Our latest video blog with the young musicians of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel reveal what instrument that they would play if they did not play their first instrument!

Every fortnight, we publish an interview with the young musicians in our special video blog series. The previous interviews are still available to watch on our YouTube channel.

Watch the video below for an insight into the musical personalities of  the young musicians from one of the most prestigious centres of excellence in Europe.

To keep up to date with Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel news and events, visit their website, Facebook and Twitter, along with the WildKat website for regular blog posts.

(Written on May 10, 2013 )

The anticipated music application from Twitter has been released to the public today; having had a limited release to a handful of celebrities last week. The app, suitably named #Music, allows users to discover new music, listen to artists through Rdio or Spotify, view concert and tour dates, along with watching videos on Vevo or YouTube and purchasing music via the iTunes store.

Following the usual Twitter format, users can view which artists are most popular or ‘trending’ across the social media platform, as well as viewing up and coming artists who are not as well recognised. In addition, there are also two more tabs which highlight artists through the people you follow and personal music taste.

#Music is now available on the web as well as the iTunes store (Android users will have to wait a while longer). With rave reviews from the early-bird celebrities, partnered with specifically developed technology from We Are Hunted – which will hopefully rule out any problematic issues, which Twitter app Vine faced – #Music may have filled an unknown gap in the music industry, intelligibly interlinking it with social media.

(Written on April 18, 2013 )

Guardian

A bad case of Wagner’s Lumbago

Vienna Opera director Franz Welser-Moest collapses with back pain during Wagner performance.

Classic FM 

Classic FM Live at the Royal Albert Hall 2013 – buy tickets now!

Some of classical music’s brightest stars are joining us on stage at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 25 April – and you could be there too…

Classical Music Magazine

Liverpool Philharmonic hall on track for major facelift

The whole programme of work is scheduled to be completed in 2015, the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Classical source

2013 Glyndebourne Festival Unveils A Series Of Firsts With New Work On Stage, On Screen And Online

When the 2013 Glyndebourne Festival opens on May 18 the seminal anniversaries of Verdi and Britten will be celebrated on stage, on screen and online.

Music Week

Universal Publishing and SACEM sign global licensing agreement with YouTube

France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM) and Universal Music Publishing have reached an international agreement with YouTube.

Classic Music Magazine

(Written on April 3, 2013 )

BBC News

Welsh National Opera singers raise Wrexham Maelor patients’ spirits

Opera is probably still seen by many people as a very exclusive art form

The Telegraph

David Pountney interview: An old radical with new ideas

David Pountney is bringing adventure back to Welsh National Opera, he tells Rupert Christiansen

The Independent

Event cinema: live screenings of opera and ballet are the British new wave

Today’s blockbusters are more likely to be live screenings of opera or ballet than the latest Hollywood movie. Jonathan Owen reports

The Guardian

The echoes of Benjamin Britten’s ‘composing walks’

Benjamin Britten used to take ‘composing walks’ around Suffolk. What would he have heard? Chris Watson spent a year finding out – armed with a microphone

Huffington Post

Jose Antonio Abreu, El Sistema and His Worldwide Influence On Music

The binding, the bonding effect of music on people, few other arts can achieve. It brings men together, it soothes the spirit, it frees us of despair, it calms down the inner strife of man with himself and it does give definite answers to our eternal questions.

Classical Source

English Heritage Blue Plaque For Mendelssohn

One of Europe’s greatest composers, and a frequent London visitor, is honoured

Music Week

2013 UK music sales already outperforming 2012

Sales of music have been higher in each of the first four weeks of 2013 than in the corresponding weeks of 2012, according to Official Charts Company data.

Billboard

YouTube to Experiment with Paid Subscription Option This Year, Source Confirms

YouTube will be experimenting with an option over the next few months that will let a handful of channel partners charge a subscription fee for their content, according to sources knowledgeable with the plans.

The Independent

(Written on January 31, 2013 )

The Guardian

The Rest is Noise: here comes the 20th century

Gillian Moore, head of classical music at London’s Southbank Centre, introduces the first instalment of the year-long festival – and the work of Strauss, Mahler and Schoenberg

YouTube owner Google poised to take stake in Vevo

Deal thought to be worth about £42m for stake of close to 10% in music video website founded by Universal and Sony

The Economist

The Q&A: Alex Ross: Make some noise

Some sage once quipped that writing about music is about as edifying—and evocative—as dancing about architecture. Certainly most music criticism has a lifeless quality, packed with adjectives yet tuneless on the page.

