinary circumstances of his life, Waghalter’s works were lost and forgotten due to his flight from persecution, and the change in musical style following the Second World War. Sixty years after the composer’s death,  his works were discovered and The Waghalter Project was established to re-establish Waghalter as one of the great late Romantic composers. Project founder and violinist, Irmina Trynkos, will be performing Waghalter’s works with the English Chamber Orchestra and conductor Alexander Walker, amongst works by Mozart, Dvořák, and Mendelssohn. Having not been performed in over 100 years, tonight will be a unique opportunity to hear Waghalter’s Violin Concerto in A major, and Rhapsodie for Violin and Orchestra.

For the chance to see the performance of Ignatz Waghalter’s works, or more more information, click here.

The Naxos recording of the violin repertoire can be purchased here.

(Written on November 14, 2012 )

Gramophone

São Paulo Symphony Orchestra to record complete Villa-Lobos Symphonies

Naxos project will use entirely re-edited versions of the scores

Classic FM

Lindsey Stirling embraces video game music in Assassin’s Creed video

The latest high-concept video from violinist Lindsey Stirling celebrates music from the Assassin’s Creed video games.

Jeff Wayne re-imagines War Of The Worlds with Gary Barlow and Liam Neeson

Classic FM speaks to Jeff Wayne about the latest incarnation of his musical version of H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds, featuring Gary Barlow and Liam Neeson.

Classical stars light up Regent Street

Tine Ting Helseth and Noah Stewart will join Classic FM presenters John Suchet and Jamie Crick at the iconic Regent Street Christmas lights switch-on on Tuesday 13 November

Slipped Disc

Breakthrough! Orchestra to play off digital music stands

The Brussels Philharmonic has become the world’s first orchestra to abandon paper scores and play from a digital screen.

Deceptive Cadence

‘A Late Quartet’: Melodrama With A Pounding Musical Heart

After a quarter century together as one of the world’s top chamber music ensembles, the Fugue String Quartet is falling apart at the seams. A generation older than his colleagues, cellist Peter (Christopher Walken) is experiencing the early symptoms of Parkinson’s, and with his sudden retirement, a morass of long-buried resentments and pain come spewing out of his three younger partners: first violinist Daniel (Mark Ivanir), second violinist Robert (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and violist Juliette (Catherine Keener).

The Guardian

Toby Spence: ‘I’ll never take my voice for granted again’

Back on stage in the Metropolitan Opera’s Tempest, Toby Spence tells Tom Service about his recovery from cancer and surviving the storm

Boston.com

Holocaust opera to premiere in Austrian parliament

An opera focusing on Nazi atrocities against children will premiere next year at an unusual venue — Austria’s parliament.

Opera Now

Picasso inspires new Dublin Carmen 

International Leisure and Arts, Ireland’s foremost producer of international ballet, have announced their move into opera with a new production of Carmen by the Moscow State Opera – coming to Dublin in March 2013.

RTL.de (via Slipped Disc)

(Written on November 9, 2012 )

This afternoon, Irmina Trynkos and Alexander Walker will appear on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune to discuss their upcoming concert at Cadogan Hall on 14^th November, and will be joined by pianist Tomasz Lis, a long-time collaborator of Irmina’s.

Violinist Irmina, who founded the Project and discovered the forgotten works of Waghalter, will be performing the composer’s Idyll Op.19b alongside Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Op.30 live, accompanied by Tomasz. Both Alex and herself will also be discussing the success of The Waghalter Project, which has gained much recognition and accomplishment since the CD launch. Having entered the Top 20 Specialist Classical Music Chart at number 16, Ignatz Waghalter’s lost violin repertoire has begun to receive the appreciation it once held in the composer’s lifetime.

Listen to In Tune on BBC Radio 3, at 4:30pm to hear the rich, Romantic works of Ignatz Waghalter.

The Naxos recording of the violin repertoire can be purchased online here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waghalter-Rhapsodie-Latsabidze-Philharmonic-Orchestra/dp/B00925T9Z6 

(Written on November 1, 2012 )

Classic FM

Delius study weekend celebrates 150th anniversary

A study weekend celebrating the 150th birthday of Frederick Delius is to take place at The British Library in September.

Domingo’s 140th opera role sparks Twitter competition

Plácido Domingo’s latest operatic role, his career 140th, has led to a Twitter-based competition from the LA Opera.

Arts Journal: Slipped Disc

Just in: Dudamel loses his #1 flute

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is crowing at having grabbed principal flute David Buck from the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Who’d appoint a choirboy to captain the national team?

England, for one.

Our new cricket captain, Alastair Cook, sang in the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral and won a scholarship to the associated school.

Wall Street Journal

In Turkey, One City Fine-Tunes Rules on Percussion Players

Miss a Beat and Get Drummed Out; ‘We Don’t Want Amateurs Here’

San Francisco Classical Voice

Klaus Heymann: Defy Labels, to Be the One

There was a time, not so long ago, that Klaus Heymann was accused of trying to destroy the classical music industry. That was around the same time that the world realized that Naxos, Heymann’s budget-record label, was not just another series of CDs in the bargain bin.