Classic FM

Antonio Pappano receives Distinguished Musician Award

Previous recipients of the award, presented by the Incorporated Society of Musicians, include Pierre Boulez, Jacqueline du Pré, and Simon Rattle.

The Strad

Violinist crowdfunds chin rest 

Project to manufacture multi-adjustable model raises nearly $25,000 on Kickstarter

BBC News

Frank Zappa score joins The Rest is Noise classical festival 

A controversial orchestral film score by music legend Frank Zappa is to have its UK premiere as part of a major celebration of modern classical music.

Music Week

Sweden: Record sales rise again in 2012

Overall recorded music sales in Sweden in 2012 showed an increase of 14%, with 90% of all digital income coming from streaming services

Elizabeth Sobol appointed President and CEO of Decca USA

Universal Music Group International have appointed Elizabeth Sobol as president and CEO of the Decca Label Group, USA.

The Strad

(Written on January 18, 2013 )

(Written on January 4, 2013 )

Classic FM

Jonny Greenwood rehearses with ACO in Sydney, quashes apocalypse rumours

Radiohead guitarist and composer Jonny Greenwood has posted online from his rehearsals with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, contrary to reports from Sao Paulo saying that he had fled to Brazil to await the Mayan apocalypse.

English Symphony Orchestra appoints new Artistic Director

The English Symphony Orchestra has named their new Artistic Director, who replaces the late Vernon Handley.

The Telegraph

Royal Philharmonic Society: ‘the conscience of the classical music industry’

Celebrating its bicentenary next year, the Royal Philharmonic Society brings together classical music lovers and professionals, writes Rupert Christiansen.

CNET (found on Arts Journal)

Sydney Opera House and YouTube to live stream events

The Sydney Opera House will live stream 20 performances over a two-year period straight to YouTube, thanks to a new partnership.

Slipped Disc

It’s catching on! Now Chicago has an airport pianist

After yesterday’s discovery of a homeless piano player inside London’s Eurostar terminal, a young man, identity uknown, has taken up resieence beside the check-ins at Chicago’s O’Hare international airport.

Universal restructures its German classical chief out of a job

Christian Kellermann, head of Universal Classics and Jazz in Germany, will be leaving the company next April.

Just in: Boulez cancels his Christmas concerts

Pierre Boulez has been praying that his troubled eyes would recover sufficiently to allow him to resume conducting beforee the year is out

The Independent

Britten’s got talent: The celebrations for the centenary of Benjamin Britten will span the globe

(Written on December 18, 2012 )

(Written on August 9, 2012 )

The new trailer for the ACCENTUS music production of Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez and the Staatskapelle Berlin’s performance at the Philharmonie, Essen, is available to view on YouTube now. The programme is composed of:

Franz Liszt:

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2

Consolation No. 3

Valse oubliée No. 1

Richard Wagner:

A Faust Overture

Siegfried Idyll

This exciting DVD is the first of the ACCENTUS Music 2012 new releases – the concert when live received outstanding reviews with The Daily Telegraph describing it as ‘A real miracle, like catching two starts in a rare celestial conjunction…no wonder the audience went into delirium at the end. They knew they’d witnessed something utterly extraordinary.’

The DVD and Blu-ray will be available from 27^th February (UK), 20^th February (Germany), 28^th February (USA) and 6^th March (France).

To view the trailer please see below:

(Written on January 18, 2012 )

A new video of the Belcea Quartet is available to view on YouTube now.  In it, members Corina Belcea, Axel Schacher, Krzysztof Chorzelski and Antoine Lederlin discuss embarking on the mountainous task of performing all of Beethoven’s String Quartets in one year.

The Quartet is currently almost halfway through its Beethoven String Quartet cycle. Upcoming UK concert dates are:

Friday 20^th January 2012: St George’s Hall, Liverpool

Saturday 21^st January 2012: Wigmore Hall, London

Thursday 26^th January 2012: The Sage, Gateshead

Friday 27^th January 2012: Britten Studio, Snape

Sunday 28^th January 2012: Britten Studio, Snape

Programme:

Beethoven Op.18 No.2 G major

Beethoven Op.59 No.2 E minor

Beethoven Op.131 C sharp minor

To view the video please click here or see below:

(Written on December 22, 2011 )