WQXR

The Pitfalls of Carrying Musical Instruments on Planes

Cellist Recalls ‘State of Panic’ After Checking Instrument

Klaus Heymann – San Francisco Classical Voice

(Written on August 31, 2012 )

The Independent

Independent podcast: Naxos 25th anniversary

In just a quarter of a century Naxos has created “a catalogue comprising the largest number of individual works and the widest available repertoire of any classical label since the beginning of the recording era.”

The Guardian

A guide to Harrison Birtwistle’s music

Harrison’s elemental and powerful music feels both ancient and modern.

Classical Music Magazine

BBC Young Musician: the winner

The winner of BBC Young Musician 2012, the final of which was held at the Sage, Gateshead on 13 May and broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC2, is 15-year-old cellist Laura van der Heijden.

Jessica Duchen

There can only be one BBC Young Musician of the year

For every musician whose lifelong public career is launched in the arena of BBC Young Musicians, there are maybe 100 more, at least, who vanish.

The Times

Spira mirabilis: The orchestra where everyone’s in charge

Does an orchestra where all players have an equal say mean a recipe for amity or anarchy?

The NY Times

David Robertson to Lead Sydney Symphony

David Robertson, the music director of the St. Louis Symphony, has taken on a position on the other side of the world, becoming artistic director and chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony in Australia starting in 2014.

Financial Times

To marry the heart and the head

The prolific Catalan musician Jordi Savall talks about grief, memory and building bridges.

ArtsJournal – Slipped disc

Saxon sings out to save Bach ensemble

The theatre in Eisenach, Bach’s birthplace, is under threat of closure. Hundreds gathered to stage a peaceful protest in song.

Gramophone

Miloš: new champion of the classical guitar

A classical guitarist’s debut recording remained at the top of the Specialist Classical Chart for much of the past year. That artist is Miloš Karadaglić – or Miloš as he’s known simply – who was named Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year at our 2011 Awards.

Venezuelan Rafael Payare wins Malko Competition

32-year-old Venezuelan Rafael Payare won the Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen on Saturday in an atmospheric final round broadcast live on Danish radio and television.

(Written on May 15, 2012 )

Accentus’s recording of Mahler’s 9^th Symphony has been nominated for Gramophone’s DVD performance of the Year Award. The DVD, featuring the Lucerne Festival Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, is available to buy on DVD or Blu-ray from Naxos.  

Watch the trailer for the DVD here

(Written on August 15, 2011 )

Today we are discussing the responses we got from our new feature “What’s your View?” -with the question “Where do you buy classical music and in what form?” It’s interesting to see the variety of forms that people collect music and it’s also interesting to see that the divide in methods is not entirely generational but centres more on how involved and enthusiastic people are about classical music.

Many people still listen to and record music from the radio, BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM being the most popular. Is the reason they’re still popular based on how they work? People can call in to request their favourite works or recordings and they will be played. Classic FM also has a weekly chart of the most popular classical pieces, this appeals to a more mainstream classical listener. Do people prefer to listen to the radio as they are learning more in the process? The classical demographic still sees the radio as an essential outlet for their music which is a big contrast to the popular music radio stations, which are dealing with a falling number of listeners. Is this because classical music has a niche audience which will never change and popular music audiences change their preferences regularly?

It was mostly the older generation still buying physical copies of music from shops and they were not limited to CD format, there were people buying LP’s, minidiscs and tapes. We were told about some good shops in Soho, London where classical enthusiasts can hunt for their favourite recordings, one such store is Harold Moores, which is a quaint little store with a welcoming environment. There is of course the corporate stores such as HMV which do have a variety of classical recordings but mostly new releases or albums that have been or are on the classical charts. Does hunting through an old record shop with a large catalogue of classical music excite and stimulate people?

The internet has clearly become an essential in all aspects of communication and purchasing in the last ten years so it’s no surprise that people use it in a variety of ways to buy music. Some people like bargains so they buy hard copies, usually CD’s and sometimes second hand from amazon and eBay. Amazon has an amazing catalogue of classical music and you can find almost any relevant recording and some more conspicuous ones. iTunes is also a front runner of online music purchasing but unlike Amazon there is less variety of classical music on offer and it only comes in digital form. Is the digital form of music on the rise due to iPods and mp3 players that require digital copies? The digital music database Spotify has become increasingly popular with the younger generation as it offers the opportunity to listen to any of the pieces on it’s catalogue for free (if you have an account). Naxos is very popular for classical music listeners as it is strictly for classical music, even universities encourage their music students to use it for their studies!

Does where you access music depend less on convenience and entirely on the actual recording itself? Most people who buy classical music are classically inclined and have particular recordings of certain ensembles, artists and works that they prefer, so they don’t mind having it as an LP or tape. The younger generation are increasingly buying digital copies online is this down to convenience, or could it be that they have not yet ripened their musical preferences? It might also be good to consider where SHOULD we buy music from? If we carry on buying online we will put other outlets out of business, is a happy medium between methods required to keep some industries afloat and to also keep the excitement of hunting for your recording in an old store, whether it be vinyl, tape or CD?

How do you get your music and in what format? Can you relate to any of the above? Would it be fair to say that as classical music is timeless and that it doesn’t matter how or where we get it, as long as we have it?

(Written on September 8, 2010 )